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Multiple Eeros with wired connections to the internet

Community,  In searching for what I was looking to do, I was unable to find any CLEAR discussions so I thought I would share what I learned here. 

I have a large house with many floors, built long ago (1900) and luckily added cat6 in the last go around of renovations.  Being an old house, meshing these eeros was a non-starter, I needed to use my wired lan for backhaul to my egress to the internet.  

Additionally, I have an existing network and advanced firewall which I wanted to keep, so this write up is assuming bridged mode, which disables a lot of advanced features with regards to policy and user controls. 

Step 1: Setup your first eero in a place that you plan to leave it, connect it with ethernet to your lan, set it in bridge mode and update the software to the most current.

Step 2: Plug in your next eero in the vicinity of the first.  In the app/network select add eero and follow the steps for placement and upgrade again to current.  Once this step is complete you have two eeros in the same "network" using wireless to extend from the first.  At this point, you can power down your second eero and move it to where you really want it, where you have a wired connection back to the house lan (and the other eero). Once this second eero is powered and booted, your app will show it as in network and online, using wired as it's connection. 

 

Step 3: Repeat until you are done. 

In my case I have 4 eeros and 1 beacon all performing very well but this would not be the case if I were trying to mesh without a wired lan. I also have other devices connected to my wired eeros and they are performing well via the switch/bridge in the eero's themselves.   Overall I am very impressed with this platform and look forward to playing more with it!

46 replies

    • halcylon
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I could not get this to work at all. 

    My house has drop wires from the access point - netgear r8000 - but only one eero picks up the wired signal from the router. 

      • sloppydogdrool
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      halcylon I've installed the eero in a small self contained community and a few other places.  Probably 30 homes and a few businesses.  I've replaced ubiquit, netgear and other routers.  Not cheap models, commercial grade and top of the line other brand routers.  Far to much detail to go into but bottom line the eero performed the best and was easiest for the customer to deal with.  This comes from a couple years of screwing around with other brands.   I no longer mess around with anything but eero.  We had a resident with a nighthawk router and he had issues with streaming TV.  We swapped it out with eero and boom problem gone.  My point is, replace that netgear with an eero.  So it would be, modem to eero, eero to switch, switch to other eero.

      Now with all that said.  I no longer recommend eero to customers who want support.  eero support is non existent.  I had called support numerous times and just walked away from the phone while I worked and come back hours later and I am still on hold.  Yes I said HOURS.  Absolutely ridiculous for the price they charge.

      I had one eero that refused to go hardwired.  It finally did after HOURS of screwing with it.  Resetting, removing and reinstalling on the network.  However I've installed over 100 without issue.

      Now recently the one at my office has stopped going hard wired after a power outage.  It's plugged into the network and if I power cycle it a couple dozen times, sometimes it might go hard wired.  Since there is no support the only option is to return it as defective.  

      Good luck, I hope some of this information helps you!

      • flylow47
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      halcylon it is entirely possible the crimps are bad. i had to recrimp almost all of mine. and some i've not been able to get a signal out of at all.

       

      i have one beacon and get about 250mpbs from it. the others give me 800-850mbps in my 1gb connection (which tests out to 920ish usually).

    • Jsirgo
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    So my setup:

     

    cable modem -> wired router -> switch


    from the switch are various Ethernet patches inside the walls of my home ending in Ethernet ports.

     

    I want to keep my wired router.  Can I setup 3 eero units each wired?  They would all be post switch.  I assume they would each be bridge mode.  

      • txgunlover
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jsirgo You have to have an eero upstream of the switch and other devices.

       

      Cable modem -> wired router (you don't have to have this, but sounds like you want it) -> eero -> switch -> other devices including eeros.

      • sloppydogdrool
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover I am sorry but that is not accurate.  You do not have to have an eero upstream.  You can have as many eero as you like wired in bridge mode.  My house is Modem > CISCO Router > Switch > 3 eero hard wired and all my other hard wired devices into that switch.  I have two homes running this way with the Cisco.  Another home the customer insisted on keeping his netgear first then 3 eero in bridge mode. 

      Now, lets discuss my experience with these setups.  The two homes with the Cisco wired routers are there to for security and to create a constant VPN.  Those two systems work great.  The power flickers or goes out or the internet goes out or any other hickup...Everything comes back online it's self.  The one customer with the netgear wireless router doesn't work well at all.  I don't know what his configuration is or what else he has going on but his performance is poor.  I don't recommend mixing wireless devices in a home environment.  When we use all eero, we don't get service calls.

      • Jsirgo
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Sloppy so looks like cable modem -> wired router -> switch -> three bridge wired eeros will work!

      I still get just one Wi-Fi network?  No device drop off as I move to/from eeros?  Setup as OP suggested?  That is first eero wired bridge then others wireless first then power down then wire in?

      • sloppydogdrool
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jsirgo hardwire all the eero.  They will plug into the switch.  Just power them up and set them up with the app one at a time.  Only thing I don't recall is how you force them into bridge mode.  You can do it in the app it's just been so long I don't recall.  Also the app has changed.  I'm sure you can google the directions.

      • sloppydogdrool
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jsirgo you also asked about moving from device to device as one network.  Yes, they just have to have the same SSID which they should automatically do that.  However I will tell you from my experience with many wireless networks that handing off your device from one router to another doesn't always work well.  I have moved from one room to another with my laptop for example.  I can move from a room with maybe half signal into a room with a router in it but it will not switch automatically.  It shows the signal barely existent and speed is terrible from the router in the area I just moved from.  But for some reason it just won't switch to the better signal automatically.  I lack the technical knowledge to know why.  I've experienced this with many different networks and devices, even eero.

