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Eero Mesh WiFi Products Now Available From Apple's Online Store
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eero was my first stop after deciding to abandon my all-Apple Airport setup. I had several base stations throughout the house with middling luck, so it was time to move on, especially when I realized Apple wasn't going to update the line.
I got the eero system, happy for the Apple-like look and interface. Long story short, results in my 2-story house were disappointing. The area most needing the reach barely got a signal, even after I bought two additional satellites to try to daisy chain, as it were.
Flash forward; now have a Netgear orbi system and we couldn't be happier. The dedicated backhaul channel is the key; we have several base stations throughout the house and each computer that is near one is hardwired to the backhaul via
ethernet gets speeds equivalent to or near the base station's speed. (e.g., the base station, hardwired to the AppleTV, shows 355 Mbps; my office Mac (which has an orbi satellite, which is itself wired to my Mac via ethernet) shows 350 Mbps. Wifi speeds remain great throughout the property, though not as fast as the backhaul of course.
Again; loved the eero, its look and feel and implementation were very Apple-esque. And I know a few people who have them and are very happy with them.
All said, however, and based on my own experience and expenditures, I'd recommend bypassing the eero and going with the orbi. As always, your mileage may vary.
I got the eero system, happy for the Apple-like look and interface. Long story short, results in my 2-story house were disappointing. The area most needing the reach barely got a signal, even after I bought two additional satellites to try to daisy chain, as it were.
Flash forward; now have a Netgear orbi system and we couldn't be happier. The dedicated backhaul channel is the key; we have several base stations throughout the house and each computer that is near one is hardwired to the backhaul via
ethernet gets speeds equivalent to or near the base station's speed. (e.g., the base station, hardwired to the AppleTV, shows 355 Mbps; my office Mac (which has an orbi satellite, which is itself wired to my Mac via ethernet) shows 350 Mbps. Wifi speeds remain great throughout the property, though not as fast as the backhaul of course.
Again; loved the eero, its look and feel and implementation were very Apple-esque. And I know a few people who have them and are very happy with them.
All said, however, and based on my own experience and expenditures, I'd recommend bypassing the eero and going with the orbi. As always, your mileage may vary.
Finally replaced my beloved Apple Extreme with a single Amplifi (Ubiquiti) Alien WiFi 6 router which can be a mesh system in my 1900 sq ft house and its amazing. Much, much stronger signal and future proofed with WiFi 6 ax... Very happy with it...
Still wish Apple would see the potential of Apple TV serving as a mesh WiFi router. Throw an ethernet port on the back of the next HomePod and that'd also have potential as a router.
Both appliances have the processing power to additionally serve as routers. Any smaller, always-on device like a HomePod Mini or reimagined AirPort Express could potentially serve as a mesh WiFi beacon.
Both appliances have the processing power to additionally serve as routers. Any smaller, always-on device like a HomePod Mini or reimagined AirPort Express could potentially serve as a mesh WiFi beacon.
I have quite a few devices, large square footage, 400 meg service, and... no issues with Eero. One base and two beacons. Coverage everywhere, high speeds. YMMV, indeed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I bought three Eero Pros last summer at Amazon‘s Prime Day sale to replace my Airport Extremes. The Eero Pros are fine & I’d recommend.
Nice option when my Airport AC dies if ever. That thing just runs and is so reliable. It's actually capable of covering my 2700sqft home.
i'm dreading the day my time capsule expires...
I just really distrust Amazon to not collect data from Eeros. Their pledge is pretty worthless given their past behavior.
Not really - eero does a lot of behind the scenes tweaking (device radio strength to prevent overlap etc) that you'd have to do manually with a Unifi setup. Eero is a very hands off, out of the box it works (and thus hides a lot of settings from users). Unifi requires a lot more user interaction/knowledge. Not saying one's better - just YMMV depending on your desire to get in the weeds of something.
have 6 2nd gen Pros in my home. Getting anywhere between 200-400 on average wirelessly with a half gig data plan here. I also have over 100 clients on my home network so I'm certain my speeds are lower due to the amount of RF flying around, but the beacon units are absolute trash in my opinion. If you do a wired backhaul, I've found this to be very favorable and recent software update 3.19 pushed out a few weeks ago has been spot on from the ones we had since last summer. They refined it a lot.
