Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThis is very good gear and a dream to setup
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 23 October 2020
I have been looking to either change my modem router or move to mesh or both. I have standard ADSL2 and my modem router is about 8 years old. Coverage is hit & miss in our semi and I have used the TP-Link plug in adaptors to get connections around the place but with WFH and Covid I have looked deeply at changing. My initial thought was just to upgrade my modem router to a newer better product to get speed and coverage. That research started to push me towards the £100 plus mark and I was nervous - it might not be much better. Should I change broadband for fibre and go that route??? questions questions questions. Mesh came through my research and took me down another route to read up on. Mesh seemed to be the way to go but there was confusion out there about products and that you need the modem in place for the mesh systems to work with. I downed tools on my research for a few months and started to revisit this in early October 2020. As I read more and more the two products that kept drifting to the top of almost every review place was Google Nest and Eero. Technically not an awful lot between them but as I am in a home environment and most of our kit is not state of the art I surmised that it was pointless to go too deep with tech differences - at a high level they were very similar. The two clinchers that everyone talked about was price and setup. Almost every review says that Eero wins both of those pieces and some raved about how easy Eero was to set up with the app. Of course, many reviews are US based and one has to acknowledge that the US broadband and UK are different. Reading the reviews on Amazon seems some people have lots of problems - I was nervous. £200+ is a lot of money. Anyhow, the kit arrived and I unpacked and had all three units lined up in the kitchen.Downloaded the app and registered - it was then waiting and instructing me what to do next. First though, login to the admin on my old modem router and turn off the radio transmitter. Tick. Check that laptops and iPad had lost wifi - tick. Good, now modem router is powered on and Hive still working on the LAN side of router (plugged in with RJ45). Now follow Eero app instructions. Plug in (power and RJ45 to router) wait for it to pair, blue flashing light and then bingo paired. Next asked to put in network name (SSID) put in the same as before, pw same as before and bingo internet working. laptop connects, iPad connects, great stuff. Next add the other two pods as requested. Literally 10 minutes later all done. The app is very good, it even has a speed check built in. My 'old' modem/router broadband normally gave me a download of around 11MB upload about 0.8MB. I know have download speeds of 13 - 15 MB and upload 0.8 - 0.9 MB. The modem/router is the same, the line is the same all I have changed is the wifi. I did wonder about waiting for the new Eero6 model but thought that may or not be in the UK before Christmas and decided to do it now. Very glad I have done so and it seems from within the support area in the app, WPA3 is in a new release of software - it is available as beta from the app, you just tap the button. There are other beta SW things available but I don't use beta stuff. Happy to wait for it to be in a next release though! Okay, no wifi 6 but I have nothing that can do that anyway and probably won't have for a while Wifi5 is just fine speed wise. I hope some of the above will help others who are tempted but worried if it works with good old fashioned copper wire broadband - it does. The issue is whether your existing modem/router can have the wifi turned off at the admin level. If you can't do that (check first before buying these units) maybe get a new modem/router first that you can turn the radio transmitter off. Worth having on the router as emergency backup if the connected Eero breaks. I doubt it will. Each Eero out of the box is the same - one becomes the gateway Eero just by plugging the RJ45 into it and the modem/router, they do need to be co lated or get a long RJ45 cable. No trip hazards please! It is simple and easy - you do not need much tech knowledge but do need to know how to login to your existing kit and turn that radio transmitter off! Good luck everyone and have fun with your Eero. I have used the support built into app and webpages at Eero but not actually called them or emailed. Their available stuff is good though.
Update 25 October.
Still working very well. I realised I did not say too much about coverage. I did get the 3-pack unit. Previously we had patchy wifi upstairs in the bedrooms - sometimes good, sometimes bad. I had also installed a wifi booster but that was a bit on/off too and needing rebooting every 2 - 3 days. We know have three full bars of wifi in every room of the house and in the garden. I think I read this on Eero website (allow for US bias) and probably in the FAQs which are useful. Regarding placement they suggest you think about how they work. Eero say the signals are mainly in the horizontal plane and upwards. They suggest you do not put them at floor level or in the loft space unless that is where you want the best coverage. Our router is in the larder and the Eero plugged in there (gateway Eero) is on the high shelf and about 6ft off the ground. The others are in the lounge, coffee table height and in our study at the back of the house at desk height. This gives super coverage for us and signals go upstairs too, so the signal is good. If you still have patchy coverage and the Eero is setup and working, just unplug and move around slightly, another room, up down etc. I am very glad I have made this jump to Eero. I am so pleased it all worked great.
