110Separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5.0 band
I work for an integration company and have installed eeros in at least 15 houses, but it seems I have to pull at least half of them. Savant Pro handheld remotes require a stand alone 2.4 SSID. When the SSID is a 2.4 and 5.0 mixed band, the remotes fall offline regularly. Since most of my clients are Savant users, they cannot be eero users until this feature is added.
Thanks for the time.
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I’ve had fantastic results with Luxul and Araknis. Both are pricier, and require at least a Cat5e connection, but they work plain and simple.
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Hi folks -- thanks for your posts here. Almost all of these cases sound like an issue with how a client is making decisions about joining a WiFi network. If you split the SSID then you'll likely have a poor experience with the most bandwidth intensive and mobile clients in your home -- like phones, laptops, and tablets.
We have a number of tools at our disposal to look into the issue. What would be helpful is the client MAC address, network name, and exact time there is an issue. We can then pull up the logs and see if there's some other interoperability problem lurking under the surface that we can fix.
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And one quick note, at least when it comes to Savant, I have the pro remote at home and its never had any issues. So again, with more details and the community's help, we should be able to resolve this.
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weaves There are other reasons to separate these. The best reviewed baby monitor on Amazon (Infant Optics SXR-8) communicates on the 2.4GHz band (but not WiFi), as do many other baby monitors. Being unable to force phones and other devices onto 5GHz means that they clobber the monitor signal and vice versa. My wife and I regularly disable WiFi on our phones at home because it causes the monitor to cut out. Our Roku regularly ceases streaming smoothly when the baby camera and monitor are turned on.
It might be the case that this is really a client issue and my phone and the Roku and every other device should notice that the 2.4GHz band is noisy/crowded and choose 5GHz, but they consistently don’t. I’m typing this from a vacation rental with a separate 5GHz SSID and it’s amazing that I can do this, over WiFi, while also listening to the monitor and both just work. This is enough of a quality of life issue that I’m contemplating replacing the Eeros with something else when I get home.
I’d be willing to run cabling to my eeros if that were a requirement for separate SSIDs (in the case this caused mesh problems). It’d be a lot easier to run cable to the 3 Eeros than to every other device (especially since some, like the phones, cannot be wired).
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weaves agree with your assessment that most of these issues are related to poor client network discovery / selection implementations. There are a number of ways for an AP to do band steering, or client steering, or whatever you want to call it, to allow the AP to help bad client algos not mandate a bad Wi-Fi experience. Based on your marketing I thought that was what your product was about. Did I misunderstand what your secret sauce is?
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weaves I agree, one thing I like about Eero is one SSID for both. Using bandwidth steering pushes my devices to the correct band.
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weaves
Split - or the option to split - SSIDs is essential.
One very simple example: many IoT devices are only running on 2.4 GHz, are requiring a device for its setup (think iPhone or iPad) and you HAVE to be on a 2.4 GHZ network in order to perform and complete setup.The crux is that when using the same SSID for both networks, there is NO WAY to tell from the iOS device what network you are connected to. So sure, one can say that it is an Apple issue, but EVERY WiFi product out there (and to be honest; most every WiFi AccessPoint or Router works just as well as eero when it comes to RF performance - at a far lower cost) will allow for a unique SSID for each network.
As an integrator, I sadly cannot recommend a product that does not offer simple and basic features to my clients. In today's case we will have to simple shut down the 5 GHz network in order to connect the IoT devices, but will discuss with them other options.
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weaves
This thread is over a year old and still no resolution. I have a bunch of IoT devices that are now junk.
I don't understand why you can't comprehend this problem. Nearly all cameras, plugs, etc. are 2.4ghz devices and you MUST connect your phone to the same band in order to set them up.
Can I send you the bill for all my pile of now worthless devices?
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weaves What would be helpful is a simple switch to say "Use 2.4 only for this device" instead of making us telephone support like it's 1983!
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southbayandroid I don’t know when it was added but you can pause the 5GHz network for 15 min now. This is specifically so you can setup 2.4GHz only devices.
