Hardware Review Eero 2nd Generation Review: Now Twice As Powerful! On Top Of The Connectivity Revolution (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

New hardware. $250 for a 3 pack sounds like a win. Adaptive backhaul.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/25/...h-router-price-99-features-release-date-alexa

 

[Ronald Epstein]

New hardware. $250 for a 3 pack sounds like a win. Adaptive backhaul.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/25/...h-router-price-99-features-release-date-alexa

I will have to read the article. I am just wondering how much better this new version is over the current version 2.

I don't know how much the backhaul adds to the WiFi network

 

[Sam Posten]

The opposite. It takes traffic that was forwarded over wifi and sends it from puck to puck over Ethernet. Faster and leaves more bandwidth for the Wifi.

 

[DaveF]

It’s not a gen 3 product. It’s a gen 2 repackaged with maybe some tweaks. A gen 2.5 I’ve read.
This is primarily a price drop to drive sales.

 

[DaveF]

If Eero offers true VLAN for its guest network, and doubly if it adds VLAN to separate IOT devices, I’d have to consider it over Orbi.

 

[Todd Erwin]

The new $99 eero is, from the specs I've read, essentially an eero Beacon but with Ethernet ports. The re-named eero Pro is a tri-band router while the Beacon and $99 eero are dual-band.

 

[DaveF]

^ any difference in performance from previous beacon? Any updated reviews yet?

I’m deciding whether to get Amazon Eero 3-pack for $250 or Netgear Orbi 3-pack for $300? Eero is better price, don’t have to catch Costco sale, is smaller so more flexibility in placement. Orbi tests at better performance, isn’t owned by a company motivated to try and Hoover my internet data or turn WiFi into a shopping system.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Dave,

That's a tough question to answer. I am bias towards eero, obviously, but you will do well with either system.

From what I have read the Orbi main unit has to be centrally located in your home rather than the eero main unit which can be placed anywhere.

 

[DaveF]

Wirecutter is updating their recommendations for mesh:

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-mesh-networking-kits/

After a new round of tests, our pick will be the Eero + 2 Beacons. Our budget pick will be the D-Link Covr-2202, and the Synology RT2600ac + MR2200ac is a great router/extender combo.

Amazon announced a new dual-band Eero base at their hardware event in September. We’re going to test the new kit soon and will fully update this guide later in the fall.

frankly, my mind is kinda blown. I’ll be doing some more research. My WiFi is good. I don’t *need* to upgrade (Current Apple gear in bridged mode works better than I expected with faster internet). But I want to sooner than later.

 

[DaveF]

Wirecutter puts Eero Pro and Beacons at top, but advises against the new three pack:


“However, the three-piece Eero kit failed one of our two 4K-streaming tests, while its performance on our other tests was middling. We found that the Eero Pro + 2 Eero Beacons kit and the D-Link COVR-2202 adapted to additional devices and streams better than the Eero 3-pack did.”

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-mesh-networking-kits/#the-competition-2019-testing

 

[DaveF]

Great review of the new Eero ver 2 three pack.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/12/amazons-inexpensive-eero-mesh-wi-fi-kit-is-shockingly-good/

We finally got our hands on Amazon's redesigned second-gen Eero kit, and we won't bury the lede—it's a fantastic performer, especially for the price. Although its performance isn't on par with the Plume Superpods, it was easy to set up and didn't outright fail any of our torture tests. Eero maintained decent browsing latency all around the house, even while simultaneously delivering four emulated 4K video streams.

Don't get us wrong, there's still a lot of daylight between Eero and Plume—but with the Eero kit retailing for $250 normally, and currently on special for $189 with a free Echo Dot and without need for a subscription (for most features), it's a heck of a deal.

And a follow up from the author to my question:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...-is-shockingly-good/?comments=1&post=38364817

I'd generally recommend the kit tested here instead of the Pro, if you're using wired backhaul. If you've got a really dense environment, you may get some benefit out of having two 5GHz radios available at each AP. But most people won't get enough out of that to justify the price hike, IMO.

The tri-band in the Pro is more useful when you're having to backhaul one a Wi-Fi band, so having two 5GHz bands means you can use one for backhaul while STAs are active on the other, instead of having to fall back to 2.4GHz.

Also: the Pros are still 2x2 radios, so even if you've got a MacBook Pro with the 3x3 radio and plan to camp out in the same room as an AP, it's not likely to be any faster than the regular Eeros

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have the version 2 as reviewed in this thread.

I was concerned as to whether the newly released versions were any better, so I wrote the customer support team at EERO...

Howdy Ronald,

This is Mitch from eero Customer Support, thank you for reaching out. I am more than happy to assist with the differences between our regular eeros and Gen. 2's.

The Gen. 2 eeros you have are indeed better than our new eero set we have released. Our new eeros are only Dual Band while the Gen. 2 eeros are Tri Band.

