Eero Mesh WiFi Products Now Available From Apple's Online Store

[PinkyMacGodess]

Are these better than the Velop system they were, and are selling from Linksys?

My recent experience is that the three node system went totally bye bye. All of the child nodes stared blinking red, and the parent went into total Defcon1 reset mode. Just out of the blue. *BOOM* Totally more useless than it has been before.

Prior to that, I had one child node that wanted to be 'closer to the parent'. I set it on top of the parent, and it was still complaining about being 'too far away'. Their support said I had to 'bring them closer together'. I sent them a picture of the units stacked, and they sent me a replacement, which was a new, in-box single node kit. I was surprised. *shrug*

But I've left the system flaked out because it's been such a POS for me. I'm surprised. I even had to go get the Airport Extreme units I donated to get wifi to work again.

Apple certainly screwed the saw horse when they dropped those units. They just seemed to work. *sigh*

 

[PabloM]

Are these better than the Velop system they were, and are selling from Linksys?

My recent experience is that the three node system went totally bye bye. All of the child nodes stared blinking red, and the parent went into total Defcon1 reset mode. Just out of the blue. *BOOM* Totally more useless than it has been before.

Prior to that, I had one child node that wanted to be 'closer to the parent'. I set it on top of the parent, and it was still complaining about being 'too far away'. Their support said I had to 'bring them closer together'. I sent them a picture of the units stacked, and they sent me a replacement, which was a new, in-box single node kit. I was surprised. *shrug*

But I've left the system flaked out because it's been such a POS for me. I'm surprised. I even had to go get the Airport Extreme units I donated to get wifi to work again.

Apple certainly screwed the saw horse when they dropped those units. They just seemed to work. *sigh*

I’ve found the Velop can be a bit of a problem when you have too many nodes in a defined area, but that’s true for all mesh systems. But the Velop firmware is also an issue, they still haven’t got it figured out yet on how to make the nodes and the main router talk to each other reliably. The Eero Pro does an excellent job of this and works well for what it is.

Bottom line with any mesh system is you need a dedicated backhaul band if a wired connection is not possible between nodes. So a tri-band system is the way to go.
Google Wfi, Amplifi HD & Alien and most of the cheaper mesh systems are all dual band so the performance will suffer in the end. Orbi & Velop have dedicated backhaul but Netgear has it figured out and Linksys is still in the woods so to speak.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I’ve found the Velop can be a bit of a problem when you have too many nodes in a defined area, but that’s true for all mesh systems. But the Velop firmware is also an issue, they still haven’t got it figured out yet on how to make the nodes and the main router talk to each other reliably. The Eero Pro does an excellent job of this and works well for what it is.

Bottom line with any mesh system is you need a dedicated backhaul band if a wired connection is not possible between nodes. So a tri-band system is the way to go.
Google Wfi, Amplifi HD & Alien and most of the cheaper mesh systems are all dual band so the performance will suffer in the end. Orbi & Velop have dedicated backhaul but Netgear has it figured out and Linksys is still in the woods so to speak.

I have the tri-band Velop system. I specifically bought the tri-band system over the lower capability system. Some of the issues I've had is that the one unit, that was eventually replaced, would just drop connections at random times of the day. The unit would flip out, and then connect, and then flip out again. I swapped units, and that unit still somehow took the network down. It would get very slow. I thought that it was where I placed the nodes, so I put them in different locations after the one flaky units was replaced, but now, yikes...

So, hooking each node to a wired connection is possible, but isn't what they advertise the system as being capable of. So, I should have, except for the failure and support issues that were surely to come, kept the Apple Extreme units, and saved my money and not bought this Linksys garbage. *shrug*

And now, apparently, Linksys accounts were 'exposed', and they locked down all Velop accounts. Nice... I'm going back to the Apple Extreme units, at least as a backup. I can't seem to depend on the Velop system. Although I will connecting them to the wired network too. Thanks...

 

[tbayrgs]

Who has 50+ wifi devices in their home?

When you have a family of 5 all using various numbers of devices (phones, iPads, computers), streaming boxes and TVs, gaming devices, and IoT/smart home devices it's super easy to go way past 50.

While I've heard generally favorable feedback about Eero's hardware and software, I don't trust Amazon one bit with my data/privacy so when the time comes to upgrade to a wifi 6 mesh system, I'll be looking elsewhere.

