WiFi System, 1-Pack - Router Replacement for Whole Home Coverage - NLS-1304-25,white

Google Wifi Review TL;DR version: 48 hours in and I’m absolutely amazed. True to form and other reviews, these things just work, are rock solid, and fast. Very happy with the purchase. The longer version for those interested…. Background: A while back I got gigabit speed internet here at home. The speed is amazing on my wired iMac, but wifi through my Apple AirPort routers (1x AirPort Extreme, 3x AirPort Expresses acting as repeaters) was leaving something to be desired. Comcast had given me a big Netgear Nighthawk monstrosity as part of the gigabit package and when I tried it out vs. the AirPorts the difference was night and day - the Nighthawk wifi network was multiple times faster than the AirPort network. Come to find out my trusty AirPort network didn't support the newest, latest, greatest wifi standards so simply wasn't as fast as the Nighthawk. And Apple has apparently decided to get out of the router game. The Problem: To take advantage of the greater speed, I reconfigured my network to support both the higher speed Nighthawk wifi and the lower speed AirPort network. Why keep both? Because the single nighthawk didn't have enough range to cover my three story, 4,500 sq.ft. house (and the now hard-wired 1,000 sq. ft. guest house) while the multiple AirPort expresses did. So now I had two completely different wifi networks running at two different speeds covering different parts of the house. Not ideal, especially now that I'm more reliant on wifi for my iPhone (T-Mobile's signal in the house isn't great, so my wife and I have been using the really excellent wifi calling feature.) The Solution: Today I replaced ALL my routers with four Google Wifi units. The primary wired into the Comcast modem in the office (downstairs), one for the Master Bedroom (2nd level, mesh), one for the guest bedroom (kind of a separate split level thing off to the side, also mesh), and one for the Guest House (hard wired to Ethernet run from the main house). The primary unit connects to a gigabit switch that then connects to several wired devices. The Verdict: Only two days in, but so far I'm thrilled. The Google Wifi units form a mesh network that seems to cover my entire house in strong wifi. I haven’t found anywhere in my oddly shaped and sized house that i’m not getting flawless wifi. Some places are “faster” than others, but even in the “worst” spots I’m still getting at least 40Mbps which I’m not going to complain about. At best, I’m getting 200+Mbps, which definitely isn’t full gigabit but is leagues better than I could get from the AirPorts and on par with the best I’d ever gotten from the Nighthawk… while covering both houses with a single, uninterrupted network with great signal in every room. Setup was stupid simple and completely done from the iPhone app. Haven’t had a chance to really play with all of the cool features (internet pause, etc.), but the core functionality is fantastic. I was slightly concerned about functionality since it’s a Google device and we’re all-in on Apple gear (3x Macs, 2x iPhones, 4x iPads, etc.), but almost everything has worked flawlessly (the only glitch was, ironically, with the now Google-owned Nest Thermostats I have - the trick is to reset the network settings on the Nests and re-enter the new wifi info). Every device, wired or wireless, has worked beautifully and the speed is phenomenal. (As a note and as a point of comparison, I had been a pre-orderer for the Luma mesh wifi system and had briefly tried that out when it finally shipped. I had been greatly looking forward to it and was so disappointed when the units finally arrived. Setup was a nightmare - the stations couldn’t find each other requiring starting over, but then I entered a slightly different name during the process and then it tried to set up two networks, the coverage was bad, and on and on… The Google Wifi units are everything I had hoped the Luma system would be and more.) Downsides: Honestly, none that I can really tell so far. I’ve long since given up on caring about being able to tweak every little power user setting in a router, so the options offered by the Google Wifi app more than take care of my needs. It was a little confusing when I hooked up the Guest House unit (wired into Ethernet) as a wifi point because it asked me to unplug the ethernet during configuration but then didn’t really give me any guidance, but it still flawlessly added the unit to the existing mesh network (but now with ethernet backhaul). Placement in my house was a little bit of a pain, but that’s just my house being weird - since you just have to plug in wherever there’s a power outlet it’s about as painless as it can be. Final Thoughts: If anything changes or something wonky happens I’ll update this, but otherwise I wholeheartedly recommend Google Wifi. Buy it you’ll love it!

