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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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  • 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. 

    Like 1
  • 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.

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  • 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.  

    Like 1
      • aptessmann
      • aptessmann
      • 2 yrs ago
      • 2
      • 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. 

      Like 2
  • +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!  

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  • 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.

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

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

      Like
      • praasp
      • 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)

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      • TechGuru
      • 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. 

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    • 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.

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      • praasp
      • 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.

      Like
  • This one is important.

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

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  • This should definitely be done.  Make it happen eero

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  • 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.

    Like 1
  • 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.

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  • 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... 

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  • 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.

    Like 1
  • 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.

    Like 1
  • 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.

    Like
      • TechGuru
      • 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.

      Like
      • greyscale
      • greyscale
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      TechGuru 

      Sorry, how does that excuse Eero from either 1) fixing their mesh product so that devices connect correctly to the nearest unit; or 2) adding a feature to assign a device to a specific unit that was requested 4 years ago and has almost 300 upvotes?

      Maybe you're satisfied that this is good enough for you but for $500 I expect much better functionality and support.

      Like
    • sansnil clients choose what AP they connect to, not the AP.  This is how WiFi works, not something "eero is doing".

      The correct follow up is for you to contact the client's manufacturer to fix their WiFi stack.

      Like
      • greyscale
      • greyscale
      • 2 yrs ago
      • 1
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover Eero is "doing something" if multiple devices are connecting to the AP farthest away from them. Devices should connect to the Eero AP in the same room, not the one on the floor above at the far end of the house. This is how WiFi works. I note you didn't address Eero's failure to provide an assign by device feature for 4 years either, which is the real correct follow-up here.

      Like 1
      • rexjak
      • rexjak
      • 2 yrs ago
      • 1
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover TechGuru  We just want eero to add the ability to block devices from connecting to specific eero nodes.  If Doorbell keeps connecting to my faraway eero-bedroom instead of nearby eero-den,  I want to configure eero-bedroom to not accept connections from Doorbell; then Doorbell will have no other choice but connect to eero-den!

      Like 1
    • rexjak Contact the manufacturer of the Doorbell.  Blocking devices on individual AP's breaks WiFi, in that, if that node is not available, the device cannot connect to the network.

      Creating the ability to block devices individually by AP is a crazy way to avoid bad Roaming behavior by clients.

      Like
  • I was having the same issue as everyone, I finally moved the beacon from the bedroom that my ring camera insisted on connecting with on the wall just inside the door and it stayed connected to it. I got tired of tripping over it on my way out of the door, and finally called eero support for help. I'm fuzzy on particulars, (can't remember if they asked me questions, or looked at my connected devices) but they did discover that I had a sonos speaker system. I felt that if a Sonos speaker was within plug in range of the router, it was best to plug it in. The support staff said to unplug all sonos speakers from the ethernet, and let them all work via Wifi. I did that, and it resolved all of my issues with the ring camera. Evidently, if a Sonos speaker is plugged in via ethernet, it can create a sub wifi that will interfere with the Eero mesh. I unplugged all the sonos, and have never had the issue reoccur. Hope this helps someone out there. 

    Like 2
  • Same boat here. Bought a Ring stick up through Amazon. It would npt keep a connection. Called Ring support. We determined that it was connecting to the furthest Eero (the base). Tried multiple reconnects. Failed. Ring said their was nothing to do, referred me to Eero.  Called Eero who said there is NO fix. So Amazon is a three time loser here. Am looking into Verizon’s options as they have a new wifi 6 router that can take base extenders. 

    Oh, And after I reset my Eeros mesh EVERY device in the house connected to the base. The other two Eeros’ have zero connected devices. 

