Eero iPhone Connectivity Issues
Hello,
I have not yet purchased an Eero system yet; I am in the research stages deciding between Google Wifi, Orbi, Luma, Unify mesh, Amplifi, and Velop.
I have seen many reviews and threads in forums in regards to Apple IOS devices failing to 'roam' between APs, or randomly dropping connections, or staying connected to the furthest AP rather than switching to the closest one.
A couple years back I set up a $1000 Cisco Meraki AP for my home network. After countless issue with our iPhones and iPads not being able to connect, not seeing the SSIDs, and randomly dropping connections I switched back to my $100 Asus router, which has superior performance (for Apple devices) to the enterprise grade AP. I am looking for a modern WiFi solution to power all of our devices, including many Apple devices.
In any case, it seams Apple devices always have issues with WiFi, I am looking for a solid solution to this, I thought Eero was the winner until I started reading it also has the same issues with Apple. I have read that people have open cases with Eero regarding this, but it's still a known issue.
At my office we have a ton of Enterprise Cisco APs, in which iPhones can seamlessly roam between without loosing a video call. Obviously at the price point of Eero we cannot expect enterprise grade features, but I am looking for some input if others are having this issue with their iPhones on Eero, and what support / development teams are doing to solve this issue?
One other item of interest is outdoor WiFi coverage. With other mesh WiFi options on the market; outdoor weather resistant APs are offered. Does Eero have any intentions or future plans to offer the addition of outdoor APs to the mesh network?
Thanks in advance.
252 replies
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In case there was any question about Eero's commitment to resolving this issue, I think that can be put to rest: I just wrapped up an in-house visit by Eero's CEO and CTO (or a Saturday) during which we worked on this issue.
They brought some network monitoring kit and we coordinated with an engineer back at the office to synchronize network L2 packet captures and on-device logging. Murphy was in full effect for the first 40 minutes, but eventually we were able to reproduce the issue and they saw it with their own eyes. We had good captures that their engineering team will be able to analyze and share with Apple.
In those first 40 minutes, I got to dig into what is going on and how they are handling this incident. It is clear they are very aware of the problem and have committed much of their engineering resources to solve it. As we had predicted in this thread, the leading theory is that this is a result of 802.11r FT (fast transition), which I have come to learn is one of those fairly loosely defined standards. It turns out eero is really trying to get this to work, but there are issues with interoperability. To that end, Apple may be just as much to blame for problems given their implementation of FT on iOS.
I also learned that with FT, the device will attempt to re-associate/authenticate with the network far more frequently than when it is disabled, even when the device is not physically moving. Since eeros have multiple radios (2 per beacon) the device will actually negotiate a handoff between 2.4GHz and 5GHz intra-beacon/AP. If that doesn't work right (e.g. fails to "roam" from one radio to the other), then you end up disconnected. The issue is compounded if you are in an area with overlapping beacon/AP coverage.
The eero team seems very committed to getting FT working, whereas they claim other mesh vendors appear to have given up on it. That is a tough call: eero wants to build a next-generation home Wi-Fi network which involves trailblazing some pretty uncharted territory, creating some aggravated customers and poor product perception in the process.
I think the bottom line is that if eero were not a startup with people that are clearly scrappy and hungry to build a successful business and killer product, I would cut my losses now. However, my read of these guys is that they have the grit to figure it out, it is only a matter of when they nail it.
Personally I am energized to help them out as I – along with everyone else on this thread – have an opportunity to be part of this innovation. That said, they do have to think about what to do for those that run into problems and don't share my/our same enthusiasm and will return the product instead.
Next steps: today's capture should help a lot with helping to diagnose what is going on and I'm sure there will be another software update in time. As a community, let's keep providing feedback and hopefully they resolve this issue for good sooner than later.
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Why is this nestcam trying to connect to the AP at the other side of the house? The main wired AP is way closer! Not sure what’s happening here. Can’t watch a movie on my Apple TV without buffering either. Oh! Then my son says,” Dad! My Phone (6s iOS11) won’t connect to the internet!”
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Same issue here WiFi shows connected on an iPhone but its not connected and I have to toggle the WiFi on and off to fix it, very annoying
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Jumping in to simply state that although I've been lurking here for a while, I've been experiencing the same issues since purchasing my 3 eero system a couple months ago.
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Update from my end: the eero team disabled FT on my network yesterday around 4pm PST (about 26 hours ago) and since then I have had a 0% failure rate. Literally not a single drop. So the problem is clearly with FT, or something related to whatever was turned off.
rtlee You said you have FT disabled on your network as well. Did this resolve the issue for you as well?