Words cannot describe how much we love our Google Wifi System that we purchased during Cyber Monday last year for a set of 3 for around $200. We originally had an Apple Extreme (third generation), but due to overheating issues from the Apple's fan, we had to replace it even though we simply love Apple products, the Extreme is a POS. It took us several days to do our research and look online for a system that was versatile and easy to use and had our eye on this particular system for a while, but didn't want to make the purchase because of the high investment costs. We were quite happy when it came on sale during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday week. Installation was a breeze (surprisingly). Simply add the first dot near your modem and install the Google Wifi App on your phone. The app will walkthrough the installation process. To install the other dots, all you have to do is place the dot ANYWHERE you want and the system will automatically pick the second or third dot up and it takes a few seconds for the App to identify the additional dots. Unlike the Apple Extreme, the App provides comprehensive information on what devices are currently being connected to the wifi network. A great way to see who is on your network and how to remove devices that you aren't really sure should be on your network. Google went one step-up by providing remote access to your wifi network. A great tool for anyone going on vacation or traveling for work to track your wifi network at home. Perfect for anyone who has multiple devices or any smart home devices that you need to monitor (security system, pet feeder, Nest Cam). Each single "dot" covered about 1,500 square feet with all three covering about 4,00 square feet (about the size of a large home with 3-5 bedrooms). One dot can cover an apartment complex without any issue. The only negative is that the Google Wifi system had difficulty pushing signals through walls, hence the need for multiple dots throughout each room. We didn't have this particular issue with the Apple Extreme as it had no problem pushing wifi signals through different types of walls. Our rating scale Design: 5/5 Utility: 5/5 Effectiveness: 5/5 Noticeable flaws: The only flaws is the inability of the mesh network to push the wifi signal through walls as effective as other routers. Secondly, some people had issues with the LED light that is emitted from the device itself (but we enjoyed the light but wanted to put it here in case you do not). Our answers to the frequently asked questions: What data does Google collect from this router? This is what we found from Google: "The information your Wifi points and the Google Wifi app collect helps us deliver the best Wi-Fi experience possible. Importantly, the Google Wifi app and your Wifi points do not track the websites you visit or collect the content of any traffic on your network. However, your Wifi points does collect data such as Wi-Fi channel, signal strength, and device types that are relevant to optimize your Wi-Fi performance. Google policies and terms of services apply as normal to any Google services you use (like Gmail or Google search), whether you’re using them on an Google Wifi network or not." Can I set up a guest network that is isolated from my main home network? Yes, you can setup additional networks that is isolated from your main network with the different dots. Can i link up one google wifi router with a google onhub router to create a mesh network? Yes, they are linkable together. Overall, it is a simple, easy to use, and versatile mesh wifi system that can be used by anyone. We recommend purchasing the three dot system as it is more cost effective than purchasing one. The ability to track your network on the go is a great tool for anyone who has a smart home device system. Like our review? Hit the "Yes" button below for it being useful. Leave us a comment if you have any questions or send us an email. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Amazon to get updates and daily deals.Thanks for reading!

