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Eero, Eero Plus, Circle

As a mesh solution, Eero has been a dream. I'm frustrated by it's inability to filter websites so I'm looking to fix that part. I think Circle might be the solution but getting definitely mixed vibes about it (but they are older post so maybe things are good now?)

Any experiences with Eero+Circle that anyone can share?

Additionally, Eero Plus seems to do some redirecting of DNS but I would presume if I'm not paying for that then I don't have to include that as part of my equation?

 

Addendum: It looks like Circle is incompatible with Eero V1 so obvious question is how do I make sure I have Eero V2 (which is states it is compatible with?) I bought a 3-pack Eero a few months ago and the model on one of the extender is J010011.)

 

Thanks,

Ed

9 replies

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    • emaxweimy
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Can’t answer question about Eero but have used circle and it’s not reliable and was always going out on me.  My kids would reboot my router and break circle all the time and my son still was able to get in a vpn even though it was supposedly blocking.  

    • memurphyiii
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Thanks 

    • cMoo92
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    V2 hardware has been out for quite awhile, so you've got it if you just bought it a few months ago. I also can't think of any reason why it wouldn't be compatible with V1 hardware though either because they're all running the same software version.

      • memurphyiii
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      cMoo92 Thanks for the note about the hardware.

       

      There's a few reports here in this community and on other forums about incompatibilities between Circle and Eero but they mostly seem to be with 1st Gen devices. The Circle site themselves say they are compatible with V2 but not V1 (though I recall they mentioned a compatibility mode to overcome some of the issues there.) I didn't go that route so I stopped digging into it.

      As an added 2 cents, I opted to try using OpenDNS with the Eero V2 I have to block the websites I wanted (pretty easy to set up if anyone was interested in that.) It does what I want it to at the moment so I've decided to keep the Eero for now. Fingers crossed that the website blocking feature for Eero becomes a reality since the only downside for OpenDNS is that you have to be aware of any domain that a particular application is using and it doesn't block apps, just browsing. (Unless, of course, I've missed something with is entirely possible.) This is, of course, assuming that if Eero adds blocking then it will block apps as well as web sites. :)

      • cMoo92
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      memurphyiii one thing to be aware of with using OpenDNS (or any other similar DNS service) is that it’s fairly simple to get around that. All the person needs to do is manually change the DNS server addresses on their device to something else and then none of their requests get filtered. eero Secure works better because it redirects the DNS requests so this bypass method won’t work. This is also how Circle works.

      • memurphyiii
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      cMoo92 Thank you. Yes, I'm aware of that so it's a stop gap at the moment. Once I get my daughter's school laptop I'll be adding some other layers on it and looking for other or additional solutions. I don't think she'll be able to modify that information (but that remains to be seen.)

      For Eero Secure I looked at it but when I couldn't block web sites I cancelled it. Are you suggesting that using Eero Secure the eero router can be pointed to OpenDNS regardless of the DNS setting on the Eero router itself? I would consider adding Secure back if that's the case.

      • cMoo92
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      memurphyiii No, you cannot customize what DNS servers eero Secure uses (eero uses Zscaler for the DNS service and filtering).

      • memurphyiii
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

        cMoo92 Ok. Thanks. I misunderstood when you said "...eero Secure works better..." I thought you meant in the context of what I'm trying to do. :) I agree it would be better if I could be 100% sure the DNS couldn't be changed but it doesn't look like current version of the eero tools allows me to do that.

      I appreciate the info and discussion!

    • KMHuss
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Ok, we just installed the Eero Pro mesh system and eero Secure.  I need the ability to block specific websites.  Actually, turn them on/off at will.  (Kids on remote learning am wanting to block Youtube and Tiktok for example on demand).  

    Bummer is eero Secure does not offer this ability.  Was looking at putting a Circle add-on.  Any experience whether this will do what I need?  Or, other add-on?  I would hate to have to switch to a different router.  We had this ability with Xfinity, but the reliability and speeds stunk.  

    TIA for any help!!

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