Does Eero Work With At&t Fiber

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Eero was the company that start popularized mesh networking for the home, fixing Wi-Fi for millions. Information technology has congenital a reputation for its simple setup and minimal maintenance, reliably broadcasting a Wi-Fi connection throughout your home much better than a traditional standalone router could. Now that it is owned by Amazon, it promises to repeat that trick for customers who take access to gigabit internet speeds with its top-tier Eero Pro 6.

Fixing nearly dwelling house Wi-Fi problems doesn't have to toll a lot. A basic mesh system can provide reliable Wi-Fi coverage in most homes without costing more than than $250. If the speeds yous're getting from your ISP are 300Mbps or less, at that place's no real demand to purchase annihilation more.

But if you practice accept the privilege of admission to faster home internet, such as what gigabit fiber can offering, you might want something more than. That's where high-end Wi-Fi vi-enabled mesh systems like the Eero Pro 6 come in. They can spread your fast connection throughout your home without having to bargain with pesky wiring and allow you lot have full reward of the bandwidth y'all're forking coin over for each month.

Before this year, I looked at one of the start Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers to see if it could give me ameliorate speeds on my gigabit Fios service than earlier Wi-Fi five-based systems could. And it did: the Arris Surfboard Max Pro was able to deliver more of the bandwidth I pay for to my devices, even if I wasn't in the same room as the router. But each Arris node is a massive unit, the app to manage the router is clumsy at all-time, I ran into some frustrating reliability bug, and information technology cost $650 at the fourth dimension of my review.

The $599 Eero Pro 6 I've been testing, on the other mitt, is compact, reliable, and just as easy to ready upwards equally Eero'due south lower-tier models. But unfortunately, it doesn't bring the functioning that justifies its price tag.

Eero Pro 6 pricing

The Eero Pro six system that I tested is the top-tier bundle, which includes three nodes and sells for $599 (though information technology'due south been marked downwards to as low as $480 during the holiday shopping season). Eero also sells unmarried units for $229 each or a 2-pack for $399.

These pricing details are important because, frankly, every tri-band Wi-Fi half-dozen mesh organization is expensive, and Eero is no exception. Compared to Eero's prior-generation Pro model, the Eero Pro 6 is xx percent more plush. It is besides a lot more than expensive than Eero'due south non-"Pro" lineup, which starts at just $249 for a Wi-Fi 5-based organisation with 3 nodes (and tin can frequently exist found for a lot less). Eero'southward entry-level Wi-Fi six mesh systems are similarly outgoing at $279 for a 3-pack.

How many nodes y'all require depends on the size and layout of your home. Eero claims each unit covers up to two,000 square feet, simply that's in a perfect scenario, which your domicile most certainly is not. My test environment is a 2,100-foursquare-foot carve up-level home built in the 1960s, with the net connectedness coming in on the heart flooring. I placed the other two nodes on the lower and upper floors, where my home role and the bedrooms are. The Eero Pro half-dozen system allows for hard-wiring each node together, which you tin't do with the base Eero 6, but my home is not wired upwards to support this, so I accept to rely on wireless connections.

Eero is not alone in charging a premium for a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 based system targeted at those with gigabit internet service. As mentioned, the Arris organization I tested earlier this year is $650, while Netgear, Linksys, and others all have options in the $500 to $700 range and sometimes even more.

If you're going to pay more than for faster speeds, you damn well better get them. You should exist able to get the majority of your gigabit bandwidth throughout your dwelling. Afterwards all, that's the whole point of a mesh system. And if you're thinking of upgrading from a Wi-Fi 5 mesh organisation, you should see a measurable increase in speeds to your devices. Basically, any mesh organization on the marketplace tin can blanket thousands of square anxiety with a strong wireless signal and support dozens of simultaneously connected devices. What y'all're paying for hither is the speed.

*The Eero Pro 6 is a simple-looking squarish white box.*

Eero Pro 6 performance

Unfortunately, speed is where the Eero Pro 6 disappoints the virtually.

I tested the Eero Pro 6 using gigabit Verizon Fios service and compared its performance to the Wi-Fi 5 Eero Pro, Linksys' Velop MX4200, and the Arris Surfboard Max Pro AX11000 I reviewed previously. Every bit this is a live home network (aka non a lab) and I have a lot of continued devices, there are anywhere from 60 to 70 devices on the network at the aforementioned fourth dimension, of which half a dozen or so really back up Wi-Fi 6.

