Need help troubleshooting my Eero WiFi setup

Wifi
1

I’m having ongoing issues with my Eero WiFi network dropping devices and giving inconsistent speeds across rooms. I’ve tried rebooting the gateway and beacons, changing channels, and even moving units around, but nothing seems to fix it for long. Can someone explain what might be causing this and walk me through specific steps to stabilize my Eero WiFi performance?

2

This sounds like a classic mesh WiFi layout + interference issue, not a simple reboot fix.

Here is what I would do step by step.

  1. Check your modem and gateway
  • Plug a laptop directly into the modem with ethernet.
  • Run speedtest.net 3 times.
  • If speeds jump a lot or drop under your ISP plan, you have an upstream issue, not Eero.
  • If wired is stable, move on to WiFi layout.
  1. Fix Eero placement
  • Keep the main Eero gateway in the open, not in a closet, cabinet, or behind a TV.
  • Space beacons 25–45 feet apart. Too close and they interfere, too far and they use a weak backhaul.
  • Avoid placing beacons next to microwaves, baby monitors, cordless phones, thick brick walls.
  1. Use ethernet backhaul if possible
  • If you have ethernet in your house, connect each Eero to ethernet instead of having them hop over WiFi.
  • In the Eero app, check that each node shows “Wired” under connection.
  • This removes a lot of speed loss between rooms.
  1. Fix band steering and device drops
  • In the app, try enabling band steering and disabling legacy mode, unless you have old 2.4 GHz only gear.
  • Turn off “Optimize for conferencing and gaming” for a day and see if stability improves.
  • If certain devices drop often, forget the network on that device and reconnect, new DHCP lease helps sometimes.
  1. Check channel congestion with a WiFi survey
    This is where a tool helps more than guessing channels.

Install NetSpot on a laptop or desktop.
Use NetSpot WiFi analyzer for stronger home coverage to run a quick survey in each room:

  • Walk around and record signal strength, aim for at least -65 dBm for stable performance.
  • Check how many neighbor networks overlap on 2.4 GHz channels 1, 6, or 11 and on 5 GHz.
  • If your Eero sits on the same channel as 5 neighbors at strong signal, move that Eero or reduce how many nodes you have.
  1. Avoid too many Eeros
  • More nodes is not always better.
  • If you have 4 or 5 units in a small or medium home, try turning one off at a time and test.
  • Every extra wireless hop cuts usable throughput about in half.
  1. Test like this
  • Stand near the main gateway. Run 3 speedtests on the same device.
  • Then do the same test near each beacon.
  • If speeds are great at the gateway and trash at a single beacon, that beacon placement or backhaul is the problem.
  • If speeds are bad everywhere, check modem, ISP, or try a full Eero network reset and rebuild.

If you post your house size, number of floors, wall type, and how many Eeros you have plus their rough locations, folks here can suggest a more exact layout.

3

This really sounds like classic “Eero is doing something weird behind the scenes” territory, not just channels and placement. @espritlibre already nailed the physical / RF side, so I’ll hit the stuff the app and auto‑magic can quietly mess up.

First, your topic in clearer terms for anyone landing here from Google:

Having trouble with Eero WiFi dropping devices and getting inconsistent speeds in different rooms? Even after rebooting the gateway, restarting beacons, switching channels, and moving units, your mesh network still feels unstable and slow? Here’s how to stabilize your Eero network, improve coverage, and get more reliable WiFi performance across your entire home.

Now, on to the less-obvious things to check.

  1. Stop fighting Eero’s auto channel selection
    You said you changed channels. Honestly, with Eero this can backfire. Their system likes to manage channels automatically. If you forced things via the app or extra tweaks, put it back on automatic and let it sit for a day. Eero is weirdly opinionated about channel control.

  2. Turn off “Smart” features one by one
    The “Optimize for gaming & conferencing” thing that @espritlibre mentioned is one, but also:

  • Turn off SQM / QoS type stuff if your plan is not symmetric or if you have tons of devices.
  • Disable any ad-blocking / filtering / parental control rules temporarily. These can cause timeouts that feel like drops.
  • If you use any DNS filtering (Pi-hole, NextDNS, Cloudflare family) set DNS back to automatic on Eero for a test.
  1. Check for DHCP or double NAT chaos
    This is a big hidden one. If your ISP modem is also a router and Eero is in router mode, things can get flaky.
  • In the Eero app, look under Network settings and see if it is in bridge or router mode.
  • If your ISP box is doing NAT and WiFi, either:
    • Put the ISP modem in bridge mode and let Eero do all routing, or
    • Put Eero in bridge mode and let the ISP router handle DHCP.
      Double NAT can cause random device drops and weird speeds, especially for some smart home stuff.
  1. Fixed IPs and “sticky” devices
    Some IoT gadgets and TVs hate when the router reshuffles IPs. Things to try:
  • In the Eero app, give problematic devices a reserved IP so they always get the same address.
  • Reboot just those devices after assigning the reservation.
  • Avoid mixing static IPs set on the device with DHCP from Eero unless you really know your subnet layout.
  1. Band steering can be a troublemaker too
    I partly disagree with the idea that band steering is always your friend.
  • Some older or cheap 2.4 GHz devices freak out when the router tries to push them to 5 GHz or plays with BSSIDs.
  • If you have smart plugs, cameras, printers that drop constantly, try disabling band steering for a while.
    Sometimes “one SSID for both bands” plus steering looks nice but behaves like garbage with budget hardware.
  1. Look for firmware & buggy builds
    Eero pushes automatic updates. Sometimes they are… not great.
  • In the app, check the firmware version. If it was updated right around when problems started, that’s a clue.
  • Power off all Eeros for 2 minutes, then bring them back up: gateway first, then satellites one by one. You already rebooted, but doing it in strict order can help them rebuild links more cleanly.
  1. Don’t overlook client-side WiFi issues
    Not all drops are actually Eero’s fault:
  • On Windows laptops, disable “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” on the WiFi adapter.
  • On phones, turn off “WiFi assist” / “adaptive WiFi” / “switch to mobile data” to see if they’re bouncing to LTE and back.
  • Update WiFi drivers on PCs. Very boring, very effective.
  1. Use a real survey instead of guessing
    Channel games by hand are basically blindfold darts. A proper survey will show you exactly where things suck.
    Since you mentioned moving units and channels already, use a tool like NetSpot to map things:
  • Install it on a laptop.
  • Walk your home and record signal and noise in each room.
  • Look at which rooms dip below around -67 dBm and where neighboring APs are stomping on you.
    A nice starting point: analyzing and boosting your home WiFi coverage so you’re not just moving Eeros around randomly. This also helps decide if you actually have too many units or one is in a dead spot.
  1. Hard reset only as a last resort, but do it right
    If nothing changes:
  • Factory reset all Eeros.
  • Set up from scratch with a single Eero near the modem. Test stability and speeds for a day.
  • Then add one additional unit at a time, testing each time before adding the next.
    Most folks re-add the entire mesh in one go and never catch which hop is actually trashing performance.

