Wireless Access

It seems that chromecasts are no longer working with airgroups. Not sure if this is related to a point update in our controller firmware (we updated from 6.5.4.19 to 6.5.4.21 a few months ago) or Google pushed a firmware update.

Setting up one after factory reset, I am able to connect to it and add the SSID (open but mac registered via Clearpass and aigroup named shared), and as far as the Home app goes it adds the device successfully, but the chromecast shows an error message to reboot the wifi router.  Rebooting the chromecast seems to fix this issue as the device now loads the screensaver.

But we still can't cast to it.  Any ideas?  I'd contact TAC but since covid, their response times have been abysmal taking weeks of back and forth via email.

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This sounds like there might be some challenges for connectivity for the the chromecast (from what you describe it seems less likely to be effected by AirGroup at this stage). Do you have any firewall rules on the network that the chromecast connects to? e.g. ACLs on the role within the Access Point? Firewall rules before it hits the internet? Filtering via dns?

Do you see the chromecast advertised on your mobile device (like in the youtube app for example)?

No. It is not advertised.  Looks like a service is blocked but not seeing in the controllers.  I even forced both phone and chromecast in the same vlan.

One thing I did noticed when doing packet captures is that the device uses random airgroup services.  For example I noticed "chromecast-asdfasdfasdfasdfasdf._googlecast._tcp.local" being advertised.

I can't add wildcard services at least via the GUI. I did added _sub._googlecast._tcp but doesn't seem to work.

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Original Message:
Sent: Mar 08, 2022 07:41 PM
From: Matthew Sutherland
Subject: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

This sounds like there might be some challenges for connectivity for the the chromecast (from what you describe it seems less likely to be effected by AirGroup at this stage). Do you have any firewall rules on the network that the chromecast connects to? e.g. ACLs on the role within the Access Point? Firewall rules before it hits the internet? Filtering via dns?

Do you see the chromecast advertised on your mobile device (like in the youtube app for example)?

Google Chromecast will not work. I have talked to Google engineers and this is what they say: 
When you are using a device to set up your chromecast/Google home/ Google home Mini it looks for a Password on the guest to put in the Google device, if it doesn't see that password it will not connect. 

Now with that said we were able to get these devices working on our network in version 8.3.xx on the controllers and 6.5.xx in ClearPass (no onboarding). We just set up pages and forms on the guest side of CP.
Google could not explain why it was working. 

Once we started upgrading our controllers and ClearPass for security vulnerabilities the Google devices broke.  We have the same configuration for our IoT device registering in ClearPass that we started out with. We started noticing people couldn't setup chromecasts or if they could get it on they couldn't control the devices with their phones. 

Now Google of course has changed their versions since we had them working and I can't say what version they had where it worked.  With talking to Google they wanted to know what version worked on our network and I had no clue. 

Sorry I don't have an answer for you.  We could compare configs if you would like.

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Bill Harris
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Original Message:
Sent: Mar 09, 2022 04:58 PM
From: Ricardo Stella
Subject: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

No. It is not advertised.  Looks like a service is blocked but not seeing in the controllers.  I even forced both phone and chromecast in the same vlan.

One thing I did noticed when doing packet captures is that the device uses random airgroup services.  For example I noticed "chromecast-asdfasdfasdfasdfasdf._googlecast._tcp.local" being advertised.

I can't add wildcard services at least via the GUI. I did added _sub._googlecast._tcp but doesn't seem to work.

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Original Message:
Sent: Mar 08, 2022 07:41 PM
From: Matthew Sutherland
Subject: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

This sounds like there might be some challenges for connectivity for the the chromecast (from what you describe it seems less likely to be effected by AirGroup at this stage). Do you have any firewall rules on the network that the chromecast connects to? e.g. ACLs on the role within the Access Point? Firewall rules before it hits the internet? Filtering via dns?

Do you see the chromecast advertised on your mobile device (like in the youtube app for example)?

After some more back and forth with this, at one point I was able to get it working but only if both devices are on the same vlan, which is something we can't really do in our campus environment.

Everything I read from Google is that the devices need to be on the same vlan.

