
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.)
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Whoa, I'm sorry tfederov ! I'm not sure how this request got past me.
I definitely understand the interest/need in such a feature, and I'll be more than happy to share this with our team.
With regards to what is happening, there is a chance that the static devices are connecting to the further eero after the system reboots. If those devices are within range of another eero, since they don't roam, they likely are latching to that eero as it may come online before the closer one. Since they are connected and won't be moving, they won't be looking to change.
One way to get around this is to reboot the client device. After coming back online, it should connect to the closer eero. I hope this helps!
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Jeff C.
Yep, I figured that's how they connect so far away. For what it's worth though if you've ever had the "pleasure" to have to reset a Nest Protect (I need an 8' ladder to reboot one of them, for example) or a Ring doorbell it's easier to kill their power at the breaker than to do it from the device which unless you know what you're doing it might not happen (I'm thinking my parents. :-) ) Appreciate the reply back!
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FWIW...completely agree with this feature request. I have a number of non-roaming devices that connect to a sub-optimal eero. While the network boot issue may be one reason, it is not the only reason. For example, an Echo DoT occasionally switches Eero for no reason. I notice this because when I see the device in the app it jumps out as having only one bar connectivity. I look at it and see it's connecting to my basement eero rather than the 2nd floor Eero that is 20 feet away on the same floor.
I would Definitely like to be be able to bind non-roaming devices to a given Eero!!
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Thanks for chiming in rwross 😬
That's great feedback! However, that is odd with it connecting to the less optimal eero after it has already connected to the 2nd floor one.
Is the Echo Dot directly above it? How is the connection strength of the 2nd floor eero to your network? Is there any chance it is dropping off from your network occasionally?
If you'd like, feel free to give us a call at 1-877-659-2347 or email us at support@eero.com . We're more than happy to take a look.
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Jeff C. Thanks for the response.
It's actually behavior I've noticed from time to time on other devices as well, but didn't want to muddy the waters with too many disparate examples.
I imagine you guys have some complex algorithms that are trying to optimize which Eero to connect to and whether to do so at 5Ghz or 2.4. To further complicate things, it probably considers how much bandwidth is going through a given Eero and whether it's better to switch to a distant one at 2.4 with 5 bars or stay with a closer one at 5Ghz with 3 bars...I've seen all that kind of switching behavior.
To your specific question, yes, the Dot is directly above the basement Eero. I'll try to sketch the topology of the 3 Eeros below:
If looking at the house from above:
BEDROOM
OFFICE BASEMENT
If looking at house from side:
BEDROOM
OFFICE
BASEMENT
Office and Basement Eero are hard wired back to the gateway. The bedroom Eero is completely wireless but has 5 bars back to the primary Eero.
Hope this helps...
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I am having the same issue. I have a long narrow house and my apple tv is at one end and my gateway eero is near the other end of the house with a beacon in between. I was expecting the beacon to pick up the connection. Instead the gateway is picking up the connection, but with only 3 bars signal strength. It would be nice if i could allow just the beacon to connect to the AppleTV.
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I think there may be some gap between what the engineers think should happen with non-roaming devices and what users are actually experiencing.
For example, I have a Sony TV that, depending on what other demands there there are on my network, will shift its connection from one eero to another.
The Sony software does not appear to enjoy that experience and routinely will drop its connection completely when that occurs.
For example, I could be streaming a movie on Netflix or my kids could be watching a video on YouTube, and the Sony television will simply report an error in the middle of the video indicating it lost its Internet connection.
To remedy the situation, I had to get a specific eero and place it next to the television with the television hard wired directly into that eero.
This is suboptimal for several reasons not the least of which it is not my first choice of a location for that eero and the televisions ethernet connection is not as fast as it's wireless connection.
In case you were wondering, I do have the IP address reserved and I have the TV set up with a static IP that matches that reservation.
Is there some fundamental reason why this feature would be difficult to implement?
Much thanks in advance! All the team members at eero have been delightful to work with. I just hope this is a feature that could be added in the near future.
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I am encountering the same issue with a Ring doorbell. Weak signal strength, and being assigned to further away/main eero. There is a beacon less than 10' away. It had connected to the beacon for roughly a week on one occasion, but has since re-connected to the further away eero with a weak signal and lower res video capture. Assigning a device to its closest eero would be a welcome feature.
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Absolutely want this feature. For static equipment, rebooting and hoping it connects to the right Eero doesn't make much sense. My upstairs Nest Protect (Smoke Detector) is currently connected to my Basement Eero, through 2 separate floors when there is literally a beacon 5 feet below it in the wall plug beneath it. This could be a potential safety issue if it doesn't get the notification due to distance/impediments.
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Looks like I was right. This would apply here as well then. Connections to the ideal eero are not possible with this hardware. Eero is a great product and mesh is an ideal concept when the proper configuration is feasible. Either separate the frequencies or update the software to configure devices to utilize fastest speed as opposed to best signal (QoS)
Just installed eero and if I can't separate the Frequencies, I'll likely bring it back. My issue is undoubtedly an eero issue. I don't think I'm roaming at all. I have two eeros wired (2nd floor south room/2nd floor North room) (2700sq ft home/square shaped) and one connected via wireless (1st floor center of home with open floor plan) and I'm constantly connected to the 2.4. This is an ideal placement configuration as I have no ceiling in my living room and it's mounted high up on the wall so it's basically in the center of two wired eeros (main router and 1 wired eero connected via cat6, about a 50ft homerun tested with a fluke networks nettool series II). I can only connect to the 5 if I'm standing right next to either of the two wired routers and it would require that I disconnect and reconnect to the corresponding network. The eero connected via wireless is giving me worse signal than my old tplink range extender which would cut my speed in half on the 5 and still give me 180-190 down. When connected to either wired eero's on the 5 I get 300 down.
