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Eero network no longer compatible with Private Relay

This morning my iPad popped up a notification that Private Relay does not work with my Eero network. 

I've been on iPadOS 15 the past week. I have Eero secure enabled. And everything has been working fine since until today it forced me to turn off private relay. 

Is Apple's new feature not compatible with Eero? And any fixes coming if so? 

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  • The recent upgrade of MacOS 12.1 seems to have corrected the problem on my MacBook Pro.  I did have to check the box in Settings -> Apple ID -> Private Relay

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  • Honestly this is another tactic or lets say a way to monitor our activity in which Amazon can use to track us for advertisement purposes. The sad thing the cost of this item, should come with open access and not limit us with our private relay. Please fix this or we will spread the word and go to another router base system. Thanks in advance.

    Like 2
      • frozo
      • frozo
      • 1 yr ago
      • 1
      • Reported - view

      obviouslysilent You are exactly right. There is no other reason not to support it. What are our mesh alternatives and do they allow Private Relay? I’m jumping ship too. 

      Like 1
    • frozo  I’ll give them one month, if no resolution, I’ll try netgear mesh 6.0 and test it. If this doesn’t work I heard Tp link works. 

      Like
      • mrthrd
      • mrthrd
      • 1 yr ago
      • 1
      • Reported - view

      obviouslysilent looking for another option too that support HomeKit, mesh and private relay. 

      Like 1
      • ak1234567
      • ak1234567
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      This is unfortunate. I've been genuinely impressed with Eero's devices and software—I find their app incredibly easy to use and I love knowing which devices are actively connected to each access point, name/ rename devices, block and pause devices, etc. I've been paying for basic Eero Secure and have been happy with it. But this seems like a transparent money grab to push users to upgrade to Eero Secure+ (which includes VPN functionality), and presumably for ad tracking purposes. Intentionally disabling functionality provided by others as a cash grab is a deal breaker, provided that proves to be the case.

      Like
      • Dave
      • Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?
      • dsimerly
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      frozo a gent in earlier comments above has already tested TP Link, and found that it not only allows iCloud Relay, but is also faster than eero as a mesh network. It's what I'll be looking at if eero doesn't fix this without forcing us to subscribe to "Secure."

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      • mrthrd
      • mrthrd
      • 1 yr ago
      • 1
      • Reported - view

      Dave I’m using TP Link for our small business and works great. The only reason I opted for eero at home was the HomeKit compatibility. For the same reason as you I’m looking for an alternative that support mesh and HomeKit. 

      Like 1
  • Check this out to see if it fixes the issue. Make sure device is up to date. Go to your Wi-Fi on device, find your network, open it up, make sure private wi if is on. Then check limit IP address tracking, make sure it is on. If it is already on, toggle it on and off and back on.  After that go and check your private relay is now working on your network. Mine has been working for about 8 hrs and will monitor to see if it is resolved. Hope it helps. Sad thing support offer 0 support on this…

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  • UPDATE: I got Private Relay working on my network!

    The eero technical support rep gave @pdxcubfan the answer in an unhelpful way. I was poking around in Settings > Network settings > DNS in the eero app and saw "To change your DNS settings, you must disable all eero Secure+ features" — eero needs to control DNS in order to do what it does. But Private Relay does its own thing with DNS as described in the iCloud Private Relay Overview.

    I had already turned off the Secure+ features listed on the Secure+ screen (Advanced Security, Ad Blocking), per the suggestion, but I had to remove the Private Relay domains from the Allowed list (Block & allow sites, at the bottom of the Secure+ settings) before Secure+ was disabled and the DNS settings became accessible.

    In other words, if any of the traffic filtering features are enabled in the Secure+ settings, Private Relay will not work. (You don't have to cancel account integrations with 1Password, Encrypt.me, and Malwarebytes.)

    I'd like to use Secure+ features, but Private Relay is the priority, as others have noted. I have ad/tracking blocking (1Blocker) and Malwarebytes running on my Apple devices already, so I feel pretty well protected. It would be nice to get more clarity into why they're incompatible though — it seems like whitelisting the domains should've done the trick. If it's truly impossible for Private Relay and Secure+ to work together, a device-level inclusion/exclusion for Secure+ processing would allow them to at least coexist. My non-Apple devices could sure use some extra protection!

    Like 2
      • Dave
      • Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?
      • dsimerly
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      matthewearle any idea how to get it working for someone who doesn't subscribe to either of eero's "Secure" options?