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Original Message:
Sent: Mar 14, 2022 08:20 AM
From: Bill Harris
Subject: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

Google Chromecast will not work. I have talked to Google engineers and this is what they say: 
When you are using a device to set up your chromecast/Google home/ Google home Mini it looks for a Password on the guest to put in the Google device, if it doesn't see that password it will not connect. 

Now with that said we were able to get these devices working on our network in version 8.3.xx on the controllers and 6.5.xx in ClearPass (no onboarding). We just set up pages and forms on the guest side of CP.
Google could not explain why it was working. 

Once we started upgrading our controllers and ClearPass for security vulnerabilities the Google devices broke.  We have the same configuration for our IoT device registering in ClearPass that we started out with. We started noticing people couldn't setup chromecasts or if they could get it on they couldn't control the devices with their phones. 

Now Google of course has changed their versions since we had them working and I can't say what version they had where it worked.  With talking to Google they wanted to know what version worked on our network and I had no clue. 

Sorry I don't have an answer for you.  We could compare configs if you would like.

------------------------------
Bill Harris
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Mar 09, 2022 04:58 PM
From: Ricardo Stella
Subject: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

No. It is not advertised.  Looks like a service is blocked but not seeing in the controllers.  I even forced both phone and chromecast in the same vlan.

One thing I did noticed when doing packet captures is that the device uses random airgroup services.  For example I noticed "chromecast-asdfasdfasdfasdfasdf._googlecast._tcp.local" being advertised.

I can't add wildcard services at least via the GUI. I did added _sub._googlecast._tcp but doesn't seem to work.

------------------------------
---
°(((=((===°°°(((=================================


Original Message:
Sent: Mar 08, 2022 07:41 PM
From: Matthew Sutherland
Subject: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

This sounds like there might be some challenges for connectivity for the the chromecast (from what you describe it seems less likely to be effected by AirGroup at this stage). Do you have any firewall rules on the network that the chromecast connects to? e.g. ACLs on the role within the Access Point? Firewall rules before it hits the internet? Filtering via dns?

Do you see the chromecast advertised on your mobile device (like in the youtube app for example)?

Original Message:
Sent: 3/14/2022 1:48:00 PM
From: su_A_ve
Subject: RE: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

After some more back and forth with this, at one point I was able to get it working but only if both devices are on the same vlan, which is something we can't really do in our campus environment.

Everything I read from Google is that the devices need to be on the same vlan.

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°(((=((===°°°(((=================================
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Mar 14, 2022 08:20 AM
From: Bill Harris
Subject: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

Google Chromecast will not work. I have talked to Google engineers and this is what they say: 
When you are using a device to set up your chromecast/Google home/ Google home Mini it looks for a Password on the guest to put in the Google device, if it doesn't see that password it will not connect. 

Now with that said we were able to get these devices working on our network in version 8.3.xx on the controllers and 6.5.xx in ClearPass (no onboarding). We just set up pages and forms on the guest side of CP.
Google could not explain why it was working. 

Once we started upgrading our controllers and ClearPass for security vulnerabilities the Google devices broke.  We have the same configuration for our IoT device registering in ClearPass that we started out with. We started noticing people couldn't setup chromecasts or if they could get it on they couldn't control the devices with their phones. 

Now Google of course has changed their versions since we had them working and I can't say what version they had where it worked.  With talking to Google they wanted to know what version worked on our network and I had no clue. 

Sorry I don't have an answer for you.  We could compare configs if you would like.

------------------------------
Bill Harris
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Mar 09, 2022 04:58 PM
From: Ricardo Stella
Subject: Chromecast required Airgroup services?

No. It is not advertised.  Looks like a service is blocked but not seeing in the controllers.  I even forced both phone and chromecast in the same vlan.

One thing I did noticed when doing packet captures is that the device uses random airgroup services.  For example I noticed "chromecast-asdfasdfasdfasdfasdf._googlecast._tcp.local" being advertised.

I can't add wildcard services at least via the GUI. I did added _sub._googlecast._tcp but doesn't seem to work.

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