 

[Macsterguy]

Eero's lineup of mesh WiFi products are now available for purchase, eero announced in a blog post this morning. Eero devices can be bought from Apple in the United States, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

Apple is selling multiple eero Pro Mesh WiFi setups with one or two beacons and pricing starting at $300, along with the eero Pro Mesh WiFi Router and a Pro Router three pack. The standard Eero Mesh WiFi Router is available alongside the eero Mesh WiFi System and the eero Beacon Mesh WiFi Range Extender. Eero's products are compatible with HomeKit.Apple first began offering router and WiFi options on its website after discontinuing its AirPort products. Apple also sells routers and mesh WiFi systems from Linksys and Netgear, offering both the Velop and the Orbi.

Article Link: Eero Mesh WiFi Products Now Available From Apple's Online Store

Synology all the way and that's all I got to say...

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

When you have a family of 5 all using various numbers of devices (phones, iPads, computers), streaming boxes and TVs, gaming devices, and IoT/smart home devices it's super easy to go way past 50.

While I've heard generally favorable feedback about Eero's hardware and software, I don't trust Amazon one bit with my data/privacy so when the time comes to upgrade to a wifi 6 mesh system, I'll be looking elsewhere.

I had a 128 node DHCP pool, and ran out of addresses for it. I was surprised.

 

[Neepman]

Still nutty apple bailed from wifi devices. Seems like money left on the table. Their Airports were near bulletproof in my experience. I never had one failure and most of the ones I have given to friends when I upgraded are still going strong. And I know plenty of friends that have wanted to smash their Eero's with hammers in frustration.

 

[roar08]

I don't trust Amazon one bit with my data/privacy

Same. I know a lot of people who agree with this too. I wonder if future Eeros will all come w/ a mic. Eeros are also being sold on the Ring web site as well -- I wonder if Amazon will collapse the brands into one.

 

[seenett]

Strongly advise against Eero depending on your needs. After almost 2 years, I eBay'd my Eero system: 4 Eeros + 2 Beacons and bought the new Netgear Orbi RBK852 units (AX6000). The 2 Orbis are flawless in our home w/ 50+ devices. The Eeros required us to frequently toggle wifi off/on on many devices, and speeds were significantly inconsistent through our house. Additionally, certain HomeKit devices would be unresponsive -- this hasn't happened once in the 2 1/2 weeks since we made the switch. The Eeros can work well in certain situations, but if you have a lot of devices and/or a larger home, and/or speeds over 300-500 Mbps from your provider ... it might not work well for you. The wireless backhaul in the later Eeros is a welcome addition, but the beacons don't have this ... and the implementation in general isn't as good as other brands. I was a VERY loyal Eero customer early on and probably sold 5-10 systems by recommending to friends, many of whom are switching to the Orbi AX6000 which - again - are absolutely incredible. Max speed everywhere in the house, HomeKit devices working flawlessly, no device drops. Also, even with the wireless backhaul in later Eeros, still no Wifi 6 and no roadmap for when it might be available. The current Eero offerings are not very future-forward as they once were.

Cound not agree with this MORE. Mirrors my experiences exactly - down to ebaying eero and getting a 2 Orbi setup for the same reasons.

 

[TTTedP]

After my Airports went away, I went on a WiFi experimentation journey. I tried;

(in all cases I used 3 hardwired AP's, no repeater modes)

• Google - it was easy, fast enough, just couldn't get past (not) trusting Google
• Netgear - stuff I would rather forget. Typical old Netgear that feels like 2003.
• Ubiquiti Unifi - was very good, robust coverage, fast, great WiFi roaming performance. Great for the techie in me but not family friendly for everyone else, no profiles - and in the end, just felt like overkill for a small house.
• Eero - It's been good. As good as Google before it and a little more polish. I like the family friendly features, profiles, some level of network filtering, etc. Not as fast as the Ubiquiti but 1/3 the price (I got a 3 pack for $180).

Amazon hasn't really messed with it too much with only one little hook to Alexa if you want it (I don't). I would say it is the most Apple-like experience of the bunch I've tried. I am good sticking with this until newer WiFi 6 stuff comes out.

 

[incoherent_1]

Strongly advise against Eero depending on your needs. After almost 2 years, I eBay'd my Eero system: 4 Eeros + 2 Beacons and bought the new Netgear Orbi RBK852 units (AX6000). The 2 Orbis are flawless in our home w/ 50+ devices. The Eeros required us to frequently toggle wifi off/on on many devices, and speeds were significantly inconsistent through our house. Additionally, certain HomeKit devices would be unresponsive -- this hasn't happened once in the 2 1/2 weeks since we made the switch. The Eeros can work well in certain situations, but if you have a lot of devices and/or a larger home, and/or speeds over 300-500 Mbps from your provider ... it might not work well for you. The wireless backhaul in the later Eeros is a welcome addition, but the beacons don't have this ... and the implementation in general isn't as good as other brands. I was a VERY loyal Eero customer early on and probably sold 5-10 systems by recommending to friends, many of whom are switching to the Orbi AX6000 which - again - are absolutely incredible. Max speed everywhere in the house, HomeKit devices working flawlessly, no device drops. Also, even with the wireless backhaul in later Eeros, still no Wifi 6 and no roadmap for when it might be available. The current Eero offerings are not very future-forward as they once were.