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QuarterSwede Yeah, thats been in place for the better part of a year now - but its still not as good as being able to disable 5G long-term, unfortunately.
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QuarterSwede this method "works," except every time the power flickers I have to pause the 5 ghz network and reset EACH individual 2.4 ghz only smart gadget (plug, lights, switches..) so it connects properly. it's super freaking tedious.
this system is only good for newbie users with no smart home gadgets and a weird layout to their house. so my parents in their weird old house with walls filled with metal.
at this point I feel like the eero people on here are trolling us. It's like a builder permanently installed baby gates all over your house and you complain that don't have babies and the gates keep getting stuck and hitting you in the nuts and the builder just keeps repeating at you what a great safety feature they are.
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southbayandroid
I have the same issue and can not believe 2023 eero still can’t figure out how to give us the users the ability to toggle between 2GHZ and 5GHZ
I recently tried T-Mobile new Home WiFi and it’s router has that capability and just like that my issue has finally been resolved and I’m selling my eero routers now!
Good luck hopefully someone from eero can help y’all out
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No, this is an issue of you guys not giving your users and dealers enough control over your product. The ability to create multiple SSID’s would solve this. Have one that used both 2.4 and 5, and give us the ability to make a separate 2.4 or a separate 5G network if we need to.
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Ubiquiti Amplifi HD has more range than eero, more speed, has a separate channel for bonding with the mesh units, is competitive in price and allows users to split 2.4 and 5 ghz if needed, While eero employees have gone out of their way to prove that the customer is not always right, the competition has passed you. eero gets no pats on the back for adhering to the company song; but rather a more forceful adjustment should be applied to their collective posteriors.
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Has anyone else noticed issues with iOS 11 favoring 5G and not handing off to 2.4 when needed? I have some customers we installed a system for over the summer and everything was great until they upgraded.
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Also adding my request for this feature. I'm in the same room as my eero gateway, sitting right next to it, and sometimes it just sticks on the 2.4 GHz band unless I turn my laptop's WIFI on and off. It's noticeably slower. I wish I could have a separate 5G only network.
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Another example of an accessory that needs specific access to 2.4 GHz band for both the device and an iPhone with a configuration app is the Yi Home Camera. The camera is capable of 2.4 only, but the iPhone with iOS 11 now goes automatically to 5G, and configuration fails because they both need to be on the same network/band. We cannot change the world, but a temporary option to configure this device by forcing the Eero network into 2.4 GHz band-only for a period of time would solve the problem. After configuration, we could go back to normal mesh mode. We need this option.
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ribozyme
If needed for configuration only a hack is to change name of eero network temporarily i.e. "HomeX" from "Home" and then take your phone in airplane mode and connect to HomeX and then turn it into a 2.4 ghz only hot spot named "Home". Configure your device and then turn off the hotspot and rename your eero network back from HomeX to Home.
Note that every device on your network will start connecting through your phone. So airplane mode will control it to stay on wifi.
Of course this could be done if eero provided the same capability to offer a 2.4ghz only bridge with as simple of a setup as their guest network.
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eero, you're wrong here. Customers deserve the ability to have separate SSIDs for each band. Please come down from the ivory tower and listen to the reality that your customers are dealing with.
I bought a 3 pack system for my parents. The 2.4 GHz band is highly saturated in their location due to neighboring Wi-Fi networks. I can see at least a dozen of them. However they have a couple of devices that need 2.4 GHz (printer, Kindle). They already have ethernet runs to each eero unit so they don't need 2.4 GHz for backhaul. What they need is the ability to isolate their devices such that their Macs, iPhones, and iPads only join 5 GHz and the legacy devices join 2.4 GHz.
iOS devices are notorious for preferring 2.4 GHz over 5 GHz when it shouldn't, particularly when both bands share the same SSID. That's because it scans the 2.4 GHz channels first (before 5 GHz) and because 2.4 GHz signals are likely to be stronger through walls due to the longer wavelength. If you've ever attended WWDC you'd notice that they always have 2 SSIDs, one fast, one slow. Apple knows this and they design networks accordingly. They have sold over a billion more devices than you, please cater to the way their products work, not the way you wish they worked.