I finally got so fed up with my SurfBoard modem/router coverage in our house that I took the plunge and upgraded to the Google WiFi Mesh Router 3 pack. My biggest problem was slow speeds and spotty coverage from the single router in my “office” room in our 3500 sq ft home. While I could achieve DL speeds of upto 50+ Mb/s in rooms close to the router, on my office laptop I was getting speeds of 0.15 Mb/s and often my printer would lose connectivity with the laptop. Long story short, after the new install I have great coverage all throughout the house and can get over 100Mb/sec using the Speed Test App on my office laptop. I am a happy camper! Installation: You connect the first node to your modem via an Ethernet cable, download the Google app and follow the installation instructions. Following a firmware update which only takes a few minutes you will be prompted to place the other mesh modes. I placed one in a bedroom on the same floor as the main node and it connected with good/great signal strength. This was a room that would not even get coverage from the existing router. The other node was placed downstairs in the family room adjacent to my office. This part was easy and completed quickly. The next part of the install was a bit more of a challenge. This involved connecting existing devices to the new network. Installation tip. Leave your existing wireless network active until you have transition your devices. Then disable the wifi radio on a combination modem/router or remove the separate router. Devices like iPhones, iPads, tvs, DVD players, satellite boxes, etc. are easily connected to the new network. I also have an alarm system, thermostats and a wireless camera connected to my network. The alarm was easy and the biggest challenge for the thermostats was getting them into wifi setup mode or reregisteing them for remote access. This was an issue specific to these devices and not an issue with the Google router. The camera posed the biggest challenge and hence my tip to leave your existing Network live and transition your devices before killing off your old network. Once all devices were transitioned I found a procedure online to put the SurfBoard into Bridge mode so it would only act as a modem and no longer as a wireless router. My device didn’t behave that well and would no longer communicate after some of the steps, so I ended up just disabling the wifi radio after multiple resets of the device. It’s only been a few days, but so far so good. Why Google wifi? I did the research on the other available mesh networks including eero, orbi and others, but Google was the cheapest. I have no desire to go in and tweak network settings. I. Just want reliable and fast Internet connectivity. If these issues are important to you, then another solution may be more appropriate. By the way the signal strength on my alarm went from one bar to three and now I may upgrade the garage door opener to a wifi model as I can now get a signal there! May also upgrade my stereo in the man cave garageto an network ready model. Just don’t tell my wife! She is also happy as the three “hockey puck” or mini “ufos” are not too objectionable to the decor!

Google Wifi. I had been waiting for a year to get this as I was hoping the cost would go down a little bit. Since the price was lowered to $265 I decided to pull the trigger. Then when I was checking out I got an offer to apply for an Amazon Prime Visa card and receive an instant $70 gift card! So it ended up costing me $195 plus tax for the set of three! First, the packaging. Now I'm a stickler for awesome product packaging, and Google Wifi did not disappoint. The unboxing experience was very satisfying and incredibly simple, as was the install. Now my house is only about 1,400 square feet, and according to the box I would technically only need one puck, but I wanted my house blanketed in sweet, blazing fast wifi, so I installed all three. Set-up was ridiculously easy. You hook-up the first puck to your modem, download the Google Wi-fi app, and it recognizes your first puck and connects to it. Then, you walk around your house and install the second puck the same way. Just plug it into power and the app will find it and connect to it. Repeat again for the third puck. Once all three pucks are installed and the app has found them, it links all three of them via the mesh network. The entire set-up and linking process took about 10-15 minutes. Once it was done, you can use the app to check internet speed, wifi speed and how good the mesh network is communicating with each puck. So with three pucks installed in my measly 1,400 sf house, I am now happy to say that I indeed have "SUPER WIFI" in my home. No matter where I am in my house my devices all have a 100% full-strength signal. The signal never even dips down some, it's always full strength. Every single nook and cranny that I can check produces the same results. I have a smart tv in my living room that loads and plays youtube videos instantly now. My ps4 connects to the network just as fast as when it was wired. And you can even hardwire devices directly to the google pucks as well. My main puck that connects to my modem is also hard wired to my pc. And my ADT ihub in my living room is plugged directly into one of my other pucks. I now also have almost 100% full strength wifi in my backyard around my pool area. So in closing, I could not be any happier with my purchase. I waited a long time to get this system, and I cannot even believe that I only paid $195 for three pucks. Unboxing and set-up was a breeze, and actually enjoyable. Wifi is blazing fast. And I love the complete control from the app... no pc needed. So happy!

