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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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    • Dkth06
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    It’s 2019 and I am also experiencing this issue with my iPhone X with most recent iOS. I get home and walk upstairs to the bedroom and my iPhone is virtually useless because it’s still connected to the living room eero. I have to constantly toggle with WiFi off and on. It’s pretty sad that for like a $500 “best in class” system and multiple years of complaints this isn’t solved. 

    I get that the device decides but eero could choose to disconnect devices with like 1-2 bars. 

     

    I know that good commercial grade wifi does not suffer from this. Come on eero team. You guys gotta solve this!

      • Propho
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Dkth06 I want to formally welcome you to the club.  It seems like eero Dev has no intention of fixing or giving us any method of working around this failure if a mesh network

      • txgunlover
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Propho There is no "fix".  The client devices choose what AP they access, not the AP.

      • Propho
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover here we go again..

    • Dmbtay
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    If you all could see my house, it would look like the matrix, but broken.  48 devices many connecting to Eeros not even close to where the devices actually live (fixed).  Worse the computers where we do our business, connect to Eeros across the house (4k sq ft).  Causes a lot of intermittent connectivity (VPN, Gaming, etc.)

    • SLH
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    You know Amazon bought eero, right? I think the days of conscientious support and progress of the eero system are over. An eero tech can feel free to jump in here and disagree and prove me wrong. Let’s see if they are even reading or if we are just whistling in the dark.

    • Fuckeero1
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have 10 eeros in a 3-story 5,500 sq ft house.

    Quick math-I have $2000 invested in eeros. The system performs solidly but it's connection to my iPhone XS Max is highly illogical. The eero to which it connects is the furthest one away, and the opposite side of the house, in the basement, one level below where I use my phone the most. I tried resetting the whole network, resetting my phone, resetting all network settings, turning off Bluetooth, resetting the eero to original factory settings and still it persists in insisting on connecting to the furthest-away eero.

    I don't care how much "nuance" it takes for you to address and resolve this issue once and for all. You should be embarrassed to take my money or anybody else's until it is no longer a ridiculously inexcusable issue.

      • Jag100
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Fixeero1 It is likely that you have too many eeros for that amount of square footage which is probably making the issue worse. Try removing some of your eeros. Less is actually more. It may or may not solve your problem completely but it may help some. This has been my own experience. 

      • Fuckeero1
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jag100 Thank you for the suggestion.  I did not purchase all 10 eeros at once.  I added them when I found that I had insufficient coverage on one floor or one area of the house. I purchased the number of eeros I needed to optimize the space. As I mentioned it’s a 5500 square-foot house on three levels.  I didn’t want to waste money on coverage I didn’t need so I went through a process of adding strategically and removing any of them now reduces coverage in at least a quarter of the house on a specific level. And I do not follow your logic why the system would connect me to an eero 25 yards away instead of 5 feet. That’s the issue, not how many I have.  

      • Jag100
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Fixeero1 I understand. I have a 4300 sq. Ft. Home and pared back to 5 errors to cover that area. I still have problems on occasion just as you describe but not as frequent as when I had 7-8 errors. 

      • Jag100
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Fixeero1   Eero will say that the problem has more to do with the device not connecting to the closest eero than an issue with eero itself. I have reset my network settings on my iPhone X which seems to have helped quite a bit. Still, there are times when my iPhone doesn’t want to switch to the closest eero even when I turn on and off Wi-Fi. If you can demonstrate the problem consistently, after a network reset on your iPhone, I would also open up a ticket with Apple support. It’s disappointing that Eero and Apple haven’t been able to address this one.  If more Apple customers open up support tickets perhaps it will nudge things forward. 

      • Fuckeero1
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jag100 Thanks. Read my OP again. I already reset network settings and much more.  I’m going to let eero support speak for themselves, rather than speculating what they are going to say. Obviously from this entire thread this is a big issue that is distressing many users of a very very expensive product.  And it’s not just my iPhone (another very expensive product) it is also my surveillance cameras (yet another very expensive product)  and houseguests, some of whom have a very expensive Samsung phones encounter the same issue so, yeah, I’m going to let eero handle this one. All signs point to eero on this.

