Separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5.0 band

Hi RubyDanger —

Welcome to the eero community! Thanks for reaching out and for this feature request.

At this time, we don't plan to support the ability to use separate SSIDs. The main reason for this is how our mesh works, which allows your traffic to efficiently travel across your network via both bands. For more, I've included this blurb from a recent eero blog post:

eero’s recently released TrueMesh™ technology is our latest and most advanced WiFi software to date. This technology ensures every eero connects wirelessly to every other eero in range, on both the 2.4 GHz (long range, lower throughput) and 5 GHz (shorter range, higher throughput) WiFi bands. This creates a dense network of connections and many possible paths for traffic to flow. It ensures wireless interference from the neighbor’s baby monitor, heavy gaming traffic in the family room, or someone closing a metal door in the kitchen doesn’t bring your network to a crawl.

With regards to Savant, we don't have any known issues. There are various devices that use just the 2.4 or 5 GHz channel, and they have no issue working on eero. However, we'd definitely want to take a look into the reported issue to make sure there isn't anything else going on. A member of our team will be following up for more details via email. 

Thanks again!

Jeff C. 

Thanks for following up, Regnad .

The other key part to having both the 2.4 and 5 GHz on the same SSID is the benefit of roaming. When moving throughout the home, such as on mobile device, you wouldn't be able to have a smooth handoff if the device could no longer reach the 5 GHz band. 

With regards to: 

I do think it's a terrible idea to not let us split the band though. It is not easy explaining to an average client why sometimes they get speeds of 300Mps and sometimes only 60Mps in the same spot. 

When using eero, you shouldn't be seeing such a huge range of speeds from a single location. Is there a specific device where you've seen this with? 

You should ask Savant to adress this.  A device shouldn't care about the band it is using.

This would be a great feature. My New tablet has a firmware bug which causes it to drop from 2.4 wifi but is fine on 5. Would be nice to pick the dedicated 5 channel and not worry about disconnection issues

Hi  Guy —

Thanks for chiming in. Have you contacted eero support yet? We'd be happy to take a look, as your device should still be able to connect even if it could only use the 2.4 Ghz channel.

Feel free to give us a call at 1-877-659-2347 or email us at support@eero.com .

Jeff Hi Jeff, I didn't call as it isn't an Eero issue. This is a Wi-Fi chipset issue that I had before buying eero. I just know I need to force the tablet to stay on 5ghz for a stable connection. 

Guy —

Thanks for clarifying. Since eero is a mesh system, it isn't possible for us to separate the 2.4 and 5 Ghz band and for that reason, it isn't a feature we plan to implement.

Would you mind letting me know which tablet it is? Maybe we have some workarounds to provide based on customers with a similar issue in the past.

I understand you guys are trying to help but I was under the impression that this was simply where we posted features we would like to see implemented. Contrary to what you guys have replied, there are indeed some devices out there that have problems with certain bands, whether it be a driver or chipset issue, these devices do exist. 

Personally on my home network, I also like to be the one that decides what band I will be on. Too many times has my device decided the band for me. I do understand this is not a feature you plan on implementing, even for those of us that do not utilize the mesh aspect of the waps. You can't blame us for being disappointed in this is all I'm getting at. 

 Jeff C. It's the Tab S2 from Samsung 8 inch. So far eero has kept it on 5ghz but if it switches, it will cause me to lose data on several games that I play on it.

Linksys said the same thing about the velop. But the Web ui let's you change the name and I had no issues with that system. May be going back to it due to this issue. DDNS is also a must. So is a Web ui

Can we add a 2.4ghz extender so that we can log onto that unit and "avoid" the mesh for the Savant and other finicky units??  Will that work? 

IF so, does anyone have a recommendation for the best compatible extender?  Or router in bridge mode?

Hi  nathanbhoffman —

Welcome to the eero community and thanks for chiming in!

Sorry to hear you are experiencing trouble with your Savant remote. Savant, as well as other 2.4 Ghz devices, should have no issue working on eero and haven't been identified as incompatible.

If you haven't yet, I would recommend contacting our support team so we can take a look and provide any next steps. Feel free to give us a call at 1-877-659-2347 or email us at support@eero.com . A member of our team will be happy to help!

Just installed eero and if I can't separate the Frequencies, I'll likely bring it back. My issue is undoubtedly an eero issue. I don't think I'm roaming at all. I have two eeros wired (2nd floor south room/2nd floor North room) (2700sq ft home/square shaped) and one connected via wireless (1st floor center of home with open floor plan) and I'm constantly connected to the 2.4. This is an ideal placement configuration as I have no ceiling in my living room and it's mounted high up on the wall so it's basically in the center of two wired eeros (main router and 1 wired eero connected via cat6 about a 50ft homerun tested with a fluke networks nettool series II). I can only connect to the 5 if I'm standing right next to either of the two wired routers and it would require that I disconnect and reconnect to the corresponding network. The eero connected via wireless is giving me worse signal than my old tplink range extender which would cut my speed in half on the 5 and still give me 180-190 down. When connected to either wired eero's on the 5 I get 300 down. 

If it kept me on the "fastest" network instead of the "best signal"; it would be an excellent product, but without proper roaming capabilities, this option is simply for those consumers that don't know or care what speed they're connected at as long as it works. Since I pay for 300D/30U, certain devices only utilizing 60D/30U is unacceptable. 

If you feel I may have purchased a faulty product or if this behavior is not normal then please reply with a solution. I'm well within the grace period to exchange/return the product. 

I spent all day either on the phone or chatting online with tech support.  I have no more time for this. I can tell from this forum that the problem is not mkjy issue but the eero philoshy.l

I’m an Eero dealer and until this feature is implimented I will not be using Eero products anymore. We are having too many issues with other products, especially devices running  iOS 11 which favor the 5G band, to keep dealing with it. I love the idea of Eero, but the reality is the product doesn’t suit my needs as a professional installer  

I posted about my issue a few months ago and received no response. I've been watching complaint after complaint answered by a generic reply stating "it should work" or "we're not doing that"

I think its safe safe to say their support does not care as long as the majority of consumers purchase their product. 

I believe eero is one of the stronger solutions out there considering their shortcomings can be fixed with simple software updates, (DDNS, assigning a device to a specific eero, ETC) but eventually a product will be implemented likely by another manufacturer with a more robust solution and unfortunately eero will inevitably be left behind due to its lack of attention to consumers complaints/requests. 

On what basis do you grant a simple request to the user community? Do you need several thousand people requesting the same change? Aren't we helping you beat the competition and staying ahead of the game by adhering to these requests? Poor approach guys! 

I am actively looking for a replacement for eero.  The don't touch or look under the covers has worked in some fashion for Apple, but I do not support it.  I want an appliance that does what I need, not one that allows a manufacturer to tell me what I need and am allowed to do.  eero is actually already late with the implementation of a third channel for device control traffic, they will also be late with selective use of the channels within a mesh system.  The commerce arena is littered with companies that had a good idea but poor executionl

Rather than accomplishing the functionality people are looking for via separate ssids for 2.4 and 5ghz...  How about the ability to force a specific MAC address to only leverage one bandwidth or the other.  Call it a compatibility mode.  I think this could be a win for customers (at least a workaround) and not violate the principle of single SSID.