Disappointed with Eero WiFi Mesh (Resolved!)

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
17 posts Page 2 of 2
by rchrdfrdmn » Mon Feb 27, 2023 11:55 am
Placement of the secondary might explain the rates we're (not) getting upstairs. But standing close to the gateway Eero in the garage, next to the fiber modem, gets better rates (200 vs 80 Mbps down), but nowhere near the expected 600+.
And if placement is that critical, I might be better off with a powerful centrally located wifi router than Eero.
by dane » Mon Feb 27, 2023 12:13 pm
The different models of Eeros have different mesh backhaul speeds too. The Pro and 6E units for example are faster than the basic "Cupcake" model. I'll see if I can find the illustration that shows this info, as it might help explain too.

But also yes, better to get Ethernet to a center of the home and have the main gateway Eero there, rather than downstairs in a garage. The less hops that the majority of devices can take, the better the experience in performance.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by rchrdfrdmn » Mon Feb 27, 2023 12:26 pm
Ok. All sounds good. I think I have the non-pro Eero. I've contacted support. I'm going to check the ethernet speed coming out of the gateway, cycle power on the fiber modem, and test again. We'll see what happens. Thanks for all the suggestions.
by rchrdfrdmn » Mon Feb 27, 2023 1:12 pm
FYI. Cycling power on the fiber modem and the Eero gateway (on the same power strip) made a dramatic change in wifi in the garage. 500 Mbps on my cellphone! However, little if no change upstairs on the extender wifi.
So at this point I'm going to replace the Eero WiFi 6 gateway and extender with the WiFi Pro 6E set, and reposition the gateway so that it's more central.
I think for now that's as far as I'm going to go. If that doesn't make an order of magnitude difference I'll look for other options.
Again, thanks for all the suggestions.
by dane » Mon Feb 27, 2023 4:07 pm
Sounds like a good path forward.

One other testing artifact to be aware of: a mobile device will generally remain connected to the AP it was previously connected to, at least until it's beyond very clear there is a better signal from another. So your phone might be getting an adequate signal from the AP upstairs, and walking downstairs to the gateway may not be causing it to switch over. It's saying "I'm getting a 5/10 signal from that unit I'm already connecting to, so no need to switch away and cause a brief interruption, even though at this moment there is a 10/10 adjacent."

You can force that switch by toggling WiFi off and back on again on the device, as it'll then search for and select the higher-strength signal.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by mabruce » Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:21 pm
Also check the eero app. It will tell you which node each device is connected to, plus whether it’s on 2.4 or 5 ghz.

The 6E eero won’t help if you don’t have 6E devices. Pro 6 (no E) is better for many as it has two 5 ghz radios for better spreading load. 6E drops one of those for the 6 ghz radio.
by rchrdfrdmn » Thu Mar 02, 2023 1:34 pm
Upgrading to Eero WiFi Pro 6E, and moving the gateway closer to my desktop system made a dramatic difference.
First, relying on some some older ethernet cables (Cat 5) already in place, I was able to put the gateway next to the downstairs desktop (Apple Mini M1) system and directly cable the Eero to the fiber modem in the garage, and connect the Mini directly to the Eero.
So now the desktop system is getting 980 Mbps both ways. And wifi downstairs is getting 180-250 Mbps all over the downstairs (as measured by my cellphone). I put the secondary Eero in the same upstairs room that has my laptop and TV. The wifi now upstairs is getting +/- 200 Mbps. I've also cabled my laptop to the Eero and it's getting +/- 400 Mbps consistently.

I consider this a success, since the speeds I'm getting now are at times 10x what I was getting before in every configuration. Even with VPN, I'm getting 350+ Mbps with the ethernetted laptop. And I know that if I need to upload any large files, I can do that from the desktop at near Gigabit speed.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
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