Feature Request: Bandwidth Monitor

Hi yepher  —

Thanks for your post.

To touch on your main concern, these APIs only return the available information from your own network. This is similar to how the app works, and how that information is kept within your local network. This also means your information wouldn’t be available for just anyone to make an API call and pull information – this is a major security consideration that we incorporate into every new API design.

As a company, security is at the forefront of our hardware and software — and has been since we first launched.

We have a vulnerability disclosure program in place with Bugcrowd, as well as having past and ongoing security testing by industry-leading third-party security specialists. If you have any additional concerns, we also encourage you to contact security@eero.com , which will escalate any concerns immediately to our security team.

Thanks again. We appreciate your continued interest in this feature. Hopefully, one day trying to use the APIs to get this information won’t be necessary

Jeff C. Thanks for the response. If I find any real security concerns I will be sure to share at secuirty@eero.com or Bugcrowd.

Thanks.

Found a few minutes to work on the proof of concept this morning.

Login now works: https://github.com/yepher/eeroMonitor next step is to dump monitor details to console :)

Grick I'd suggest using a "main" router with traffic meter capability, and putting your eero into AP mode to find out how much data your clients are using. At least until you find out what's up with your data usage. I'm currently doing this, and found out what my massive data leak was. Apparently, when you turn off your TV if you're using a streaming device like a Roku, the Roku doesn't turn off and continues to stream. If you always push the "Home" button before turning off the TV, then the Roku will go off in a few seconds. Otherwise, the Roku will continue to stream, even though there isn't an active TV connected to it. I found this very counter-intuitive, and needed the data traffic meter to discover it.

The other thing that I've done, other than pushing "Home" button before turning off the TV, is to get some of those power strips that have a "master" outlet, along with several "secondary" outlets. When the device plugged into the "master" outlet is turned off, if the Roku is plugged into a secondary outlet it will have it's power turned off a few seconds after the TV is turned off. The only downside of this one is that you have to wait for your Roku to boot up when you turn on the TV and the Roku...but that's a lot better than using 30GB of streamed data overnight when there's nobody using the TV *smile*. And if you have any other devices that also only make sense to use when the TV's on, you can save energy on those, too, by plugging them into secondary outlets.

Hope that this helps.

MrDoh The first month we went over, I thought for sure this was actually the cause. We had recently cut cable and were using Playstation Vue - I turned on the TV a couple times to find that someone had not exited, leaving it streaming for who knows how long. However, we have since all adopted the old "If you don't press 'home,' the bandwidth will roam" adage. And yet we have used even more somehow.

We are a three-adult household with one working from home full-time, and another that works from home two days per week. It may be that we just use that much data...just need to know in order to figure out if it will be a consistent usage level, in which case we'd need to buy unlimited.

I don't know what AP mode is, but will research your suggestion. Thanks!

Grick Having the eero in AP/bridge mode means that the eero is not your main router, it's only providing wireless. The eero in bridge mode is not providing router services like DHCP, DNS, NAT, etc. or routing itself. With the eero in bridge mode acting as an AP (access point), you will get the benefits of the wireless mesh, but you'll have to have another router that has "wired-only" connections that will provide those routing services (DHCP, DNS, NAT, etc.). I have a Netgear R7800 that I use with LEDE firmware that provides all the routing functions I need, plus it provides per-IP client data usage (traffic metering). I just leave the wireless radios on the R7800 turned off, and the eero provides our Wi-Fi. There are a couple of support articles on the eero web site that describe how to switch the eero to AP mode.

It would have been a much longer process for me to figure out what was going on here with our high data usage without the traffic metering on the R7800. The catch is that you have to have a router that you can use for your main "wired-only" router, but then you have all the services provided by it to monitor your home network.

Data from the traffic metering led me to getting the primary/secondary power strips, that provide a backstop to make sure that our Roku's are off when the TV is off.

Also, with most streaming TV devices like the Roku or Fire TV, there's a way to set the TV's resolution in the streaming device settings. This setting is usually called "Display", or something similar. I started with the Roku's set to 720p, which looked fine on my 4K UHD HDR TV's. Once I got my arms around what data usage that got us when things were working as they should (about 6GB per day), I raised the Roku display resolution setting to 1080p. What we're seeing now with 1080p is about 10-15GB per day, and that includes my wife binge-watching her Netflix stuff and me watching my mixture of over-the-air and streamed TV (Netflix, Prime Video, Playstation Vue).  And, of course, all of our internet use on computers, tablets, and phones. But that's only 2 TV's, so you'll very likely use a little more, depending on how much time is spent streaming. 

