Author Archives: Sanjay Noronha

Wi-Fi woes got you down? Google Nest is here to help

As the product lead for connectivity at Google Nest, I’m a complete Wi-Fi geek. I love helping people solve their home Wi-Fi problems and get the most out of their routers -- and that includes my own family. I have two teenage sons attending high school remotely, while I’m currently working from my dining table. Suffice it to say I’m a fan of anything that gives my home Wi-Fi a boost.

Luckily, we’re rolling out a software update to make both Nest Wifi and Google Wifi work even more smoothly today. This update will improve overall network performance on slow internet connections, which means your Wi-Fi will better support multiple video calls, gaming sessions and more simultaneously. It includes general security and stability improvements and will also improve device connection speeds on wireless networks and optimizations so your devices move to faster Wi-Fi radio channels. Our priority device feature is also getting smarter, so you can rest assured Wi-Fi traffic will be prioritized to the device you choose. This means you can make sure your work laptop is getting the strongest Wi-Fi available, as opposed to the kids’ YouTube sessions. And the best part is these updates will be pushed automatically, no action required on your end. 

Of course, no Wi-Fi is infallible, and I know how frustrating it can be when it isn’t working the way you expect. No matter what router you’re using, here are a few tips to help you troubleshoot: 

If your TV is always buffering:

Remove  barriers: If you’re still using an old black box router, don’t hide it in drawers or behind furniture – this compromises its usefulness and weakens your Wi-Fi signal. Metal (like a filing cabinet) and water (like an aquarium) are the biggest offenders.

Reboot your router: Most people are familiar with this tip, but don’t actually know why they’re doing it. If you’re noticing network congestion, rebooting  cleans up stale software buffers and forces the reconnection of your devices. 

Run a speed test: Is your problem your Wi-Fi range? Get close to your router and run a speed test, then try again from farther away. If it’s slower the second time, you may have a dead zone. If you can, try moving your router out into the open or closer to the potential dead zone to see if that helps. You can find a free speed test at speedtest.net. 

If the whole family is online at once:

Know how much speed you need: Most video calls require 5 Mbps of consistent speed, but the reality is a bit more nuanced.  Because you’re receiving video from the internet (download) and sending video as well (upload), you’ll want to make sure that your upload speed is a good, consistent 5 Mbps as well. Conduct a speed test during a busy time of day when you’ve had a bad video call. If you have less than 5 Mbps DL (downlink) or UL (uplink), you might consider placing a...

...Call to your Internet Service Provider: If it feels like your Wi-Fi gets bogged down during the work day, but otherwise works fine, your issue could be your ISP.  If you’ve already run a speed test and spent time rebooting your router and modem, it may be time to work with your ISP to solve the problem. If your ISP modem is really old, it might be time for an upgrade.  Buying one yourself rather than getting it from your ISP might save you up to $10 a month. Check your ISP’s website for compatible modems before you purchase one, then call your ISP to get it added to their network.

If your home has dead zones:

Upgrade your router: Especially if it’s more than five years old There were substantial changes in Wi-Fi standards in the U.S. back in 2015, allowing higher radio power and therefore better coverage from routers made in 2016 or later. 

Consider a mesh network: A mesh network is a group of routers (actually Wi-Fi access points) that wirelessly communicate with each other to create a single, connected Wi-Fi network over a large area. We created Nest Wifi as a mesh system because having multiple points work together to create a seamless, single network. While network strength varies depending on things like the size of your house and your ISP, the idea is that this system provides consistently strong coverage for all connected devices throughout your home. 

We all rely on Wi-Fi, and when it doesn’t work, it’s a source of frustration untold.  Hopefully these tips help keep you connected, whether you’re working, streaming, gaming or binge-watching.

Boost your home’s signal and style with Nest Wifi

Homes weren’t built for Wi-Fi, so when we introduced Google Wifi in 2016, we built it to work for any home. With Nest Wifi, we’re taking everything you love about the original and making it even better, with a powerful router and a Wifi point that includes the Google Assistant, bringing you more help at home.

Whole home coverage

The Nest Wifi system is actually two separate devices: The Nest Wifi router plugs directly into your modem, forming the basis for a strong and powerful home network, and the Nest Wifi point expands your coverage where you need it most. 

Nest Wifi is more powerful than Google Wifi, delivering up to two times the speed and up to 25 percent better coverage. A two pack can deliver coverage for a 3,800-square-foot home. The system is scalable, so you can add more points later (or buy a three pack to start with) to make sure you’re covered. And if you’ve already got a Google Wifi network, you can easily add Nest Wifi to it for additional coverage.

Simple setup and control in the Google Home App


App controls on Google Wifi

 You can manage your network in the Google Home app alongside your other supported connected devices.

Setting up Nest Wifi is easy. Plug it in and download and open the Google Home app, which will guide you through setup in minutes. Once you’re set up, you can manage your network in the app alongside your other supported connected devices.

