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Band Steering

I recently saw a post in the /r that I thought I would post about here as I thought I was the only one that would care about this. Though I do like the simplicity of Eero for my parents, having 1 network has caused me problems. When I'm on my phone and I am playing something, streaming, downloading or just generally using it, I really don't care whether I get my full 300Mbps or if I get 60Mbps (lower I start caring as I can notice it). So if I happen to get dumped to the 2.4Ghz for some reason it doesn't bother me too often. On my laptop however, it has been a problem a few times. Turning on airplane mode and then off again has fixed my issues in the past, that's fine, but I was curious if this wouldn't be better addressed in software.

I think it would be great if 2 things happened.

1 - Give me the option to remove the band steering option from some devices that I don't ever want dumping down to 2.4. In my area there are so many 2.4Ghz networks that this has yet to ever yield a performance strong enough to warrant switching from 5. Maybe provide some feedback in the app stating, "this device may benefit from enabling band steering" if I'm frequently using a device that has an extremely weak 5Ghz signal

2 - Maybe there needs to be an ability to let the user decide on the steering logic. Let us increase or decrease this threshold so that we can decide to try and stay on the 5Ghz band longer. I've done testing with my old router on this and I'm curious on whether a 35% signal strength from the 5Ghz band isn't still faster than a full strength 2.4Ghz signal. I understand that more things than just throughput are affected by a low signal strength but on my laptop it doesn't appear to be a net positive (in my real world scenario I was comparing a 35% 5Ghz to a 75% 2.4Ghz). My experiment wasn't 100% scientific but the results may still have merit.

12 replies

    • kchoi
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I just setup my Eero last night and I noticed that some of my devices at connected to 2.4Ghz even though they are capable of 5Ghz.  I placed an Eero in my room and it is less than 5 feet from my computer and it is connected at 2.4Ghz.  When I do a speed test I am getting around 34Mbps on 2.4 Ghz vs 59Mbps on the 5Ghz band.  I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the WiFi on my computer, but it keeps putting me back in 2.4Ghz band.  I have other devices in the same room that is connected to the 5Ghz band.  I wish there was some way to override the default band that I want to use for each device. 

    • FuzzyG
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    You should be able to control this in your wifi card software. Have you thought of a cable between the pc and eero? 

    • gary96
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Same thing here. I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 and it seems to always connect at 2.4ghz. There really needs to be some sort of way for a user to set the threshold before connecting to 2.4ghz away from 5ghz. At the very least an option to set that a device to only connect at 5ghz.

    While I understand that Eero is trying to simply setting up wifi in the home, it shouldn't come at the expense of performance.

    I'm literally 4 feet from an access point and my phone is connected at 2.4ghz. Not just the phone, also my table and laptop too.

    With that being said, each access point is hard wired. My house is newer (built in 2014) and it's wired for CAT6.

    Kind of disappointed so far, especially at the $500 price paid.

    • FuzzyG
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I know it's not a fix, but I force my 5Ghz devices to only use 5Ghz 

    • dmbtjclark
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have the same question.. I am literally comparing the Google Wifi to the eero. The Google Wifi setup in my house grabs the 5Ghz on my Galaxy S7 Edge right away... The error is stuck at 2.4. I am trying to determine which Mesh to keep in my house. The other one goes back.

    So far I like the eero from a distance between nodes. Better performance in the farthest node than the Google Wifi. However, when sitting 4-6 feet away from a node, I can get 5GHz on a laptop, but only 2.4GHz on my phone.

    • Sheldonhills
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    My issue is with iAqualink disconnecting from eero. It connects on a guest network but seems to come and go even with a 4 bar signal strength. Without the guest network it wouldn’t connect at all. When it connects on guest it does it at 2.4. I think the eero may be trying to steer it to 5.0. Would be nice to be able to force it to stay at 2.4 for that specific device!

    • Younger
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I’ve had my eero pro for about a week and can’t get iAquaLink to come online at all. Eero Ap shows connection at 2.4 but no luck. Frustrating...tried rebooting several times and tech support told me to try iAquaLink.

      • Da4Cramers
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Younger I just set up a new iAqualink and I had to use my guest network, that is the only thing that worked.  I also had to set it up using my Ipad, my Samsung Galaxy s10 just would not set it up correctly.  Once I figured that out it set up quickly.  Good luck.  

    • Enthusiast
    • thatsthequy
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    The client makes the decision on what band it connects to, eero can only encourage it to use 5Ghz when "Band Steering" is enabled. 

    If your laptop is falling off 5Ghz, its because it is deciding the singnal is too low. Maybe try rearranging your eeros so the nodes are closer to where you frequently use your laptop?

    • Sanman66
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have the ring doorbell pro and the live view will take a long time to activate with it in. As soon as I turned it off it was responding normally.  Needs to be addressed 

      • Sheldonhills
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Sanman66 I am not sure what you are referring to when you say "as soon as I turned it off it was responding normally". What did you turn off? And what was responding normally?

      • Sanman66
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Sheldonhills I turned off the band steering function and my ring doorbell pro was responding normally.  On 2.4 GHz.  

Content aside

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