Amazon Eero

Ganga

I have been invited by my broadband supplier to trial the Amazon eero system ,there is no charge for this and they say i can keep the equipment for free after the trial , can anybody comment on this , any negatives or plus,s  or would you just say no thanks. 

Neil_Jones

Have you got a use for an Echo as opposed to it "sitting in a corner somewhere taking up space"?

[Deleted User]

Mesh systems are a good step forward for many people when it comes to getting good wi-fi coverage in the house, so if you have any such issues right now, I'd snap their hand off for it. Really good if you have some dead spots around the house and garden, might improve things.

I've seen some reviews where people have had trouble with eero working with the existing ISP modem router, but given your ISP is providing it all, then I expect it will work well.

One downside is that the eero mesh nodes don't have an ethernet port and so you can't fit a wired backhaul which means that each node is acting as a wifi repeater which doesn't perform as well as a proper network of wired nodes. Looks like the main router is only dual band which is a let down, a tri-band with dedicated wireless backhaul would have made this a better product.

Still it will probably be better than what you have now. If you are on slow broadband of say up 100 mbps then it should be great, but if you are on say 300+ then you won't be getting the best out of it when connected to the mesh nodes as they use the same band which effectively means they need to use 600 mbps of bandwidth to get 300mbps at the end device which is pushing things a bit - that's where a wired or dedicated wireless backhaul would be a benefit.

Note that eero is just a router and wifi mesh nodes so you will still need a separate modem for initial connectivity to your broadband. I'm guessing you are not with Virgin or BT as they already supply their own mesh type systems. Hopefully your ISP will provide a standalone modem or tell you how to put the current one in modem only mode (unless you already have separate modem eg you're on FTTP)

The other issue is that sometimes the connected client device doesn't roam around the mesh nodes as expected, they can be 'sticky' and hang on until the signal becomes quite weak. Hopefully the eero has some kind of roam assist that boots the client when it gets below a certain signal strength - this varies in performance as some devices refuse to disconnect. Also can cause blips when devices do roam if you are in the middle of an audio/video call but these are all general issues with mesh rather than eero specifically.

Given that you are testing a product for them, you may encounter some technical issues so be prepared for that. I assume you will also need to give feedback as well.

What type broadband do you have now eg ADSL/VDSL/FTTP, speed etc?

Ganga

[Deleted User] said:

Mesh systems are a good step forward for many people when it comes to getting good wi-fi coverage in the house, so if you have any such issues right now, I'd snap their hand off for it. Really good if you have some dead spots around the house and garden, might improve things.

I've seen some reviews where people have had trouble with eero working with the existing ISP modem router, but given your ISP is providing it all, then I expect it will work well.

One downside is that the eero mesh nodes don't have an ethernet port and so you can't fit a wired backhaul which means that each node is acting as a wifi repeater which doesn't perform as well as a proper network of wired nodes. Looks like the main router is only dual band which is a let down, a tri-band with dedicated wireless backhaul would have made this a better product.

Still it will probably be better than what you have now. If you are on slow broadband of say up 100 mbps then it should be great, but if you are on say 300+ then you won't be getting the best out of it when connected to the mesh nodes as they use the same band which effectively means they need to use 600 mbps of bandwidth to get 300mbps at the end device which is pushing things a bit - that's where a wired or dedicated wireless backhaul would be a benefit.

Note that eero is just a router and wifi mesh nodes so you will still need a separate modem for initial connectivity to your broadband. I'm guessing you are not with Virgin or BT as they already supply their own mesh type systems. Hopefully your ISP will provide a standalone modem or tell you how to put the current one in modem only mode (unless you already have separate modem eg you're on FTTP)

The other issue is that sometimes the connected client device doesn't roam around the mesh nodes as expected, they can be 'sticky' and hang on until the signal becomes quite weak. Hopefully the eero has some kind of roam assist that boots the client when it gets below a certain signal strength - this varies in performance as some devices refuse to disconnect. Also can cause blips when devices do roam if you are in the middle of an audio/video call but these are all general issues with mesh rather than eero specifically.

Given that you are testing a product for them, you may encounter some technical issues so be prepared for that. I assume you will also need to give feedback as well.

What type broadband do you have now eg ADSL/VDSL/FTTP, speed etc?

Thanks for all the information ,at the moment i am with Talktalk and have Fibre broadband ( 150 mbs ) talktalk tv box and their landline /phone but do not use the phone to call out due to the cost plus we both have mobile phones . When the family come round they all connect to our wifi so the granddaughters can play on their phones all day.
At the moment i use Talktalk power adapters to connect my laptop ,tv box and landline phone ,mobiles connect via router .
I am a silver surfer ,over 70 ,and not as tech savvy as yourself so can i ask will i be able to connect the devices i use or should i just stay on the system i am using.

[Deleted User]

Ganga said:

[Deleted User] said:

Mesh systems are a good step forward for many people when it comes to getting good wi-fi coverage in the house, so if you have any such issues right now, I'd snap their hand off for it. Really good if you have some dead spots around the house and garden, might improve things.

I've seen some reviews where people have had trouble with eero working with the existing ISP modem router, but given your ISP is providing it all, then I expect it will work well.

One downside is that the eero mesh nodes don't have an ethernet port and so you can't fit a wired backhaul which means that each node is acting as a wifi repeater which doesn't perform as well as a proper network of wired nodes. Looks like the main router is only dual band which is a let down, a tri-band with dedicated wireless backhaul would have made this a better product.