The app makes it easy to share your Wi-Fi password with guests, prioritize devices (like when you’re on a video call), test the speed of your network, set up a guest network or change your password. Plus, if you have a Nest smart display like the Nest Hub Max, you can share the guest network and password right on the display—and scan the code with your phone to get online. 

You can also manage separate homes in the app. I’m the tech expert in my family, so I also manage my parents’ network. This way, when I get a call that the Wi-Fi isn’t working, I can quickly check what’s wrong or let them know if they need to call their internet provider. 

My sons are in middle and high school, so while I want them to go offline at certain times during the week, I don’t mind if they stay up later on weekends, playing video games or streaming their favorite shows. With Family Wi-Fi features in the Google Home app, I can easily set my sons’ devices on a Wi-Fi schedule, pause the Wi-Fi to their devices at any time and block adult content on their devices. 


Hands-free help with the Google Assistant


Introducing Nest Wifi

The Nest Wifi point also has a speaker with the Google Assistant, which means it can do everything that Nest Mini can do; it’s really two devices in one. We’ve even incorporated the same speaker as Nest Mini, so you can add it to a speaker group and rock out to your favorite playlist throughout the house. 

And if you’re like me and sometimes have trouble getting your kids’ attention, just say “Hey Google, pause the Wi-Fi for Daniel.” You can also use the Assistant to get more info about your Wi-Fi network. Just say, “Hey Google, what’s my internet speed?”


Designed for your home 

Nest Wifi Point

Many routers are ugly, which means they get hidden in a closet or cabinet, where the signal is blocked and can be reduced by up to 50 percent. Nest Wifi has a beautiful design with soft, rounded edges and unobtrusive lighting. It’s meant to be placed out in the open, where it’ll perform at its best. And Nest Wifi points come in three colors, Snow, Sand and Mist, all of which will naturally blend into your home. 

Nest Wifi is built using sustainable materials. The router enclosure is made from 45 percent post-consumer recycled plastic, and the point enclosure is made from 40 percent post-consumer recycled plastic. 


Smart home support 

We also built the Nest Wifi system to provide the foundation for your future smart home devices. It has local home connectivity, which means that some devices can connect directly to the system without needing a hub, so you can easily set up the most popular lights and plugs right from the Home app. We’ll also enable Thread capabilities in the coming months to deliver secure connectivity for smart home devices like door and motion sensors, door locks and more. You’ll start seeing these devices roll out from partners in 2020.

Nest Wifi will be available in eight global markets in 2019. In the U.S., you can preorder today and Nest Wifi will be on sale on November 4. You can get a two pack with one router and one point for $269, or a three pack with one router and two points for $349 at the Google Store, Target, Best Buy and more retailers. 


Google Wifi: Secure at every point

Today is Safer Internet Day, and we hope you’ve taken a few minutes to find out what you can do to stay safe online. But there’s one thing you probably haven’t thought about: the safety of your home network. When we created Google Wifi, we built it from the ground up to be focused on security, with multiple layers of protection. Here’s how it works:

Secure to the core

Google Wifi won’t even boot up unless it can verify that it’s using official Google Wifi software. We call this “Verified boot,” and it means Google Wifi is extremely difficult to attack or compromise. In addition, if you want to change any settings on Google Wifi, you have to use the Google Wifi mobile app which uses the same world-class cloud-based security as other Google services like Gmail. This system ensures that no changes are made to your network unless they come from the authenticated app.

Always updating

In the past year, there have been widespread cases of botnets—similar to viruses on computers—being detected in cameras, routers and other devices. These botnets can steal your private data information or even take down large portions of the internet by flooding servers with tons of data. In the past, to protect yourself against this malicious software, you’d have to somehow discover that there was a vulnerability in your router, then worry about when and where to get updated software to protect against it. Luckily, Google Wifi continually works to protect you against threats, including botnets, with automatic, behind-the-scene security updates, so you’re always one step ahead of vulnerabilities. These software updates are seamless and pushed from the cloud to your home. It’s so simple, you probably don’t even know it’s happening.

Safety mesh

Google Wifi provides fast, reliable Wi-Fi to every corner of your home using mesh technology, a system where multiple Wifi points work together to create a blanket of coverage. To establish control and security, the multiple Wifi points produce security keys—long and complex machine-generated passwords—that are shared between all the Wifi points in your network. These security keys establish encrypted communication between all points and devices on your network, and as an added security measure, these keys never leave your personal network.  

If there is an event that warrants changing of the mesh keys—for example, if you remove a Wifi point—the system will automatically renegotiate them. This ensures that your network only includes known and trusted Wifi points, and prevents your data from being sent across a compromised network that a hacker could access.

Put Wifi to the test

Google Wifi is part of Google’s Vulnerability Reward Program, which started in 2010 and provides rewards ranging from $100 to $20,000 to people who identify bugs in Google's apps and report them to us so we can fix them. With many contributors working on cutting-edge solutions to keep Google’s platforms secure, you can rest easier. And so far, no vulnerabilities in Google Wifi have been identified under this program. ?

