eero Eero 6+ Mesh Wi-Fi Router 4-Pack

I wanted to give 4.5 Stars due to a few (minor) CONs — but first I’ll state that I am satisfied with this purchase, and the Eero system. As an I.T. Professional, I’ll give you a detailed assessment of the PROs, and CONs of the Eero system. UP FRONT: If you’re using the system for home use, you will be happy, and Setup is amazingly simple — even for those who are not tech savvy.

BOTTOM LINE: The Eero is a great, affordable system and will benefit Home users.

PROS: Affordable (especially during Prime Days®)! Great value for the money. Very simple to set up, configure, and expand. NO subscription is required to use Eero — (but I subscribed to the optional $9.99 /month add-on package as I use the extra security features, metrics, and reports). Latest Wi-Fi protocols and security: (the 6+ gives you super-fast speeds and wide bandwidth, and WPA3 is a HUGE improvement in Wi-Fi security over the aging WPA2 encryption. (WPA3 also encrypts the Authentication Header information; making “De-Authentication” Attacks impossible. The mobile App is user-friendly, laid out well, and shows you status of the overall, or individual components of your system. You can see who is connected, organize devices into ‘Profiles’ (groups) — and even set Schedules, and / or Block device(s) from your network. The Eero 6+ system has useful physical Ethernet Ports on each Node device. Software updates can be set to run automatically at a time of your choosing (like overnight). Software updates typically run quickly. Minor updates don’t interrupt your connection; major updates might cause your Wi-Fi to be offline for (5 or so) minutes. Major updates occur infrequently. You can opt to be notified anytime a new / unrecognized device joins your network — this is a great security feature. You can set ‘Schedules’ for Profiles; (for instance, group your kids into their own profile, then have Wi-Fi be available during certain hours, etc.)… Signal coverage (dB gain) is quite strong for a home system. Customer Service has been responsive the 2 times I’ve called them, and I reached a live person! Software Updates often give you new features, which is cool.

CONs: (Most of these won’t bother “Home” users; but commercial, or “Enterprise” users may care): MAC-Filtering is not offered: If someone has your PassPhrase, they can join your network. (You’d be notified however when they join; so you could take action and Block them). You cannot suppress (hide) your SSID (Network Name). Some think this is OK though; as hiding your SSID also (ironically) creates other security vulnerabilities, so perhaps this isn’t a true “CON”… The GUEST Network (SSID) *cannot* be associated with a “Profile” — and hence cannot be set to turn ON / OFF automatically. (You can, however manually turn the GUEST network on / off anytime via the mobile app…

Perhaps not a true CON, but you can manage your Eero system only via mobile app — no Web interface exists for Eero system management. ** THIS one could be important: DEVICE-STEERING (in other words, the system that “hands-off” a moving device from one Eero Wi-Fi Node to another at your site — is a little wonky. When I move away from Node 1, and stand (a few feet from) Node 2, sometimes my Wi-Fi session is transferred to Node 2 — and sometimes it remains on Node 1 (which is now a weak signal). Not a problem for devices that don’t move (like Ring Doorbells) — but a bit cumbersome for say, a smart phone or tablet that gets moved around the building. This WILL present an issue if you have multiple Nodes, then have a power-failure where some of the Nodes are on battery backup units, and one or more are not. What will happen in this case is that when power is restored, distant devices will connect to {whatever Node(s)} come on-line first. When the closer Nodes are powered back on, those distant devices will remain on the (further away) Node, and you’ll have poor coverage unless you detect this, and correct it by power-cycling all Nodes in the correct order. The way around this is to ensure that either all — or none of your Eero Nodes are on Battery Backup (UPS) units.

Finally, the metadata (name, model#, type of device) of devices that join your network (unless made by Ring®) may, or may not populate with useful data. The fields for ‘Manufacturer, Model, and Type of device’ are often blank, or null. The MAC Address however and thankfully is always populated. This is needed to properly identify devices, so this is a good thing.

SUMMARY: For Home, or Small Business use, the Eero is an affordable, scale-able, and solid system that will substantially increase the Wi-Fi footprint in your building — especially if you place your Nodes with some forethought, and testing. Most, if not all of the CONs won’t affect Home users, and only those needing ‘Enterprise-Level’ security will care about the detractors I’ve listed. The above is a lot of detail, I admit — but hopefully my exhaustive testing and report here is helpful.

