Nest Cams Dropping Off Linksys Velop

Eddy555

Hi

I've had a couple of Nest Cam Outdoors for just over a year and they've been connected to a 2 node Linksys Velop mesh network for just under a year.
During that time they've been pretty solidly connected with no real issues.
However in the last couple of days both cameras drop out at around the same time and won't reconnect unless I restart the Velop WiFi.
Turning the Nest Cams off and on again does nothing, they just sit there blinking the blue light while they try and reconnect.
I can't see that either the Nests or Velop has updated recently but it's hard to know for sure.
I'm not sure whether it's a fault with the Nests or the Velop. My guy is leaning towards the Velops seeing as how both drop off at the same time and only restarting the Velop seems to allow them to connect again. But everything else on the network is connected fine as far as I can see.
What should I be looking at first to try and fix this?
Is there something I can use to check the WiFi is staying up?
Any advice would be very welcome.

mickevh

This is "classic" symptoms of a new interference source appearing on the Wi-Fi airwaves.

Sadly, there's nothing much you can do about it if so, unless someone is blowing out the regulated transmit power, and then you've got to A) find them and B) get OfCom involved.

One thing you might try is changing the radio channels you are using and see if that makes any difference, but it's a bit of a forlorn hope.

Similarly, you might try testing with some different AP's and see if that makes any difference, but of course that means you've got to beg or borrow the kit from somewhere. Similarly, if it's possible, you might de-mount one of the cams and test it indoor relatively close to one of your AP's and see if that makes any difference. It might give an indication if you're got "radio" problem or whether something is going screwy in the (software) operation of the equipment.

Wet weather could be a factor as could any foilage in the way. Wi-Fi hates anything wet or planty and works best with line of sight.

There's nothing to "wear out" in solid state electrical gear (or at least not in human timescales) so kit should work as well today as it did when you bought it.

Strictly speaking there isn't any such thing as "Wi-Fi Signal" as most people conceive it, an thusly there's nothing to keep "up." Wi-Fi is a two way radio "conversation" like walkie-talkies, not a one way "lecture" like televisions. To maintain service, both peers in this ongoing conversation need to be able to "talk" to each other successfully. Any a break down of the conversation on either side (AP or clients) either due to radio signalling issues or "software" issues can cause the loss of connection. If you haven't upgraded the firmwares any time recently, it would tend to suggest it's not the latter.

Eddy555

Thanks for your clear and comprehensive answer.

I did run the channel rescan on the Velops this morning but they disconnected again this afternoon.
Looking at the free channels in the area using WiFi analyser on my phone there didn't appear to be anything else close the ones in using.
From what I can see both cameras are probably on the edge of the WiFi range sure to brick walls being in the way. So maybe a combination of the poor weather and cold is adding to the issue.
It may be an idea to get another Velop node, or switch to another make altogether. I'm not totally sure which one would be better than the Velop (not saying the Velop is perfect, just unclear which devices it there perform the best).
I do find out odd that they can't reconnect until I restart the Velop though

mickevh

Forgive me, I meant to say I'm spitballing some ideas as to things you might try, rather than I have some insight as to exactly what your issue is.

Failure to reconnect is not unknown to me - the very laptop I'm using to type this falls off my network quite often (I live in flats with loads of co-channel interference issues) and having done so my lappy  absolutely refuses to reconnect until I either power it off/on or sleep/resume it. No amount of flipping the Wi-Fi NIC on/off, turning the radios on/off, swapping AP's, rebooting my router or anything makes any difference until power cycle the laptop.

There's a great deal of variance in the Wi-Fi standards (much, much more than for ethernet) and heaps of things that are "optional" because some vendor or other in the standards committee insisted on it and it was left in for political reasons. Thusly there's lots more down in the geekery to "go wrong" and sometimes bizarre stuff just happens that seems to defy all logic.

That's cold comfort I know, but I feel your pain. Keep an eye on this thread though, there are plenty of other experts who are regulars here who have better ideas than me!  

evo ufo

I'm having a very similar problem and also starting in the last 2 weeks.
Prior to that, I had not been aware of the camera dropping from the Wifi, and now it is happening several times a day.   Typically it reconnects of its own accord, but I've also been able to accelerate that by powering the camera off and back on again.

Not having any trouble with other devices connected, and hence I was thinking that it may be specific to the camera and wondered if there had been a firmware update.

Reviewing signal strength then the camera is connecting to the closest node, but with a very weak 2.4GHz signal.

Camera software version is 223-610050
Velop software version is 2.1.10.197424

Eddy555

I've turned off client steering (through the web interface) and so far only my back camera had dropped off and then reconnected on it's own.
This had been OK for about a week now.
I do seem to have an unfortunate side effect of my phone being a bit slow to browse the Internet on occasion as I think it doesn't connect properly.

evo ufo

Checking on the Linksys support site and it appears that there was new firmware:
Firmware version:       2.1.10.197424
Release date:           Oct 8, 2019

Not sure when this installed by the first time the camera went offline was 2nd November.

Have not been able to identify when the camera firmware was most recently released.

Eddy555

That's interesting, I didn't realise there was such a recent release. The a Linksys forum had quite a long thread on disconnects and this pointed me at the steering thing

evo ufo

I had considered trying with the steering turned off, but that seemed to defeat the purpose of having a mesh network.   I want to be able to roam through the house and have mobile devices adapt to the best connection.

I suspect this is software related either in Camera or in the Velop, but I'm also going to try moving one of the nodes to be nearer the camera to see if I can get a stronger signal.

Eddy555

As both my cameras dropped off at the same time I suspect it's the Velop.
Ideally I'd have steering on, bit I want to see if turning it off fixes the issue.