I am a techie, mainly at the enthusiast level. I am by no means a networking expert. Our home is not large, only 1,200 sqft. However, it is an older home with thicker interior walls, a stone clad basement, and aluminum exterior siding. Getting a WiFi signal from our front room hub (where our able modem is) to our basement office all they way on the other side of our house was proving challenging thanks to the stone and brick fireplace and chimney stack. Our TP-Link wireless router could hardly muster two bars of Wi-Fi signal from the front room to the back of the house, let alone downstairs, on our patio, or worst off our garage. Before this system, we tried a Wi-Fi range extender. That lasted about a week before I sent it back. Sure it extended the range of our main router. The trade off was the never ending battle of having to manually change over to the closest WiFi network (the main router or the extended). I'm sure any logical and sane person would choose to name their extended network the same as their main network, smart thinking. Except. That only creates two of the same named networks, making it even more difficult to tell which one you are connected to. Being fed up with this, I turned to Amazon to find a solution. That is when I learned of Wi-Fi Mesh Systems. Holy cow are there many to choose from. So many reviews. So much networking goobly-gock. Many people tippy tapping the keyboard exclaiming their frustration that one system doesn't have DNS, IPV6, the LAN isn't gigabyte, and a bunch of other acronyms that frankly aren't relevant to the basic user. The very user these products are targeted to. I looked into Netgear's offering, as well as a few others at the time. There are more now for sure. What did it for me on the Google Wi-Fi system was...Google. They kinda know a thing or two about the internet. Anyway. I purchased this system in September 2017. I was hopeful it would solve my WiFi woes once and for all. I was very eager to install the system and wanted it to perform flawless, $250 is a lot to spend on hardware that is outdated after a year or so. We ended up setting up two units inside. One in our front room. We didn't keep it in the same location as our original router due to the interior structures of our house. We believed the fireplace and chimney were blocking a majority of the signal causing a dead zone. Instead, the unit now rests under a table lamp behind our sofa. Clear line of sight directly to back of the house. Perfect. With just the one unit installed in the new location, our WiFi signal was strong, full bars, even in the basement. But we had three of these things. We had to use the other two. After probably a week of messing around, we settled on the location for the second unit. In our back foyer. We hoped it would be able to penetrate our aluminum siding on both the house and garage to establish a respectable WiFi signal in the garage. Sadly, it did not. This is where the .5 star is deducted. The units do link up together to create the mesh network. The garage unit could never establish a strong enough connection with the unit that is maybe 40ft away in the back foyer. I suppose this is the aluminum siding acting a Faraday cage for the doomed WiFi signal. This problem was only remedied recently with a TP Link PowerLine adapter which is now, happily, supplying our garage Google WiFi with internet over the mains. In its 1.5 years of service, we have maybe had one hiccup which required a restart. One. In 1.5 years. That is fantastically reliable. The application used to setup the units is great. It is easy. The whole system is fantastic. I love that the units have a port that can supply a wired Ethernet connection. Especially handy when we added a security camera system and had to connect it to the internet. The system streams flawless over the WiFi mesh network. I really can't say anything bad about this system but... The .5 star deduction as noted above is due to the limitations of this system. The application doesn't tell you how strong or weak a signal from point to point is, just that it isn't strong enough to create the mesh. Another issue is that this system doens't include wall or ceiling mounts. Seriously. Google, you couldn't spend the extra $0.25 to include plastic wall/ceiling mounts? Nope. Have to buy those on Amazon from third parties. Anyway, that is all I have. If you want a system that just works, get this one. I have used it for the last 1.5 years with ZERO issues. The attached are speed tests. The first is from an iPhone Xs, the second is from a MacBook Pro Late 2013. Same distance any Google WiFi points. Our provider is Comcast and I believe we pay for 120MBps speed.