      Like
    • Dave My problem was solved by disabling the Secure+ features, so you probably have a different issue. Try some of ideas in this thread!

      Like 1
  • I have Eero Secure turned on, and I have NEVER gotten the Private Relay incompatibility pop-up on my ethernet-connected iMac. I get the pop-up regularly on my iPhone, so I simply turn off Private Relay and turn it back on again. It's definitely working - I've verified on both wired and wifi that my real IP address is not showing on what'smyip.org.

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  • so just coughed up for Eero Secure, and still getting warnings that Eero is blocking encrypted DNS traffic. Is there a solution to this?

    Like
  • Hi All,

    I'm a big fan of both Eero Secure+ and Apple Private Relay. I've built a career on implementing network and device security and privacy across many operating systems and in many network. I'm providing this as context for you all so the rest of my comment will make sense.

    Apple Private Relay and Eero Secure+ network filtering are inherently incompatible. Eero Secure+ network filtering works at the DNS level (the service that translated www.eero.com to the IP address that your system actually uses to connect). The company that provides this service for Eero has a big, and constantly updated, database of names that are known good, bad, ad networks, etc. When a device on your network looks for a host name Eero routes that request to the security provider. If it's bad you get redirected to a safe place. If it's good you get back the correct IP address.

    Apple Private Relay is designed to keep you private by hiding your web traffic AND DNS REQUESTS from your network provider. In the case of your home network you are your own network provider. If you hide your DNS traffic from Eero then Eero Secure+ network filtering will not work. 

    Eero gives you a lot of flexibility on configuring network blocking by setting blocking for the whole network or for individual profiles. If you really want to keep your Mac and iOS traffic private from your ISP then I suggest you create a profile for those devices and set the "Block for" setting in Eero Secure+ settings to block for all profiles except the Apple devices profile. 

    Personally, I've chosen to leave Apple Private Relay off for my home network as I like the Secure+ features and I trust my current ISP to not sell my web browsing data. 

    -J

    Like 2
  • Update: problem resolved here when I updated my router (w/o eero Secure subscription), to eeroOS 6.6.1.

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    • Dave same for me. 

      Like 1
      • Dave
      • Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?
      • dsimerly
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      ImJohnHime my bad. I thought the problem was resolved, but when I checked the iCould > Private Relay setting on my iPhone, it showed me the message below (framed in red). Apparently, it knows when it's not welcome.

      Like
    • Dave I've seen this issue too but not since iOS 15.3+. Could you confirm:

      1. You have iOS 15.3+ installed

      2. When you go to Settings -> Wi-Fi -> Wayne Manor (click the "i" icon), you see the "Limit IP Address Tracking" toggle enabled?

      Like 1
      • Dave
      • Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?
      • dsimerly
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      haywardsmyfault yes, I'm running 15.3.1. Followed your instructions and the setting was off. Turned it on and that resolved it. Thanks!

      Like
  • Safe access to public Wi-Fi hotspots: All data between your device and the VPN server is encrypted, so even if you connect to a fake or a hacked public Wi-Fi hotspot, your data is safe. .Apple's iCloud Private Relay does not allow users to specify their location, but will instead just choose the closest relay servers

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  • Anyone else notice that Private Relay seems to be working on Eero now?  I’m running v6.9 on my Eeros, have private relay enabled on iCloud and “Limit IP Address Tracking” turned on my WiFi setting.  I’ve had it working for maybe a week+ and haven’t had it turn off randomly yet.  Wonder if something changed.  Just curious if it’s working for others.

    Like
  • Yes, cleared up for me with the 6.9 update as well. Let's hope eero pays a bit more attention to Apple upcoming feature releases going forward.

    Like
  • Would this be the root of DNS issues in general? While on my Eero network, a very large portion of sites and services simply don't resolve. As soon as bounce off the network, everything resolves fine.

    Like
  • Following this. I have had issue with sites I can't access on my mobile devices while the mac can when private relay is switched on, the iPhone can access the said site after I switched private relay on them. Well, now this message popped up tonight. Running eero 6.12.2-28

    I shrugged it off, and didn't come back, yet. Let's see. 

    Like
  • One question that may sound stupid, but I have another issue and was able to get around it by using the eero guest wi-fi instead of the regular wifi: has anyone tried the guest wi-fi to see if it resolves your issue?

    Regards,

    Marty

    Like
  • I just had this happen to me on iOS 16.4 with the recent update to Eero 16.14.0-4275. Considering this has been an issue for a year, what router should I buy to replace Eero? This is unacceptable.

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