I have included more information below about our new and improved eero lineup -

What's the difference between eero, eero Pro & eero Beacon?

Feel free to reply back to this email with any questions or concerns. Again thank you so much for choosing eero and I hope you have fantastic day!

Cheers,

 

[DaveF]

The big difference is that this triple pack has sale pricing of $190. That's about the price of a single high-end wifi router. It's about the same price as a singe eero pro. It's more than a $100 cheaper than the Eero Pro and two Beacons that you have (and maybe half the price from when you bought in 2017).

And as I've learned, it's likely plenty good for me, since I've got ethernet and don't care about wifi backhaul.

I came close to buying the eero Pro 3-pack on sale for $350 -- a great price. Glad I didn't, as it would have been overkill and overspending.

I've gone 180º on this. If I were to buy a new mesh system, I'd get this new Eero three-pack (non pro) v2 kit. It's cheap (as these things go). Performance is good. I didn't want to give Amazon direct tap into my internet...but my technological life is owned by corporate oligopolies and compromises must be made. And reviews on Orbi (my prior choice) have declined against their reportedly inconsistent software quality.

But with that, my desire to go "mesh" has decreased. My AEBS + bridged AE work well. I get 400+ Mbps wifi throughout the house on a good day. The more I read, the more I conclude that a mesh upgrade wouldn't change my wifi performance much. So, at $190 it's doable without much handwringing over cost. But it's Xmas, and there's lots of money to be spent right now, so I'll just push this to 2020 and reassess.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

If you are getting 400+ Mbps you don't need a mesh system.

I am getting less than that. I presume mostly because I have about 15 devices attached to WiFi

 

[DaveF]

Where I think I have some weakness is in the handoff between router and bridge as I move around the house. A mesh system might make that better...or maybe not as I’ve read that iOS devices have problems hanging on to weak signals instead of switching to a stronger access point.

 

[xx Brian xx]

Dave, you are right about devices not switching to stronger nodes. iPhones are notorious for holding on to the weaker signal when you might be standing right on top of a node. iPhones will hang on to a -80 signal but not transfer data leaving you with a useless phone until you force it to switch by cycling wifi off and back on.

A system like Luxul will track devices on the network and will switch the device to the stronger access point. Luxul makes a mesh network but unfortunately it is a price based system and does not include the software to force the switch.

Brian

 

[DaveF]

I've looked into Ubiquti's gear, and while I'm tempted by a system with that much control and customization, I'm not interested in "home wifi networking" as a hobby per se. That keeps pushing me back to looking at consumer-gear like Eero or Velop or Orbi.

But I've concluded that my current bridged system works well enough, so I can push off buying new toys for a bit longer. I'll still probably buy a new mesh system sooner than later, because, toys but it's no longer the "must have" I thought it was with the FIOS upgrade.

 

[Citizen87645]

After a couple years of struggling with our WIFI setup, I've installed Eero and so far so good. I was able to get in on the sale for the Eero Pro and two beacons for $300 that was on Amazon (but also priced the same on Best Buy).

Last year I put in a Netgear AC2300 to replace an aging Apple Airport and Airport Express setup, which seemed to be fine for awhile as it was one device replacing two, but the back corner of the house (master bedroom) continued to be a dead and/or flaky zone. But in the last couple of months it seemed like the zone was getting bigger so that the bedroom next to the master bedroom was starting to have problems too.

I'd been looking at mesh systems for awhile and figured that would be the next step. The master bedroom still has a weaker signal compared to other parts of the house (80% vs. 90%+) but weaker but stable (usable) is an improvement. I may play some more with beacon placement, but so far I have no complaints and setup was super easy. Just hoping things last, since the conventional router seemed to be OK for awhile too.

 

[Citizen87645]

I noticed one of my devices connected to and insisting on staying connected to the beacon at the opposite end of the house, instead of the Eero Pro gateway sitting just inches away from it. So I found this KB article last night, which basically says it's still an issue because of the device.

https://community.eero.com/t/k9mprt/devices-not-connecting-to-closest-eero

In my case, it's not a high performance device, and it seems to be doing fine on the beacon, so I'm not too worried about it. I just thought it was odd and curious if there was a way to move it to another Eero.

Where I think I have some weakness is in the handoff between router and bridge as I move around the house. A mesh system might make that better...or maybe not as I’ve read that iOS devices have problems hanging on to weak signals instead of switching to a stronger access point.

Dave, you are right about devices not switching to stronger nodes. iPhones are notorious for holding on to the weaker signal when you might be standing right on top of a node. iPhones will hang on to a -80 signal but not transfer data leaving you with a useless phone until you force it to switch by cycling wifi off and back on.

A system like Luxul will track devices on the network and will switch the device to the stronger access point. Luxul makes a mesh network but unfortunately it is a price based system and does not include the software to force the switch.

Brian

 

[DaveF]

I've read about that, and it's a known issue with iOS according to various comments.