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Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

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Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#91

Post by izacus »

pjmlp wrote: post #86
chubot wrote: post #28

ChromeCast is such a frustrating product. It does exactly what I want in theory. In practice I have to wait 10 to 60 seconds to get it to connect, or reboot my phone. I've started giving up and just using the computer attached to my TV. I don't think I've been having the particular Wi-Fi issue described in the article, but ChromeCast has been just slow and flaky in my experience. I've had both v1 and v2. It seems to…

> I guess this is why Apple insists on owning the whole stack. The compatibility matrix becomes tractable. This is how everyone used to build computers, PCs just became the outliers due to way things went with IBM/Microsoft. Now with the all-in-one models, it seems even PCs are getting back to those days.

And? There's a reason why all those others died and PC survived.

Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#92

Post by pjmlp »

izacus wrote: post #91
pjmlp wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess this is why Apple insists on owning the whole stack. The compatibility matrix becomes tractable. This is how everyone used to build computers, PCs just became the outliers due to way things went with IBM/Microsoft. Now with the all-in-one models, it seems even PCs are getting back to those days.

And? There's a reason why all those others died and PC survived.

There are many reasons, none of them was quality.

1 - Mismanagement from Atari, Commodore and others

2 - Microsoft deals with OEMs

3 - Pretty cheap Taiwan and Chinese parts, some of them with doubtful quality

4 - Windows piracy, alongside the cheap parts, allowed many small PC shops to thrive and offer nicer deals

5 - PCs were the majority of computers at work and school, so the only one parents saw as a good buy for their children future.

Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#93

Post by Angostura »

chubot wrote: post #28

ChromeCast is such a frustrating product. It does exactly what I want in theory. In practice I have to wait 10 to 60 seconds to get it to connect, or reboot my phone. I've started giving up and just using the computer attached to my TV. I don't think I've been having the particular Wi-Fi issue described in the article, but ChromeCast has been just slow and flaky in my experience. I've had both v1 and v2. It seems to…

Really odd. Using an original one for a couple of years now with basically zero problems. This is with an iOS/Mac set-up exclusively, though

Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#94

Post by taurath »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #69
regnerba wrote: post #11

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…

This is unrelated but could you explain what the Chromecast Audio offers over just playing audio on a regular Chromecast?

Audio without a display (or audio with an unrelated display) is very nice, especially for parties

Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#95

Post by kachurovskiy »

I love Chromecast but a few issues keep making me sad.

1. Casting a photo from Photos app, pressing Android back button makes the TV screen go black. Have to remember to swipe left or right instead, or use in-app back button.

2. Photos on 4k Cast-enabled TV are shown in horrendous quality. It's definitely not 4k and compressed as hell with contrast loss. Same for videos.

There used to be a ton of race conditions in YouTube TV app but those are thankfully fixed.

Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#96

Post by MrCzar »

aeturnum wrote: post #44
chubot wrote: post #28

ChromeCast is such a frustrating product. It does exactly what I want in theory. In practice I have to wait 10 to 60 seconds to get it to connect, or reboot my phone. I've started giving up and just using the computer attached to my TV. I don't think I've been having the particular Wi-Fi issue described in the article, but ChromeCast has been just slow and flaky in my experience. I've had both v1 and v2. It seems to…

I quit using chromecast and a wireless HDMI solution. Does exactly what I want most of the time.

What wireless HDMI solution are you using? Could you leave a link? I was thinking of doing the same.

Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#97

Post by espeed »

regnerba wrote: post #11

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…

Indeed, my Ubiquiti Unifi AP and Edge router have also been handling the mass influx of Chromecast and Google Home devices in my house - there's one of each in almost every room in addition to the slew SmartTVs of Android devices sitting around the house -- prob at least 5 pairs of Chromecast & Google Home devices (10 total) and prob at least 30 devices in total connected to that AP full time. Over Christmas when the entire family was here there was prob double that (60 total), including all the new devices received as gifts that were connecting to the AP for the first time all at once as people were playing with and configuring the new devices they got. The Ubiquiti wifi AP and router handled it without a blink.

HOWEVER, over the last few weeks I suddenly started experiencing continual wifi drops on my Fedora 26 and 27 desktop workstation. At first I thought it was related to an overflow of devices and/or a noisy channel, but it turned out not to be the case. None of the Chromebooks or other devices were experiencing frequent wifi drops so then I thought it might be related to my workstation wifi card antenna flaking out and causing the signal to weaken and drop. It turned out the issue was also not due to a failing wifi card. It took me at least a week to isolate and resolve the issue, but it's fixed now -- no more wifi drops and the signal is strong -- turns out it was a software issue with the more or less default Fedora 26 and 27 wifi config that I had been running for years. The issue might have been exacerbated by the increased Chromecast and Google Home devices on the network, but the issue wasn't because the devices were overloading the router or AP like I (and I presume others) initially thought.

When I have time, I'll go back through my logs and command history, and distill the resolution procedure into a gist.

Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#98

Post by _puk »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #69
regnerba wrote: post #11

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…

This is unrelated but could you explain what the Chromecast Audio offers over just playing audio on a regular Chromecast?

Not explicitly mentioned elsewhere is the digital audio connector (TOSLINK/optical out) on the Audio.

This allows it to be connected directly to a half decent amp, rather than relying on the onboard DAC.

Re: Google Chromecast and Google Home Causes Wi-Fi Drops

#100

Post by snarfy »

londons_explore wrote: post #22
77ko wrote: post #9

Got a pixel 2, Chromecast and a Google home and now have lots of wifi woes. The timing being exactly after the pixel 2 (turned in cast and home before, didn't have problems). Edit: turning of guest mode on all cast devices makes things better (less wifi dropouts) but still bad. Turning of wifi on both the android phones in my house has cleared up the wifi problem (which was really annoying as even spotify kept failin…

In the Googleplex they have networks designed to be slow and crappy to test exactly this. All people working on consumer facing apps and sites are encouraged to use these crappy networks on a day to day basis.

Encouraged, but not required? Yeah that's going to happen.
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