Nest doorbell reconnecting every 20-60 seconds RT-AC5300

[Amiga]

Maybe good to notice that like Apple Devices and Ring Devices, Nest devices store some hidden "goodies" the first time they connect to a router.

for Apple devices it means "Reset Network Connections"

I've been struggling for months with Apple devices (iOS & macOS) losing WAN, but not LAN / wireless. I thoroughly nuke my Asus routers when I do a firmware upgrade. I had to do a router reboot after a successful 19 days of uptime (Apple stuff mostly off network during this time). You're saying a Reset Network Connections possibly keeps things happy?

 

[SheikhSheikha]

I've been struggling for months with Apple devices (iOS & macOS) losing WAN, but not LAN / wireless. I thoroughly nuke my Asus routers when I do a firmware upgrade. I had to do a router reboot after a successful 19 days of uptime (Apple stuff mostly off network during this time). You're saying a Reset Network Connections possibly keeps things happy?

Yes for me it does and many more that I do that have a Merlin based Asus router. Giving it a try cannot harm your apple devices and I hope for you it will solve your Apple related issues.

 

[s814jdh]

Constant connection for more than 24 hours now with both DoS protection enabled and ICMP ping from WAN set to no (disallowed). Have now enabled Multi-User MIMO and 802.11ac Beamforming (since they are tied together in the UI) on the 5Ghz-1 SSID (still disabled on 2.4 and 5Ghz-2) and it has been 15 hours with a constant connection. The doorbell is on 2.4Ghz.

 

[s814jdh]

Constant connection for more than 24 hours with Multi-User MIMO and 802.11ac Beamforming enabled on 5Ghz-1. Enabled the same options on 5Ghz-2 and will wait for at least 24 hours before making more changes.

 

[Sumsurfguy]

My Nest thermostat has required a restart after a router firmware upgrade with both my old Linksys and current Asus router, no idea if a restart is possible with the nest doorbell, but if it is it might save you a little time in the future instead of having to reset its network etc.

 

[s814jdh]

@Sumsurfguy besides the Nest doorbell I have 2 Nest thermostats and 2 Nest indoor cameras. None of them have ever had any issues connecting. I have had all of this equipment 3.5 years, and up until 2 weeks ago I had never had a single issue with any of it maintaining a constant connection. Same router in the same location for those 3.5 years. Everything has worked flawlessly across numerous firmware updates of the Asus router.

After spending massive numbers of hours online with Google support (sure wish they never bought Nest) and having them go through the same troubleshooting script at least 3 times now where they have had me check and re-check router settings, I was convinced the issue was the doorbell hardware. The warranty on a doorbell is only 12 months, so even if Google finally said they thought the doorbell hardware had failed, I was going to have to buy a new one anyway at full price. Seeing that the support from Google was going nowhere, I replaced the doorbell a few days ago and it has maintained a constant connection with no issues ever since.

I am re-enabling router features that many have suggested I should disable as part of the troubleshooting process. I want to do it one step at a time so that if any one of them does cause a connection issue I will know which. Thus far I have found that even though Google support says that the firewall should be disabled (which means disabling DoS protection and allowing ICMP from the WAN) those settings on the Asus router do not seem to cause an issue.

BTW, there is no reset button of any kind on the doorbell. The only way to "restart" the doorbell is to turn off the electrical breaker the doorbell is on so that it receives no power and then back on. I did that as part of the troubleshooting with Google and it had no effect on the original doorbell, still couldn't maintain a connection for more than 10 minutes and mostly disconnected every 30 seconds. Have never had to do this with the new doorbell as it stays connected no matter what I do thus far with the router.

 

[s814jdh]

Multi-User MIMO and 802.11ac Beamforming have both been enabled on the 2.4GHz, 5Ghz-1, and 5Ghz-2. Doorbell has been connected for more than 24 hours. Everything is working after replacing the doorbell hardware. At this point I think I have proven it had to be something that failed in the hardware of the original doorbell.

All of this has been tested and validated against Merlin 386.3_2. Now to update to 386.4.

 

[s814jdh]

Upgraded to Merlin 386.4. Doorbell has been connected for more than 30 hours with no issues. I also got an email recently from Google Support where they have admitted it looked to them like the doorbell was defective and offered to replace it as a one time exception since the warranty was 2.5 years beyond the 12 months of normal warranty period.

Without a doubt the issue was a hardware failure here, not anything to do with the router.

 

[s814jdh]

Just for completeness to help anyone who may find this post as they try to troubleshoot a Nest doorbell having WiFi connection issues with an Asus router, here are the 4 things Google chat support had me validate 3 different times (clearly the first thing in the script the support folks work through):

1. Change WiFi encryption mode to WPA2/PSK
2. Setup dhcp at-least 2 hours
3. Disable MAC filtering if your router supports
4. Lower/disable firewall

#1 was never an issue, I have always had WPA2/PSK encryption mode enabled. #2 was also never an issue, the DHCP lease was always set to 24 hours. #3 was never issue, I have not used MAC filtering. #4 I have validated now is NOT an issue even though support will ask you to turn off the firewall. The firewall can be enabled, DoS protection can be yes, and ICMP ping from WAN can be No.

Support and others also suggested that I turn off the following features:

1. Disable Multi-User MIMO/802.11ac Beamforming (the two features are tied together in the UI)
2. Disable Explicit Beamforming
3. Disable Universal Beamforming
4. Disable Airtime Fairness

I have validated that 1-3 on that list do not have to be done. The Nest Doorbell (wired) maintains a constant connection with the Asus router with those three features enabled. I didn't enable Airtime Fairness as it was a feature I didn't want enabled.