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I logged a support ticket a few days ago with this problem and requested the 3.4.0 test build firmware which I got pushed to me yesterday. Now, as of tonight, my iPhone 7 Plus (iOS 11.0) internet connections no longer seem to be hanging.
I have been walking through the house with streaming audio in the background, running speed tests with Wi-Fi Sweetspots and Ookla Speedest with excellent connection speeds and throughput everywhere. Looking at which eero BSSID I'm connected to with Net Analyzer I now see smooth handoffs between my 4 eeros as I walk from room to room, mostly switching between the 5GHz BSSID networks.
I saw only one quick drop to LTE for a couple of seconds before reconnecting back to wifi when I was in a closet furthest between two eeros with most walls in between. Also, in one room with the relatively weakest signal strength, the phone switched to the closest eero's 2.4GHz BSSID and hung onto that eero at 2.4GHz throughout the house, slowing speed tests down, but still staying connected. At some point it got back on to 5GHz where it's stayed all night.
So, looking really promising now. Seeing no issues on MacBook Air (El Cap) or MacBook Pro TouchBar (Sierra) either, when walking around both are switching at -75dBm to a closer AP.
Thanks eero team for working the problem. :thumbsup:
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So somehow the threading of responses led to me missing the official response from Jeff C. and asking unnecessary questions. The solution doesn’t come from a firmware update but via a cloud based eero setting so individual users don’t need to do anything.
I can confirm that for the last 5 hours, I’ve had no drops. That’s a huge change as my connection was dropping every few seconds. I hope this is it- have had previous brief moments of stability.
Many thanks for the work on this update.
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Well, I had a typical lock-up this morning around 7:58am PDT. It's the same symptoms:
1. I move from one side of the house to the other.
2. The Wifi indicator shows a weakened signal, even though I'm a few yards from an eero
3. Indicator switches to LTE, then to full-strength WiFi.
4. Internet connection dead. Toggling off/on restores connection
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For the most part things are better. I've had only a couple of instances where the eero app would show that it couldn't connect to the internet, but resolved itself within half a minute. But majority (90%) of the time it transitions from one eero node to another. My three eero pro (2nd gen) are hardwired.
On another note, Apple just released an update to iOS 11...11.0.1. They only state it fixes bugs. So here's to the update helping with FT and battery life on iOS 11!!
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I didn't ever have the issues with my iPhones getting disconnected as others, but frequently had slow speeds on the 5 GHz band. I'm not sure if it's the fact I've moved to the iPhone 8 or the changes, but the better speeds are much more consistent. Two Questions: What speed should I realistically get on my iPhone I'm currently seeing 180-200 megs down, and 150 up? My connection is 1 Gig Symmetrical Fiber Circuit. Interestingly the router's speed test on the WAN only registers 800/300 megs, but the ISP has certified that 1 Gig is being delivered.
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I've been home for two hours, and have been on my iPhone 7+ on iOS 11 non-stop, while running around my house. Zero drops, which is remarkable, as I've needed to toggle off wifi every couple of minutes, even while totally stationary. I'm seeing smooth handoffs and am seeing consistent speeds too.
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Whatever update was done seems to have made a noticeable improvement to the commonly discussed issue here - roaming with an iOS device - but now caused another problem.
I have a set of devices with reserved IP addresses because they are part of a media room remote. Since the update the remote's ability to communicate with some of the devices seems to stop/start for no reason. My remote (iRule on an iPad) has a indictor that shows it's current connection to all of the devices and starting yesterday it was wholly unstable.
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It seems to me the update to 3.4.0-442 has my iPhone holding on to a signal further away from eero, but for the most part it does transition to another eero. While most of the time my iPhone is unaffected, there have been a handful of instances where having the eero app open and watching my iPhone change from one eero to another, there is a moment where the app says the internet is unavailable. it does not happen every time, like I said most of the time it transitions fine, albeit it appears slow. So ST? (slow transition) :-o
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I'm now on 3.4.0-442 and since the "configuration change" that was pushed to our networks, my problems have pretty much disappeared. I am now able to walk around my house while streaming video on my iPhone 7 running iOS 11, and the video continues to stream, transitioning from one Eero node to the next seamlessly, without any blips or hiccups.
We'll see if this continues, but I'm cautiously optimistic that my best home Wi-Fi network ever is back is business. Thanks for all of your hard work, Eero, and thanks to Jeff C. and weaves for their participation in the community.
🎉
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3.4.0-442 appears to have mitigated the issue. I have not done any hardcore testing yet, but I have not had a lock-up today. That alone is a significant improvement!
Feeling optimistic!
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