2.4GHz is for cooking. We deserve the ability to control which of our devices us it. Please listen to us.If I had known that eero didn't support this I would have bought Google Wifi instead.
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dps281 —
Thanks for the feedback. The issue with separating the bands is that this then affects roaming as well as simplicity with having devices on the network.
With a single SSID that handles both the 2.4 and 5 GHz radios, devices are able to seamlessly move throughout the home without having to manually change networks each time a device falls out of range of 5 GHz.
I'm happy to share this feedback with our team, and while I don't have any updates to share today, I'll be sure to share anything should this change.
As for the other product mentioned, they only offer a single SSID as well.
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Jeff C. You're missing the point. Our devices should never roam onto 2.4 GHz, period. The whole point of buying a mesh system with multiple APs is to avoid the need for 2.4 GHz at all. Your system shouldn't be roaming to 2.4. 2.4 is saturated in any urban area and needs to be used solely for legacy devices that required.
Repeat after me, 2.4 GHz is for cooking, not Wi-Fi. Friends don't let friends roam on 2.4. eero, please be our friend.
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@Jeff C.
How about an option to force any 5Ghz-capable device to *only* connect to the 5Ghz band. I understand you want the flexibility to allow the use of 2.4Ghz if you fall out of range of 5Ghz, and this could remain the default behaviour but for those of us with enough Eeros to provide 5Ghz throughout the property this would be a nice option to have.
Sadly my Eeros stopped working after one of your recent updates (I posted elsewhere, but basically bridged DHCP has broken) so I'm not sure if I'm a customer anymore, but after replacing my Eeros with DrayTek APs I found that I have a much improved experience by separating my SSIDs into 2.4 and 5Ghz bands and making my 5Ghz devices forget the 2.4 Ghz network and therefore only connect to 5Ghz. Only items that require 2.4Ghz (Harmony Hub, Y-Cam, pretty much nothing else) now connect to 2.4Ghz. Speeds are so much better than I was getting on Eero in the exact same house, with the DrayTek APs located in the exact same positions as the Eeros.
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Jeff C. I agree more control doesn't mean better performance. Sometimes you just need to let go of the control. I like Eeros opinionated stance here. Stay strong.
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Jeff C.
For devices that will never roam, lights, doorbells, sensors all that may have some problem that makes them eligible to be added to your incompatible with eero list and by that nature very unlikely to have any updates from their manufacturer... does it make sense to just keep growing a list or to add a block of ip addresses that can be served to a 2.4ghz only portion of the network with a hidden said And make eero more compatible with more devices perhaps only to users who venture into advanced, eero labs territory?
No more need to keep a list, and continue to defend a philosophy against people who have products they own but cannot configure and maintain connected to their Network.
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I have eeros and I had an issue with connecting my wifi switches. I found a workaround. I went and got an old moto-g phone that is only 2.4gHz. When I install or add a device that requires connection only to 2.4 I run the app on my 2.4 phone. When the device is installed my phone connects the device to eeros at 2.4gHz and from then on it is okay. The issue really seems that the devices do not negotiate eeros 2.4 or 5.0 system adequately. eeros runs very well otherwise, and I consistently get 352mbps throughout my 3000 sq foot home, but there are other devices that allow more flexibility, more speed and range at lower cost. Don't upgrade your eeros, REPLACE them. I know I will. I got absolutely no help from eeros and I finally thought tht my issue did not surface until I upgraded my phone. It negotiates between 5.0 and 2.4 but is always on 5.0, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, it has the same insane ideology issue as eeros, I can't tell it to connect at 2.4 only when I am trying to connect a second generation device like my wifi switches.
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dps281 ... You said above "The whole point of buying a mesh system with multiple APs is to avoid the need for 2.4 GHz at all." I have NEVER see any documentation to that sort. Please provide a source from an industry publication (not an amature blog) or a manufacture that states this... The point of a mesh from what I understand is to get whole home coverage on both 2.4 and 5.0, and you let the devices switch as they need. The iPhone X does this very well, and you can see this in the eero app.
