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zapmymac

macrumors 6502a
Aug 24, 2016
808
957
SoCal ☀️
Extreme/Express —> Netgear Nighthawk wifi6 user, I miss my Airports ? would like to see the major manufacturers support HomeKit secure sooner than later
 

kjvmartin

macrumors 6502
Oct 11, 2016
331
535
Detroit
Can anyone give a basic explanation of why this is useful or good to the average user? I have a few Sonos, Xbox, an Alexa, some smart plugs, and a wifi nursery camera. This is in addition to a house full of Apple Products. They all work pretty well, so if I turn on this new feature, what could improve? I turned it on for a few minutes tonight and was having trouble connecting to Xbox live. Turned it back off.
 

TVreporter

macrumors 68000
Mar 11, 2012
1,816
2,894
Near Toronto
My thoughts exactly. I wouldn’t touch Amazon technology due to their privacy record.
Still new to HomeKit and learning but shouldn’t privacy and security be enhanced now that it has been certified and falls under Apple’s umbrella? What’s the concern with the router?
 

arkhanjel

macrumors regular
Nov 3, 2003
185
193
This is great and all, but I just wish my eero 6 pros would actually give me the speeds they’re supposed to. I pay Cox gigablast and the main eero connected to the modem gets a constant 940 Mbps to it but my wifi maxes at like 240. Kinda sucks.
 

MrPresident

macrumors regular
Nov 25, 2009
146
367
Manchester
Still new to HomeKit and learning but shouldn’t privacy and security be enhanced now that it has been certified and falls under Apple’s umbrella? What’s the concern with the router?

I’m not familiar with the router but considering how Amazon receives and handles the data from its other products, that is enough to put me off. It’s more to do with past behaviour from the company than the actual product in question.
 

davem20

macrumors newbie
Dec 2, 2018
8
3
I have the eero 5 and have to run it in bridge mode because it plays so poorly with my apple hardware. I am unable to AirPlay or print when a device is attached to a different node. Has this been fixed with eero 6?
 

bigboy29

macrumors 6502
May 19, 2016
389
708
I am contemplating this move myself, anyone have issues with the Wi-Fi 6 on their Eero?
No issues; got 2 laptops that are Wi-Fi 6 capable and 2 Apple devices and they all get ~500/500 or so over Wi-Fi.

Do any other wifi 6 routers have HomeKit support?

can the Eero 6 or Eero Pro 6 be used in “bridge mode”?
I think eero is the first one. And yes, they can be used in Bridge mode; but I do not think that HomeKit integration will work then.

Can anyone give a basic explanation of why this is useful or good to the average user? I have a few Sonos, Xbox, an Alexa, some smart plugs, and a wifi nursery camera. This is in addition to a house full of Apple Products. They all work pretty well, so if I turn on this new feature, what could improve? I turned it on for a few minutes tonight and was having trouble connecting to Xbox live. Turned it back off.
This really matters if you have HomeKit devices. Basically - manufacturers have to provide a list of URLs that their device will connect to. So then with HomeKit enabled router, you can say "I want my HomeKit devices to be able to connect to only a set of those published manufacturer-disclosed URLs" or "Connect to anything" or "Connect to nothing on the Internet". It just gives you more control of where IOT devices can connect to. So let's say one of your IOT devices is compromised, it could not connect to some shady place if it was locked down to only manufacturer approved URLs.

This is great and all, but I just wish my eero 6 pros would actually give me the speeds they’re supposed to. I pay Cox gigablast and the main eero connected to the modem gets a constant 940 Mbps to it but my wifi maxes at like 240. Kinda sucks.
Those are speeds that my Wi-Fi 5devices get; something is not right. My suggestion would be to open a support ticket with eero. I do not have such problems. For example - this specific laptop that I am typing on now is a Wi-Fi 6 laptop that is as far from the gateway eero as you can get in my home (with wireless backhaul via at least one more satelite eero) and I just got 321/297 on it.

I have the eero 5 and have to run it in bridge mode because it plays so poorly with my apple hardware. I am unable to AirPlay or print when a device is attached to a different node. Has this been fixed with eero 6?
This too has not been my experience at all; is this a Brother printer by any chance? https://help.brother-usa.com/app/an...,-dual-band-wireless-router,-or-mesh-networks But I have had zero issues with airplay etc. at all...
 

arkhanjel

macrumors regular
Nov 3, 2003
185
193
Those are speeds that my Wi-Fi 5devices get; something is not right. My suggestion would be to open a support ticket with eero. I do not have such problems. For example - this specific laptop that I am typing on now is a Wi-Fi 6 laptop that is as far from the gateway eero as you can get in my home (with wireless backhaul via at least one more satelite eero) and I just got 321/297 on it.
That’s what I was saying. I opened a ticket when it was happening and they were basically like meh that’s normal when we know it’s not.
 

TVreporter

macrumors 68000
Mar 11, 2012
1,816
2,894
Near Toronto
Could 6E be a future firmware update to this? Or would it be more hardware aka I buy now and watch the next version roll out 6 months later! Usually how my luck goes!
 

TVreporter

macrumors 68000
Mar 11, 2012
1,816
2,894
Near Toronto
interesting to note I sent Eero support on Twitter inquiring about Thread - the response was that the hardware is on the Pro 6 mesh but hasn’t been enabled “yet.” And “hopefully it will be enabled soon.”

My guess is they’re waiting for the Matter protocol rollout and new equipment.
 
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DekuBleep

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2013
359
296
Could 6E be a future firmware update to this? Or would it be more hardware aka I buy now and watch the next version roll out 6 months later! Usually how my luck goes!

WiFi 6E supports a new band of spectrum. So it would have to be a hardware update.
 

pasamio

macrumors 6502
Jan 22, 2020
355
297
I gave up on Eero ages ago, their routing and networking would drop packets to devices on the network. I ripped them out and put back in the Airport's and when the announcement that Apple were not selling it any more I bought some extras as spares. I'd like Apple to have first party mesh wifi support and resurrect the Airport branding. The integration they used to do, including with the old Server app, was great. They went backwards taking out features like SNMP which made them even better devices but they're still pretty solid on my network.
 

murdoc2k

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2009
165
242
WiFi 6E supports a new band of spectrum. So it would have to be a hardware update.
Just to add to this comment, you will need devices that support the Wifi 6E as well to take advantage of the new spectrum.

The current Eero Pro 6 will last you for a good few years which all of your current devices can take advantage of. I would say 6E is overkill at this point since it hasn't gone mainstream so if you purchase it, you will be paying for a feature that you won't be using for a few years.

With Wifi standards changing so rapidly, I would suggest buying for what you need today rather than the promise of what the future will come. For all you know, this may become obselete in a few years replaced by something else.
 

amorris1124

macrumors newbie
Feb 27, 2021
1
0
Is it possible that having this feature turned on would block an Aqara hub from connecting to HomeKit for an initial setup?
 

munpip214

macrumors 6502a
Feb 21, 2011
826
2,311
Is it possible that having this feature turned on would block an Aqara hub from connecting to HomeKit for an initial setup?
Yes, I had to disable mine unfortunately since it prevented some new devices from being added. I think it was my Logitech doorbell that I experience it with first.
 
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