457

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.)

412 replies

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    • James_White
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Picture 3: Disabled and unplugged Eero = 126 Mbps

    • James_White
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Obviously seems like a connection issue with which Eero device is trying to connect to? i.e. 2 Eero Pro's are providing better signal than 3 but when I connect direct to 3rd all works well. Having the ability to assign which device to which Eero may help fix this problem.

    • diejoh
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Having the exact same problem as OP, except I have the new Nest Hello doorbell. It initially connects at 5GHz, then has connectivity issues and reconnects at 2.4GHz. It’s an Eero Pro setup with wired backhaul, and there’s a leaf / module directly on the other side of the wall to the doorbell. However, the Nest Hello connects to the Gateway Eero all the way on the other side of the house. 

    I also notice several instances of “sticky” clients, where they hang on to a module farther away with a weaker signal, even if a closet module is inches away. 

    • yanksno1
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Count me in as well. My new Harmony Hub would be on one band while my iPhone would be on the other and I'd have no way to set it up. Eventually a few days later my iPhone did connect to the other band, so I eventually got it working. But it would be nice if we had this option. This was over a year ago at this point, thought the feature might have been added by now. But nope, so hopefully they listen to us sooner then later!

    • Langenkamp
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Same issue here.  My pool equipment is connecting the eero farthest away and ignoring the three units that are closer, including the unite that is 15 feet away.  Please add functionality to force assign eero units for stationary devices.

    • lymanvillage
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Same issue.  My Ring cameras are connecting to the main eero and not the one much closer and in line of sight.  In addition, my eero pro system is only utilizing about 300 Mbps of my 1000 Mbps service even when I'm right next to my main eero.  I'm not sure about this system.

    • sdchew
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Maybe a easy work around the Eero team can consider is to consider adding an option to select which Eero's turn on their wifi first. Let's say you want the Leaf node 2 to turn on prior to Lead Node 1 and then the gateway, the Eero sets turn on wifi delay to Node 2 to 0, node 1 to 1 min later and gateway to 2 min later. Yes Leaf 2 will probably scream that it can't find the gateway if it was connected wirelessly but I think it should be OK for a period of time while the devices all connect to it

      • mzman
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      sdchew 

      This wouldn't help me much, because I have several devices that don't ever search for a stronger signal after their initial connection, and they need to connect to different Eero nodes for the best signal.

      • sdchew
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      mzman I guess the other solution is for Eero to allow each node to broadcast another SSID just like the manner it does for the Guest SSID. The difference is for the secondary SSID to be node specific (e.g. Only node broadcasting this SSID is the specific node). The non-roaming device can then join that specific SSID locking it to that node. 

      • mzman
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      sdchew I don't think that's the best option either, since it complicates management. I think PhoenixRevived nailed it in an earlier post. In my opinion #2 is a simple solution they could implement immediately with very little downside:

      The potential solutions I see are:

      1. Assign fixed devices to specific Eero nodes (like Reservation).

      2. Wait for *ALL* Eero nodes to restart before responding to *any* connection request. This would ensure that the nearest one would get the connection.

      3. Periodically check if the client device is closer to a different Eero and reconnect to the closest one. I don't know if this is possible without client participation, and will probably have some undesired side effects with roaming clients.

       

    • Mike_K
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    It’s awfully frustrating to me that a topic that has been as active as this one, with so many customers clearly suffering from this issue, that there’s been little to no response from eero to provide a resolution or hope that a feature update might be in the works. Silence speaks volumes I suppose. 

    I have a house bathed in WiFi coverage that does me no good when immobile devices (my Ring doorbell) simply won’t connect to the beacon a few feet away and there’s no way to change that  

      • eero Community Manager
      • Jeff_C
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Mike K —

      Thanks for reaching out and sorry to hear the issue you are experiencing with your Ring doorbell.

      When we see issues like this, it is typically due to a stationary device connecting to the first eero that comes online and is within range. Since roaming is mostly up to the connected device, it is possible some devices would just stay connected to the first eero they connect to. To correct this, you may want to try power cycling the connected device or having it reconnect to the network if you have such an option.

      As noted, this is something we continue to have under consideration. However, at this time, we don't have any updates to share. 

      If you continue to see this issue after power cycling or reconnecting the device to the network, please send a note over to support@eero.com so we can make sure nothing else is going on.

      • diejoh
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jeff C. That’s not really true. The same thing happens to all such devices. I have the new Nest Hello and it does the same thing; an Eero leaf is mere feet from it yet it decides to connect all the way past every leaf in the house to connect to the gateway eero. It also chooses 2.4GHz instead of the 5GHz it should prefer. I’ve run test after test, and even if it initially connects at 5GHz to the Eero close to it, eventually it ends up at the gateway Eero, even without restarting anything. 

       

      The Eero Pro that I have absolutely suffers from the “sticky client” problem, a problem that wireless tech has worked out years ago. This is not the fault of the clients. Eero Support actually knows this and told me the next firmware will fix this issue, but it was supposed to be released in April. Now I just hope I wasn’t lied to and that this major problem will be fixed soon. 

       

      It also impacts my ability to stay on the phone because I rely on WiFi calling since my cell tower is too far away to provide a reliable connection. When my iPhone 7 Plus can’t reconnect to the Eero leaf 14 inches away and insists on sticking to a different Eero I just have no words. How can anyone explain this? It’s not right and Eero should just admit there’s a problem and work harder on the solution. Please. 