I must say I have had a different experience. We have 1 Eero + 3 Beacons on a 600-800 Mbps network with many HomeKit devices for 2+ years and no problems. So, as with everything YMMV.

Background: I’m no Eero shill. I bought them prior to Amazon’s acquisition, which I’m not wild about.

 

[MarkAtl]

Strongly advise against Eero depending on your needs. After almost 2 years, I eBay'd my Eero system: 4 Eeros + 2 Beacons and bought the new Netgear Orbi RBK852 units (AX6000). The 2 Orbis are flawless in our home w/ 50+ devices. The Eeros required us to frequently toggle wifi off/on on many devices, and speeds were significantly inconsistent through our house. Additionally, certain HomeKit devices would be unresponsive -- this hasn't happened once in the 2 1/2 weeks since we made the switch. The Eeros can work well in certain situations, but if you have a lot of devices and/or a larger home, and/or speeds over 300-500 Mbps from your provider ... it might not work well for you. The wireless backhaul in the later Eeros is a welcome addition, but the beacons don't have this ... and the implementation in general isn't as good as other brands. I was a VERY loyal Eero customer early on and probably sold 5-10 systems by recommending to friends, many of whom are switching to the Orbi AX6000 which - again - are absolutely incredible. Max speed everywhere in the house, HomeKit devices working flawlessly, no device drops. Also, even with the wireless backhaul in later Eeros, still no Wifi 6 and no roadmap for when it might be available. The current Eero offerings are not very future-forward as they once were.

I’ve had the exact opposite experience. I had the Orbi with broken wired backhaul and horrible firmware updates. Eero has been pretty flawless for 18 months.

i have a large 3 level home and use 5 Pros and 4 Beacons in Bridge mode - combined with an Untangle router on gigabit.

 

[@Brett]

I am pretty sure they are owned by Amazon.
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We are an Apple household but we have Google Wifi. But looking to upgrade to something with wifi 6 and HomeKit support. Want the mesh network for sure. Google Wifi is pretty easy to use have to reboot occasionally as the network just stops working. Looked at the newer model but still no wifi 6 and would like to remove myself from anything Google.

 

[SuperCachetes]

at this point, why would anyone buy a mesh system that isn't wifi 6?

Money. And bandwidth. Using Orbi as an example, an RBK852 WiFi 6 setup is more than double the cost of an equivalent RBK52 802.11ac set up. In my own use case with 300MBps broadband and no WiFi 6 devices, the only thing that would really benefit from WiFi 6 at the moment is my hardwired NAS, and that has not been a pinch point on ac so far at all. When I get gigabit service and some WiFi 6 devices, I'm sure my thoughts will change, but that is years down the road, and "future-proof" is definitely relative.

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.

No experience with eero, so I can't knock them, but I've loved my 2-station ac Orbi. In a two-story house with 4 people (2 device-centric students among them) pretty much every device hits max theoretical connection speed all the time, regardless of location. The dedicated backhaul is key. A wireless backhaul has worked fine for me (as opposed to wired), but no one should ever consider a mesh system without a dedicated backhaul band.

Who has 50+ wifi devices in their home?

Really? I just bought a clothes washer for the garage that has WiFi, and it was far closer to being the bottom of the LG lineup than the top. My home is otherwise lacking in IoT junk for now, but I can extrapolate from a family of 4 with stuff and see 50 on the horizon, easily.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Money. And bandwidth. Using Orbi as an example, an RBK852 WiFi 6 setup is more than double the cost of an equivalent RBK52 802.11ac set up. In my own use case with 300MBps broadband and no WiFi 6 devices, the only thing that would really benefit from WiFi 6 at the moment is my hardwired NAS, and that has not been a pinch point on ac so far at all. When I get gigabit service and some WiFi 6 devices, I'm sure my thoughts will change, but that is years down the road, and "future-proof" is definitely relative.



