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eero network geometry and stability

After spending an hour on the phone with an eero tech and moving my eeros around, it seems to me that the geometry of my 3-eero network (at v6.0.4) has a big impact on the network stability. Specifically, if the two wifi connected eeros are too close together the network is unstable.
Is my understanding correct? Each eero tries to connect to the internet via the eero that is closest. (Ok, not really closest in meters or feet, but closest in signal strength.) So if the distances to the gateway are longer than the distances between the wifi eeros, they will each try to connect to each other, resulting in both being offline, then one will reboot faster and be online for a while until the other reboots and the cycle goes on.
If my understanding is correct, then here is a fix and a solution:
To fix this: If G is the gateway, W1 is the wifi eero closest to G, and W2 the other eero, then you must have d(G,W1) < d(W1,W2), where d is the distance. This will insure that W1 will connect to G and W2 will connect to either G or W1, whichever is closest. With this done, my network seems very stable.
For a real solution: Each eero should connect by the shortest path to the gateway. To implement this, a eero would need to  be able to determine the distance of each eero on the network to the gateway.

8 replies

    • NJRonbo
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have to say,  I was following you until you started with G, W1 and so on.  I have no idea what you were explaining.

    Were your Eeros going offline for short periods of time?  Is this what started the problem?  That seems to be the issue for many of us on this forum.  

    If your Eeros were going offline for a short period of time and support felt it was because the mesh units were too close together, then that is a revelation.   Is support saying that a laptop trying to connect to multiple Eero units that are too close together will cause the units to do down?

    I continue to have disconnect issues just about every day but I gave up on support as I felt like they were trying to wear me down by having me disconnect everything.  I still think there's a common issue with these units as lots of people are having disconnection issues.

    However, your post is the first that kind of sheds light on the issue.

      • Ross
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      NJRonbo Sorry about the notation. My network was fine with just the gateway and one wifi eero. When I added the third it was offline in the app, but the LED was solid white. If I sat next to it, it seemed like my phone would connect to it, but not have access to the internet. Shortly after the first wifi eero would go offline and it's LED would be solid red. Then one of them would come back online, but the whole thing was unstable and very unsatisfactory. With the gateway closer to each wifi eero than the distance between the two wifi eeros everyone is happy.

    • eero_support
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Hello,

    The appearance of stability of the network can be undermined by having eeros that are too close together. My understanding of how this happens when eeros are placed too closely together, is that the devices connected to the network my have their connection strength fluctuate between the eeros. So one moment the device might this W1 is the best connection then the next it might think the Gateway is the best connection. Normally this change only happens once and it hardly noticed as you are walking from one end of the building to the other. But when the device is stationary and this is happening it can cause interruptions in service as the pathway through the eero network is constantly changing as data is trying to be delivered to the device.

    Ideally you want any eero in your network to be around 35-45 ft away from any other eero. This will still maintain a strong wifi signal but will also reduce the chance of devices exhibiting this behavior.

    The eeros will also connect to the strongest wifi signal they have to access the internet. This does not equal speed however. If an eero has a stronger connection with another eero that is not the Gateway it will choose to connect to that eero and not the Gateway. In order to best resolve this, the Gateway eero is best placed as centrally located within your building as possible so that all eeros connecting to it via wifi will see it as the best wifi signal and connect to it. With this said I do want to state that having a eero connect via wifi to another eero that is connected to the Gateway or other eero via wifi works as well, usually you will experience slower wifi speeds from eeros that daisy chain out over wifi like this though.

    Let me know if you have any other questions,

    James Wilcox

    eero Support 

      • mongocowboy
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

       What is absolute minimal distance between Pro gen 2 gateway and a Pro gen 2 remote back hauling on ethernet? I cannot get mine farther than ~30 ft. But seems like remote is interfering with internet locking on. Even on mac using ethernet! (Note: Macs on ethernet that use iCloud sync and sharing between devices, also need wi-fi and BT on as well, like mine.)

    • Ross
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view
    James Wilcox said:
    The eeros will also connect to the strongest wifi signal they have to access the internet. This does not equal speed however. If an eero has a stronger connection with another eero that is not the Gateway it will choose to connect to that eero and not the Gateway.

    I think this is cause of my problem and maybe others. If two wifi connected eeros are closer to each other than the rest of the network this algorithm can cause them to deadlock since each is trying to connect to the internet through the other.

    And thank you very much for your detailed explanation.

      • eero_support
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Ross 

      I checked in with one of my T3 co-workers about this topic and found the answer. The eeros will connect to all eeros in range on on the same network. It will measure the connection to every eero and then select the connection that provides the best service. It will maintain the connections to every eero on the network that it can reach even if it is not using those connections. The eeros connecting to every other eero on their network in range allows for redundancy if one of the eeros were to go down on the network. 

      Hope this helps clear it up a little more,

      eero Support

    • Ross
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view
    James Wilcox said:
    select the connection that provides the best service

    Thanks for clearing this up for me.

    It definitely makes more sense to choose the best service than the strongest signal as I had assumed in my explanation.

      • eero_support
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Ross 

      I was talking to a coworker about this topic again and something I typed previously was incorrect. The eeros are indeed connected to every eero on the network in range. But the devices will connect to each other and use the connection that it finds is best for the situation, this does not always mean it will be the fastest or strongest connection. 

      Example:

      If A = Gateway eero, and B/C = extra eeros on the network. Then sometimes if B is experiencing high traffic the signal might go from A to C, It could also still go through B. The eero system will pick the best path for the data to go through but it won't always use the path for every connection.

      Sorry for any confusion I may have caused and thank you for your patience,

      James Wilcox

      eero Support

Content aside

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