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eero Labs features and feedback thread

Welcome to the eero Labs features and feedback thread!

Here is your place to share your experiences with new eero Labs feature releases, as well as let us know the types of future concepts you'd like to see here. We encourage you to share your feedback and interact with others, as well as have an opportunity to interact directly with our developers.

While this section will be more focused on connectivity related features, you can also submit general feature requests here.

For more on eero Labs, visit the eero help center.

1097 replies

    • mperu0608
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    SQM causes my network's speed to cut in half.  Obviously this is a beta, but it drove me crazy until I figured out what was causing the problem.  I have everything in Eero Labs turned off until it's ironed out.

      • microChasm
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      cMoo92 I second speedof.me

    • joedaman88
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    SQM seems to work well in my household...we have between 35 - 45 devices connected and 6 - 10 devices actively streaming or using significant bandwidth.  My ISP provides 400/20 speed.

    I understand from reading posts on reddit, that SQM uses the daily speed test to determine how SQM meters out bandwidth.  As my test seems to take place every evening at 9:30 PM (peak usage time) my speeds vary pretty widely ranging from 320 to 460.  My suggestion would be for SQM to use some sort of weighted average to determine the bandwidth available.  Since the app already stores the last 30 speed tests, why not do the following:

    1. Have a place for a user to input the expected speeds from their current ISP.

    2. Use the average speed for the past 7 days, throwout the top and bottom tests, use the average and compare to expected speeds from ISP to determine how SQM manages user usage.

    Without using some sort of average and SQM is either very effective or behaves badly because of a speed test that occurs during peak hours where variance are to be expected.

    • Gravity Brings Me Down...
    • stevebaker
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Just wanted to add that I think the Eero folks are crushing it lately - sure, there's more to do and all that, but wow -- the labs stuff and the greater insights within the app (like seeing what gadgets are connected to which Eeros) are super cool, nice work! I continue to recommend Eero to folks and am excited for what comes next.

      • River
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      stevebaker 

    • conigs
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have changed over to the new BETA systems on my EERO and noticed that when I have selected the Local DNS Caching - that when I tried to access the internet on my laptops that I've been blocked and have no connection - telling me that my DNS has an issue.  Is there something I need to change on my laptop browser software when I select this feature on EERO ?

      • cMoo92
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      conigs try rebooting your laptops so that they get the new DNS server setting.

      • joedaman88
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      conigs or just renew DHCP lease from laptop.

      • conigs
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Thanks that took care of it - problem solvedcMoo92 

    • Endpoint Security Engineer
    • scots
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I enabled all three eero Labs features.  The only one that seems to cause me any issues is the Smart Queue Management.  When I have SQM enabled it causes issues with the streaming of DIRECTV Now, to the point where it's almost unwatchable.  It didn't seem to have an effect on any other streaming service, or with anything else that utilizes my network.  I've turned SQM off for now.  I got tired of hearing my other half say "FIX THIS TV!!!"  DIRECTV Now is working flawlessly with SQM turned off.

      • cMoo92
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      scots yea I have SQM disabled because it causes these types of issues with streaming from my Plex media server.

      • Endpoint Security Engineer
      • scots
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      cMoo92 I hadn't noticed any problems with anything other than DIRECTV Now.  Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming seemed to work fine for me.  I don't have Plex set up.  With DIRECTV Now it would sometimes freeze up, then start back up in about 15 to 20 seconds.  But more frequently it would freeze, then a message would come up about an issue with the network, and it wouldn't start back up until we either selected the same channel we had been watching or changed to a different channel.  Sometimes it would happen only a couple times an hour, and sometimes it would happen about every 5 minutes.  Pretty annoying.  Working perfectly since I turned off SQM.

    • alexrass
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Are there any thoughts on supporting 802.11mc?

    • tangaroa
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I'm not sure that DNS caching is respecting the custom DNS settings (OpenDNS) that I have under v.3.9.1-3, as I notice with DNS caching enabled, instead of returning the expected NXDOMAIN response for a failed lookup I'm directed to my ISP's hijacked DNS search assistance page (Verizon FIOS) which would indicate it's just taking the ISP's provided DNS entries.

