Google Home app cannot connect to devices from Home app since upgrading to MR60

[JECaine]

Hey all. I've been having difficulty with my Google Home Devices ever since i got the MR60 Nighthawk Mesh devices.  When I first connected the mesh network I was unable to cast to my Nest Display from the Home app on my Google Pixel 4XL. I followed the instructions below from a different discussion, and that fixed the issue temporarily.  I believe it worked because it involved reconnecting my phone to the network.  After the issue recurred I realized it was more than just not being able to cast to the Google Home Devices, I was unable to connect to them from my phone at all.  Now, if I disconnect from my network and reconnect to it, I am able to connect to my Google Home devices from the Google Home app on my Pixel, but if I close the app and come back to it minutes later I will not be able to connect.  The app says it cannot find the device on the network even though the devices are online and have valid IP addresses.  It feels like a port, or some other line of communication on my internal network to the devices,  is closing because I am able to communicate with the devices briefly after connecting to the network, but then it times out.

In an effort to fix this I have:

1. changed the RIP protocol version,
2. given the satellites and google devices static ip addresses
3. turned off the blocking schedule in the router(although I don't know what that was blocking)
4. checked the connection from my wife's iPhone (same behavior)

I welcome any questions.  Any assistance anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.  This is my second attempt to extend my wifi with Netgear devices. If this keeps up I'm just going to return it to costco and put my wifi router in more centralized location of the house and just say F...orget it.

Thank you 

Sincerely,

JECaine

--Previous Discussion--
@GhettoSmurf373 wrote:

If anyone is like me and recently upgraded to the Netgear Nighhawk Whole Home Mesh WiFi 6 (AX1800), you have probably discovered issues with Chromecast. I searched and searched the web and could not find any information other than "AP Isolation issues" and "reset chromecast" over and over. 

We found that if the Chromecast is connected to the 'main' router, you can be connected to any satellite and cast to your device. However, if your Chromecast is powered down, and or network resets for any reason, you will be placed to the nearest device. In my case, that was the satellite. We believe the Chromecast locks to the MAC address and cannot associate back to the main router. So once a power cycle happens, even if your phone and Chromecast are connected to same satellite, you will not be able to cast.

The solution (for me and my AX1800, I hope it works for you)
1. Go to your routers home page (typically 192.168.1.1)

2. Select Advanced Settings

3.Select Setup tab

4. Select LAN Setup

5. Scroll down to the "RIP Direction" section

6. Ensure "Both" is selected for "RIP Direction"

7. Select RIP_1 for "RIP Version

[JECaine · Accepted solution]

I wanted to say thank you to anyone who responded and tried to help with this issue.  No one here nor at Netgear knew how to fix it so I assume it was unique to me.  I decided to buy 2 MoCA adapters which uses your existing coax in your home to broadcast a signal to other routers/wireless APs in your home. I was able to wire my Xbox and Tivo and get much better stability and 

streaming quality. Plus that router is providing a wireless signal to the lower floors of my home and my google issue seems to be fixed!  If anyone is curious about the MoCA technology, this is what I bought:

https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-MoCA-Network-Adapter-Ethernet/dp/B088KV2YYL/ref=asc_df_B088KV2YYL/?...

Thanks again

JC

[JECaine]

This message has been up for a few days now. No one has any suggestions?  hmm.  I moved one of my satellites yesterday to eliminate moving between satellites and seeing if I stayed connected to the router if it would keep me connected to the same network the google home devices were connected to if that fixed the issue, but sadly it didn't.

[Christian_R]

Hello JECaine,

If you recently purchased the device I would recommend contacting our support team as newly purchased devices are provided with 90 days of complimentary support. You may open a ticket by registering your device using the link below. 

https://www.netgear.com/support/contact.aspx

Christian

[JECaine]

yea I tried this.  the first person I spoke to had never heard of the issue so he had me turn off the SIP ALG in the Wan settings.  that worked for about 5 minutes (about as long as logging off/on the network does).  The second person I spoke to had me forward some ports.  She tried to get me to open the ports for all of my google devices but didn't realize you can only open one port per device. so she puts me on hold, and when she takes me off hold I'm in Google's IVR.  Thanks EVE.  The third person I spoke to said she was going to transfer me to the mesh department and would stay on the line with me and never came back. This will most definitely be my very last netgear device I ever own.  

[Christian_R]

Hello JECaine, 

Thanks for the update. Has our support team been able to follow up with you recently? 

Regards,

Christian 

[JECaine]

Yes, but they keep suggesting things that don't make sense. Like port forwarding, which allows traffic from outside through a firewall. This is an internal network issue. And adding the router to the Home app. Which, I've had these for years I've never heard of adding a routing device to the home app. I've added other apps to the home app so Google can interact with them but not a routing device. Was unable to do what she was saying at thr time she called back, so I'll have to call her a find out what she meant.

This is my third attempt to extend ny network wirelessly with netgear products and they've all had problems. It could be my house. It's big & split level, so I'm probably going to return the mesh system to Costco and go with a series MoCA adapters around the house. I prefer a wired network and I just learned about MoCA. I'll give them a couple more tries before buying the MoCA adapters

Thanks for following up

[JECaine]

Another point that I need to mention is that this is also affecting my babycam. This indicates that adding the router to the google home app is not the solution. The light on the camera frequently switches from solid blue indicating a connection to the network to blinking red, and the app on my phone says the network is unstable, and the camera frequently goes offline. Fortunately we have a monitor to which the camera is paired and doesn't use the wifi, otherwise I wouldn't have any way to monitor my son while he's sleeping which is obviously unacceptable and I would have had to return the mesh system a long time ago.

[JECaine · Accepted solution]

I wanted to say thank you to anyone who responded and tried to help with this issue.  No one here nor at Netgear knew how to fix it so I assume it was unique to me.  I decided to buy 2 MoCA adapters which uses your existing coax in your home to broadcast a signal to other routers/wireless APs in your home. I was able to wire my Xbox and Tivo and get much better stability and 

streaming quality. Plus that router is providing a wireless signal to the lower floors of my home and my google issue seems to be fixed!  If anyone is curious about the MoCA technology, this is what I bought:

https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-MoCA-Network-Adapter-Ethernet/dp/B088KV2YYL/ref=asc_df_B088KV2YYL/?...

Thanks again

JC