The Eero Pro six did perform slightly better than the Wi-Fi 5 version, only non significantly and so. On average, speeds to my devices were nearly 10 to 15 percent improve than the Wi-Fi v Eero Pro, averaging 300Mbps no matter how close to the router I was. Frustratingly, many times, my smaller Wi-Fi half dozen devices, such as phones and tablets, couldn't hitting more than than 200Mbps downward, though they were able to double that speed on uploads.

A note on Wi-Fi 6 itself: Wi-Fi vi brings a long listing of advancements to wireless networking, including support for many more connected devices on a single network, faster theoretical meridian speeds, and improved battery life on devices continued to a Wi-Fi 6 network. To take advantage of many of the features, such as the improved battery life and faster top speeds, you need to be using a Wi-Fi half-dozen device, such as a very recent smartphone or laptop.

Wi-Fi vi is specifically designed to address the irresolute dynamics of abode networks where more than and more than devices are continued at the same fourth dimension. But to go that improved network direction and reliability, every device that'due south continued needs to be Wi-Fi 6. (Wi-Fi half-dozen is backwards compatible with the older Wi-Fi iv and Wi-Fi five technologies, so everything you currently accept will connect to it just fine.) That isn't to say using a Wi-Fi v device on a Wi-Fi 6 network volition ruin the experience, but you won't get the full benefit of everything Wi-Fi 6 has to offer until all of your devices are updated to support information technology. For more than particular on what Wi-Fi 6 brings to the table, go read my colleague Jake Kastrenakes' breakup of information technology here.

What Wi-Fi 6 offers right now is the power for the nodes of a mesh network to send data to the main router faster than what was available over Wi-Fi 5. Those speeds tin can so be sent directly to your smartphone, laptop, or gaming console that's continued to a nearby mesh node, even if those devices aren't using Wi-Fi six themselves. You lot can get even faster speeds if you connect your calculator or console to the mesh node with an Ethernet cablevision, even if you lot are a few rooms away from where the internet connexion comes into your home, an ideal benefit if your home isn't wired up for networking, such equally mine.

With a desktop estimator hardwired into ane of the secondary Pro 6 nodes (which and then uses a Wi-Fi connection to link to the main router a floor higher up), I was able to become download speeds to a higher place 400Mbps and sometimes up to 500Mbps, or about half of my bachelor bandwidth. That'south a good 100 to 200Mbps faster than I typically saw from the Eero Pro 5 system, but nevertheless makes a lot of my bandwidth inaccessible. Again, upload speeds were much stronger, simply when you're downloading a massive AAA game and just want to become playing, fast upload speeds are a minor consolation.

The Linksys Velop MX4200, which has like specs to the Eero Pro, performed almost identically, with speeds capping out at simply over 300Mbps and most smaller devices non pulling more than 200Mbps down. That's not enough of a difference for me to recommend spending $500 or $600 to upgrade from a Wi-Fi 5-based mesh system if y'all already take one.

The Arris' more circuitous antenna array did provide a pregnant speed bump over Wi-Fi 5 systems and both the Eero Pro 6 and Linksys units. My mobile devices were consistently able to achieve connection speeds over 400Mbps, while hardwiring into the remote node allowed me to meet nearly gigabit downloads.

Though the Eero disappointed me on bodily speeds, it proved very reliable, with great stability throughout my weeks of testing. It hops devices from one node to some other well equally I move effectually the house, and it's able to handle the load of remote working and schooling that often includes multiple concurrent video calls without dropping connections or choking. 4K video streams are possible anywhere in my dwelling house, and I never had to worry well-nigh what my kids were doing on the network if I needed to make a critical video phone call or upload a big file for piece of work. Information technology bested the Arris in this respect, which oft needed to be rebooted to go its mesh node to reconnect to the main router and had trouble roaming devices from ane node to the other as I moved through the house.

Simply I was able to go that aforementioned kind of reliability with the older Wi-Fi 5 system and the same internet service, so you don't need to purchase an Eero Pro 6 setup to experience information technology.

My exam results are far from scientific. I'm testing in a unmarried home with a single service and using internet connection speeds averaged across a variety of speed examination services every bit a metric, which network administrators would turn their olfactory organ up at. But while some folks might be more concerned with how fast they can shuffle files around their home network, the vast majority of people merely desire to have a fast connection to the internet no matter where they are in their home. It'south why you lot're paying for a gigabit net connection to begin with. Dong Ngo's testing over at DongKnows shows that in file transfer scenarios, the Eero Pro vi sits nigh middle of the pack, despite its top-shelf pricing. Numerous user reports on Reddit besides mutter about modest to no internet speed increases over Wi-Fi 5-based systems.