Also, for those holding out for AX from them, they have indicated on reddit they aren't going to do AX soon due to many different countries not supporting the frequencies needed for approval and the US market isn't mature enough for adoption of the new AX. Plus, there is Wifi 6e protocol coming soon, so it'd just be another change.
Unless you have that many wifi 6 devices, you'll see no benefit. Orbi is also good, neighbor has 2 and likes them a lot. But eero support in my opinion is the differentiating factor. They unlike Ring do seem to operate as an independent currently.
Also, for those holding out for AX from them, they have indicated on reddit they aren't going to do AX soon due to many different countries not supporting the frequencies needed for approval and the US market isn't mature enough for adoption of the new AX. Plus, there is Wifi 6e protocol coming soon, so it'd just be another change.
Unless you have that many wifi 6 devices, you'll see no benefit. Orbi is also good, neighbor has 2 and likes them a lot. But eero support in my opinion is the differentiating factor. They unlike Ring do seem to operate as an independent currently.
I had an Airport Extreme and multiple Airport Expresses scattered through out my house and began to have quite a few issues with coverage and firmware updates. I switched to an Eero Pro and 2 beacons and I am finally seeing the speeds download and uploads speeds have been for. I ran into a minor issue with our Owlet baby cam not connecting, but it turned out to be an issue with camera not being compatible with mesh networks. I am quite satisfied with Eero and how well it handles the multitude of game consoles, Ring cameras, mobile device, laptops in my home, etc.
Cost/benefit analysis.
As of now, there are (relatively) few devices on the market that are WiFi 6 capable, and I'm betting that 98% of the devices that do don't actually need it. Most home internet connections aren't fast enough to max out an older 802.11n network, let alone 802.11ac. 802.11ax is going to be major overkill for the vast majority of consumers. (I know that there are setups and scenarios where the increased bandwidth is useful, but they are not your typical user.)
Plus, WiFi 6 gear is expensive, especially when looking at mesh systems. For example, the Orbi AX6000 2-pack is $700 (US) from BestBuy. The Orbi AC3000 2-pack is less than half of that at $330. I realize that WiFi 6 has benefits other than increased speed, but for the majority of consumers they won't know or care what the differences are. They will see two wifi systems from the same company: one is $700, the other is $330. Which are they going to choose?
Depends on the Orbis. I'm not a "Netgear person" at all - these are my first NG products. But I've been in software for 25 years and went from a devout AirPort user to Eero ... and I can tell you the AX6000 product is stunningly good. I can't speak for other Orbi products and there are MANY -- so much so it's almost confusing. But the RBK852 is just mind-bogglingly good. I've had 2 friends replace their setups with them and they say the same thing. Networks are funny things so someone else's experience can be due to other factors, but I can't say enough good things about the RBK852.
I am still using Airport Extremes and they have always worked great for my house. Multi-story home with ethernet, but I have 0 issues with them. Easily getting 500Mbps+ with my iphone and more with computer/apple tv. Perhaps you just had something wrong with your setup, or maybe it was forced onto 2.4GHz?
Yeah buying the AX6000 Orbis for me was very much an experiment. But when it immediately corrected the three main issues we had in our home with the Eeros, I became a believer.
That makes it perfect for the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac which don't support WiFi 6 and unsuited for the iPhone 11 Pro/11/SE and iPad Pro which do. Genius move by Apple here.
I’m not sure if ‘unsuited’ is the right word. Your iPhone 11 and iPad Pro will work on WiFi 5 just fine. For most home situations, WiFi 6, although nice, is overkill.
This is well and all, and these wifi solutions are genuinely good. But in the era of privacy being in focus, I still wish Apple would make a mesh based wifi 6 Airport Extreme. The AEs were the bits of network gear I always had to power cycle least, just kept up and running until they were just too out of date.
Also, you can get wall mounts for the Eero and the orbi is somewhat massive to any environment requiring it be set on a surface. Most of my eeros blend in to their environment.
We went with an Eero Pro setup (3 Eero Pro devices, each connected by Ethernet), plus an Eero Beacon (wirelessly connected) in our detached garage. It's the best wi-fi setup we've ever had, and that includes the enterprise-grade system it replaced. Highly recommended.