eero Pro WiFi System

We've had Eero for a bit over a month now and have had no connectivity issues!Our fairly large sized 2 bedroom NYC apartment is an old converted brick factory. As such, we have old, thick walls. Our VZ fios signal was not getting from the livingroom where the modem was, to the bedroom where we do not have a hard-wired line for internet --so we need to rely on wifi to stream TV. Previously it had been spotty. Wifi would cut out in the middle of streaming anything --always at the worst spots! Sometimes we'd have to just give up and not finish something until we could watch it in the living room. Also, our home office is back there, so work email and streaming to the printer just was not reliable.In came Eero. Now our whole house is meshed together and so far (knock on wood!) we're yet to have a single issue streaming anything.Likes:Coverage: Our whole place is covered with FAST wifi that has yet to drop.Multi-tasking: didn't realize how much stuff we stream at once: 3 Sonos speakers, 2-4 smartphones/ipads, 2 macbooks, 1 printer, 2 TVs, 1 raspberryPi, 2 Echo Dots, 1 Nest thermostat, 1 apple TV, 1 chromecast, 1 Withings scale --I know all of this because the iPhone app is showing me what's connected right now. Everything works perfectly, and fast.Knowing what's connected: as mentioned above, this is cool. The app tells you what devices are connected and to which unit (in our case, the livingroom Eero or the bedroom Eero beacon. We can also block unrecognized users --bye bye person who tried to get there Samsung phone to connect.Form-factor: It's nice looking. Simple, small, unobtrusive. Our old VZ modem was a clunky weird shaped box with random lights all over it, flashing intermittently.Ease of set up: A friend who previously bought Eero (and recommended it) offered to set this up if I couldn't. But the thing practically does it by itself. The process (I did it all via phone app) took just minutes and was simple and straightforward. The only thing one really needs to know, is how to use a phone app!Price: I thought it was a bit expensive at first, but then realized I could return the router I was "renting" from VZ and paying for each month. Over the course of a year or so, removing that fee will practically pay for the Eero!Dislikes: I guess if anything it's the lack of a swivel based prong on the beacon. My bedroom wall sockets are all mounted sideways (no idea why) instead of vertical. So the beacon sits sideways and the light at the bottom (which you can elect to turn off via app) shines sideways instead of a nice illumination on the floor. This is such a non-issue though, just can't find anything else to dislike.

For years, we have had issues with the consistency and strength of our Wifi signal. We split wifi with a family member in the condo directly next door, and the placement of the router is at the opposite end of our condo with two fireplaces next to each other and old constructions thick walls in between. They have phone service though the provider as well. Spectrum (formerly Time-Warner) is the only game in town for fast speeds and historically their routers have been bad performers over long distances at our condos. At the beginning of the pandemic, things got really bad as we have 5 laptops, several tablets, a few phones, several smart speakers and smart plugs for about 20 devices total connected at any time. Additionally, during the pandemic, it is not uncommon for at least 3 of us to be on some sort of bandwidth eating video app for work/school, effecting wifi performance dramatically. Spectrum came out and replaced our all-in-one router and modem as they had run a test detected slow speeds. The tech installed a spectrum modem with phone service and a new wifi spectrum router was attached to it. The router is bridged to an Apple Time Cap so our friend can back-up their computer automatically (they are not tech savvy, se we are tech support...).Initially I thought this was going to work as next door we were consistently getting over 150mpbs download speeds over 5g and about 70-80mbps further away probably using 2.4. But we had this dead spot. - where everything dropped. Both condo units together are approx 2200 square feet, with yards that maybe add and additional 400 square feet. I researched and tried a the $25 TP-Link AC750 WiFi Extender. I thought the app was annoying and the signal was terrible. I then contacted a tech guy and asked him about what he thought of a Mesh system. He was super nice but discouraged me from that and said that he thought the Netgear - Nighthawk X6S AC4000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 5 Router was my best option because he had a client with adobe walls and a 5500 square feet need and this worked for them. He said my second option was moving the cables, which I was trying to avoid since we have someone high-risk to the virus, and I knew if would be a pain finding and moving wires likely through our scary attic. I ordered this $300 Netgear router and hooked it up - hopeful. Same dead spots, and I found their app to be particularly annoying because I kept getting ads to buy their other services. I spoke to another nice tech guy, and he said he thought the mesh system was the way to go, and to call him if not and he would send a guy to lay down cables. After much research on CNET, PC mag, and Amazon reviews I went with this Pro mesh system due to tri-band capability for $260. It's AMAZING. Signal strength is very good to excellent everywhere in the condo (the 5g connection works from the Beacon which seamlessly connected to the Pro at the opposite end of the condo and broadcasts through a wall reliably and with fast speeds) and the network switches us automatically. Set-up took less than 15-minutes (as opposed to hours with the other systems I tried - repositioning and customizing).If you are a techie person this system might annoy you because it is simple and less customizable. I love it. We get over 220Mbps a lot of the time and I have not seen the speed drop below 70Mbps. I have had the system for 5-days with no issues yet. Our streaming services and work flawlessly on all our devices, and it is super easy to automatically share passwords and monitor everything I need on the basic app. I am so grateful to have this system be so easy after so many issues over the past 6-weeks! If you have a dead spot/black hole and want a simple solution - get this system.

I ordered this to replace an Apple Extreme WiFi router, which was giving spotty and slow coverage in my two bedroom apartment. Both of my kids were doing distance learning at the same time involving Zoom meets in two different rooms, and they were complaining that the calls were being dropped and the connection was slow. So I bought the pro mesh and put a Beacon in the far bedroom. I'm sure it's overkill for a two bedroom apartment, but I wanted to make sure that I had the fastest connection possible. It would probably have been fine without the beacon, but I'm glad I have it. All of my connection problems are solved, and I now have perfect and fast internet all over my apartment. The Eero app is really intuitive and fun, and has lots of great features that I didn't know about when I ordered it. The whole thing took about 10 minutes to set up. I can cut off internet for one of my kids from my iPhone, and leave it running for my other kid, which can be a handy feature, since one of them has a bit of an iPad addiction. For $29 a year, there is a security subscription service which allows you to limit what kind of content they can watch, that can also be adjusted from my phone. The first 30 days is free, I like it so far. Also a $99 yearly option with a VPN, 1password service, and malware protection included. Might be worth it, I'll think about that. But I'm just so happy that my slow internet connection was fixed so easily. I don't understand why there are some negative reviews here, this system is fabulous. A couple of people have complained that the base station runs too hot. It's definitely very warm, but nothing unusual, about as expected.