I already started refurbishing our network with a Google OnHub unit about a year and a half back. The OnHub was essentially version 1.0, this mesh version 2.0 so to speak. I loved how easy the OnHub was to setup. How it does updates automatically without you ever knowing it. The device scans for congestion on channels and again without you knowing it chooses the best one available. Topping off the list is that I completely forget about it. I mean not once have I had a single problem, not a one. So when I my network needs grew I decided to purchase two of these ‘hockey puck’ style google Wi-Fi mesh units. Other than appearance under the hood they are essentially the same as my OnHub. All the good things I mentioned apply to these as well. Mine arrived in packaged in very nice white boxes. First thing you see is the device. Under that you’ll find the power adapter & usb c style cable. Also a nice flat Ethernet cable. NOTE you have to setup using either an android or iPhone device you cannot do this from a pc yet. I already had the app so no need to download it. I went into that app, from the left side swipe out. From there select to ‘setup Wi-Fi point.’ I found it easier to just connect each in close proximity to the first unit and then moved them out where needed after. So after you’ve clicked your way through the steps, if memory serves it is maybe four clicks? But the important thing is it goes by quickly under five minutes for each. Most of that time comes at the very end of the process when the devices does its first update so you have the newest firmware/software. So once they are setup I placed them where I wanted. For our situation I placed the primary access point in the same room as the modem. The second unit I then placed at one end of the house and the other at the opposite end with the primary in the middle. My Wi-Fi speed rocketed up everywhere! No matter the location I get my full bandwidth give or take few mb’s. You can also use each as a wired access point, FYI that won’t stop it from working as Wi-Fi too, making use of the included cable. In my case I found doing so gave me about a 5-10% boost over Wi-Fi speed pushing me a little over the bandwidth I am supposed to get from my ISP. Caveat here I also have a newer 32x8 docsis 3.0 modem which likely helps out. So in our household with anywhere from 24-36 connected devices the improvement across the board is very noticeable. Confirming my impressions using both the google Wi-Fi app and a couple speed test apps. FYI even someone not technically inclined will find the google Wi-Fi app not only incredibly useful but kind of fun to dig in and play around with. I noticed too while using the speed test apps that in one part of our home a unit found channel one to be best and was using that while at the other end nearer our neighbors, that unit went with channel 8. Same network so devices work flawlessly no matter location but in using different channels across our house both the downstream & upstream bandwidth rates just really impressed me. For additional information there are a bunch of YouTube vids online though you’ll need to dig through the pointless unboxing ones and find the genuinely helpful reviews and setups. So all said this mesh system from google is the single most exciting tech I’ve gotten my hands on since being able to go from 56K dial-up to genuine high speed. The system from hardware, firmware, app, accessories, and presentation couldn’t be better. But then to be completely free of bugs? Zero defects of any kind after nearly two years (based on initial google OnHub purchase). Without any reservations I can recommend this to anyone no matter the situation. Maybe some gamers with high end rig setups or those who want more control over certain business settings might prefer other mesh systems but for 99.9% of folks out there just get this you won’t regret it. *If for any reason you need more than one wired ethernet connection you can pick up an unmanaged switch here on Amazon for 10-$15.

This is my second set that i bought, i bought one for myself from best but and i just order one on amazon for my daughter. I bought the Netgear Nighthawk X6 thinking it was going to fix my WiFi issues of not going to the back rooms of my co-op. I replaced two Apple AC Routers with the netgear, and it turned out that I had better reception and less interference with the apple routers. Almost every single day I had to reboot or changed the channel on the netgear and it drove me crazy, and their customer service support has no clue or gives you basic instructions that never helped, I ended up buying two extenders which were a big mistake as I always had to reboot something. After reading up on the Google wifi, I knew that this was what I needed, I bought the three pack and it turned out that I needed to use all three. And I have to say. AMAZING, a solid 215mbps throughout the house, and I have not had to reboot it once, I can walk to any room and still have the same signal and I love that. My house is full of HD streaming gaming junkies, I use my apple TV at times and I use my fire TV as well, I waited until everyone was home to test it out,my son was playing his on line game, both my daughters were streaming Netflix streaming different movies one on a tablet and another on an