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Devices not connecting to closest eero

A quick background on my setup:

  • I am running the latest version (1.4) of the iOS app
  • I am running the latest firmware (2.1.0) on my three eeros.
  • My first eero is connected as follows:  modem -> eero --> switch
  • My other two eeros are hardwired via ethernet back into the switch.

 

Upon updating the iOS app, I started checking to see which devices are connected to which eeros. I was surprised at what I found.

  1. Most of my devices are connected to the primary eero.
  2. An iPad in an upstairs bedroom is connected (with a weak signal) to the primary eero which is downstairs in my den even though there is an eero in the same bedroom as the iPad. (The iPad stays in that bedroom, it never wanders around the house).
  3. My Rachio sprinkler controller is also connected to the den eero even though there is an eero much closer to the garage.

These are not the results I expected. I thought I placed the eeros to give me strong coverage throughout the house but the devices don't seem to want to connect to the closest available eero. I also thought since I wired them via ethernet that this would give me the strongest possible mesh network possible.

Did I do something wrong in my setup? Any suggestions on how to correct this?

Thanks,

Mike

181 replies

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    • SARATOGA_STEVE
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Just installed a new Gen2 Pro system today.  I found that my iPhoneX kept connected to a remote Eero even when I am right next to the main/router Eero.  I tried turning Wifi on/off a few times on the phone and even re-powered it, but it kept connecting to the remote one.  I finally did a 'reset' on the remote Eero that it was connected to from the app and then it connected to the one nearby.  But hoping the roaming will be a little more intelligent than that.  

    I'm thinking there should be an app button called 'Connect device to Best Eero' that would force it to reconnect?

      • casarivera
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Saratoga_Steve Resetting a weak signal remote Eero is the only thing that works for my iPhone XS and other devices.  Only that way does my device then connect to the nearby Eero.  Frustrating.

    • stevebgcs
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I also just installed the Pro system today which is basically the gen 2.   I tried the google wifi, orbi, and then the Eero.   Coming from using a Open Mesh setup.   So far the Eero is the best at handing off to the right access point.   I'm pretty impressed.  After first installing we noticed our iphones getting stuck on our master bedroom access point and not rolling to the next unit when roaming.   After a few hours of playing with placement we got that pretty much settled.   I have to say day 1 I am really impressed.  Fingers crossed.   We just got gigabit comcast coax upgrade here and we are able to get the 940 mps wired and about 560 mps wireless.   It does have a lot to do with the iphone on the roaming,  I know my Dell laptop jumps from access point to access point with no issues.   My $1000 iphone though wants to connect to 2.4 no matter what brand I try.

      • antonyku
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      stevebgcs what modem and what ethernet cable are you using?  I just upgrade my comcast internet to gigabit service, but I can't seem to get that high speed. The highest speedtest I had on eero app is 758 and 42. Usually I only got about 300 and 42 from my macbook.

      Im currently using Sb8200 modem and cat6 ethernet cable to eero.

      • Jzd5032
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      antonyku  I'm experiencing the same results with Xfinity gigabit service using xb6-a modem.  Around 750 download and 41 upload on eero app and wirelessly I'm getting around 250-300 down and 41 upload, tested on multiple devices.  When i turn off the eero and enable WiFi on the Xfinity router, i get about 500-600 download wireless.  There is zero interference where the eero is located.  Tried it with bridge mode on and off, with same results.  Nowhere near advertised speeds.  

      • antonyku
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jzd5032 I’m gonna Hardreset modem and eero this weekend. Let see if I can solve the problem. I will post the result

      • stevebgcs
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      antonyku XB6 Comcast modem - i have all the wireless disabled on comcast modem and also using ethernet backhaul on extra 2 eero's.   I'm a week in and things are stable.   I'm very happy with my results.

      • antonyku
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jzd5032 so i finally figure out whats wrong with the speed.  Xfinity got stuck with my old modem with cap at 700 mbps. When i call them, i have to tell them i got a new modem and remove the old one off my account. After a few calls, they finally got my new modem in the system. Now i got over 900 mbps from the modem to computer.  When i tried to connect to eero, i only got 700 mbps. I have to figure out more from the eero side now. Hope i can get to 900 mbps from eero soon. 

    • decently tech savvy
    • john5263
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    would be nice to have the capability in the app to enforce which eero a device connects to.

    • gawtmw
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Add me to the list of users who have a problem with wifi handoff with my main eero and 2 beacons. My devices are not handing off to the nearest beacon or they get stuck on the main eero and will not hand off to the closest beacon. Having to manually turn the wifi off and on to try to force a connection on my iPhone, iPad, etc., is just not a good solution.

    • Anvilrubicom
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Add me to this list too, ring cameras  will not switch to the closest eero. This was the reason I purchased these. Very upset with the performance and hand off abilities 

    • abouskos
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    It would be awesome if I could click into my main Eero and see the connected devices and move them to closer Eero’s. My bedroom fire stick is trying to connect with the Eero that is the furthest away. I have 4 Eeros in my house and it should pick up one of the 3 that are closer.  

    • Tuckerrobeson
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Why can we not simply enforce this in the user interface of the app? We have the ability to block the device entirely. It’s not that much further to allow you to specify which Mac addresses you’d like to be allowed on which eero hub, and thereby enforcing connection to only those eero hubs to which you’ve granted that device access. Maybe I don’t understand some nuances to the engineering side challenges here, but I would think if you can design the user interface to allow a blanket MAC address ban on all hubs, you can easily allow for selective MAC address banning on a per hub basis and thus grant the user control over certain devices and control over which hubs they end up on. The capability is there. This just seems like there are far more latent devices out there than they anticipated in their initial user testing, and the engineer team didn’t realize how many cases there would be of devices that suck at switching to a new access point in a mesh system. Not eeros fault the devices suck at this... But, it is their fault that their $500 routers still have this problem and this ticket is more than a year old... hope they don’t start going down the dark road of user access complacency. If I wanted to buy a system for the company to tell me 3 years later they addressed a critical user interface flaw, I’d buy a Netgear router and save myself a few hundred bucks...

