436

Assign a device to a specific eero

I was recently going through my connected device list and noticed I have some of my devices connected to an eero which isn't the closest one to it.  Wouldn't it make more sense to bind a device to a specific eero?  For example, my Ring doorbell is maybe 10 - 15 feet from the closest eero but it is connected to one upstairs and further away.  Not sure if that would cause a QoS kind of issue but for stationary devices I don't see them moving from one eero to another (Nest products, Amazon Echo, Ring doorbell, etc.)

391 replies

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    • stormyweather
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Wow, I'm shocked that I just purchased the new eero 6, and my ring doorbell which is literally 5 feet from the eero hub, instead insists on connecting to the bedroom satellite, which is thru 4 walls on the other side of the house. Obviously a known issue for years as i see from this post. I spent 3 hours two days ago trying to figure it out and factory resetting the ring, went thru endless issues with setup cause it just wouldn't connect, and then FINALLY figured out that it was trying to connect to the bedroom. unplugged all the satellites, did master reset to the ring, rebooted the hub, and finally got the ring working again. only to discover today that it is once again not working, and is once again connected to the hub in the bedroom. went to eero app, CERTAIN that i would find a way to designate device to connect to certain hub and then on a search to see how to do it when i didn't find an easy button. and came here. This is a SECURITY issue. my Ring camera won't operate properly, I can't log into it. I see they want you  to buy the secure subscription, I'd really just like to have a truly smart nest system that lets me choose what a known device, with a known mac address can actually hook up to and secure my life and property first. 

      • qvvp
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      stormyweather Try deleting your Nest completely from your device set up and re-adding it as a new device. I suspect that it might then choose your new Eero with the strongest signal. That seemed to do the trick on my Mac Mini that kept connecting to the wrong Eero. 

    • Max
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Excuse given seems to be this is not behaviour of the Eero but it is the client device that chooses to connect to a different Eero, but I just don't see this behaviour on my phone with any other wifi network. Prior to Eero I had Netgear Orbi and the phone always connected to the nearest satellite. The weird thing with Eero is that, as for you, "stormyweather" with your Ring doorbell, I can be standing 2 ft away from the an Eero satellite and yet my phone still chooses to connect to Eero master unit 40 ft away. I just do not see how this is normal behaviour? And it's not just my phone. It is also wifi security cameras exhibit the same behaviour on my separate IOT Eero network. Oddly, since I set up my new Eero network about a week ago things seem to have stabilised somewhat and phone does seem to be connecting logically as I travel around the house, for the moment at least. No idea why this is suddenly the case but from my previous experience with other Eero network over last 6 months or so I don't have confidence that it will always perform logically, and this seems to be borne out by all the other people on here with the same issue. Just also wondering why very little engagement with this thread by Eero technical staff?

    • stormyweather
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Well, I figured out how to make the ring camera work correctly. Stupid solution, but for now it seems to work. I moved the bedroom eero to a plug on the other side of the ring doorbell. it's 5 feet from the main hub, so it's obviously not the best setup, but it now is the closest hub to doorbell, AND it's the hub the damn doorbell seems to want to connect to. the ring doorbell is happy now, me not so much. hopefully some day EERO will get it's act together and let you choose which hub you want devices that do not move around to actually connect to. 

    • cputrdoc
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Similar to your situation tfederov and stormyweather I have a different brand of doorbell camera (Skybell) that requires at least 90% signal strength according to the manufacturer, but just because I put a new Eero node just 5 feet away from it doesn't mean it will seek it out.  The doorbell's network stack seems perfectly complacent to stay connected to the node that's 50 feet away on another floor at 71%, and then not stream video on demand because the connection isn't strong enough.

    I get what Eero is saying... having devices constantly checking for a stronger signal and hopping around doesn't make sense when the Eero it's already connected to is "fine" (especially since sometimes there's a brief interruption in service during the transfer) but I wish I could go into the app and ask a specific Eero node to take over the connection.  Sometimes these devices do need to be micromanaged to work properly.

    • adachan
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have a potential solution to this issue that is kinda lame to be honest.  I have hated this forever, like most of you.  It seems that eero can not solve this issue, but I think I have come up with something -- hear me out.  I have several old routhers sitting around as most of you probably do.  Most of the IOT stuff requires a 2.4GHz signal which is older and much of my older gear works on the 2.4GHz spectrum.  So here is my weak solution -- I turn off DHCP on and old router and name the SSID to "mySSID-IOT" I plug the upstream connection into the eero to provide DHCP services. I then connect the IOT stuff to this IOT SSID.  In my case, I have two of these setup, "IOT1" and "IOT2".  This way the stupid IOT stuff like cameras and doorbells has no choice but to connect to the node that we tell them to.  Like I said, its lame and may cost you some $$ (wrt54gs on ebay are like free now), but it does solve the problem.  

      • aptessmann
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      adachan I think it would be easier for eero to add “access point preference” and “release/renew” options to device settings the app. The access point preference would allow the user to set a preferred AP to connect to when a device comes online, for devices that are static and would be closest to a specific access point always.
       

      As pointed out before in this long thread, eero can’t control the device itself trying to connect to the first connection it finds, but what it can do is reject a connection, and an access point preference would reject undesirable connections to other access points if the preferred AP is online and available. 
       

      Next, release/renew connection would be used if a user has a portable device which is hanging onto a bad connection rather than needing to power cycle the device off and on again.  Even better if they would add an option to set a 1 time preference if you’d like to tell eero which connections to reject when the renew kicks in again. 

