Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

Interesting. I have 2 Google Homes (1 regular and 1 mini), a Chromecast and a Chromecast Audio, and a Pixel 2. I haven't noticed any particular network issues.

My network is all Ubiquiti gear. A USG, switch, and AP AC Lite. I have the private WiFi on the same network as my desktop PC and Steam Link. My home lab is on separate VLANs. Other then that its a pretty default configuration.

Not home right now but when I get home I shall look into it a bit more. Curious if whatever update thats causing this hasn't rolled out to Canada or if the Unifi products are handling it better/some special way.

I also have three Chromecasts and occasionally 7-8 mobile devices that are connected to them in multi-AP network. I have mostly Sony devices and I think they have a rather aggressive powersave profile.

The last 3-6 month or so, the mobile devices have been losing connections to Chromecast while playing, and the network have become markedly more flaky also for other devices.

I actually got a Chromecast Ultra with an ethernet connection in case the wifi was bad, but it didn't really make a difference.

At some point a D-Link AP that is also the main router started to hang at least once per day, occasionally every 5 minutes. I installed Lede on it in order to rule out hardware problems - and then it stopped crashing at which point I stopped bothering, but I suppose the hardware can still be cooked.

I've noticed that the network occasionally is really slow for a short while - I managed to measure the speed to an external provider to be around 4-5 mbit/s instead of 100, but I haven't considered the possibility that it's my own network that goes bananas.

The WAF is declining, but it's so much junk that can go wrong so it will take a considerate amount of time to debug.

Edit: I must say though, that I expect my routers and APs to survive 100.000 packages...

The unnecessary flood of multicast packets these Google devices send is causing your AP to drop to its lowest speed and broadcast those packets.

Its the equivalent of having an 802.11B client that only syncs at 1Mbps and is constantly downloading. There is no airtime left for anyone else!

Things you can try: Block 802.11G and lower clients (increases your minimum WiFi transmission speed), convert multicast packets to unicast (LEDE is apt to support that), or throw the chromecast in the dustbin!

Routers deal with IP traffic (and even have to mess with TCP, e.g. clamp MSS), not just the 802.1 and 802.11. For SOHO routers, high PPS multicast UDP may be something hardware-accelerated routing doesn't particularly account for. And if software routing kicks in, high packet rate can very easily overload poor device's CPU.

Weird, I have a Chromecast and Google Home but have had no problems, though I do have Google Wifi...