ivan006 You're totally right. On my previous mesh system, there was a "troubleshooting" area inside the app that ran a process exactly like that. For 5-10 minutes, the system would cycle through all available channels and decide on a better one. eero's troubleshooting feature seems to do nothing.

noobnoob-c137 -- I was primarily engaged on the Aironet and then Airespace solutions that Cisco acquired in 2005. Meraki wasn't acquired until 2012 and that's where the Wi-Fi mesh networking solutions came in. However, during the time I was deploying Cisco Wi-Fi solutions, I gained a ton of experience and knowledge in Wi-Fi analysis and interference detection and remediation. 

I'm totally fine with eero not allowing an admin to make changes -- however, if the product is going to prevent modifications to the channel selection, it has to be intelligent enough to select non-overlapping and non-congested channels. There are two primary reasons for this. One is to provide optimal throughput to the connected devices. And two is to prevent unnecessary interference to neighboring Wi-Fi and other RF comms operating in the same frequency range, as specified in the FCC requirements for the ISM spectrums. This is also backed up by all the IEEE 802.11 standards, which eero should be following to operate in 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and now 6GHz (for Wi-Fi 6E). 

My eero mesh APs aren't physically close together. They are separated by several walls and are on different floors. There's no way they should all be on the exact same channels nor should they be on the same channels my neighbors use, as you can see in the 2.4GHz screenshot. 

By making things worse, I mean that when I had my regular APs in place, I had them on non-congested and non-interfering channels and was able to get close to the GigE throughput I see when my laptop is directly connected to my Fiber Gateway switch port. I could easily get 800+Mbps (up and down) on iPhones and other wireless-connected devices. Now, I'm lucky if I can 400mbps down and 150Mbps up. Now, of course, these still aren't shabby numbers but I want the rest of my throughput. Who wouldn't?

I took a very detailed approach to moving my network devices off the old system I had in place to the eero solution. I did everything I could with eero to make sure the APs were well-placed, properly separated and also one-by-one moved the devices from the old APs and LAN to eero. I was super meticulous and thought everything through. I even started over when I realized I had no real admin control over using multiple SSIDs (like I used to) and channel selection. I had to completely rethink how I managed all the devices in the house because of the difference in the way that eero does things. 

I'm not saying the way eero works is bad or "wrong". I like that eero is taking a "less is more" approach and I actually embraced it. I'm just disappointed that how I expected things to settle down into non-overlapping channels and minimal interference to my neighbors is not the result I ended up with. And, I have no way to fix it. Bottomline, I really wanted the eero solution to work and intelligently pick the right channels and to be able to optimize for coverage and throughput. At this point, that's not the way it's working. 

BTW, I did do some additional research into Google Ring Pro (Wi-Fi 6E capable mesh APs) and customers are having more issues with these devices than they are having good results. Strangely, the comments from their customers mimic the comments from eero Pro 6E customers, just with different problems. So, at this point, I'm holding off considering them as a replacement. 

My hope is that eero (or Amazon) will listen to some of the user complaints and do something to address them and make everyone's deployments better. But, then again, I work for a software company now (VMware) and I know fixes can be a long time coming. I have until the end of Jan 2023 to make a decision though so I've got some time.

Joel

JoelBarrett the thread is six years old. Do you think it will be resolved by the end of January? 

JoelBarrett 

- Cool! That job sounded interesting.

- "it has to be intelligent enough to select non-overlapping and non-congested channels" Yea, I've seen this happen a lot too, but I think they automatically change channels over the course of hours/days. Most routers do this anyway. I'm not sure how smart the auto-channels actually are compared to any other brand.

- Point 1) "One is to provide optimal throughput to the connected devices...I'm lucky if I can 400mbps down and 150Mbps up". I don't think channel congestion is your issue here with that throughput. Every time I've seen heavy congestion, I'll still see near capped speeds, but it's just all over the place because of packet loss; almost like the connection goes in/out.

- Point 2) "prevent unnecessary interference to neighboring Wi-Fi..." If I have the option to do channel selection on installs I will, but almost always when I return onsite, a neighbors wifi will overlap because either they messed with it or likely their "Auto-Channel" selection is crappy and ends up overlapping. This is why I usually don't care too much about channel selection...stuff's gonna overlap eventually. And if your in an area where you don't really have overlaps, then even if it does overlap it won't really affect your performance, it means there are other variables (PC NIC updates, other interference, glitches, etc.)

