For better Wi-Fi coverage in your house, it’s hard to beat Eero system

I remember seeing ads for a product called Eero even before I knew exactly what it was. Then I started reading reviews and learned that Eero was a mesh Wi-Fi system.

The early reviews were good. When I got to try it for myself, I wrote a review that said, “The Eero system delivers on its promise of fast, easy Wi-Fi coverage for any home. “

Since I reviewed the Eero system, I’ve also tried out mesh Wi-Fi systems from Netgear, Linksys and Samsung. They all did a good job covering my house with strong Wi-Fi.

Now the market segment is old enough that I’m reviewing the second-generation Eero system, which features a price drop and uses a bit of a tweaked design.

First let’s review why mesh Wi-Fi is a good thing.

Most of us just have a single Wi-Fi router. It might be combined in your internet modem or it might be a stand-alone box. But when the Wi-Fi signal is coming from one place, it might not be placed optimally for good reception all over your house and yard.

Mesh Wi-Fi uses multiple access points that broadcast the same network throughout an office building, hospital, hotel or even your house. The mesh points can all be wired together, or they can be wireless, all communicating back to one wired access point.

The new Eero, like its predecessor, remains the easiest mesh Wi-Fi system to set up.

The new version has changed from identical access points to one “base station” and one or two or more “beacons.”

Beacons are half the size of the base station, and they plug directly into a wall outlet. This form-factor means the beacons cannot be connected to the base station with an Ethernet cable. It also makes setup a breeze.

Eero says the system with one base station and one beacon ($299) is good for one- or two-bedroom apartments or homes.

If you have a two- to four-bedroom home, you should start with one base station and two beacons ($399).

The next step up is for homes with fifififififive or more bedrooms and/or complicated layouts. It includes three full Eero base stations ($499).

I reviewed the $399 system with two beacons.

Easy setup

First, you’ll want to download the free Eero app on a smartphone or tablet.

You’ll be directed to unbox the base station and connect it with an Ethernet cable to your internet modem. There should be several open Ethernet ports on the back of your internet modem. You’ll be walked through the steps to set up a wireless network.

Then you need to think about placement of the beacons. The app will tell you to plug in the fifirst beacon and wait while the system discovers the beacon and then tests the placement to make sure it has a strong enough signal from the base station to function properly.

You’ll need to make sure Bluetooth is turned on so the Eeros can be discovered by the app.

The setup worked perfectly, and the directions were easy to follow.

You continue the setup for the second beacon the same way.

Be a conplacement isn’t diffificult. The app offffffffffffers placement tips. Eero says beacons should be placed no more than 50 feet from another Eero (base station or beacon) for best results.

The app will tell you whether your beacon is getting a good signal, so don’t be afraid to unplug it and move it closer to another Eero.

If your base station is at one end of your home and you have a dead spot in the opposite end of the house, you won’t necessarily need a beacon in that farthest room, just in an intermediate spot that covers that last room. You can also add more beacons or base stations as needed, so don’t worry about your house being too big.

Once the Eero 2 is set up, the beauty is that you can just forget about it. And that’s what you want from your Wi-Fi system: You want it to be easy to set up, then you never want to have to mess with it again.

You interact with the system through the app, which opens with a dashboard view of each component showing its health status. The app also does periodic speed tests, but you can initiate a test at any time.

You can see a list of all connected devices and examine data usage and even block devices with just a few taps.

The app has all the features you’d expect from a Wi-Fi router, including the ability to setup bridge mode, which allows Eero to act as merely an access point, not a router.

Your existing internet modem is acting as a router (handing out IP addresses), so it might bee asier to just set up Eero as an access point.

I set up Eero in my home alongside one of its main competitors, and in aside-by-side test, the Eero is faster. Eero says the new Eero is twice as powerful as the original.

I’ve been running the Netgear Orbi in my home, and I set up Eero to make some comparisons. My MacBook Pro can tell me the transmission speed it has between the laptop and the connected Wi-Fi system.

I usually sit about 12 feet from my Wi-Fi router because my internet modem is in my TV cabinet in the living room. At that distance, the Netgear Orbi transmitted at a rate of 585 megabits per second, which is pretty speedy, but switching over to a network on the Eero showed a rate of 780 Mbps. Note that this speed rating is the speed of network traffic running between my computer and the base station, not of my actual internet connection, which is closer to 30 Mbps.

Where the faster Wi-Fi comes in handy is for internal t raf fiffic, sayf rom my media server to the Apple TV or from my laptop to a network-attached storage drive.

Eero keeps the system updated automatically, which is a good thing because these updates help secure your personal data.

Conclusions

Eero delivers solid Wi-Fi coverage for your home, no matter how big or small or strangely shaped. Setup is easy, and in my testing period, the internet has yet to drop or require a restart.

There are plenty of mesh Wi-Fi choices, but Eero is one of the easiest to use, and its second-generation hardware is among the fastest I’ve ever used.

It’s not the cheapest and

EERO The Eero mesh Wi-Fi system is now in its second generation, with a tweaked design and a price reduction.