Eero interfering with laptop USB connections?

[KingGrimlock]

I've had an ongoing problem since joining TalkTalk where my bluetooth speaker would suddenly stop working, which I put down to connecting my laptop to a separate monitor. I never had this problem previously, it only started occurring when I joined and I put it down to the Eero. If I disconnected the monitor, although far from ideal, I could at least get on with things. Since then, the situation has deteriorated and I now lose the internet / wifi connection if I connect anything to my laptop at all (mouse, laptop, bluetooth speaker, monitor, etc.).

Frankly, I am at my wits end. My laptop is completely unusable unless I connect absolutely nothing to it, other than the power cable. My drivers all appear to be up to date, I've tried turning off "Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)" under Network Adaptors in Device Manager, which was something I saw mentioned elsewhere that sounded like it had worked as a solution for others with similar issues, all to no avail.

I'm convinced there is some kind of interference / signal clash being caused by the Eero, but have no idea how to resolve this. Any help much appreciated. I am on Windows 10 currently.

Thanks for your time.

[KeithFrench]

Thinking about this some more @KingGrimlock how is the internet when you use the eero app? The reason I ask this is because the app communicates with the eero via Bluetooth.

[KeithFrench]

Your WiFi works fine though via the eero, when Bluetooth is disabled, doesn't it. Have you tried rolling back the Bluetooth driver? Which Bluetooth chipset is it (e.g. Intel), have you tried their website for a later driver?

[KingGrimlock]

Well, I think the problem is the Eero because that is the only thing in my set up that has changed recently. I don't see what else can have suddenly caused my laptop to have a meltdown every time the bluetooth is switched on when it worked perfectly well before.

[KeithFrench]

Why do you think the problem is with the eero? I said before that it cannot interfere with Bluetooth.

Have you tried contacting the laptop's tech support as the laptop would seem to be the common denominator?

[KingGrimlock]

Thanks for the reply Keith. Apologies, I tried to be concise and was also suffering from a lack of sleep when I wrote my initial post, so sorry if some of what I said didn't make any sense.

I believe it to be a bluetooth issue, as when I turn bluetooth off on my laptop, I do not receive any issues. So I suspect the Eero and the bluetooth signal are clashing. What muddies the waters (and I'm no expert so this may be completely irrelevant), is that neither the monitor nor the keyboard I attach to my laptop are wireless so I don't quite grasp why having my bluetooth switched on whilst connected to these two items would cause a problem. Especially when they didn't when I was with my previous provider. My bluetooth speaker and mouse are both wireless of course, so that's why I stated USB connection rather than bluetooth connection as the source of the problem.

To try and answer some of your questions - I do not have any wired connections, and yes the internet does appear to drop off completely when the issue arises (either shows as unavailable or, if I am in the middle of downloading something, the download ceases and I have to restart) on the laptop but NOT in the Eero app. I also have a separate work laptop which I switch out, and have had no problems using this. But I don't try running the bluetooth speaker on this, as it's work property so I'm not going to copy personal music files onto it to listen to whilst working (for example). I do connect the screen, keyboard and mouse via a Thinkpad connected into one of the USB ports on it.

You're more than welcome to send me your guide. Always open to optimising my set up and getting the best out of it. If it helps resolve the issue as well, then that's perfect.

Thanks for your time and help with this.

[KeithFrench]

There is no way that the eero can interfere with Bluetooth.

Is the laptop connected normally to the Bluetooth speaker? Bluetooth does operate in the 2.4GHz band, but is not the same protocol as used by WiFi, but this does not mean that other 2.4GHz devices (wireless doorbells & mice etc) are not affecting it. As the WiFi is dropping on the laptop, the laptop is the common denominator. Perhaps this needs further investigation & if so you would need to contact the manufacturer's tech support. If the drivers are up to date, this does not mean that there is not a problem with one of them. It may just be a coincidence that the WiFi is going down, which is far more likely to be caused by WiFi interference. 

Slow speed, intermittent dropouts, breaks in the signal or no signal on some or all devices or no internet access might be caused by Wi-Fi interference from other local networks, which can also lead to a permanent reduction in speed. No ISP can be responsible for your local environment, this is mainly a byproduct of the popularity of Wi-Fi.

However, other factors should be investigated first. When this happens, what is the status displayed in the app for the internet connection? Do you have any wired connections & if so, how do they perform?

Generally speaking, the 2.4GHz band suffers a lot more from interference than the much faster 5GHz band, but the 2.4GHz one can sometimes have a better range, but this all depends on your local area.

In other words, I try to help you optimise your Wi-Fi connection. The next stage involves sending out a guide to you to help you get me some important diagnostic results so that I can analyse them for you and recommend changes to your router configuration to solve them.

I only send this out to people who request it.

Whilst the eero is supposed to manage Wi-Fi interference, if this is very bad, particularly in the 2.4GHz band, then it cannot do anything about it, no router can. The same goes for any router at that point. Other things that may then need to be investigated are its location within your property and the WiFi bands that you use. It is possible that you may also need to purchase additional eero nodes as it is supposed to operate as part of a mesh system. I can help with any of this. However, I would suggest that you follow my help to find out what the root cause of the problem is, before throwing money at it.