As security challenges continue to evolve, our team of dedicated engineers will keep working to improve the security of Google Wifi and your home network—so you can enjoy great Wi-Fi at home without worrying. Stay safe out there!

Google Wifi: Secure at every point

Today is Safer Internet Day, and we hope you’ve taken a few minutes to find out what you can do to stay safe online. But there’s one thing you probably haven’t thought about: the safety of your home network. When we created Google Wifi, we built it from the ground up to be focused on security, with multiple layers of protection. Here’s how it works:

Secure to the core

Google Wifi won’t even boot up unless it can verify that it’s using official Google Wifi software. We call this “Verified boot,” and it means Google Wifi is extremely difficult to attack or compromise. In addition, if you want to change any settings on Google Wifi, you have to use the Google Wifi mobile app which uses the same world-class cloud-based security as other Google services like Gmail. This system ensures that no changes are made to your network unless they come from the authenticated app.

Always updating

In the past year, there have been widespread cases of botnets—similar to viruses on computers—being detected in cameras, routers and other devices. These botnets can steal your private data information or even take down large portions of the internet by flooding servers with tons of data. In the past, to protect yourself against this malicious software, you’d have to somehow discover that there was a vulnerability in your router, then worry about when and where to get updated software to protect against it. Luckily, Google Wifi continually works to protect you against threats, including botnets, with automatic, behind-the-scene security updates, so you’re always one step ahead of vulnerabilities. These software updates are seamless and pushed from the cloud to your home. It’s so simple, you probably don’t even know it’s happening.

Safety mesh

Google Wifi provides fast, reliable Wi-Fi to every corner of your home using mesh technology, a system where multiple Wifi points work together to create a blanket of coverage. To establish control and security, the multiple Wifi points produce security keys—long and complex machine-generated passwords—that are shared between all the Wifi points in your network. These security keys establish encrypted communication between all points and devices on your network, and as an added security measure, these keys never leave your personal network.  

If there is an event that warrants changing of the mesh keys—for example, if you remove a Wifi point—the system will automatically renegotiate them. This ensures that your network only includes known and trusted Wifi points, and prevents your data from being sent across a compromised network that a hacker could access.

Put Wifi to the test

Google Wifi is part of Google’s Vulnerability Reward Program, which started in 2010 and provides rewards ranging from $100 to $20,000 to people who identify bugs in Google's apps and report them to us so we can fix them. With many contributors working on cutting-edge solutions to keep Google’s platforms secure, you can rest easier. And so far, no vulnerabilities in Google Wifi have been identified under this program. ?

As security challenges continue to evolve, our team of dedicated engineers will keep working to improve the security of Google Wifi and your home network—so you can enjoy great Wi-Fi at home without worrying. Stay safe out there!

Making a ‘mesh’ of your Wi-Fi

Whether we’re binge watching in the bedroom, gaming in the basement, or taking a video call from the kitchen, we want fast Wi-Fi in every room of our homes. And yet we still put up with Wi-Fi headaches, like spotty connections, dead zones, and blinking lights when something goes wrong.

As we continue to bring the latest and greatest gadgets into our homes, we want to make sure they get the connectivity they need. That’s why we built Google Wifi, to give you fast Wi-Fi in every room, on every device. We’re able to eliminate spotty connections, dead zones and blinking lights using our new mesh Wi-Fi system.

But what is mesh, exactly? We’re glad you asked…

A mesh network is a group of routers that communicate wirelessly to each other to create a single Wi-Fi network that provides a blanket of connectivity. This allows you to have multiple sources of powerful Wi-Fi throughout your home, instead of just a single router.

Think about where the router is located in your home. Probably in a corner, close to where the internet service enters your home. The problem is, that far flung corner is the worst location to place a router if you want fast Wi-Fi throughout the house. The farther you are from the router, the weaker the signal, which leads to dreaded dead zones and buffered videos.

Traditional Router.png

Google Wifi addresses the problem by allowing you to wirelessly expand your network through mesh.  For the networking experts - that’s IEEE 802.11s mesh, that’s further improved by a few of Google’s own innovations.

Since Wi-Fi is broadcasted from each Wifi point (and not just a single router), Google Wifi is a connected system that provides better coverage over a wider space. The system is flexible and scalable, so if you have a larger home, connect as many points as needed to get better Wi-Fi in every room (our 3-pack covers up to 4,500 sq. ft). Wifi points connect wirelessly, so you don’t need to run Ethernet cables throughout your house.

Google Wifi.png

Since all the Wifi points are connected to each other, data can take several paths toward its destination -- and we use our Network Assist technology to ensure that Google Wifi points always choose the fastest route from your device to the internet. This means that you get faster Wi-Fi speeds for things like streaming and gaming.

Want to make a ‘mesh’ of your house? Google Wifi is available for pre-order in the US beginning today at retailers like the Google Store. A single Wifi point retails for $129, and covers homes up to 1,500 square feet. The three-pack, at $299, covers homes up to 4,500 square feet. Google Wifi ships on December 6th, just in time for fast Wi-Fi for all of your holiday guests.