About a month ago I noticed the devices on my home network had stopped communicating with each other, for example; I could not cast YT or Netflix to a Chromecast from my Pixel 6 phone, I couldn't stream Spotify to any smart speakers, and I couldn't connect to my Hisense TV (which does not use Google).
At the time, I thought it may have been due to upgrading to Android 13 as the issue occurred on the same day, however, my partner's iPhone and iPad (iOS 15) also lost this same casting functionality. I will point out that all the devices I am trying to connect to are on my main network (not guest) and I am using Smart Connect functionality on the router.
I tried rebooting phones and devices on the network with no luck, I factory reset a Google home device and could not get it set up again, receiving a message to 'disable AP isolation' on my router. Eventually, I rebooted my Nighthawk RAX20, lo and behold I could now see all my devices again.
Skip forward 24 hours and again I've lost communication with everything after doing nothing new, I decided to try something I had no expectation of working, I edited my Guest Network Settings and checked the box to allow guests to see each other and access my local network, unbelievably, everything came back and has been stable for over 24 hours.
My hypothesis is that there may have been some update to the router that has mixed up guest network settings with my main network, in such a way that devices could no longer communicate until I changed this setting.
In a day or 2 I will revert these guest settings on my router to see if the devices lose communication again. It would be great if anyone else has come across this issue so I can stop pulling my thinning hair out.
With FTTP there may not be anything more than an Ethernet port between the Internet and the router. But you never know, such is the variety of NBN services.
Understood - the model on my NBN box in the garage says G-240G-P. Apart from that it just has serial numbers and MAC.
My router plugs directly into the NBN box and I should point out I've been in this house 2 years and all the devices have been connected with no issue. I got the RAX20 AX1800 wifi router about 9 months ago and it hadn't had any issues until recently
Understood - the model on my NBN box in the garage says G-240G-P. Apart from that it just has serial numbers and MAC.
Sounds like a true fibre box, an Optical Network Terminator (ONT) with nothing routerish to get in the way. In theory, that is the best sort of Internet you can get.
You mentioned "a Google home device". Anything in particular? Google has made a lot of things that could fit that description. Could that be getting the way?
If your theory about "crosstalk" between guest and normal wifi settings is correct, then trying the older firmware could confirm that.
Thanks for the reply. I have a few GH devices, a Google home hub (the screen that has since been renamed nest hub), a Google Nest Audio speaker, a Google nest mini, and a Chromecast Ultra. At first, I did think it was a Google issue, however, my TV is Hisense and doesn't connect to the Google ecosystem, it also stopped connecting to our phones/iPad when we used to be able to stream YouTube and Netflix to it.
I will try your firmware suggestion over the weekend and report my findings. I'll also disable the setting for Guests to see each other and my local network, and check if I lose connection to my devices again.
I was wanted to check that it wasn't one of those Google things that is also a router.
The firmware suggestion is based on this comment:
My hypothesis is that there may have been some update to the router that has mixed up guest network settings with my main network, in such a way that devices could no longer communicate until I changed this setting.
It sounds like a sensible theory and would not be surprising given Netgear's history of broken updates. If the older firmware doesn't misbehave, that would confirm it.