Once you have traffic metering set up, and you can see what's using the data on your home network, there are some surprises waiting for you, I'm sure. Yes, you may just need unlimited data, but i have doubts about that *smile*. If so, you might be able to switch to AT&T Gb. fiber, where there's no data cap. Around here that's cheaper than unlimited data from Comcast.

Oh yeah, we're also using Playstation Vue...love the way that they integrated their guide. Not in love with the monthly rate going up, but I tried them all and Playstation Vue was the best combination of cable channels and navigation tools here. Also accommodates the 3 TV's that we have. We do have to get our "live" local stations over-the-air, but I have an indoor antenna for that...works well with the Tablo.

I'm not even an Eero customer (yet?)... and want this.  The day they add it I'm ordering 4-5 eeros.

handyvoll Nice!  Orbi traffic meter is exactly what I need!

Miccicke it is insane to me that I am considering switching because I found a better suggestion on a Eero feature request. For $299 on Amazon for three nodes no less... 

RWilliamson Keep in mind the option of using the eero in bridge/AP mode. If you have a router that can do traffic metering, and attach the eero in AP mode as a wireless mesh, you can have great wireless and watch the data use of your clients.

MrDoh just keep in mind you can use your Camry to push your Mercedes when it doesn’t work like it should. 

MrDoh I'd move to Plume. They have amazing throughput an for 100 bucks less you get 3 superpods and a lifetime membership or I switch to Orbi even though I'm not the biggest fan of Netgear, the Nighthawk R8000 pissed me off only because I had to reboot it all the time, the feature set was spectacular. If I wanted to spend even more money I would go to Cujo but at some point just throwing more money at something is just stupid.

imahawki Thanks for the thoughtful comment. None the less, I'll tell you where I'm coming from. I was having a problem with internet TV data cap and was using the eero in full router mode. So I switched the eero into AP mode, found the problem, and fixed it in a day or so. Then back to full router mode since then. No problems since then, but if any do come up with data use, I'll get out my Camry and fix them.

2 points...first off, that wasn't my first choice, my first choice was to be able to use the eero to find the problem, but for the moment that's not available to me. I've tried with every opportunity that I've had to influence the eero folks to support traffic metering, but until that's done I'll use the tools that I have available. The second point is that this sort of problem is one that can usually be fixed quickly, and then you're done with it. Again, not my preferred solution, but it works for me.

RWilliamson Have an Orbi here now, and like the eero a lot better. Fits my house much better. Started with the eero when Netgear went off track with their Orbi firmware, traded back and forth until it was clear to me that eero was better for my needs. Especially with the wired backhaul using MoCA. For traffic metering, regrettably, I have to change the eero to AP/bridge mode, and use the R7800 with LEDE firmware. Stock Netgear firmware doesn't do the traffic metering that I need if I'm looking at individual clients on my network for data use problems. However, I've only had to go through that time-consuming and painful process once or twice, thank goodness. I'm staying well below the cursed Comcast data cap these days *smile*.

Anyways, Plume was one of the ones that I looked at when the Orbi pushed me that way...the recommendation at that time was that you needed one per room for a "pool" of wi-fi in a room. Not what I need.They may have evolved some by bulking up their nodes, but eero is still serving my needs at this point.

I will look at the Plume again, though. Nice to know what's out there.

Mgreer316 it’s become abundantly clear that Eero has no respect for their customers. The real question is why run this sham of a feedback forum when you’re clearly ignoring your customers. As I’ve said elsewhere in this thread, go one-star the app in the App Store and the router wherever you bought it. 

imahawki I wish I could. But I see nothing in the Android Play Store that allows me to make a comment. I've commented on apps before but I can't figure out how to do it for thy s app.

imahawki I agree, Its pretty bad that we pay a crap ton on this system, and it barely has basic features.

imahawki I agree, Its pretty bad that we pay as much as we do on this system, and it barely has basic features.

imahawki Nothing constructive to say ? Hm. 

namahs The developers have discussed it on Reddit.  It is in the roadmap, but is a very complex feature for them to add.