[NewsPoster]

A San Francisco startup is attempting to fix in-home Wi-Fi issues and remove the need for Wi-Fi extenders, using a collection of wireless access points for a cohesive wireless home network. Eero consists of a small access point which can work on its own as a router, though when it is near other similar devices, it can create a mesh network to cover a wider area with the same Wi-Fi network.

Each Eero device consists of a compact box measuring 4.75 inches square and 1.26 inches thick, containing a dual-core 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 1GB of flash storage. For wired connectivity, it has dual auto-sensing Gigabit ports which can be used to connect to a cable or DSL modem and as a LAN connection point. On the wireless side, it has dual Wi-Fi radios running on 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and providing 802.11ac connectivity, with Bluetooth 4.0 LE also provided.

The initial set-up process is supposed to be an improvement on existing routers. Using a mobile app, users can set the name and password for the network, with the settings automatically spreading to other units in the mesh. Granting access to other users can also be performed with a single tap if the guest also has the app installed, saving them from going through the process of entering the Wi-Fi password into their device, with notifications able to be sent to the home owner if a smartphone or tablet joins or leaves the network. The system will also automatically update itself and fix issues, rebooting individual units if necessary.

Currently, Eero is available to pre-order at a discount, with single units being sold for $125 instead of $199, and a bundle of three for $299 rather than the post-launch $499. The company expects to start shipping orders this summer.

[prl99]

Expensive. How does a mesh network compared to WiFi extenders? Typically, a WiFi extender has a 50% throughput loss because of the way it works. With two frequencies, you can work around that issue but I don't think that's what they have in mind with extenders. I found some of the same limitations for mesh networks, "Specifically, if the coverage is extended by multiple hops, the repeatedly relayed traffic will exhaust the radio resource and degrade user throughput." Is the throughput degradation much less than normal WiFi extenders?

[growlf]

What @prl99 said.

Is there anything to indicate that this isn't just doing WDS behind the scenes? What does it give me, besides a cute UI, that I can't get by buying a few cheap access points on Amazon and connecting them using existing distribution technologies?

Additionally, it's cute - and I'm going to guess that comes at a cost of antennas/coverage. 1000 square feet per access point seems ridiculous. My home is 2200 sq ft and a single airport covers it. Take a look at most modern AC devices... antennas everywhere. Even Apple's airport has grown in size in the latest incarnation. Seems to me that you're paying for cute little white boxes that can be placed out in the open versus a single ugly access point that will cover your whole house and sit in a closet.

[prl99]

@growlf Mesh networking sounds like it's different from doing WDS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking They talk about using it with the One Laptop Per Child program where the network is constantly extended using each laptop as a relay point. It sounds crazy and way more than I would need in my house but my two story house does have some corners that don't get the signal as well as other. I changed the mounting of my Airport Extreme and that helped but I still lose 50% of my speed once I get away from the router. I wouldn't mind having additional base stations if the speed kept up.