eero internet/ wifi drops out intermittently and wi-fi coverage needs improvement

[Mmmnicetalk21]

Hello, we have just upgraded to eero for the full fibre experience and also we were recommended this to improve Wi-fi coverage in our house. 

We are seeing two issues: 

1. Wi-Fi to the furthest room upstairs still isn't great. 

2. Wi-Fi drops out many times a day but intermittently, but wherever we are in the house. On my own mobile phone (which may have its own issues) I have to force the phone to look for the WiFi and connect to it, multiple times a day. 

The new eero is in a ground floor room, fixed by proximity to the incoming lines/ box.  We have it as out in the open as we can.  The powerline set up we had for the providing ethernet connection to the upstairs back bedroom PC seems still to be working. We had a wifi extender previously to help with coverage, but I have read about its lack of technological compatibility with eero mesh, and so does no longer work, so I have disabled that.  

I have read others' accounts that they have needed an additional eero.  Would this help us in our situation, and what is needed in terms of connection to the incoming lines to the house? Will we need to run cables up the stairs, do we need extra phone sockets upstairs? Apologies, I read a lot about the technology but don't really understand it all in detail.  

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Good afternoon,

Thanks for your PM and I'm really glad to hear this 🙂

Michelle

[KeithFrench]

The connection between the two Eeros is via WiFi @Mmmnicetalk21. They use what is called the "backhaul" network, which is a hidden SSID (network name).

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Mmmnicetalk21

If we send an additional eero you don't need another socket.

I'm just sending you a Private Message.

Thanks

[Mmmnicetalk21]

Yes, we just have the one eero. Could you let me know what I need for an extra eero eg. Phone outlet upstairs? Also a cost please. 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi @Mmmnicetalk21 

Do you have just the one eero? Do you still need help with this?

[KeithFrench]

No Eero fix can sort an extender problem. This is not as @Debbie-TalkTalk pointed out the correct way to extend an Eero network.

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Mmmnicetalk21

Do you have the one eero at the moment?

[Mmmnicetalk21]

Hello, could you let me know what I need for an extra eero eg. Phone outlet upstairs? Also a cost please  Also Keith French noted about changing channel 155 to another? I think you are saying that this is not a fix for the WiFi extender but will the fix not change overall performance over devices using the 2.4GHz too? There should be a number of mobile phones and a laptop that should show up as loosing WiFi connectivity in parts of the house - I don't know understand enough to know why you can't see that behaviour from there, but I am sharing this as our experience of the WiFi as it stands. Hope you can help 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Mmmnicetalk21

Our Devices Team have taken a look and advised the following:

Eero can see a Huawei smartphone, that sometimes is disconnected and sometimes has poor connectivity. Looks like it sometimes sits in an area with a marginal signal. eero cannot see any evidence of any full network Wi-Fi dropout.

Regarding the third-party Wi-Fi extender, this wouldn't form part of the mesh and wouldn't be supported nor recommended by eero. 

They advised using an additional eero to improve coverage.

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Mmmnicetalk21

Thanks for your reply.

I've passed this over to the team to take a look. I will post back as soon as I have further information.

Debbie

[Mmmnicetalk21]

Hello, it's had a upgrade just this week to 7.3.3. thanks. 

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Just before I pass this over, could you check what firmware version is currently showing on your eero please and if there is an option to update this to a newer version?

Michelle

[KeithFrench]

Your Eero looks like it might be using channel 155 in the 5GHz band. This channel is not supported by many WiFi adapters, forcing them to use the 2.4GHz band. There is a fix for this, which I will ask TalkTalk to apply for you.

[KeithFrench]

I will PM you a link for a guide of mine on Wi-Fi interference. It is quite long (about 30 pages), but you will probably only need to look at three or four pages in total. Initially look at the section called "Are you suffering from interference – prove it first". This is the first link in the table of contents. This section includes full details of free Wi-Fi analysers that I recommend for Windows, Windows phone, Android and Apple operating systems. However, I have no way of testing the Apple product. Select the analyser of your choice & my guide explains how to use it. Collect the screenshots that I require and include them in your reply. Do not worry about interpreting the results, I will do that for you.

Please post the screenshots to me in a PM (to protect your privacy), which I have requested in my guide. No photos please as they can be difficult to read, because the text can get out of focus when zoomed in. Please ensure that the analyser window is maximised (if Windows) before taking the screenshots & upload them via the "Insert Photos" button (in a mobile browser it's the picture icon) on the post editor's toolbar with the Size parameter set to Large.

[Mmmnicetalk21]

Thank you, Keith! Yes please to the guide - it's time we found out what is going on with our house (the thick walls we know definitely don't help!)

Azu

[KeithFrench]

Most likely yes, you will need an extra Eero, as they are designed to work in a mesh network, not as an individual router. However, to be sure it is nothing else causing the problem the quality of the WiFi in your property needs to be evaluated.

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.

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.

The information below is provided by TalkTalk, for confirmation please contact @Debbie-TalkTalk or@Michelle-TalkTalk.

KeithFrench is one of our valued Community Stars and can help with a range of issues related to wireless and networking. At times he may ask you to send him test results via a Private Message to help analyse/diagnose an issue. Although Keith does not work for TalkTalk, he very kindly shares his time and knowledge to help with others.

If you need further help or, if we need to take any details such as personal information about your account like phone numbers, account numbers etc. one of the TalkTalk team will jump in and help out.