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zubinanary
Me as well have zero issues with 2.4 GHz and, with multiple SSIDs for each of the 4 APs I have in my house - and each frequency (resulting in a total of 9 SSIDs if counting the guest network) - I zero issues. I like to know where and "what" I am connected to.
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2.4 and 5.0 bands serve different purposes and have different design considerations. That leads me to posit two responses
Jeff C. A restatement of the obvious is not a solution. Other mesh vendors have provided solutions that are workable. eeros should do the same or lose market share; and employees, if that makes this personal to you.
It is both obvious and banal that if we identify a 2.4 and a 5.0 and a mesh SSID, devices that are limited to one or the other frequencies are going to be impacted by both the benefits and the limitations of that frequency. The user will need to chose distance coverage or speed. That negates some of the advantages of eero however, with three eeros, I do not see much impact anyway regardless of the frequency and if such decisions meant a need for another eero or a version 2, that would be justifiable.
In my early days as a programmer, we did not speak to our customers, only to our system analysts. The customer really only got what we deemed he or she needed. Over the decades that attitude changed for the better. The customer became king and IT made everyone more capable . Frankly, I'll be damned if I let some young, arrogant, whippersnapper, tell me, 30 years later; that they know what I should do; and refuse to offer what their competitors already do. I am an early adopter and an influencer. Watch your 6.
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dps281 You ignorant, arrogant twit!! You cite an opinion as if gospel fact. You obviously know nothing about why we have these two frequencies, yet you dare to tell everyone on the forum what they should or should not do, as if the choice were a sin.
Humble yourself, and learn. Then speak.
My 2 cents worth, I mean no insult to either twits nor arrogant egoists in general, and you may have been misunderstood.
#MAGA
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Hi everyone -
We greatly appreciate the feedback here. This community is designed so customers like you can share your candid feedback with our team on how we can further improve eero.
We as a company strive to be as transparent as possible so customers can make the best decision for their needs. For this feature in particular, it has been marked as “Not Planned” since it was first posted, and that’s due to how eero is designed to work.
As a team, we track and continue to evaluate future features and improvements based on feedback and how a request fits the current product and roadmap. Not everything is going to be the right fit, but our team works to think of ways to improve the experience based on any feedback.
If having separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 GHz is a requirement for your network, we understand if eero isn’t the right fit for your current needs.
Last thing I’d like to mention is that everyone here is free to express themselves and share their feedback. However, if you do wish to post and interact with the community, it is required that you follow our community guidelines:
https://community.eero.com/t/638a33/eero-community-guidelines
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I have a Broadlink Mini 3 that will only setup on a 2.4 network. Their app detects a 5.0 signal and I can't go any further to setup the Broadlink. A 2.4 ssid is needed. UNLESS there is another way.
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If you are within the return period for your eero devices return it and google 'multi SSID mesh systems', there are a number that do what you desire. eero is not the technology leader and they are certainly not a price leader, so I believe that it is time for their market share to disappear, much like their responsiveness to user concerns has done.
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I have 5 eero gen2's, and had I known about all the issues with 2.4ghz only devices, I wouldn't of invested the kind of money I did with eero. I have 6 ip cameras that I can no longer use wirelessly because although there use both 2.4 and 5ghz, they can only use 2.4ghz to connect initially. Also had to return 4 wyze cams because they were not able to connect.
I has switched over to eero from orbi because of network stability. Now it seems like I left one issue for another ( maybe even worse) issue. By the way, the cameras had no issue connecting to the orbi system.
I tried eero support for help, and they blamed the cameras. Hate to lose money, but I may have to move on from eero and give orbi another try.
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Pcheb76 Sorry to hear you've had such a frustrating experience with those WyzeCams. While 2.4GHz devices can sometimes be a little more frustrating to set up initially, once connected the eero will offer them the same consistency in connection as all devices. WyzeCams, for better or worse, are no exception, but I'd like to assure you that there aren't any known compatibility problems with eero at this time.
