Installation experience: eero app on tablet; swapping in a third-party router

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
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by charles2 » Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:51 am
Sonic 10 GB fiber was installed at our house a few days ago. Overall it went well; installer John P. knows his stuff and does it right. However, it turned out that our circuit went to a bad card in the Sonic Network Operations Center. The graveyard shift at the Center replaced it, and the next day I got the eero 6 up and running. Once the fiber line and ONT are installed, setting up a router and wi-fi network is easy to do yourself.

To fire up the eero we used the eero app on a Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite. Despite Web chatter that you must use a smartphone, the tablet did the job. To be sure, you need to receive a text message with a six-digit verification code, and at the verification moment your tablet won't have wifi with the eero. But you can enter any telephone number to receive the text message, so we directed the message to our old-fashioned flip-phone.

However, when we unplugged the eero 6 and tried to set up a third-party router (TP-Link Archer A8), the Adtran ONT would not give Internet to the router. So we fell back to the eero 6, but now it, too, could not get Internet. Its LED would blink white then turn red not blue. I had to call Sonic support, and together we got the eero 6 working. The support staffer told me this ONT model has a glitch in it and occasionally ("not that often") attempts to set up a router fail - something about the MAC table in the ONT. He said Sonic and the manufacturer were working on a fix, but it would be months.

So I tried again the next day to switch from the eero to the third-party router. This time the ONT gave it Internet right away. For your review and correction, here are the steps I followed to switch out the eero and connect the TP-Link Archer A8:
* unplug eero power, unplug ONT Ethernet cable from eero, unplug ONT power, wait at least 15 seconds,
* shift PC Ethernet cable from eero to A8, plug ONT Ethernet cable into Archer A8 WAN jack,
* plug in ONT power and wait for two green lights, turn on A8 power; watch A8 LEDs and test connection

It might be a case of buyer's self-confirmation, but Sonic Fiber seems to serve Web pages faster than AT&T fiber did.

Addendum: The TP-Link Archer A8 has been reliable in our house. It moves wi-fi data faster, farther and with more strength than the eero 6 did. I soon had to solve a performance issue, the lesson of which was: do not use the Smart Connect feature of TP-Link routers. Of course, we bought the router one time, versus paying a monthly rental fee.

Months ago we had purchased the Archer A8 to provide an access point behind a mandatory Arris BGW210-700 when we were on AT&T fiber. The latter on its own was touch-and-go communicating with one of our wi-fi devices. What a relief to leave AT&T behind.
by cfritze64 » Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:43 am
interesting. thx for the writeup. Q: is the Archer now serving your whole home, or are eero devices still involved somewhere?
by charles2 » Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:53 am
cfritze64 wrote:... Q: is the Archer now serving your whole home, or are eero devices still involved somewhere?
We never set up any eero beacons, only the eero 6 router. The Archer A8 has replaced the eero 6.
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