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Is Eero Pro Really Worth It?

After I’d removed all the old eeros from the app and physically unplugged them, I decided to run a speed test. I’m paying for 85/85 mbps service through Verizon Fios, and my old eero network topped out at 45/40 mbps. After launching the speedtest app, I held my breath and knocked on wood.

The folks at eero sent me a three-pack of their new second-generation Wi-Fi mesh “squircles” to test out. I’ve had eero installed for the last year in my house, so I was eager to see if their new product would be a significant improvement.

My mother-in-law has been vocal about her displeasure with our existing eero installation. I’ve spent time on the phone with eero technical support, and they couldn’t have been nicer. Nice, however, has not fixed our network. I hoped the new eeros would save the day and make my family happy.

Unboxing
In true eero fashion, the packaging is beautiful and feels like a huge jewelry box. It’s slick, opens cleanly and contains mind-numbingly easy instructions regarding installation. A card beneath the first eero prompts the customer to download the eero app to proceed.

The Installation
Because I already had a network in place, my biggest fear was having to start over and create a new network from scratch. We have 50-plus Wi-Fi devices in the house, and I can remember the initial upgrade to eero as painful (no different from any other network upgrade, but a real pain). Hoping against hope, I decided to call eero technical support to ask whether eero’s network settings could transcend the hardware. I ended up talking with Kay, one of eero’s rock star technical support engineers. He informed me that “yes indeed” we could add the new eeros and disconnect the old without having to re-create the network. Hallelujah!!! Anyone who’s had to upgrade or replace a network will recognize the time savings associated with this fantastic move. Kay’s good news easily saved me three to four hours.

I opened the eero app and clicked “add eero.”

After a few seconds, the eero app prompted me to install the two remaining eeros, and that was it. The whole process was very smooth and seamless. Now that I had a network with six eeros, it was now time to remove the three first-generation eeros from the app. After another 30 seconds, I headed around the house to collect the old eeros and box them up. The only step I took to ensure no mixups was to nickname the new eeros with the suffix “PRO.”

After I’d removed all the old eeros from the app and physically unplugged them, I decided to run a speed test. I’m paying for 85/85 mbps service through Verizon Fios, and my old eero network topped out at 45/40 mbps. After launching the speedtest app, I held my breath and knocked on wood.

Holy Mother of Pearl! The new eero network is much faster, and I ran the test a few more times (including one in my mother-in-law’s room) just to make sure. The results held and the only step remaining involved giving the family a few days to live with it.

I let my mother-in-law know that I’d upgraded the network and to give me candid feedback over the next few days. I waited 48 hours before checking back with her. When I asked how things were going, she gave me the thumbs up. I noticed similar stability and performance improvements over the previous eero generation. Well done, eero!

Is eero for every installation? Of course not, but it’s a great solution to consider for retrofits, smaller installations and solutions where price might be a larger driver in the decision process. Even companies like Access Networks are taking notice and have added eero to their product lineup.

Mesh networking is here to stay and eero is king of the hill. Do you install mesh networking solutions?

Stay frosty and see you in the field.

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