Google Home Max rendering some Wi-Fi networks inoperable

Publish date: 2022-05-01

TL;DR

Google Home Max owners, is your Wi-Fi working? Users on Google’s Product Forums are reporting that the hulking smart speaker is knocking out home Wi-Fi networks. The issue occurs as soon as the Max connects to a network with a TP-Link Archer C7 router.

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This is a weirdly specific issue, but one we’ve seen before. The Nexus Player also crashed Wi-Fi networks run by the same router. Google and TP-Link eventually narrowed down the issue to MDNS packets, which are responsible for keeping a live connection with cast-enabled devices. Instead of sending the packets in 20-second intervals, Google Home Max is sending thousands of them and overloading the router. 

No one knows why this specific TP-Link router is the only one affected. There could be others out there experiencing the same issue, but we haven’t heard about them yet. If you’re experiencing a similar issue, hit the button at the bottom of this post to tell Google about it. The Archer C7 router is one of the most popular on the market today. Hopefully whatever fix Google and TP-Link figure out comes quickly.

Are you having any issues with your Google Home Max? Let us know in the comments.

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