      • Jag100
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Fixeero1  I wish you luck. I’ve spent hours with Eero on similar issues and they have escalated my case but I’ve never heard back from them. I hope you have better success.  Many of us are experiencing similar issues and have also complained to eero! 

    • nustanzen
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    With an iPhone8 and iphoneX, I was able to consistently get the iPhone to connect to the closest eero by simply going into the WiFi settings, clicking the info icon and doing a forget network.  When it reconnects, it connects to the closest device I’m near.   

      • Fuckeero1
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      nustanzen thanks. I will give that a try. It's a bit wonky if you are walking around the house but it's better than anything offered so far, as long as it works.

      • violet_button
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      nustanzen nustanzen 

      Then why buy a mesh network.  The whole point of this is to not have to do this.

      To me this just proves the issue that the device should have switched on its own.

      • Propho
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      nustanzen yes, same would happen if you restart the eero network or even probably turn off and turn on your WiFi on your phone.. your steps should not have to be taken to connect to the nearest eero.. thus the purpose of this thread

      • nustanzen
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      nustanzen I am finding that after restarting network several times, after time, my phone is reconnecting automatically to the strongest signal.  It seems to only reconnect if the bandwidth is super slow with what I've connected to.  I agree that a mesh network should automatically change.  I was just offering something that I had found that worked.

      • txgunlover
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      nustanzen Clients determine what AP they connect to, not an access point.  

      • violet_button
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover 

      Agree, but Eero can influence this by:

      • Providing an optimized list of APs to roam to, aka Neighbor Reports (802.11k)
      • Providing information about the traffic load on other APs (802.11v)
      • Speeding up the roaming process by providing fast authentication (802.11r)

      One of the original responses indicated Eero was working on 802.11r, but nothing since.  This may not help if the device IP doesn't support these protocols, but it seems that there is something going on when devices more often than not, don't select the nearest Eero device or switch timely.  Especially if rebooting or toggling the device's airplane mode results in an improved connection.

      Given we are talking about common/modern devices, I expect Eero testing to have validated this switching in their labs to ensure Eero mesh network roaming works effectively across a range of devices and implementation configurations.

      I chose Eero due to it's simplicity vs having the ability to fully configure it.  Apple has gotten me accustom to having a positive user experience through simplicity vs complexity.  I may have expected to much from Eero.

      • Propho
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover even if that were the case.. Eero is not allowing for more advanced end-users to split the bands or turn off one band if desired, adjust antenna power, etc.  If we had the ability to do either of those guess what, this thread would be closed..

       

      GIVE THE COMMUNITY THE ABILITY TO CONFIGURE, WE'RE NOT MORONS.  Open source it if your devs lack the ability to add simple functions.

      • Engineer
      • David_C
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Propho send eero a GPL request, you’ll get the source. 

      • Propho
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      David C. Is there a process to upload a new OS to the Eero?  Or is that source just something to stare at?

      • Engineer
      • David_C
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Propho that is an exercise currently left to the reader.

    • bitzerjdb
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Same issue, frustrating.  I have a 4500sqft house with 3 Base units and 2 Beacons.  One Base covers the basement, and two on the main floor (either side of the house).  The Beacons cover the upstairs and are at either end of the house also.

    I have a Printer that is 5ft from a base unit, but it connects to the furthest Beacon, I have devices in the basement that connect to the Upstairs Beacon and if I force them off, they will reconnect over time.

    My laptops (IBM, HP, Dell) refuse to hop .... If I carry one to the basement, the upstairs signal is very weak, but they stay connected.

    When I had 4 Asus routers scattered around the house, all the devices would hop in a heartbeat to the closest one.

    I dropped a lot of coin going to eero in order to have a seamless mesh...

    I have Three main issues:

    1.  Roaming sucks

    2.  Cannot specify 2.4 or 5 for a SSID (Home Automation devices are a PITA to setup)

    3.  On reboot, my Beacons come up first, so everything connects to it... related to #1, the Fix is to them reboot the Beacon causing them to drop and reconnect to another AP.  

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