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Getting Devices on the "Best" Node

I have a 3 EERO configuration and my wireless devices (cameras, plugs, DOTs, etc.) will pick up the first EERO that comes on-line which may not be the best node for them to connect to.  I have situation where I have 19 devices on one node and 2 on another.

I thought the point of a mesh networks was that a node will hand off to another node if it finds a better connection, but my EEROs do not seem to be doing that.

The only way I can get my network to operate with the devices distributed properly is to first start up the EERO network and then start up each device individually. 

Any ideas?

3 replies

    • jsacks
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Found my own answer to this issue.  The EERO although it states to be a "mesh" network and although it creates multiple paths for data (i.e. choosing to go around a block or even wireless vs. wired) it does not fully communicate between nodes to maximize connectivity as many mesh networks will do.

    Imagine the scenario where your power goes out and then powers on again (not too hard to imagine) and all your devices shut down.  When the power restores, you EERO network comes back one node at a time.  Each wi-fi device comes on also at different times depending on their boot time (most of mine come on way before the EERO network is ready).  Each wi-fi device when it powers on will try to reattempt to connect to your network and will find the first device available to it.  This may be one of your EERO devices furthest away and it fact it may be all your devices if the other nodes take much longer to come on line (and they sometimes do).  You now can have 30 devices on one node and none on the others.  The EERO does nothing to load balance.  Even worse you may now have a device on the furthest node with the weakest signal creating issues for your device (i.e. poor stream from a camera).

    If the EERO can adjust the node when a device moves from one node to another, why can't it adjust for a static device when it sees that it could register on another node based on signal strength? 

    Even if EERO did not want to put some intelligence into checking signal strength across the network on some periodic basis, it could at the very least give you a preferred node entry in the device table since you register your devices in the setup in the EERO network manager or a block device at the node level.  This would allow for the user to at least manually assign devices to load balance the network for static devices.

    The only work around I found is a time consuming manual one.  You need to start your EERO network, give it time to settle, identify manually look for devices through the EERO app by going into each node and looking at the "Connected devices" and then power off and on any devices that appear to be on the "wrong" node.  This is very time consuming.

    Just my 2 cents, remember when you get free advice, you usually get what you paid for!

    • Enthusiast
    • thatsthequy
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Frankly clients choose which AP to connect to. This is surely something that has crossed the whiteboard at eero, and if there was a more effective solution than whats already in place with Client Steering they would be working on it.

    Assigning a device to a node is not as simple as it sounds. That involves rejecting the client from other nodes, and some clients respond by blacklisting the network entirely. They have to tread carefullt so as not to break clients with Wi-Fi stacks that are not smart enough to realize there is a better node to connect to than the current one.

    • enthusiast
    • kodyaten
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    I would love to lock certain cameras to a certain AP like Ubiquiti. But in reality, it may cause problems with TrueMesh. And when a device connects to a AP that’s further away, it’s annoying but it still works. 🤷‍♂️

Content aside

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