    • subatomic
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    +1 for this.   It's disheartening (very disappointing) to see this is a 3yr old topic (3 YEARS!) that still hasn't been addressed.    For static non-moving devices, this would allow us to find the most optimal configuration and lock it in.  There is ZERO reason to bounce around automatically (especially IN THE MIDDLE OF A STREAMING MOVIE).  I got a NAS with WiFi, with video files!  I'm streaming video from it!  It randomly becomes inaccessible (unpingable) while watching the movie.  WTF happened?  I dont know?   For devices that need to be working without hiccups, we NEED this.   You already have "block device" and "pause device",  So... why not "lock device to this node"?  simple, easy, let's have it already!   3 whole YEARS.  It's getting comical (sad) because I see people disparage this one feature request all over the internet.  It's reflecting on EERO....!  I saw these remarks as I was making a buy decision.  It made me pause (that's a bad thing), but I bought anyway, now I'm regretting it because I think I have problems that could be optimized with this feature request.   Time to give it to us!  

    • eric13durham
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I love eero but this is one that seriously bugs me.  How many years later and this feature still isn't added?  This could be a firmware update.  A 'smart check' if the user enables that allows eero to do a connection check at say 3am or whatever time the user sets.  Or the user assigns the MAC address to a certain node.  It can  be done.

      • txgunlover
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      eric13durham It can't be added.  The problem you're describing is with your client, as the client chooses the AP.  

      • eric13durham
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover Guess I'll start looking at other mesh systems.  If someone else has this feature, eero will be ebay fodder.

      • praasp
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover - Like some of the ideas in the replies earlier, would it be possible for eero to implement a reject list/preference list(whatever we call it) and allow the user to add the client using MAC address in each eero as needed. Then if a client connects which is in that reject list, then let that particular eero don't answer it. Is this technically doable ? (asking if this feasible)

      • Techguru
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      eric13durham Good luck, they are all far worse in every way. This is one small gripe which I remedied by simply getting less units in my place and spacing them out a bit more. I’m using the 6 Pro pack and all my devices connect to the strongest signal. And if they don’t after a reboot, they do after a little bit of time. The only true way to do this better would be separate VLANs. Eero could do this in the setup process using the app for a more customized/advanced set up. 

      • txgunlover
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      praasp Yes, feasible but would also mean that if a client was out of range of the allowed AP, it couldn't connect at all, or also means it wouldn't connect to anything if that AP failed.

      • praasp
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover ok. Thanks for pointing out the possible issues. This wrong-ap-connection is a real problem as lot of us have lots of older, lower-end clients like security cameras etc. True that newer, sophisticated clients work fine but we can't completely change all the wifi client devices just to live with eero. I have to go through multiple power-cycle method for my sec camera to connect to the nearest eero. So I hope, eero team can implement at least some sort of solution (may be not a perfect one). I do not have experience with any other mesh solution to say how they would behave in my scenario.

    • dkangel21
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    This one is important.

    • dkangel21
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    A preference order would be better then to bind it.  It always connects to the one you specify unless it cannot find it.

    • nngowen
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    This should definitely be done.  Make it happen eero

    • johnwl07
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Not much hope considering the original post was at least 4 years ago and we are making the same feature request.  This has really caused an issue for me and in retrospect I probably would have chosen a different WiFi system.  It seems that my devices that are mobile randomly connect to a beacon and stay connected, despite their location.  This drastically effects internet speed for that device.  This is a constant fight.  I should be spending more of my day in the time - suck- Internet -rabbit-hole-of-the-day and less battling WiFi connection issues.  Help a brother out.

    • Bowhunt24
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Hey Eero Support - any update on this? seems like a silly easy feature enhancement that almost all the competition has. For a "pro" level system like the one I have (Eero Pro 6 3 pack) this should be a feature.

    • mpimenta
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    What really disappoints me is the lack of transparency. They could say why they don't implement this feature. Let's say... because they don't believe this would make any difference in practice OR because they don't want to spend effort on it OR because there is some kind of technological barrier OR they hope to deliver this but don't want to make commitments. Or... Or... who knows? Some companies love to say they are consumer centric, but it doesn't seem to be the case here. I think... 

    • praasp
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Adding my disappointment to everybody else's......

    I currently have a security camera that has connected to farthest eero and has less than full signal strength. No idea why this happened but just like others I wish there was a way to bind it to the nearest one. Now, What I need to do is to power cycle the camera few times and see if it latches onto the nearest one and gets a better signal strength. It may be an issue with client firmware but there has to be some form of solution from Eero for this and I have already seen so many suggestions of solutions above.

    • byroncoughlin
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Just want to chime in that we would like this feature too!

    After our eero network was updated last night, most of the devices joined the basement eero (the gateway) I suspect because it was up first after a reboot.

    This is inconvenient for the upstairs devices and the garage devices.

    A reboot of just the basement eero fixed our issue (all devices joined their nearest eero).

    Maybe the eero team could set a power up priority after an update? Or figure out a connection priority as requested in this thread?

    Our situation would be fixed if the basement eero powered up last, so maybe we will just make a more central eero our gateway eero.

    • greyscale
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I just dropped over $500 for a 3 pack of the AX4200 and discover this issue with no feature to address the problem after 4 years? I thought I was buying a premium product but apparently not. They're going back to Best Buy.

      • Techguru
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      No product can do this, it’s device dependent. Trust me, no mesh product is better than eero, I’ve installed hundreds of WiFi systems.

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