    • speedthrills
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have a hardwired Eeero Pro that's fed from a switch off my router. One of the hardwired legs off the switch feeds another (new Eero 6 Pro) in my basement- I added it with no issues and it shows up as hardwired. I just tried replacing my "main" hardwired Eero 6 in the living room (the one that's fed by the switch off of the router) and the system couldn't find it even though the internet was on and working correctly. Tried unplugging the modem, unplugging the new eero 6 pro a couple of times but it would never connect to the internet and the whole eero system was offline. I put the previous Eero Pro that was there orignally back on line and the whole system came back up again no problems. 

     

    Is ther a conflct with having two Eero 6 Pro hardwired on the same set up ? I want to use both so the one in the basement comfortably covers the entire basement and add the same Eero 6 pro on the main floor so it has further reach across the rest of the house, both being hardwired. 

     

    thanks 

    • speedthrills
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Question related to your post and my previous question. If I add a wireless Eero 6 Pro to my system is its range going to be the same as if it were hard wired to the network? In other words as long as its on the network is it broadcasting at the same range and speed regardless of it being hardwired or not? 

      • txgunlover
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      speedthrills Range is not dependent on being hardwired.  Speed can be impacted, but not range.

      • speedthrills
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      txgunlover Thanks ! The question is can I have two hardwired Eero  Pro 6 on the same network? I have one hardwired currently but its not identified by the system as the "head unit", I tried replacing the "head unit" Eero 6 this morning with the Pro 6 and could not get it to be reconized by the system, the eero network went offline and wouldn't come back. I ended reverting and putting the original Feero 6 head unit back- hardwired as before and no issues, it came back online (with the new hard wired Eero 6 Pro working too. 

      • sloppydogdrool
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      speedthrills Your saying eeor 6 and eero pro don't play nice on the same network?

       

      speedthrills Wired and wireless mixed.  Wireless seems to run VERY poorly.  For some reason devices always want to use the wireless eero even though it is farther away.  I'm not convinced mesh is good unless it is all you have.  I've also had issues with live streaming TV services.

      • speedthrills
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      sloppydogdrool I notice that I've had issues with Roon enabled devices for audio streaming sometimes dropping off the network or, oddly, being connected to a wireless Eero 6 rooms away while being located 6 feet away from an eero. I've ended up trying to hardwire as much of the system as I can using switches sometimes to run CAT 5 lines off of to TV's and devices etc. 

       

      I couldn't seem to get two Eero 6 Pro working - hard wired- at the same time though the older Eero 6 hard wired gets along fine with a single Eero 6 PRO hard wired? 

      • sloppydogdrool
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      speedthrills The eero pro will work together hard wired.  The only issue I have had is there is one of my offices where I need the eero to be.  It REFUSES to go hardwired.  I even tried swapping around other eero which are working hard wired in other rooms.  So it has something to do with the networking in the room.  Now the wiring in that room could be the issues.  The erro wireless to a switch that wires to a wall plate that wires to another switch that wires to the switch in the panel that ties into the cable modem.  So it could be in your wiring like mine.  I mean process of elimination.  I put in other eeros that work hard wired in other offices and even took the original one that was not working and put it in another office and it goes hard wired there.  So that tell me it has to be the wiring in that office.

    • Jsirgo
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    @sloppydogdrool - I just hooked up all three eeros (bridge) hardwired in the modem - router - switch setup.  It works just as you said it would.  So  try king flawlessly so far.

      • sloppydogdrool
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Jsirgo Great glad to hear it!  It's nice when things just work!  Overall the eero are the best in so far as grief free installation.  We get zero service calls on them.

    • shahp
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have 2 eero devices - first one is used as the gateway device and I want to have wired connection to the second one. My home has the Ethernet wires setup already.

     

    I am using gateway device’s other Ethernet plug to connect it to the room I want to have my second eero device but the problem is that second device only connects through wireless connection and not through wired. Do I need to buy a switch?

      • eero_support
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Hello shahp ,

      Flylow47 has the right of it. Network topology if very important for eeros and you only want one eero with direct access to the modem. Any extra eeros you have at the location will need to branch out from the Gateway eero similar to a tree and it's roots. The most likely cause of your second eero staying on wireless is due to both eeros being connecting at the same spot in the topology. Once you change the topology so it is something similar to what I've written below the eero should rotate back to a wired connect after a few minutes or a reboot.

      Modem -> eero (Gateway) -> Switch -> wires throughout house -> eero/devices

    • flylow47
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    On your gateway, you should connect one of the ethernet ports to your modem, and the other to the second eero. You might test it using a cable first before you use your home's ports. Give the eero a few (maybe 5ish) minutes  to switch the connection from wireless to wired once the two are connected.

     

    If you want to connect more eeros then yes, you'd need a switch - my only advice there is get a good one. Switches can easily become the weakest link of the chain (I have a netgear nighthawk).

     

    For my house, I found a couple of things out when I used the built-in cat5e cabling 1) many of the connectors needed to be re-crimped 2) not all would work - even with re-crimping. The first clue was that the eero would only connect at 100mbps through the home wiring - which meant that not all 8 small wires in the cat5e cables were connected.  Thus I bought a crimp tool, connectors, and began a tedious process of cutting and re-crimping.  But now all are 1gbps connected. This was actually why I asked eero to indicate in the app the connection speed (which they did).

Content aside

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