If it kept me on the "fastest" network instead of the "best signal"; it would be an excellent product, but without proper roaming capabilities, this option is simply for those consumers that don't know or care what speed they're connected at as long as it works. Since I pay for 300D/30U, certain devices only utilizing 60D/30U is unacceptable.
If you feel I may have purchased a faulty product or if this behavior is not normal then please reply with a solution. I'm well within the grace period to exchange/return the product.
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+1 This feature would be amazing !!
Eero team: can can anyone comment if it's on the roadmap?
I'm having lots of trouble getting Sonos and Eero to work together. Sonos speakers will after time connect themselves to the wrong Eero (one that's far away) and this results in audio drops. After much back & forth with Sonos, their best advice is to use Sonos' own mesh network instead of Eero's (SonosNet) but to get this working properly they recommend plugging Sonos as far upstream as possible (as I have a few hard wired devices this means plugging into a router upstream of the gateway Eero, and putting Eero into Bridge mode, which disables a few features). I'd much rather use Eero's mesh (disable SonosNet) but lock specific speakers to a specific Eero that I know is nearby. I'm sure this is a common problem for devices around the home that don't move a lot, so the feature would be great. Fingers crossed.
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I just bought and installed 2 eero's plus 2 eero beacons. My basement Roku is bypassing a basement beacon for an upstairs eero that is also horizontally farther away (in addition to the obvious vertical distance). I rebooted the Roku and the situation continued as such. Further, when I went next to the Roku with my phone, my phone continued connected to the upstairs eero thus bypassing the basement beacon as well.
As a separate problem, my home computer so happens to be about half between two first floor devices. My Internet connectivity was dropped while working then I noticed that the computer switched from one device to the other.
This is also pretty frustrating for the price tag as the whole purpose of my purchase was to get this seamless pass-off from one device to the other throughout the home. At first blush, I'm not sure whether I improved or not from my previous powerline adapter solution.
Certainly, the feature being discussed here would be extremely helpful.
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As another example of why this is necessary, I have four Roku Sticks in the house. Whenever the Eero’s reboot (they get a firmware update, I’m testing something for support, power outage, etc) all the Roku’s end up connected to the primary Eero, which is not the best choice for any of them.
it ends up meaning that every few weeks my family thinks the network sucks because tv does t quite work right. I start troubleshooting, realize the problem, and reboot all the sticks.....
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+1. I have the same problem with Ring doorbells that others have posted. There is a Beacon 8' away yet it connects to something much farther away. Smoke detectors, sprinkler controllers, thermostats, etc don't move around the house. So an ability to pin them to a specific eero would help ensure they are getting the best wifi possible.
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Let me chime in to support this request as well. I have 4 Reolink cameras and a Ring doorbell near the front of the house. I have 4 eeros and 1 beacon. Whenever the network restarts (e.g. because of eero update), all these devices connect to whichever eero boots up first - usually the one furthest away. I have 50+ connected devices in my home (about 10 traditional and 40+ IOT). It is impractical to reboot all of these clients every time the Eero network restarts (specially if it happens when I am not there). In the case of the Reolink cameras, usually the ftp server starts getting errors because of the weak signal.
One solution would be waiting for all Eeros to boot (potentially elongating boot time) and then synchronizing on starting the connection process, which would guarantee that the nearest Eero was up and running when the client attempted to connect.
But, as the OP requested, it would be ideal to be able to lock a client to an eero node.
With the ramp up of IOT, this problem will only get worse.
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I've noticed something that might be a cause for incorrect assumptions in this thread, but also potentially a source of bugs within the Eero system. I'm writing because I know I have the issue in this thread, where devices connect to a sub-optimal Eero on network restart, then won't switch to a better Eero as it comes back online. Nonetheless, the below might be helpful or informative.
I use a wifi analyzer app for on my phone, which shows which Eero I'm connected to. The Eero app often shows my phone connected to a more distant Eero that would make for a poor choice, whereas my Wifi analyzer app seems to show the correct one that I'm actually connected to. My wifi signal strength (on the phone) and speed test agree with the analyzer app (good connection, fast speed, for a nearby Eero). It seems the Eero app is simply wrong or using old information. Interestingly, it shows that the connection to the distant Eero unit is poor, which would be correct, if it were actually connected to that one.
These errors seem to occur even after power-cycling, as I've found with my IP cameras when I power-cycle Eeros to attempt to get a better connection.
As I mentioned, none of this is to disagree with this feature request or deny that it would solve problems. I just want to highlight that you can't always trust what the Eero app is telling you. It also might be useful to the Eero team to know that the app doesn't always even know where devices are connected, so any attempt to manage connections by power-cycling or any other approach is compromised.