    Disabling caching, when the dhcp lease sets my custom DNS entries a failed lookup returns the expected NXDOMAIN response

      • Drew
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Thanks for sharing your experience tangaroa and welcome to the Community! 

      As local DNS caching – and all eero Labs features – are still technically in beta development, we're eager for any ways we can improve these functionalities. If you haven't yet, I strongly encourage you to email support@eero.com with the details of what you're seeing so we can coordinate further with our engineers and make sure everything is working as expected on your network. Please put "Community Feedback – DNS Caching" or similar in the subject line and I'll make sure one of our senior specialists follows up with you further!

      Kindly,
      Drew, eero Community Team

    • bocksnet
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I know the content blocking is not in the Labs section but this seemed to be the best place to talk about ad blocking since it is in beta. 

    It is great! I love this feature, but it has caused me issues on CBS.com because it blocks the commercials so you can’t watch the shows. Would it be possible to add a while list to this feature?

    • DWRocks
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Omg..it’s either band steering or smart que keeps crashing my whole system under heaving streaming load...ugh. It had happened several times and rebooting system is a real pisser

    • Mnhockeycoach99
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I would like to see two things added to the Eero functionality.

     

    1.   Provide a numerical value for the signal strength for each beacon location (not just the bars).

    2.   Allow users to select a particular beacon location and run a speed test versus an overall network speed test.

     

    Thanks,

    TD
     

    • Carterbunch
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Local DNS Caching work?  I am running into a problem and want a better understanding of how this works.

    do individual hosts on the network contribute to the local DNS cache?  For instance if I edit a hosts file on a local machine and that machine locally resolved the Hosts file value vs the DNS value. Does that get added to the Local DNS cache for the network?

      • cMoo92
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Carterbunch I don’t know how local DNS caching works on eero, but I’m 134.78% positive that it’s not using any of the devices on your network to cache lookups. If you manually edit the host file, only that single machine is going to look at its own host file.

      • Drew
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Thanks for sharing your question with us Carterbunch!

      So, concerning the local DNS caching, it's quite simple and straightforward – when a device makes a request to the WAN, the DNS request goes the gateway IP address. The gateway eero sends out the request to be resolved by a DNS server, and then caches the result locally. When any device on the network attempts to resolve the domain again, the gateway can serve up the record instead of sending out a DNS request again.

      If a device has custom DNS configured locally, or for any other reason doesn't ask the gateway to resolve DNS for it, then the eero won't cache the results of that device's DNS requests, and will simply pass through the traffic to the WAN. 

      Hope this information is helpful for you! If you have any other questions or concerns, please let me know, give us a call at 877-659-2347 or email support@eero.com and we'd be happy to assist further!

      Kindly,
      Drew, eero Community Team

      • theklingenberg
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Hi @Drew,

       

      After enabling Local DNS Caching in the Eero Labs test area I noticed that my TiVo Roamio no longer connects to the TiVo service to download guide data.

    • ebonovic
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    So I have been trying Band-Steering the last week; and ran into some problems.
    My DLink Water Sensors: DCH-S160 units; will not connect consistently in this setup.       As soon as I turn off Band-Steering they connect again, with no problem.

      • cMoo92
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      ebonovic Those are probably 2.4GHz only devices. Band-steering is a tricky technology, even outside of eero, and it's not terribly uncommon for some 2.4GHz devices to fail to connect when band-steering is enabled on an access point.

      I personally don't run band steering on my eero network. It's a nifty idea, but I don't have any problems with it off, so it's not worth it to me to risk creating issues.

    • Chad_Mobley
    • 6 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Eero Labs features have certainly impressed me and my uses on the network however it should be noted that I was able to narrow down an issue with Smart Queue Management causing issues with “Hey Siri” enabled devices communicating and responding. Where HomePod is meant to take over in most cases, the devices would just quit trying as if they all assumed the other device would complete to request. Turning off Smart Queue Management resolve the issue after trying some other solutions.

      • Fan of tinkering with new hardware. Canadian dude.
      • cotedan87
      • 6 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Chad Mobley interesting. I have 4 Homepods but can’t say I’ve had any problems. Hm. 

Content aside

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