This Amazon product will boost your WiFi speed
Now more than ever, it’s important to have the fastest WiFi speed you can. Whether you’re working from home during the pandemic, binge-watching a show on your favorite streaming service, or checking the latest NFL odds on your favorite team, good internet speeds are worth every penny.
But, here comes the eero by Amazon. The product functions as a mesh WiFi network, where you can continue to connect stations, via ethernet or connected to the mesh network. In this type of setup, the system operates under one network throughout your home or business.
The eero by Amazon can boost your WiFi speed by three times, compared to the average router, making the investment well worth it. The device usually starts around $79. With Amazon now owning the company, you could have the device at your door and set up in two days.
Potential Pitfalls
The device does come with a downfall, as it only has two ethernet ports – one port needs to be sacrificed for your connection coming in and the other is for your choosing. Therefore, this doesn’t work out well if you have multiple gaming or streaming devices all placed near each other. Although, being close to the router still provides a strong wireless connection.
To add, another con of this system is that parental controls aren’t on the system and you have to pay extra – a few bucks a month for anti-malware tools. Amazon does give you a free 30-day trial of this service, but the service isn’t noticeable when you’re not paying for it.
Eero Bright Spots
On the bright side, this router will give the user 1,500 feet worth of coverage. The system overall does a really good job of making sure there aren’t dead spots. There is also the opportunity to add beacons, which don’t require a connection, which act as a signal booster. The eero offers speeds up to 500 Mbps but can be even faster in some situations. The router is fantastic when it comes to streaming and gameplay, as speeds don’t slow down even with a lot of connected devices.
For those in a situation without access to the modem, the device also works as a WiFi speed booster that operates under its own network. To note, this does not work in all situations. It’s also important to know that this device truly is a mesh-wifi network, where you can’t split SSIDs (have different networks with a different name).
Some advanced features that the eero offers are:
- Static IP address setup, where you can manually set the IP address
- DNS, which translates the web address to the IP address
- DHCP & NAT, which assigns IP addresses to the connected devices in your home
- Reservations & Port Forwarding, manually open an Internet port for a single client, to let traffic pass directly through to that machine
- UPnP: Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) allows devices like game consoles and media centers to open direct connections to other devices on the Internet.
- Band Steering: whether a device has previously been seen on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and if so attempts to “steer” it to 5 GHz to improve long-term device performance.
For those who aren’t tech-savvy, setting up the device couldn’t be easier. Open the eero app and it will sync within a few minutes, taking it less than 10 minutes per device. Beacons do not need to be connected with an ethernet cord and are placed in your dead spots, halfway in-between your router and your devices. Each beacon and regular station have a white light that is illuminated, which indicates that the router is on and working. If there is an issue, it will flash white or red.
Eero always has customer support if you ever need it – basic users shouldn’t find themselves using this avenue during the setup process and general use. There is even a Reddit page for this product if you need additional support.
If you have a smart home, having eero by Amazon as your router can be important as it can seamlessly connect to your Amazon Alexa, as you can ask Alexa to do smart home commands, giving location assistance to your phone, controlling your lights and turning the network on and off.