Still it will probably be better than what you have now. If you are on slow broadband of say up 100 mbps then it should be great, but if you are on say 300+ then you won't be getting the best out of it when connected to the mesh nodes as they use the same band which effectively means they need to use 600 mbps of bandwidth to get 300mbps at the end device which is pushing things a bit - that's where a wired or dedicated wireless backhaul would be a benefit.

Note that eero is just a router and wifi mesh nodes so you will still need a separate modem for initial connectivity to your broadband. I'm guessing you are not with Virgin or BT as they already supply their own mesh type systems. Hopefully your ISP will provide a standalone modem or tell you how to put the current one in modem only mode (unless you already have separate modem eg you're on FTTP)

The other issue is that sometimes the connected client device doesn't roam around the mesh nodes as expected, they can be 'sticky' and hang on until the signal becomes quite weak. Hopefully the eero has some kind of roam assist that boots the client when it gets below a certain signal strength - this varies in performance as some devices refuse to disconnect. Also can cause blips when devices do roam if you are in the middle of an audio/video call but these are all general issues with mesh rather than eero specifically.

Given that you are testing a product for them, you may encounter some technical issues so be prepared for that. I assume you will also need to give feedback as well.

What type broadband do you have now eg ADSL/VDSL/FTTP, speed etc?

Thanks for all the information ,at the moment i am with Talktalk and have Fibre broadband ( 150 mbs ) talktalk tv box and their landline /phone but do not use the phone to call out due to the cost plus we both have mobile phones . When the family come round they all connect to our wifi so the granddaughters can play on their phones all day.
At the moment i use Talktalk power adapters to connect my laptop ,tv box and landline phone ,mobiles connect via router .
I am a silver surfer ,over 70 ,and not as tech savvy as yourself so can i ask will i be able to connect the devices i use or should i just stay on the system i am using.

Ahh right, ok, probably a bit too techie in my response.

Yes you will be able to connect all the same devices in the same way as you do now, will just require some wires swapping to the new boxes. Everything should work as it did before but ultimately it is up to you, I'm a techie so would jump at the chance to try any new tech and be happy to solve any problems that might occur along the way. You may or may not encounter some issues to solve - just decide whether you prepared for that or not.

Ganga

[Deleted User] said:

Ganga said:

[Deleted User] said:

Mesh systems are a good step forward for many people when it comes to getting good wi-fi coverage in the house, so if you have any such issues right now, I'd snap their hand off for it. Really good if you have some dead spots around the house and garden, might improve things.

I've seen some reviews where people have had trouble with eero working with the existing ISP modem router, but given your ISP is providing it all, then I expect it will work well.

One downside is that the eero mesh nodes don't have an ethernet port and so you can't fit a wired backhaul which means that each node is acting as a wifi repeater which doesn't perform as well as a proper network of wired nodes. Looks like the main router is only dual band which is a let down, a tri-band with dedicated wireless backhaul would have made this a better product.

Still it will probably be better than what you have now. If you are on slow broadband of say up 100 mbps then it should be great, but if you are on say 300+ then you won't be getting the best out of it when connected to the mesh nodes as they use the same band which effectively means they need to use 600 mbps of bandwidth to get 300mbps at the end device which is pushing things a bit - that's where a wired or dedicated wireless backhaul would be a benefit.

Note that eero is just a router and wifi mesh nodes so you will still need a separate modem for initial connectivity to your broadband. I'm guessing you are not with Virgin or BT as they already supply their own mesh type systems. Hopefully your ISP will provide a standalone modem or tell you how to put the current one in modem only mode (unless you already have separate modem eg you're on FTTP)

The other issue is that sometimes the connected client device doesn't roam around the mesh nodes as expected, they can be 'sticky' and hang on until the signal becomes quite weak. Hopefully the eero has some kind of roam assist that boots the client when it gets below a certain signal strength - this varies in performance as some devices refuse to disconnect. Also can cause blips when devices do roam if you are in the middle of an audio/video call but these are all general issues with mesh rather than eero specifically.

Given that you are testing a product for them, you may encounter some technical issues so be prepared for that. I assume you will also need to give feedback as well.

What type broadband do you have now eg ADSL/VDSL/FTTP, speed etc?

Thanks for all the information ,at the moment i am with Talktalk and have Fibre broadband ( 150 mbs ) talktalk tv box and their landline /phone but do not use the phone to call out due to the cost plus we both have mobile phones . When the family come round they all connect to our wifi so the granddaughters can play on their phones all day.
At the moment i use Talktalk power adapters to connect my laptop ,tv box and landline phone ,mobiles connect via router .
I am a silver surfer ,over 70 ,and not as tech savvy as yourself so can i ask will i be able to connect the devices i use or should i just stay on the system i am using.

Ahh right, ok, probably a bit too techie in my response.

Yes you will be able to connect all the same devices in the same way as you do now, will just require some wires swapping to the new boxes. Everything should work as it did before but ultimately it is up to you, I'm a techie so would jump at the chance to try any new tech and be happy to solve any problems that might occur along the way. You may or may not encounter some issues to solve - just decide whether you prepared for that or not.

Thanks for the reply ,i will give it a wizz as its free ,luckily my son is techy so can assist ,will let others know how i got on.