      • lymanvillage
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jeff C. It seems like we would all like to know if this is "under consideration" or if it is going to be or is being worked on since this has been in the feature request for the past year.  We can then all make an informed decision on how to move forward with our issues.

      • diejoh
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Mike K Jeff C. An update to the Eero app just showed up, updated, and I opened it to look for a firmware update. I didn’t see one but I did notice my Nest Hello was connected at 5GHz to the nearest Eero leaf! Shock and amazement! I’m suspecting a patch was silently pushed as a result of opening another case on this recently. Is anyone else seeing anything like this?

    • PhoenixRevived
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    While I share your disappointment in the lack of responsiveness from Eero, In my years in the IT business, I have come to realize that IT management tends to favor new sales over support, and tends to put resources towards the former rather than the latter. It is indicative that Eero's prospective customers are unaware of this issue and so do not see it as an obstacle to purchasing Eeros. This is short-term thinking and will hurt the company in the future as their customer base grows and shortcomings are more widely disseminated. Blame it on our quarterly performance culture rather than long-term vision.

    For now, they are the best game in town. It won't always be that way. They have probably not realized that word-of-mouth from existing customers can help future sales.

    • ifermon
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    +1

     

    Not sure how to tell which eero a device is connected to. I have a PC that keeps dropping, even though there is an Eero only feet away. Very annoying, and the very same PC did not have that issue with the prior AP (buffalo). Tried forcing non-5ghz frequency but that didn't help much. It would be nice to see what AP it was connecting to (there are 3, all reachable from the PC, and all hard wired). Also would be nice since this is a tower to lock it onto one of them. Seems like it would be pretty basic, at least to be able to see which eero device is supporting which client device.

      • rwross
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      ifermon If you open your Eero app and tap the "## connected devices" oval near the top it will bring down a detail sheet listing all connected devices.

      It lists them alphabetically based on the name provided or, if you've never named them, the embedded Hostname of the device.  If you have a lot of PCs you may have to do a bit of sleuthing.  This would also be a good time to name all your devices :-)

      Anyway, about halfway down the detail page for every device it will list "Connected to" and then the name of the specific Eero.  Above that it identifies the frequency and strength of the connected signal as well.

      Hope this helps.  That said, this issue has been open for as long as I've been an Eero customer and the only official response I've seen is a polite "thank you for your input," "we will look into it," and "there are no current plans to incorporate it."

      ** Here's my question and it is very specific.  I assume Eero uses some form of the Agile framework to develop its software.  If so, there is a backlog of features groomed by it's Product Manager and prioritized by the Product Owner.  Here's the question.  Is this feature in that backlog and, if so, where does it sit on the list. **

      • ifermon
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      rwross I had not noticed that. Feel kinda dumb. Thank you.

       

      Would still like to see the ability to have a preferred/default/locked eero.

    • cougarmike7
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Add me to the list of those requesting this feature.  I have a weather station that will initially connect to the closest eero and requires a 2.4 connection.  Everything works great, until it is 'handed off' to the basement eero which is the furthest away.  At that point, it stops reporting data.  I don't have the option to hard-wire the weather station to the closer eero, but I need it to stay with the closest eero, which it always connects to first.

    • Abecktole
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    It is ridiculous that this hasn’t been addressed substantially or better yet solved at this point. I am having the exact same issues as everyone above. I have two eeros upstairs and two downstairs, yet my iPhone continues to connect to one downstairs in the living room, which is the furthest one away and providing me with a dismal signal I can’t reroute. It’s to the point I can’t do anything with WiFi on my iPhone from this area of the house. I’m getting barely 5 mbps when my speed is 300/300. I’ve been dealing with this for not even a couple hours and I already want to pull out my hair, which is unacceptable for a product THIS expensive! I’ll be getting my $1k back and returning this in the next few days if issues persist. It doesn’t sound like leadership has any interest in fixing the root of the issue, so I’ll return it while I can rather than take a gamble and hope it’s addressed in the future. (Seeing as this thread dates a year back, safe to say they’ll be losing a would-be customer in a few days). What a bummer!

      • mzman
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Abecktole There may be something wrong with your Eeros or your iPhone. My Android sometimes stays connected to a more distant Eero, but never if the signal gets too weak. There are certainly places in the house I would get below 20mbps if connected to a distant Eero, but I don't, because my phone connects to a closer one. Mobile phones are definitely NOT the issue for me here. It's the other devices that don't move around  that are the problem. The issue discussed here, if you look through the posts, is primarily with devices "too stupid to roam". I figure your iPhone isn't in that category, or at least shouldn't be. 

      • mzman
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Abecktole ... And also, if I am not satisfied with the typical 20 to 60 Mbps I get while connected to a more distant Eero, which is rare, I cycle my wifi on and off, and instantly get 100mbps+ if I'm close to an Eero. 

    • DrHockey73
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I'd also like to see support for this feature. I have a Sense monitor that occasionally jumps to another Eero and it ends up creating gaps in the energy logging. 

    • Chris
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Add me to this list. I've been waiting for this for about 18 months. I'm tired of having devices that are 10 feet away from a fully functional Eero and they connect to another Eero two floors away. Another example is an Eero is in my garage and my wireless outdoor cams connect to the one in my basement which is about 40 feet past the garage Eero. It makes no sense to me whatsoever.

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