Eero Max 7

[ericmiller777]

I for one would love if Sonic got the Eero Max 7 with its 10 gbps ports id gladly pay for the 10 gbps upgrade as well.

[dane]

We expect to begin offering the Eero Max 7 10Gbps WiFi 7 router soon. It is a costly device though, we expect it to land at somewhere around $20/mo for each unit.

[markwnagel]

The Eero 7 Max went on sale this through Amazon afternoon. Decided to splurge a bit & mine arrives on Friday! A question, in case anyone else might have experience:

My plan is to use the 7 as a gateway, and then stack my existing Pro 6es behind a switch (Netgear GS110MX) as access points. So the topology would look something like...

Eero 7
- 10G port 1 = ONT 10G
- 10G port 2 = Switch 10G port 1

Switch
- 10G port 1 = Eero 7
-10G port 2 = 10G wired internet
- 1G port 3 = Eero Pro6e
- 1G port 4 = Eero Pro6e
- 1G port 5 = Eero Pro6e

... hoping to get at one 10G wired connection, and the '7' benefits near the gateway. Understand the Pro 6e APs would be limited by the current switch 1G backhaul

Am I missing something?

[joeyyung911]

Dang, that's a lot of money!!

[dane]

Am I missing something?

Yes, about a grand and a half!

But seriously, a couple of thoughts.

The Eero Max 7 is great for a few things:

As a 10Gbps gateway, it provides wired access from the Sonic 10G ONT to a connected computer or switch. It’s not just a great, fast gateway, it’s also a base for the eero mesh ecosystem.

As a mesh core device, it provides 6ghz mesh between other Eero Max 7 devices at very very high speed. But this is only useful if you don’t have the ability to connect them with Ethernet. If you’re connecting the devices directly, the new 6ghz mesh is not used at all.

As a client access device, it provides wifi 7, which is crazy fast. But there are virtually no wifi 7 client devices yet, so that’s not very useful.

As a result of all of this, I think we are leaning towards suggesting households consider a single Eero Max 7 as their 10Gbps gateway routers, and multiple Eero Pro 6 devices for additional coverage. If those can be hardwired, all the better.

As more wifi 7 client devices arrive, swapping out Eero 6 for Eero 7 devices likely will make sense. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually have lower-cost Eero 7 devices that are not dual-10G but are instead 2.5Gbps Ethernet, and at lower cost - and which can use the 6ghz mesh, which the wifi 6 devices do not.

Hopefully I’ve got all of my facts straight. We are super excited about the Eero Max 7, as it will be our first Sonic provided 10Gbps router solution, but slower clients do limit the near-term upsides.

So, I’d recommend folks get ONE of the Eero Max 7 devices if they are on our 10Gbps network and have one or more 10Gbps Ethernet client devices. And that they rent it from Sonic to avoid the huge upfront cost of these units. =) Then as wifi 7 clients arrive and when they want faster mesh for additional units that they cannot hard-wire, add more Eero 7 units of whatever flavor are them available (Max or Pro or whatever the product set is then.)

[markwnagel]

Thanks for the detailed feedback, Dane.

That's my plan - one Eero Max 7 as a gateway & Pro 6es for additional coverage. So only buying one 7 to replace my Pro 6e gateway. And then keeping the existing Pro 6e's throughout the house. They're on ethernet backhaul so not worried about mesh. I know I'm jumping the gun a bit... but just excited to see if I can get 10G on my Mac.

Happy to share back how it works out.

[dane]

Got it! I misunderstood the switch port assignments, thinking there was a second Eero Max 7 there.

Good plan!

[markwnagel]

Just a quick follow up with my experience if helpful: swapping out my Gateway for an Eero Max 7, and repurposing Pro 6es as access points. So far, so good!

- Setup was straightforward, using this process: https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/artic ... y-Gateway-
- It did fill up the Mac table on my ONT, indicated by an error that the gateway couldn’t reach internet. Easily resolved with a call to Sonic.
- I am getting wired internet speeds @ 8000 Mbps (!) and 7000 down on my Mac Mini w/ native Speedtest app.
- WiFi speeds near the gateway have improved using an iPhone 14 Pro (802.11ax, 2x2 MIMO) to around 700/700 Mpbs.
- WiFi speeds at the Pro6es has, curiously, decreased. Where I was getting 450/450, download speeds now seem to limit @ 200-ish (uploads still 450+).
- This for all servers *except* Eero’s own, where I’m now getting 500+/500+.
- Guessing this is a bug w/ the Max Pro firmware. Not really impactful & will wait to see if they resolve.

Thanks again, Dane, for super fast internet & great value. Love Sonic!

[frankchang826]

I tried this setup over the holiday with one Eero Max 7 as the main gateway. I did not have good results using the hardwire line. I could not get over 2.5 gigs on my laptop downloading, but it was close to uploading. My ethernet to USB-C is capped by a 2.5 gig device, but I was surprised I couldn't get passed a 1.7 gig download.

I ended up returning the Eero Max 7. It wasn't worth the $600 and all the hardware I would have to get on top (another USB-C to 10Gig ethernet device) to get near the 10Gig speed.

I hope others have fun with it.
-Frank