iPhone 6 plus. My wife was streaming a movie from amazon in the kitchen, I was streaming a movie on apple TV in the living room and not one drop. Everyone was streaming without issues, and that was beautiful. I really love the fact that I don't have to change channels as I live in NYC where there is so much interference and with the netgear I've always had to change the channels and with the Google not once, it seems to do it on its own and it always picks the right channels. Another amazing thing is it has a strong solid ethernet connection, what I mean about that is when I had ethernet connected with the X6 it was never stable, it fluctuated anywhere from 156mbps to 50mbps, with the Google it never drops past 156mbps which is amazing. Pros: no need for an extender, which means full mbps, because when you add an extender it drops mbps by half. It's beautiful, not that the X6 wasn't beautiful in a spacecraft kind of way. I love the user interface, it was so easy to set it up, I'm so use to picking a channel, or changing this or that with the net gear that it's a blessing to not have to touch it. I have tested this and love it, everything connects automatically to the other mesh devices, if I walk into the kitchen it changes from one mesh system to the next, not like having an extender where you have to go into your phone or tablet and change from the router to the extender and vice versa. Cons: Can't pick which bond to connect your devices too, I like to be able to connect streaming devices to the 5ghz, and with this you never know if your device is connected to 5ghz or 2.4ghz. As much as I love the user interface app, I wish they had it for the computer as well. With that said, I've used many routers, I've spent a lot of money on extenders and nothing ever worked like this unit, I'm amazed and finally satisfied with my wifi. Now, there are a lot of people who are leaving 1 star reviews on the speeds, at no point does Google claim that this can handle speeds above 300mbps. That is why those who have 1gb of speed are seeing 300mbps, those who have 1gb will need a router like the netgear X6 or x10 to handle such speeds, there is nothing worse than people buying something without researching, I guess those are the people who buy used cars without test driving them. If anything changes I will update, but so far I'm in love... I have to say, I spent exactly $630 on the netgear X6 and the two extenders and only spent $300 on the Google and am beyond happy and satisfied with it.

I purchased this Google Wifi Mesh system, along with Linksys Velop, Eero, and my existing Netgear Orbi systems to compare. Ive had the Orbi for the past year and while the speed is fast, I’ve had a daily reoccurring issue where the Wifi connection wouldnt drop but I would not be able to browse websites with full Wifi bars. Additionally the 2nd unit was functioning as a ethernet hub but was not visible from Orbi app. Previous to this I tried to use Powerline connection(was SLOW) and a various routers. I have a 1200 sqft apartment, two stories. This had bad connectivity on the 2nd story. So I tried by setting up each replacement mesh system and try it out for a bit to see how they worked and if the problem of intermittent connectivity issue was resolved. First up was the Eero system which consisted of two of the hubs. Set up was really simple to do with the Eero app. Connectivity speed was comparable to the Orbi mesh system. Unfortunately after about 3-4 hours I started to get the connectivity issue again. Next I went to the Velop systems. I got as far as trying to connect to the system which it was unable to do to set up the network. I probably could have spent more time trouble shooting it but at this point since I still had the Google system left to try, I packed that up for return. Lastly was the Google Wifi...I set this up in the same location as all other mesh systems, which the exception of the 3rd hub which added another satellite which was new..all other mesh systems Ive tried were only two total units. Since my apartment is not very big, the 3rd unit is probably not necessary, but I set this up regardless. Setting up through the Google Wifi app on iOS was fairly simple. I did run into an issue on the 2nd and 3rd satellite set ups where the app apparently found a firmware update for the system and was applying it. I called into the support call and thankfully the tech was extremely helpful in getting through the completion of the set up. I explained the intermittent issue I had on other systems and he seemed genuinely concerned on getting this resolved for me. Problem is that the issue is intermittent and had to reproduce....and I havent gotten it since I installed the Google Wifi system..so looks like we’ve found a winner. What I also like about this system is the actual hubs. They are more attractive then the Orbi and Velop system and on par with the Eero in my opinion. The app is also on par with the Eero. I dont need a ton of customization, so the ease of use of the Google app is very much appreciated. I would definitely recommend the Google mesh Wifi if youre looking for something that is simple to use and to boost your wifi signal if hardwiring is out of the question(apartments especially). This would a great buy, and its on sale for prime day, so buy now!