Amazon eero system - thoughts from a new user...

[aj7642]

Afternoon all,

I couldn't find many articles on the Amazon eero mesh wi-fi system on this forum, so I thought I would take a moment to share my experiences. 

Having added a Virgin 200Mb Fibre connection to our house several weeks ago, I hadn't been able to make use of it until I stopped depending upon the Hub 3.0 (which, I'm sorry to say, is an insult to customers because it is the worst router I have ever used). I tried the boosters (well, one, and when I called to order a second, it never arrived so gave up).

I spent a week looking through various whole-home wi-fi systems, having decided to make a one-off investment in a decent system - Netgear Orbi, Linksys Velop, Nest Wi-Fi and Ubquiti AmpliFi. In the end, I took a punt and went with Amazon's Eero system.

The difference is night and day - I receive 150-200 mbit in every corner of our 7-bedroom, 3-floor house, without fail. The connection seems stable with the Hub 3.0 in Modem Mode for now but I am monitoring it as I've heard it can be a little temperamental at times. I will add that all three Eeros are connected together via Gigabit ethernet, but I was receiving similar speeds even when using just Wifi. 

The Eero is missing some key features (such as the ability to turn off the 2.4Ghz network, logging is a little lax) but the best part of the system is that the firmware is constantly updated which adds new features and fixes. The 'Labs' feature allows you to switch on features such as Local DNS Caching, Band Steering (pushes 5ghz capable devices onto that band where possible), etc. 

I'd highly recommend Eero to anyone that is grappling with the Hub 3.0 - I know it is a fair amount to spend (£99/unit for a single, £250 for a triple pack of the standard dual band version) but honestly the piece of mind and time saved messing around with Powerline routers and the Hub are well worth it. If you have been put off using App-based routers due to the VM Connect software, don't be - the Eero app actually works. 

I'm happy to answer any eero questions you may have (and no, despite the glowing review I am not an employee!)... and by the way, it's 20% off on Amazon until tomorrow morning if you're feeling impulsive! 

P.S. My apologies for the essay here. I feel like it may be therapy after the multiple hours listening to VM's too-cool-for-school hold music!

Cheers,
AJ

[mike5100]

By the way - when I was setting up my eero system it asked me to setup a passowrd and I just used one of my very simple to remember ones (in case it was going to ask me that every time).  I assumed that since it's going through the Virgin Hub/router, to the outside world I am protected behind the very strong password that came with the Virgin router.  Is that right?

Mike

[gary_dexter]

The password would just be an admin password to make changes etc to settings.

[jpeg1]

If you have set the VM Hub to modem mode it has no security at all. You are dependent upon what you connect to it for firewall or other security.  Whst sort of firewall does the eero have and how have you set it?

[mike5100]

well I haven't set the virgin box to modem only yet - I was just about to.  Currently it is radiating its own wifi as is the eero mesh.  One of the eero units is connected by wire to the Virgin box.

I have no idea about the eero mesh system and any firewall.  It's just dawned on me why the Virgin box in modem only mode won't have any security - it won't need it will it, as it's connected only by a wire and fibre optic to the wider world.

Oooo-er I'd better get reading the eero manual.

Mike

[gary_dexter]

You need to check is the Eero is in AP mode if you’re using the hub in modem mode. Otherwise you’re running 2 devices as routers and you’ll get issues with Double NAT etc. 

Or put the hub into modem mode.

[mike5100]

Update - I have now made the virgin box modem only.  It hasn't made any difference to coverage, speed or 'errors' - all of which seemed fine when I was running both wifi networks together.

Does anyone know if any of the smart heating systems will use your existing wifi network rather than needing their own hub etc?  I'm only interested in the electronically controlled TRV's rather than the boiler control.

Mike

[andyc11]

Sorry to hijack and had some great help from members who have replied here on a post I made yesterday. Wanted to give my experience and see where I went wrong. 

Unplugged my Hub (3) and all connections and rebooted. Plugged in the gateway Eero and using the app, established a connection in the dining room. Went to the living room and plugged in the second Eero, but kept timing out on the registration stage. Then read the Hub should be in modem so did that and followed the above process again. 

Then had Wifi in the dining room and living room, but various problems with my devices, although phone and tablet were working:

Hive (dining room, Ethernet) - no connection

PS4 (living room, wifi) - connection

Sky Q (living room) - no connection via wifi or ethernet

Echo - (living room, wifi) - no connection

Smart TV (living room, wifi) - no connection

Woke up this morning to nothing in the living room working and the Eero there was offline. Unplugged the whole lot, factory reset of the Hub and now back to where I started. Eero will be packaged up and returned today, as in my experience (and I might just be doing something wrong), this isn’t a plug and play - can’t see why some devices connect and others don’t when they’re in the same location. 

Shame, as my device performance was great for the devices that actually worked. 

[gary_dexter]

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@andyc11 wrote:

Sorry to hijack and had some great help from members who have replied here on a post I made yesterday. Wanted to give my experience and see where I went wrong. 

Unplugged my Hub (3) and all connections and rebooted. Plugged in the gateway Eero and using the app, established a connection in the dining room. Went to the living room and plugged in the second Eero, but kept timing out on the registration stage. Then read the Hub should be in modem so did that and followed the above process again. 

Then had Wifi in the dining room and living room, but various problems with my devices, although phone and tablet were working:

Hive (dining room, Ethernet) - no connection

PS4 (living room, wifi) - connection

Sky Q (living room) - no connection via wifi or ethernet

Echo - (living room, wifi) - no connection

Smart TV (living room, wifi) - no connection

Woke up this morning to nothing in the living room working and the Eero there was offline. Unplugged the whole lot, factory reset of the Hub and now back to where I started. Eero will be packaged up and returned today, as in my experience (and I might just be doing something wrong), this isn’t a plug and play - can’t see why some devices connect and others don’t when they’re in the same location. 

Shame, as my device performance was great for the devices that actually worked. 

---

Did you put the hub into Modem Mode?

[andyc11]

So an update on my issues. Ensured all my devices were working in Hub mode and then placed into Modem. Added the gateway Eero and then the second - no problems this time. Despite the Eero app advising me to use the same network name and password (so I wouldn’t lose device connectivity), it subsequently told me to rename, which I did. Now have 3 Eeros up and running and all devices connected. Only issue I have is the PS4 won’t connect over wifi, but was intending to use Ethernet anyway...and frankly can’t be ar*ed to figure it out. 

Have now got the speeds I was expecting from the 350 package, plus better signals in the dead spots of my house. Just hope it’s stable. Perhaps just me, but found the whole experience quite poor based on the app instructions. 

[oliverquick]

AJ - could I ask you to outline your set up. I am having some issues getting the 'Super'Hub to work in modem mode.

1. Configured all the Eeros
2. unplugged everything from the superhub
3. plugged in the eeros gateway node
4. via 192.168.0.1 set the hub to modem mode

...kind of expected this to work...but no internet appeared to be routed through

I then plugged my laptop directly into the virgin router and tried 192.160.100.1 (as documented), but nothing...

Any ideas?