I have a lot of grandkids that come over and spend the night. They complained about “my Internet” for years. Works great for the wife and me, but the grandkids were not happy. So I decided to try a mesh system.

I read a lot about the various mesh systems out there and decided to give the eero system a try. I decided on the 6+ system because it was the latest release and the price was right for three units. The Pro line was just too expensive; for $400 more I did not see a real advantage.

Two days after ordering the eero routers arrived. I quickly unboxed and disconnected the Netgear router and remote Access point that I placed on the upper floor.

Our house is about 2,800 square foot ranch. The Internet comes into the basement. I placed the first eero router where the old Netgear router was sitting, connected it to the cable modem, then added power to the eero and used the eero app on my iPhone to begin setting it up. Set-up went pretty quick on the first unit. I then connected the open port on the main eero router to a Netgear switch. The Netgear switch is then connected to a MoCA adapter to give me wired Ethernet connections in three other locations in the house. Those three locations also have Netgear switches connected through MoCA adapters. All but one MoCA are 2.5v and one is a 1.1v MoCA.

Next I put the second unit upstairs on top of a dry sink cabinet and set that one up with the app which went quickly. Finally, the third app was placed in one of the two bedrooms the grandkids like to use when visiting.

Now I started to do speed tests in different rooms and locations throughout the house. I will honestly tell you that at first, I was not impressed. I expected better speeds/bandwidth then what I was seeing. Since only the main router had a wired connection, the other two units relied on a wireless connection back to the main router. In some cases I was only seeing about 50Mbs in most of the upstairs areas. Ugh!

Then I decided to check the speed/bandwidt on my main computer which had a wired connection using a MoCA adapter back to a small Netgear switch next to the main eero router. I was only getting ~150Mbs! That was a “WTF” moment as it should have been around 400Mbs which is the bandwidth I have from the Internet provider.

More frustration, but I put that issue on hold for a bit. I started moving the two upstairs eero devices around to different rooms and locations. Sometimes they improved, sometimes not. Frustration.

Then I decided to move one of the eero devices to the media cabinet where I had a small Netgear switch connected to a MoCA adapter which of course went back to a MoCA adapter connected to the main eero router. I did not do this originally because I tried to locate the two upstairs eero devices as centrally in the house as possibly.

That really changed things. Suddenly I was getting better speed and bandwidth from not only the wired upstairs eero device ~400Mbs, but also to the second wireless eero device. So now I had a better wireless signal with the wireless eero device.

Then back to the main computer. Still only ~150Mbs. For grins I had a moment where a light went off….let me try shutting the power off to the 1.1v MoCA adapter. Checked the speed on the main computer again, and over 400Mbs. Now I knew that MoCA was backwards compatible, but after this I did some reading. What I missed is that when you mixed versions, the entire MoCA Ethernet will go to the bandwidth of the older MoCA in use. Makes sense now, but what did not make sense was that they same set-up was being used pre-eero install and was not an issue. Then when I reconnected power to the 1.1v MoCA, the speed not the main computer was still at ~400Mbs. I cannot explain that, but I did order a cheap Trendnet 2.5v MoCA from Amazon and replaced the old version so that now all MoCA adapters were at version 2.5.

Since everything seemed to be running well now, I just experimented with placement of the remaining eero unit that was being used wirelessly seeing where I got the best speed when devices were connected to it. Finally settled on the guest bedroom.

The last thing I did was change the IP addresses and range to match what I had on the old Netgear routers and even assigned four of the hardware devices fixed IP addresses as before.

The grandkids have stopped complaining about the WiFi. I am also very happy.

I should also add that when the grandkids are not here, we have close to 70 devices connected to the network such as Echo devices in each room, iPhones, iPads, Fire Tablets, TVs, Fire TV units. several computers including Raspberry Pi units (my ham radio hobby related Pi’s), home automation with a Habitat and God only knows what else.

My advice if you buy the eero system. Do not get discouraged if you run into issues. Keep trying. Mine was a bit more complicated because of the MoCA Ethernet network and all the devices I have connected. Yours may go in much easier. Try to use a wired connection to at least one eero on each floor of your home. Also keep moving the eero devices around for best placement and speed/bandwidth.

If you have issues and questions, eero has great community forums. I never asked any questions, but did use the forums to locate issues/suggestions that others had which helped me quite a bit. In summary, I am very happy with the eero 6+ system.