Function as WiFi network without Internet

Hi David,

  Thanks for the clarification on item #2 and I look forward to the firmware update.

For item #1 I suggest a change of state or maybe blinking the lights at a periodic rate instead of just "red".

My primary Eero Pro is connected to the cable modem & the 2nd port goes to a 24 port TrendNet gig switch. Everything else including home cat5e goes to that switch.

I remember asking support about the boot times & what chip was in there x86 or arm, as I expected it to be up in under 10 secs, as with most embedded devices.

SOLVED ??? I have experienced the same problem from day one (about 1 year) on a very large mesh (7 euro Pro’s & 2 Beacon’s). The last straw for me was when my internet went down (for system maintenance) just before I went to sleep on Thursday, and I was unable to turn off several dozen LIFX Bulbs (attached to smart, WiFi switches). I ended up having to turn off Circuit Breakers, so that I could turn off the lights and go to sleep.

I spent over 2 hours on the phone with tech support yesterday. Over half of that time was spent talking to a “Tech” who didn’t even understand the basics of IP Network Protocols.  I was able to FINALLY reach Level 2 Tech Support after about an hour (and persistent demands to speak to someone who actually understood how networking hardware & software work.)

The “Solution” was to force a mesh rebuild, to insure that all devices were utilizing the firmware version 3.9 protocols.  The tech asked me to disconnect my Gateway Eero and move one of my other eero units to the location, previously occupied by the Gateway unit.  This apparently forced the mesh to fully reconfigure itself. Regardless, after the unit swap, I was able to disconnect the Ethernet from my Cable Modem (Replicating an Internet / WAN outage), while my Wireless LAN remained functional.

NOTE: All of my eero devices switched over to a Red LED indicator, the entire time that the WAN was disconnected, however the eero’ s continued to broadcast the network SSID and permitted wireless communications on my LAN.  ALSO NOTE: While the Mesh rebuilds and re-optimizes itself, you will likely notice slower than normal response times, and devices may drop offline and back online, periodically. ( Devices that do not maintain persistent connections will be the most susceptible. In my case, this was very noticeable with LIFX Light Bulbs.). Depending upon the number of units in your Mesh configuration, it could take a while for the WiFi Mesh to fully optimize itself.  I would recommend performing this, just before going to bed, or leaving for work (if no one else at home.). This way, all of the background optimization will take place at a time that you are not heavily dependent upon your WiFi Network.  

I performed my eero device shuffle in the evening, and assume that the optimization completed, while I slept.  I performed a couple more Internet Outage Tests, (Disconnecting my Cable Modem) during the day. Both times, while the status LED’s on my eero units all changed over to a steady Red, without internet connection, my LAN connections remained active, with no apparent impact upon communication speed.  Ping tests on local wireless devices remained relatively consistent, regardless of whether or not I had an active WAN connection. 

Within a minute of reconnecting my Cable Modem, after each test, the status LED’s on all of my eero units, returned to a solid white display.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this fixes the LAN outage problems, for good.  Hopefully, a similar mesh shuffle can fix this problem for everyone else.  FINAL NOTE: If you are using a limited number of eero units and unable to permanently swap unit locations (Such as swapping out a Beacon with a Pro Unit), I’d recommend trying the swap twice.  The first time, to force a mesh rebuild / re-optimization, then return your devices to their original locations, which will force another mesh rebuild. 

Best of Luck !!!

I'm on v6.4.0-2092 with Eero Pro and I have no local Lan with my internet down. I thought this was fix in an earlier version.

   I work for an ISP, and so far, we have been recommending Eero devices for people who need mesh systems because they work well. However recently, it came to our attention that Eero devices will not work without an existing internet connection. In fact, you cannot set up a new eero device without an existing cellular data connection, or without existing internet.

   This is an issue for some of our customers since they live in very remote areas where they do not have cell service. In cases where they are new customers, they do not have an existing working router. Recently, we had a new customer who needed to set up a new eero device, but it would not work since the technician did not have cell service even though it was plugged into a working connection and we could see it passing traffic to amazon IP addresses. We had to set up a spare router that we had, plug the eero into that router, set up the eero, then swap the eero and the spare router for it to work.

   Eeros should be capable of working as a standalone network device even if there is no internet. I consider this to be a major design flaw, and I'm not sure I will continue recommending eeros if this is the case. Some customers have security cameras and other systems that require local network connectivity even when there is no internet to function. It should be completely possible to set up an eero device without internet. There is no reason an eero device cannot register itself once it does actually have an internet connection.

   Based on the comments, I would have assumed that the issue has been resolved, but obviously not since we still ran into it.

So i have experience this for the first time at the weekend!!  After having my Eero 6 Pro for over 6 months.... due to a fault on the line we lost internet....  assumed everything would be fine in the house... like lots on here we have a Smart house!!  Thermostat for, printer, alarm and CCTV systems all went offline!!! Went on the app and it basically said "Soz but your haven't got any internet so i can't help"

I have used other Mesh products and if there is an internet outage for some reason there was no issue with the LAN Wireless or wired!!  

Surely this is a given in this day an age........  internet access shouldnt mean you cant work things within your local network???

I can confirm as of today this is still an issue.  My internet dropped and my whole network went down, wired and wireless.  Spoke to someone from tech support who does not understand the difference between internet and a LAN and she kept telling me that you cannot have a LAN without internet. SMH

For what it's worth, here is my experience, which is slightly different from the others: 

I purchased eero for the sole purpose of using it as an "intranet" wired/wireless network router for a live sound mixer. I was able to successfully run the initial setup by joining my home network (connected to the Internet).

Once it was set up, I USED TO BE able to take the system anywhere and connect all devices to eero network without an Internet connection.

In other words, once it was set up, eero used to work fine as a standalone LAN router without any Internet. However, something broke in the last couple of years where WIRELESS network still works without any Internet, but it Ethernet network now only works if there is an Internet connection. 

I CLEARLY REMEMBER CONNECTING DEVICES VIA HARD WIRE WITHOUT ANY INTERNET (after the initial setup). I can't recall which version, but it was working in February 2020 right before COVID lockdown.

Please make it work again

I just had the most frustrating call with tech support. The person insisted that an internet connection was required for lan traffic and no other wireless router supported this functionality. 
 

I am so disappointed in this major design flaw with eero products (I just purchased a 3 pack of the 6 pros). The only reason I can even imagine that eero would intentionally disable LAN traffic is to sell the eero plus monthly subscription. Whoever at eero thought this was a good idea to break a product so you can sell an add-on is preying on customers that don’t understand the basics of networking. I will say that having your home wifi network tether off your phone (which is what I understand eero internet backup allows) is a very ingenious and useful feature - but it cannot come at the expense of breaking basic product functionality to create a sell-up path.  I was considering paying the monthly subscription before I had this experience of eero blocking lan traffic  now there is no way I will give extra money to the company  

Has anyone found a useful channel to voice these concerns (someone at eero that is empowered to undo this decision) as the tech support team is not equipped to have discussions on the inadequacies of their products 

I'm not very knowledgeable in this area, but my eero pro works when internet is not available.  I found out that my mobile phone just won't connect to LAN wifi when it doesn't have internet with mobile data on.  When I turn off mobile data, my phone can access the LAN content no problem.  On computers, it seems to work fine too.

What device are you testing the LAN 

I will do some testing and report back here in a few weeks.  I really hope the customer service rep I spoke with was wrong and this basic functionality actually exists. I noticed you cannot make any changes to the eero network without an internet connection (apparently there is no local connection to the “gateway” eero to access settings. That is a manageable deficiency as long as everything else functions as expected