- "...no real admin control over using multiple SSIDs (like I used to)" This is may not be to your liking, but have you seen the brand new Eero PoE models? Those have multiple SSIDs which is great! I have not played around with those models just yet.

As I'm sure you know, if you need reliable and long term performance you have to be hardwired, and that goes for any brand. For my use-case I don't need anything higher than gigabit, but I do transfer ISO images between PCs using an Eero Pro 6 and I do get near capped gigabit speeds (see screenshots).

I'm thinking that you either have some issue in configuring bridge mode, have a switch somewhere causing issues, have a Cat5 instead of Cat5e somewhere, or you got a defective eero unit (easy fix is to swap the gateway for another unit, and just add it as a new network so you don't lose any of your settings). If you have eero subscription, you can check the network activity and see when the APs change channel automatically.

swinster of course not. I meant that I personally have until the end of Jan 2023 to determine if I'm going to return the product. I chose this 6 year old thread because it was the only one that consistently tracked admin discontent with the issue I was having plus over the years, the messaging about the issue was commented on by many different admins showing various levels of how people tried to address it. Lots of people follow this thread too and I was hoping that people from eero would also be monitoring it. 

noobnoob-c137 This is good information. I intentionally chose the eero Pro 6E mesh APs because I did not want to run additional Cat6 drops. Since these mesh APs use 6GHz for backhaul, I felt like that would suffice to provide very high throughput, whether the associated devices were connected to an edge AP or the gateway AP. I will consider changing out the current gateway AP for one of the other ones and see if that makes things better -- thanks for that recommendation.

missileman - I have to say, I think I am going to go the way of Ubiquiti. Not having control of the Eero's is getting too restrictive, not just for channel selection but not having multiple SSIDs with VLANs as well. 

noobnoob-c137 it's good to see Eero finally get a PoE model, albeit you would have to sign up to become a custom installer. Without doing this, I have found very little in whether these devices support VLANs on their multiple SSIDs, but I suspect they will handle channel selection in the same way as the other devices. Either way, it would still mean getting rid of all current Eeros and replacing them with a new crop, at which point you might as well look at something perhaps more suitable. 

I would love to see current Eero support changes. However, most of the feature requests that have been made, which I would like to see implemented, are also around 5-6 years old, so I don't hold out much hope, which is a shame. 

rfischmann That's a bummer your going through that. If you have gone through all that trouble and tech support...you need to hardwire.

Please do your research before switching to another Mesh brand.

I've used many, but if your an advanced user, I doubt you will like the big G. Though they also kind of "just work" like eero does (they sometimes have glitches when setting up several at once, but just keep trying) And you MUST use their Google Home App which I'm not a big fan of when sharing with family members.

I don't recall if they have Channel selection either but they are not as powerful as the eero Pro, so you may need 1 more to compensate for your home's coverage.

Also, FYI never buy important or expensive tech products in another country if your planning on coming back to the states or need US support. Most if not all companies do not support foreign tech/warranty support.

And it actually does matter where you live, because there are different radio regulations for each country, and some that don't really regulate their products like the US.

Japan has Channel 12 for example.

Northern Mexico almost exclusively builds homes made of concrete which is very different from the US in terms of WiFi penetration/performance.

I've known a tech from Brazil who said their electricity current over there is not super stable and is common to cause issues with sensitive devices at times. 

And if you run a business, you have to always draw the line somewhere on support, warranty, etc.

rfischmann Hi, I am about to be in your situation soon. My Eero Pro 6 is arriving today in Canada but I will use it in Oman. Devices in Oman like in Europe cannot connect to high 5GHz channels like 149. But can only connect to low 5GHz channels like 36. I had this problem with my 3 pack Google Wifi US version, and I fixed it by buying one UK version Google Wifi and making it the main router. That forced my other points to switch to the low 5GHz channels.

Your Eero Pro 6 should have two 5GHz bands. One broadcasting at the low channels and the other at the high channels so I am surprised that's not the case for you. Can you confirm?