No experience with eero, so I can't knock them, but I've loved my 2-station ac Orbi. In a two-story house with 4 people (2 device-centric students among them) pretty much every device hits max theoretical connection speed all the time, regardless of location. The dedicated backhaul is key. A wireless backhaul has worked fine for me (as opposed to wired), but no one should ever consider a mesh system without a dedicated backhaul band.



Really? I just bought a clothes washer for the garage that has WiFi, and it was far closer to being the bottom of the LG lineup than the top. My home is otherwise lacking in IoT junk for now, but I can extrapolate from a family of 4 with stuff and see 50 on the horizon, easily.

3 TVs, 4 Computers, 4 iPads, 4 iPhones, 1Washer/1Dryer, Furnace, Water Tank/Reheat Agent, Garage Door. That's 19 and extreme if you think about it.

If you're going to wire every room in the house to motion detect your wearabouts and light each room, dim each room, etc., YOU'VE BUILT A SMART HOME FROM SCRATCH and/or gutted your existing home to augment it.

With that in mind you're an edge-case. For every 50+ person there are 1 million who aren't.
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I had a 128 node DHCP pool, and ran out of addresses for it. I was surprised.

Two more extreme edge cases. If you're that jacked in with every stupid electronic portable wifi enabled device you can buy you truly have a family of tech codependency.

The 128 node DHCP reminds me of someone who has Gaming Marathon parties. Grown ups who've well never grown up.

 

[dannynjoni]

If it's working fine and you have no pressing need, then don't upgrade.

Was hoping for a bit of information as to why so many people abandon their Airport Extremes and the benefits they get from doing so. I understand the old “If it aint broke” remark it’s probably too tempting not to say it lol. Notice I didn’t actually ask for anyone to tell me what to do tho. Just trying to figure out the pros and cons for myself.

 

[sppunk]

Buy an Amplifi Alien, it beats any of these mesh systems for most anyone.

 

[MareLuce]

This is the point that I was trying to make with an earlier post. If a WiFi product is hamstrung by poor firmware updates then it doesn't matter how fast it is in reviews or even initial setup. Orbi doesn't have a good track record with this.

Yep. Netgear Orbi’s firmware updates have twice added serious chaos to my life.

 

[Grasbak]

I thought that Eero didn’t support PPoE which rendered it mostly unusable in GB?

 

[turbo79]

Good to read all the tips about the Orbi and Eero in this forum. To add my 2p, I'd recommend steering clear of the BT Whole Home mesh discs. We bought four discs to replace our Devolo powerline network (we have really thick stone walls) and the mesh network fails at least once a week, requiring a physical restart of one or more discs. When it works, it's great -- good speeds and rock solid. If only they could find a way for the network to stay up without having to run around the house resetting the discs!

 

[Siriosys]

Buy an Amplifi Alien, it beats any of these mesh systems for most anyone.

Although I don't have the Alien, the Amplifi HD has been absolutely brilliant for me. Plus I get remote VPN included and, unlike the Eero products, I'm not having to pay a subscription to get all the features my mesh setup has to offer.

 

[An-apple-a-day]

Are these better than the Velop system they were, and are selling from Linksys?

My recent experience is that the three node system went totally bye bye. All of the child nodes stared blinking red, and the parent went into total Defcon1 reset mode. Just out of the blue. *BOOM* Totally more useless than it has been before.

Prior to that, I had one child node that wanted to be 'closer to the parent'. I set it on top of the parent, and it was still complaining about being 'too far away'. Their support said I had to 'bring them closer together'. I sent them a picture of the units stacked, and they sent me a replacement, which was a new, in-box single node kit. I was surprised. *shrug*

But I've left the system flaked out because it's been such a POS for me. I'm surprised. I even had to go get the Airport Extreme units I donated to get wifi to work again.

Apple certainly screwed the saw horse when they dropped those units. They just seemed to work. *sigh*

I, too, have the Linksys Velop Whole-Home Mesh Wi-Fi System (3-pack) and I'm still using it....


Things I hate:

• Lame set-up app on iPhone.

• On multiple occasions, Firmware updates have stealthily caused interruption of WiFi data transmission. There will be a strong WiFi signal but yet connectivity will remain borked until resetting the system.

• The indicator LED on the devices have the craziest non-intuitive colors/behaviors. There's red, blinking red, dark purplish-blue, blinking dark purplish blue, baby blue (did I miss any?).

• If Internet service is interrupted, e.g., issue with provider, loss of physical cable/fiber connection, power failure affecting router/modem/ONT (but not Velop primary node itself), or router/modem/ONT is deliberately reset or power cycled, it is extremely unlikely that WiFi will resume without manual intervention once the internet connectivity is reestablished. Typically, the manual intervention required is the power cycling of the primary node.

