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Google has confirmed an issue with its Google Home and Chromecast products that can cause your home Wi-Fi network to crash. According to a TP-Link engineer who investigated the problem, the crash is caused by Google’s device sending hundreds of thousands of data packets in a short amount of time, a traffic spike that can crash routers commonly found in your home.
The issue reportedly affects routers from ASUS, Linksys, Netgear, TP-Link, and Synology, which covers most brands you’re likely to find in your home. A Google spokesperson seemingly confirmed the issue to 9to5Google, saying that Google’s engineering team “is working quickly to share a solution.”
Following initial research and investigation, our Engineering Team is confident that they’ve determined one of the key origins of the issue. From what we have gathered so far, the issue appears to be related to some recent releases of Android OS and Google Apps. This issue stems from these devices’ “Cast” feature, which sends MDNS multicast discovery packets in order to keep a live connection with Google products such as Google Home. These packets normally sent in a 20-second interval. However, we have discovered that the devices will sometimes broadcast a large amount of these packets at a very high speed in a short amount of time. This occurs when the device is awakened from the “sleep mode”, and could exceed more than 100,000 packets in a short amount of time. The longer your device is in “sleep”, the larger this packet burst will be. This issue may eventually cause some of router’s primary features to shut down – including wireless connectivity.
TP-Link has fixed the problem for its users with a firmware to the router, which should allow it to handle the sudden burst of packets without crashing. If you’re experiencing similar problems with a different router, the only solution for now appears to be to unplug whatever Google device is causing the issue. Hopefully, a software update is on the way.
My Google Home and Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra are still up and running, only the changes mentioned in my previous posts were needed to fix the 2.4 GHz issue.
@HWAM, Are you serious? The Google problem is real and people want to know if this version of firmware can deal with those burst of MDNS packets. People may want to use their Google devices before Google comes up with a patch.
There could be other problems with the R7000, but this Google problem is a well known problem people can test for.
Yes, I am serious. Read the title of this post. It's only for feedback about the 1.0.9.18 version. Only for 2.4GHz drop problems. The whole Google issue has nothing to do with the 2.4GHz issue. A lot of users posted here don't even own a Google Home or cast. I don't have it. My R7000 dropped 2.4GHz while nobody was at home and the root cause are the two last firmware versions and not Google.
@JamesGL@droman Report back please. What is the status about the R7000 (and other types) Wi-Fi 2.4GHz drops? Is the beta working? When can we expect a public version? Did you manage to reproduce the problem in the lab? People are waiting for a decent report. They are blaming Google now. We know it's not Google, I don't even have a Google Home or cast device. Report the status please!!
Agree that it probably isn't Google. I have multiple Android devices on various OS versions including the latest, two Google Home's, and my R7000 is stable on 1.0.7.12. I.e. it's something in the newer FW. Whatever Google devices might be doing, it doesn't crash the older FW.
I am using V1.0.9.14_1.2.25 and have one Android phone with no drops.
Am not using anything Google.
Have 2 laptops running at 5GHz. One is on most of the day to listen to WCMU public radio. Nice clear all day until kids get home and we all start using the net. Then I get break in the radio.
Have iPad and 3 iPhones using 2.4GHz. And we use Wi-Fi to make phone calls, no problems.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
There's really not much that hasn't already been said, multiple times. Netgear could make a meaningful statement, but all that most of the rest of us could contribute would just be chatter.
If you think that Netgear will admit that fw has issues you are in the wrong universe
I thought I read that Netgear was asking some people to test some updated firmware. Maybe I read it wrong. If Netgear did get some people to test firmware, I guess it should be tested for a few days before Netgear releases that firmware.
I cannot get out of this universe because the Enterprise is broke.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
My fix works. Someone who hasn't loaded custom firmware is welcome to check it out. Takes no time to make the changes I did, and mine has 0 issues dropping the 2.4GHz bands now. Just trying to help fellow frustrated customers out since Netgear doesn't seem to be.
It's gone quiet because either, people have given up with Netgear or, like me, have rolled back to an earlier Firmwear which works and are waiting for the mythical communication from NG.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
Bro, your fix was (aside from all the other settings I've already tried) disabling SSID on the 2.4 band and manually picking a channel. And a request for money via GoFundMe.
This lucky combination fixed my problem (staying with 1.0.9.18). stable for 10 days now. before, I had to reboot router 2-3 times a day for dropped devices to reconnect (getting stuck at getting IP). I have 23 devices, 5 of them google phone/home.
router config:
use smart connect - single SSID for 2.4 and 5G use Google DNS Use reserved IP for all devices no guest network no QoS no UPnP
no readyShare WAN setup - defaults LAN setup - defaults + add address reservations WPS - disabled Wireless setting - 2.4G - channel - 1 (found weakest neighbor -95 dBm on channel 1) WPA2-PSK enable 20/40 coexist 5G - channel 40 (not able to see neighbor's)
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
I was never impacted by 2.4Ghz dropping out and not coming back. For me the internet seems to pause and my cameras on 2.4Ghz go temporarily offline, but then all comes back.
I saw this same behavior since late Dec, and see it now still with Asus-Merlin by Vortex. I am hoping the Google Home patches fix my issue.
Not muddying the water, just reponding as it was requested that people who don't have this issue reply to see how wide spread this is.
I hope everyone enjoys Vortex..... I love AB-Solution and Skynet...if you haven't heard of these and are running Vortex's build, check it out.