During my test period, the Eero Pro half dozen system received a handful of software updates (which are delivered automatically; there's no way to force an update), including a recent update to version vi.ane. Some users take reported noticeable speed increases with the 6.1 update, but subsequently redoing a number of tests, the speeds on my network have remained consistent with before software versions, with the most noticeable improvement seen when I am hardwired into a mesh node.

*Compared to other tri-band Wi-Fi vi systems, the Eero Pro half-dozen is much smaller and more discreet.*

Eero Pro 6 design

Something that the Eero Pro 6 has over all of its Wi-Fi 6 contest is aesthetics. The Eero Pro half dozen node is and then much smaller than any other tri-ring system, which makes it easier to identify in your home and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb if you lot do take to continue it in a living area. Information technology'southward a little larger than the old Eero Pro and certainly not as discreet as the Eero Beacon, but it's tiny compared to the high-end Wi-Fi 6 routers from Netgear, Linksys, and Arris.

Another characteristic that sets Eero apart from nigh of the other Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems is you can mix and match the new Wi-Fi vi units with older Wi-Fi 5 nodes. If you already own an Eero system and don't want to wholly supersede every unit, buying one or two nodes and integrating them into your existing network could be an appealing option, though yous will merely get the benefits of Wi-Fi six when you're connected to ane of the new nodes, which you can't ever predict or rely on.

Y'all give up some things, though. Merely like the older Eero Pro, the Pro vi has just two Ethernet ports on the back, one of which will be occupied past the cable coming from your modem. If you have any number of devices that you plan to hardwire into the router, you'll definitely need to become a multiport switch. There is no manner to hook up a storage drive directly to the Pro 6, either, as its lonely USB-C port is used for its power adapter.

In that location's just one LED calorie-free on the front of the Eero. It glows blue during setup, is a static white when everything is working equally it should, and glows cherry when there isn't an internet connexion. For any more particular than that, you'll take to go to the Eero app.

The Eero Pro 6 is rated every bit an AX4200 system, which is an birdbrained way of describing what its peak networking speeds are. That rating puts it in the middle of the pack of tri-band Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems: it's the same as Linksys' $499 Velop MX4200 only lower than the AX6600 and AX11000 systems from Netgear and Arris.

As this is a tri-band system, the Eero Pro 6 supports three Wi-Fi bands: the standard two.4GHz and 5GHz ones most Wi-Fi routers offer, plus some other 5GHz band to allow the nodes to send data back and forth without competing with your device traffic. Unlike other systems, which split up device traffic and mesh node traffic betwixt the ii 5GHz bands, Eero'southward system volition just use any lane it determines is the most efficient, and then it doesn't have a "dedicated backhaul" band that others annunciate. In theory, the ii 5GHz bands should provide enough bandwidth for gigabit speeds to your devices, though one of them has one-half as many antennas every bit the other, which does have an bear upon on throughput. That's why Eero's AX4200 rating is lower than others, which offer more than antennas.

In addition to its Wi-Fi radios, the Eero Pro 6 has Thread and Zigbee smart abode radio back up, then you can utilize information technology as a hub for smart home devices, which are then managed through the Alexa app.

Eero Pro half dozen app and setup

Setting up the Eero Pro 6 is just equally easy and straightforward as the company's prior models. You download the app to your phone, plug in the showtime node, and follow the prompts. The app walks y'all through calculation the boosted nodes, creating your network and password, and turning on features such as a invitee network or Eero's subscription-based security and parental control features.

Unfortunately, the app is the only way to manage the network. Eero doesn't offering any spider web interface at all, and using the app requires yous to create an Eero account and have an active internet connection on your phone before you lot set up the network. This is condign a popular trend amid mesh systems — both Arris and Google's systems work the same way — simply Eero was arguably the start to popularize an app-only experience.

The Eero app is also surprisingly limited, peculiarly for a high-cease arrangement that'southward ostensibly designed for ability users. It offers very few network management controls, lacks things similar Dynamic DNS, and doesn't let you separate out the 2.4GHz network from the 5GHz i for greater transparency. It displays a list of all of my connected devices, but it does a poor job of automatically identifying them, and then I had to become in and manually figure out which i was which through its IP address before I could use parental controls or other filters to it. (Eero is not lonely in this consequence, every other router management app I've used struggles with it as well.)