• With mesh systems there will always be some tradeoff between throughput and coverage. But that tradeoff should be pretty minimal with dedicated backhaul. With the Velop, it's pretty huge.

• Sometimes WiFi connectivity just stops for no apparent reason. Sometimes one node starts blinking red all of a sudden. Resetting the system via "Restart Velop" in app or web UI may not be enough to get things going again. It may require power cycling all nodes (starting with the primary) to get the system fully back in action. Once the primary node is up and running, the other nodes may take an inordinate amount of time to reestablish their own connectivity, going through one or more cycles of state transition with the aforementioned non-intuitive LED indicator colors changing along the way like some wacky Christmas lights.

• My userID for WAN-side management of the Velop system was quietly disabled due to the security breach at Linksys (that I was never informed of). So I chose to abandon usage of WAN-side administration and I changed the local admin password just to be safe. The Linksys app allows for connection locally, too, via the WLAN but when I entered my (new) local admin password, it wasn't accepted. Uhhh, what? Then I changed my local admin password again (in case that was being harvested by some app hack) and totally abandoned the Linksys app. The local admin password was accepted in the web UI without issue.

• Myself, for eventually clicking the "Place Order" button with my quivering, hesitant right pinkie.


Things I like:

• With the 3 nodes, I have mostly solid connectivity (albeit at reduced speeds to a varying degree) throughout the house and outside to every corner of my property. Translation of "mostly solid": about 1 random service interruption per month, requiring a power cycling of at least the primary node. Not to be confused with "solid" connectivity such as I'd experienced with my Apple AE and TC units (which absolutely never got interrupted except when I chose to install firmware updates). Of course I have all of my computer, storage, and networking equipment plugged into UPS units -- including all 3 of the Velop nodes -- which helps minimize the frequency of these WiFi issues.

• The nodes are tall enough to accommodate decent antennas but yet not large enough to be cumbersome or ugly.

 

[zhenya]

Was hoping for a bit of information as to why so many people abandon their Airport Extremes and the benefits they get from doing so. I understand the old “If it aint broke” remark it’s probably too tempting not to say it lol. Notice I didn’t actually ask for anyone to tell me what to do tho. Just trying to figure out the pros and cons for myself.

Typical home Internet speeds are now far higher than what was available when the last Airport devices were sold. Mesh systems that are easy to configure without wires have taken over, giving far more seamless coverage in a typical home. If you were to do a basic investigation of actual wifi speeds you are getting from your AE around a typical house, you’d likely find that you have many areas where the connection speed is in the 10’s of Mb/sec, and even peak speeds may be in the low hundreds. As a result, while a your home Internet speed might be 400Mb or increasingly, even 1Gb, you can’t actually make use of even a fraction of that on old equipment.

Modern systems also deal with interference and multiple devices using large amounts of bandwidth much more efficiently.

 

[Martyimac]

We are another very satisfied Eero user. Easiest setup of any router I have ever owned, and there have been quite a few. Super easy setup, frequent updates, great performance.
I bought Eero before they were aquired by Amazon and from what I can see, Amazon has pretty much kept their hands off the Eero.
Would I buy again? Absolutely.

 

[SuperCachetes]

3 TVs, 4 Computers, 4 iPads, 4 iPhones, 1Washer/1Dryer, Furnace, Water Tank/Reheat Agent, Garage Door. That's 19 and extreme if you think about it.

If you're going to wire every room in the house to motion detect your wearabouts and light each room, dim each room, etc., YOU'VE BUILT A SMART HOME FROM SCRATCH and/or gutted your existing home to augment it.

With that in mind you're an edge-case. For every 50+ person there are 1 million who aren't.

I think your “hater math” is suspect.

I don’t even have all the connected devices you’re tossing out - but I have a wireless printer. And a Nest camera or two. And kids with school-furnished devices. And a work laptop. A gaming console. An Apple TV. A Fire Stick.

Sometimes it’s less about “codependency” and more just that you choose to use a Mac at home but are forced to fire up some nasty stonking Dell for your work.

Sometimes it’s less about being an “edge case” and more about your TV being connected and “smart” but lacking the ability to view Amazon Prime Video. Is augmenting the TV with a Fire Stick “wasteful” of the available WiFi connections?

My home is far from smart, but yes, there are doubled-up devices occasionally. Luckily the router manufacturers put in enough connection capacity for a variety of use cases. Neither you nor I have to be able to imagine them all.