    Like 2
  • It's nuts to see people have commented/complained about this for 4 years ... We have the same issue.  We have a Samsung TV upstairs in our living room, and the TV connects to the EERO in our detached garage which is more than 50 feet from the house instead of connecting to the main erro which is in a bedroom just a hallway away.  It gets ZERO service (can't stream anything) when it's connected to the garage, but turning off the tv doesn't make any change, neither does blocking the TV in the erro app, and ten unblocking it. Nothing works. The only thing that works is rebooting the whole erro system - and that's a pain in the a%% to have to do every morning. Makes zero sense to me why this functionality isn't possible. 

    Like 2
      • Emkay
      • Emkay
      • 2 yrs ago
      • 2
      • Reported - view

      Dingus76 Have this same exact issue with Samsung TV -- horrible

      Like 2
  • The new Asus AiMesh 2.0 firmware will allow a client to be assigned to a specific node, so it is definitely something doable.

    Like 1
      • billfish
      • billfish
      • 2 yrs ago
      • 2
      • Reported - view

      MrSaxy Here’s quote from Asus’ marketing site. (I do not know anything about this, just posting for interest.)

      “AiMesh keeps an eye on the signal strength to your device, and switches it seamlessly to another source if necessary.” 

      Like 2
  • same here. My Sonos system keeps lagging, checked that often they are connected to a distant eero base. Would like to have a manual preference for which base to connect a device to. 

    Like 4
    • ebpo If you have any of your sonos connected via ethernet, you might try unplugging and forcing sonos to only use wi-fi on all speakers. Even one plugged in seems to create an issue with Eero. 

      Like 2
  • #eerodevelopment #eero #i.t. #whattheheck As so many have stated-four years is a long time for the powers that be to continually bump a highly desired feature to the bottom of the developer’s list.
    Clearly they feel their marketplace security is sure enough to risk disappointing their client base.

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  • I am having the same issues

    Like 3
  • Well I've lost hope given this is a 4 year old request!

    Like 2
  • Exactly. New to this forum but with the exact same old problem. Scrolling through the last year or so, I don’t even see a ‘we are considering it’ anymore which of course would indeed be lame after 4 years of ‘considering’. So devellopers: can we please get clarity on whether you are actually going to implement this on a product I spent a ton of money on, or whether we should put these nodes on ebay and look elsewhere for a reliable signal?

    On my specific issue, it is completely common: I have 6 eero pros, of which 3 on ethernet (main unit and two others). I tons of devices including 10 outside wifi security cameras and the house is modern so well insulated. This makes the problem quite acute, because the eeros hardly make it through the wall even when they are placed right next to on the inside. So when some of them connect to the main unit further away in stead of to the one right next to them on the other side of the wall, the signal goes from 2 bars in the camera app to 1 bar. That’s exactly when I start having connection issues. Power cycling helps sometimes, but not always and after a while they still tend to roam to the main unit. So let me finish by repeating the request to finally - after 4 years of considering - implement this absolutely crucial feature.

    Like 4
  • Yes, yes, yes!

    Like 2
  • According to Eero support the issue is that hardwiring a MAC address to a specific Eero router breaks the mesh protocol and isn't something they've found a way to support. Their recommendation to hardwire the device (not always possible) or switch the device to use the 2.4G channel (which will cause it to choose the nearest mesh node).

    Like 2
      • billfish
      • billfish
      • 1 yr ago
      • 3
      • Reported - view

      smcbutler Thank you for obtaining this info! So what I find interesting about this is - I've forgotten my symbolic logic symbols, but I think that "switch the device to use the 2.4G channel -> which will cause it to choose the nearest mesh node" implies that "using the 5G channel -> will not cause it to use the nearest mesh node". How much sense does that make?? (question not directed at you, directed at eero) As to hardwiring, I've done that with as many devices as possible, but... i believe eero is in the wifi business, not the switch business. "My car doesn't work." "Take the train."

      <trying to be calm and pleasant> Again, thank you for posting.

      Like 3
    • smcbutler I've tried forcing my laptop to 2.4GHz only, just to give it a shot, but my laptop won't even connect to the network after I pick "prefer 2.4GHz".

      Like
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