Near of these limitations are easy to ignore on entry-level mesh systems where the primary thing that matters is reliable coverage. And Eero would likely argue that its algorithms are more effective at managing network load than the average person futzing with settings. Near people only want to plow the thing on and accept it piece of work. But on a $600 arrangement that's advertised for gigabit dwelling house internet service and has "Pro" in its name, the hands-off approach is frustrating and limits how much command over your ain network you have. As it is, Eero offers the exact aforementioned app feel whether you pay $100 for an entry-level node or the full $600 for the top-tier organisation. It could do well to add together more pro features to its "Pro" router.

The Eero Pro 6 does not support Apple HomeKit, even though Eero'due south older models do. I asked Eero, and the company said it is working with Apple tree to get it certified for HomeKit, but in that location isn't a specific release date for information technology. Another option not yet bachelor on the Eero Pro 6 is the toggle for "optimizing for briefing and gaming" in the Labs section of the app's settings. This is the closest affair Eero offers to quality of service direction and is designed to prioritize devices that are currently on video calls or playing games. The company says it is working on calculation information technology to the Eero Pro 6 in hereafter updates.

Like its other routers, Eero offers some subscription-based services on the Eero Pro 6. These include advertizement filtering, malware protection, content filters, and access to paid apps such as Encrypt.me and 1Password. The base Eero Secure plan costs $29.99 per year and includes everything only the paid apps; the Secure Plus plan runs $99 per year and adds those apps in.

I'1000 hesitant to recommend paying for either of these services, as competing routers offer content filtering and parental controls for gratis, both of which are tabular array stakes features. The other problem is Eero is non transparent at all about what the threat blocks and security features are really doing. Information technology just shows yous a study of blocks it fabricated on specific devices merely doesn't say annihilation nigh what they were or what acquired the threats. The advertizement filtering is also less effective than content blockers on your browser in my feel.

*Eero's subscription plans offering security features but provide little info as to what they are actually doing.*

The only way the subscription makes sense is if you were planning to pay for 1Password and Encrypt.me anyway, as the packet is less expensive than parting them out separately.

Lastly, it's important to notation that Eero is wholly owned by Amazon and that using its routers requires an Eero account. You can further link an Amazon account to your Eero business relationship to make use of Amazon'southward Simple Setup features and the built-in Zigbee smart home hub. Eero outlines the information it collects in its privacy policy, and, well, information technology'due south a lot.

*The Eero Pro 6 is a little larger and taller than the Pro v arrangement it replaces.*

Thank you to rapid iteration over the past few years, mesh routers have reached levels of maturity and accessibility that were unthinkable just a curt time ago. (Eero's commencement model, which arguably bankrupt the door open on mesh Wi-Fi routers, came out in 2016.) That means if a company is going to charge a pregnant price for a router and claim that it'due south ideal for gigabit connections and "pro" uses (whatever that means), information technology has to really bear witness that worth with performance.

Unfortunately, based on my experience, the Eero Pro half-dozen doesn't bring the performance I'd expect at this price tier. Information technology's slightly faster than the prior generation, just not nearly enough to make an upgrade worthwhile. And it's not so much ameliorate or faster than the less expensive mesh router options currently bachelor, fifty-fifty ones made past Eero itself. That's not a huge surprise, as Eero's older systems were never the fastest in the field, but I was hoping for a bigger leap in functioning with the Pro vi than I've seen and then far, especially given the price increment.

Eero isn't lone here. My tests showed Linksys Velop MX4200 doesn't bear its weight either. And even with the routers that do provide faster speeds, you compromise things like aesthetics, reliability, and features (not to mention having to pay even more). The Arris router brought the functioning increases I'one thousand looking for, but it's bigger, uglier, needs more than maintenance, and costs more. Wi-Fi 6 routers are still a new thing, only coming to market in the past yr, and it seems like they take a ways to go before they are demonstrably meliorate than their Wi-Fi 5 predecessors in everyday utilize cases (aka exterior of a controlled lab).

If y'all're thinking of making an investment and can wait, my recommendation would be to practice merely that. Wi-Fi 6E, which is the adjacent step in the Wi-Fi engineering chain, is expected to arrive in the nearly future and bring more than meaning speed and capacity increases. None of today's routers (or devices) support information technology all the same. But if you are in demand of a mesh router right now, y'all might want to look at options other than the Eero Pro half dozen.

Photography past Dan Seifert / The Verge

Source: https://www.theverge.com/22193059/eero-pro-6-review-mesh-router-wifi-6-test-speeds-network