    • Dmbtay
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Put us down also.  We have 6 eeros throughout our home.  My primary computer (surface studio) consistently connects to eero downstairs through multiple walls and pulling only 30mb 2.4 on 1,000 service.  There is an eero about 15 feet from the computer...🤔   

    • Propho
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have a Samsung TV connecting to my eero in the basement... my eero on the main floor is literally 2 feet away.

     

    Because it is connecting to the basement instead it is only achieving 2.4ghz.

    We need a solution to this.. give us an advanced user option to allow us to actually manage this wireless..

    • Andrew.1
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    +1 for MAC address blacklist (selection) feature.

    My Sense energy monitor keeps dropping offline because it's switching back and forth between two beacons. The device is installed in the electrical panel so toggling the wifi isn't a quick workaround. Would love to be able to define which beacon it connects to. 

    • Ssdalton
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Why has this thread gone silent? Eero tech support, you don’t have anything further to say about these issues? I have 5 eeros throughout my home and my WiFi is still terrible. I have devices on one side of the house connecting to eeros on the other side of the house and visa versa resulting in multiple devices with poor performance. This is a massive issue. I spent multiple hundreds of dollars to avoid this headache. Isn’t it your website that says “Life is too short for bad WiFi?” And “You need a system that works” Makes me sick reading through your site. 

      • Drew
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Thanks for reaching out Ssdalton and welcome to the Community! We absolutely appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with us. Based on what you've said here, I absolutely understand how that's a major source of frustration, and it sounds like something we can help improve with some discussion and network adjustment.

      For ongoing feedback, we encourage you to comment on the open feature request threads such as this. Q&A threads like the one we're on are typically lower-activity since they're designed for users to get one-time answers to specific questions. 

      Additionally, while myself and the other Community members are more than happy to offer guidance and insight where possible here on the forums, I'd like to stress that the best place to get direct troubleshooting assistance is directly from our Support team, reachable at 877-659-2347 or support@eero.com. For your specific situation, it sounds like there are a few key details we'll need to gather to offer further help, so a call or email to support is warranted in this case. If you'd like to email and put "Community Feedback" in the subject line, I'd be happy to make sure that this gets to a senior specialist who can help you get to the root of the problem. It's our goal for your WiFi to be the best it's ever been, so we look forward to hearing from you!

      Kindly,
      Drew, eero Community

      • Propho
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Drew granted this is an issue all of us are stressing, to me it makes sense that discussion is kept on a thread like this as we all want this resolved.  It's a MAJOR problem, the interface for Eero is so unconfigurable that there is no solution for us or a support engineer on the phone to implement.  Also, keep in mind that this thread started 2 years ago and nothing has been resolved.

      • Drew
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Appreciate your insights here Propho – I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify a little further on this behavior. As Jeff mentioned at the top of the thread, and as has been mentioned by myself and other users on related threads, at the end of the day this is normal behavior. We definitely understand that devices connecting to suboptimal nodes is a frustrating experience, but it's expected that devices on a WiFi network will choose which access points they associate with at any given time; in other words, while this is something we're exploring to improve the user experience, this isn't something we consider to be a known issue that needs to be resolved, but rather a new functionality that we're exploring for implementation.

      Adding the ability in the app to manually assign a device to a specific eero requires a lot of nuance, as we'll have to account for the many devices that have their own programmed preferences when on multi-access-point networks. That said, I'd like to assure you that it's a functionality that we definitely see value in, which is why I encourage you to participate on the dedicated Feature Request thread I linked in my prior comment. As always, if you're having concerns with your network that you'd like our help with, contacting support is the best method of making sure that we do everything we can to improve your specific situation. Thanks again so much for sharing your thoughts and experience on this topic, and we look forward to hearing your feedback going forward!

      Kindly,
      Drew, eero Community Team

      • Eero_Zero
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Drew 

      • Scott.3
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Drew How can you say that this 'isn't something that you consider to be a known issue..."?  Clearly it is given all of the feedback.  And that is just from customers that have the time and know how to get to these threads.  How many out there are dealing with the same but have not participated here??  

      • txgunlover
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Scott Devices determine what AP they connect to, not the AP.  If you really want action, you have to address the manufacturer of the device, not the AP.   Not sure what types of devices you're using, but be aware all Apple devices are very aggressive in staying with an AP.

      • Propho
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover while this response has been given many times.. clearly other wifi setups handle this differently... Cisco Meraki, Cisco aironet,  and Ubiquiti unifi all don't exhibit this behavior..  and blaming the device is getting old .. this happens with my Rokus, Samsungs, Pixel, and all Apple products..  so all manufacturers other than Eero are at fault here?... Thanks

      • txgunlover
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Propho That is correct.  It is the responsibility of the client.  Having supported one of the largest implementations of Meraki in the world, I can assure you they also don't tell a client what access point to connect to.  All clients make this decision.  They can be "poisoned" to encourage different behavior that departs from WiFi Certified behavior, but ultimately, the client makes the determination.  Not allowing the client to make that determination, among other things, would be a huge security risk. 

       

      Clients are responsible for what AP they connect to.

      • Scott.3
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover I am reading/hearing that the eeros system makes that decision(?). Ie spreads the signal based on the need of the devices

Content aside

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