If you'd like to shoot an email to support@eero.com with "Community" in the subject line, I'd be happy to take a look at the network and offer any assistance I can, or answer any questions or concerns you may have. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback and experience with us, and we're glad to have you here on the Community Forums!
Kindly,
Drew, eero Community Team -
Drew The problem is not the cameras. The problem is there is no way to force you phone onto the 2.4ghz band so you can set up the cameras.
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Thanks for sharing your concerns, southbayandroid – as it happens, our support team is able to temporarily disable 5GHz for you to set up devices if you're not having success with your device setup. Due to the fundamental nature of how we've designed the mesh, we still don't have any plans to implement a dedicated feature that splits these frequencies into separate SSIDs or otherwise, but we can offer this temporary measure to any customer that contacts us to request it.
Please give us a call when you have a few minutes set aside to configure those devices, and we'd be happy to make sure that your devices successfully join the network before reenabling full network functionality. We hope to hear from you soon!
Kindly,
Drew, eero Community Team
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Hi Eero peoples. I’ve read the thread. I’d like to tally a vote for the ability to lock a device to a particular band e.g. create a profile for 2.4 only and assign a device to that profile.
Here is my use case: I have 3 Apple Airport Express units I use for music distribution around my home and detached garage. The detached garage is at the edge of 5GHz coverage resulting in the connection using 802.11a 12 Mbps rate. At this rate the airtime used even to stream audio is substantial resulting in degraded performance for other devices while streaming music to the garage.
The ability to force the garage Airport Express unit to 2.4 GHz would A) likely improve the link quality and allow an MCS or two higher connection and B) move the airtime usage off the 5GHz band saving resources for my other devices.
Pretty sure a probe response blacklist is a feasible solution for a single SSID setup.
Also, for a premium priced product, the level of diagnostic info you give access too is lacking. The ability to see MCS per client (avg, median, a histogram!) or airtime usage per channel/radio, or uplink Rx power per client... anything PHY related would be helpful. And I know for a fact Brcm chipsets have APIs and/or SNMP and/or /proc/blah access to all that stuff, so... just expose it please?!?!
Want to like your product, but it’s getting harder the longer you push back on
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Koogeek light doesn’t connect. Probably same issue as noted frequently in this thread. Sure would appreciate help.
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I'm new to eero (w/limited and just enough IT experience to be dangerous) having gone all in thanks to my son also all in w/eero. Everything works fine for me EXCEPT Facetime on my old mac mini recently bought used a late 2009 model expressly to facetime on my Sony 40"TV with a logitech hard wired cam; nice to see long distance x-country my new grandson bigger than life<g> It seems there is a frequently commented known issue with dual banding on Apple with wifi (10.11.x OSx in my case).
Maybe too much info here but it seems I'll need a workaround as I cant assign a static frequency to my mac mini MAC ID which is stationary and <8' from a eero gen2; per this thread full of impressive pro's opinions.
So advise please:
1. Resurrect my tplink and name the 2.4 or 5.0 band specific/different than my eero network; log my mac mini just to that tp-link UID?
2. Just shut down the 2.4 incoming/output from the Arris modem to Comcast? Plenty of coverage with household eero network <eg (2)gen2; (1) beacon & (1) gen1> with very nice 60%-70% of max service via Comcast @250mbs capacity.
Thanks in advance
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I've discovered there is an issue between able and wifi connections and found a solution for OS X 10.11.x
http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/16/fix-wi-fi-problems-mac-os-x-el-capitan/
Explains new settings and DNS to apply for this issue. FYI
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Eero is one of the most expensive, if not THE most expensive, Wifi offering out there. Why are basic features such as multiple SSIDs (not just a single "guest network"), hiding SSIDs, enabling/disabling radios, QoS, basic firewall (and many other things I can't think of at the moment) not available? I would also expect the most expensive platform on the market to allow advanced configurations such as VLANs, URL Filtering etc. as well. I also think it's absolutely preposterous that this company has the gall to charge a separate subscription fee for basic security features that are included on most cheap routers.
I reluctantly switched to a "wifi mesh" solution because we moved to a 3 story house and a single Wifi Router wasn't cutting it. When I researched all of the "wifi mesh" solutions out there, Eero seemed to be the best fit. Now that I know that Eero treats their customers like Apple Users (dumb everything down and do not allow any control whatsoever of your own equipment), I really wish I would have went with a different solution.
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Thanks so much for sharing your feedback, jschro, we absolutely appreciate your point of view and insights here. There's quite a lot of features mentioned here, so I'd like to take a minute to clarify a lot of the functionality of the eero and hopefully give you some insight into the product!
To start with, I'm happy to confirm that eero already has a built-in firewall, as well as QoS in the form of the 802.1p standard priority system. We've also recently implemented our Smart Queue Management feature, which will help balance the bandwidth usage across your whole network and prevent any one device from siphoning speed to the detriment of other devices on the network.
While many of the other features mentioned are currently under consideration (and in fact have their own threads elsewhere here in the Community), I'd also like to state that hidden SSID is a feature we specifically don't plan to implement – it doesn't have any security benefit to a residential user, and in the worst case can lead to user devices making themselves more vulnerable to malicious actors.
Finally, I'd like to just offer a little insight into our guiding philosophy, and our intentions with the eero system itself. You're absolutely right that compared to other router systems, the eero has noticeably less granularity, with fewer knobs and dials to play with in the advanced features. This is absolutely by design – we believe that creating a system that sets reasonable and useful defaults for a majority of residential users leads to a more stable, reliable and enjoyable WiFi experience. A lot of our efforts are also focused on behind-the-scenes work, which often doesn't come with a corresponding user-facing toggle – our core value is that eero is a product that continues to get better over time, and that's what we're committed to.
That said, we can absolutely understand that what our users have in mind for "getting better" is not going to be 100% aligned with everything we do, which is the entire point of this Community! We love to hear the things that we can improve on, and the things that our users want to see in the product – hearing what makes a feature valuable to a user is what's most useful to us. And for users who aren't having their needs met by eero, we have a solution for that as well in the form of bridge mode. You can have all the features and toggles you want on a router that meets your needs, and then bridge the eeros behind that router to make sure you're getting the sort of reliable, whole-home WiFi that a standalone router can't match.
Thanks again so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with us, and let me be the first to welcome you to the Community! We're super glad to have you, and we eagerly await hearing any additional thoughts and feedback you have!
Kindly,
Drew, eero Community Team
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Hi Drew, thank you for the prompt response. I actually have an old TP-Link C5400 I'm going to connect to this with Eero in bridged mode and see how it works. I'm glad to hear that Eero strives to improve the product, but I wish a lot of these basic features were readily available now...especially at this price point.
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I have a Victor smart kill that troubleshoots to only 2.4 only as well and not auto connecting. Is there a simple way I can bridge anothe 2.4 router to eero and set up for this note with limited IT knowledge....
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I have an x10 Wi-Fi interface for smart home control that has to be connected via 2.4GHz. Is there a way to do that? I've read eero's arguments on enabling seamless transitions as one walks about the house, but how about a device that just sits in one place and must connect via 2.4GHz?
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Need the capability to turn off 5ghz to setup smart switches that only support 2.4. They work fine once setup, but their Setup routine will not work if 5ghz is present. Being able to set the Guest Network to 2.4 would be perfect!
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bitzerjdb You can call support, they have the ability to help you with that.
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txgunlover what’s the trick because they tell me they can only do this on the main network and not guest, and only for a temporary short period for troubleshooting. Any tips?
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bitzerjdb I want to do that same, were you able to set guest only to 2.4ghz?
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Tigerflakes They can only do it on the main network, and only temporarily to set up your device. As an alternative, use an old phone or tablet that only supports 2.4ghz and you'll be able to set up your new device fine.
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