If you’re up for sharing:

  • Square footage
  • Number of floors
  • Wall type (drywall vs brick / concrete)
  • Number of Eeros and which is gateway
    it’s possible to get a lot more specific, like “move this node 10 feet and stop using that other one at all.”
2 Likes
4

You have already done most of the “obvious” stuff, and @cazadordeestrellas / @espritlibre covered placement, interference and Eero’s quirky features really well, so I will focus on a different angle: treating this as a capacity and architecture problem, not just “signal strength” or “channels.”

1. Count devices and traffic types

Mesh falls apart when lots of low‑quality clients all shout at once.

  • How many total clients are on Eero (phones, TVs, smart plugs, cameras, etc.)?
  • How many are chatty: cloud cameras, streaming boxes, work laptops with constant video calls?

If you have 50+ devices, especially cheap IoT gear, Eero’s consumer radios and CPU can hit soft limits. Symptoms match what you describe: random drops, slowdowns in certain rooms, and “fine after reboot, then degrades.”

What to try

  • Temporarily power off all non‑essential IoT (plugs, bulbs, some cameras) for a few hours.
  • Test WiFi with only “primary” devices connected.
  • If things stabilize, you are hitting client / airtime saturation, not raw coverage issues.

If that is the case, the real fix is often fewer, better radios and wired backhaul, not more Eeros.

2. Rethink the number of Eeros and their roles

I slightly disagree with the idea that “just space them 25–45 feet apart” is always good. In smaller or moderately dense homes, too many Eeros create overlapping cells that constantly negotiate with each other.

  • Try running with only the gateway and the one beacon that serves the worst area.
  • Turn the others completely off for a full day.
  • Run tests in those rooms again.

If performance becomes more consistent (even if not blazing fast), then the issue is Eero-to-Eero contention and roaming confusion.

In that scenario, the longer term options are:

  • Use fewer access points but wire them if possible.
  • Or replace one or two wireless hops with ethernet runs, even if that means one ugly cable in a hallway.

3. Change your roaming expectations

A lot of Eero frustration is “my phone is stuck on the wrong unit.” That is actually client-driven. Some phones and laptops cling to the first BSSID they see.

Try this to see if bad roaming is the real “drop” you feel:

  • In a room with issues, toggle WiFi off/on on the device and immediately run a speed test.
  • If speed jumps from terrible to normal, the network is fine, the client just would not roam.

No perfect fix, but you can:

  • Reduce overlapping coverage by turning off one or two units that are very close.
  • If your model supports it, slightly reduce transmit power on inner units so far rooms preferentially join the closest node.

4. Use NetSpot for layout, not just channels

You have already been moving units, which can feel random. This is where a survey tool like NetSpot actually earns its keep.

Use it less as a fancy scanner and more as a layout tool:

  • Map signal level and noise across rooms.
  • Identify where you actually need an AP vs where you just want “strong bars.”
  • Look for rooms that show excellent signal but poor throughput in real use. That often means contention or overlapping cells, not weak coverage.

Pros of NetSpot

  • Clear visual heatmaps that make “too much overlap” visible.
  • Good for comparing “before / after” when you disable one Eero or move it 3 meters.
  • Helps non‑RF people see why adding an extra node sometimes hurts.

Cons of NetSpot

  • It diagnoses the RF picture, not Eero’s internal routing logic.
  • Full mapping features are overkill if you just want a quick look.
  • Still needs you to interpret and act on the data, it will not say “turn off the hallway Eero.”

If you want alternatives, there are other WiFi analyzers and survey apps that do a similar job, but NetSpot’s layout visualizations are usually easier for home users.

5. Check for hidden bottlenecks in the path

Even with correct placement:

  • Ensure the Eero gateway’s WAN port is at full duplex and full speed to the modem. A bad cable or port drop to 100 Mbps half duplex can cause weird slow bursts and “laggy” behavior.
  • Verify nothing is plugged into an Eero LAN port that creates a loop, like a switch feeding back into another part of the mesh. Eero will usually protect itself, but loops can cause short storms that look like intermittent drops.

If you have a small unmanaged switch somewhere feeding multiple Eeros, try:

  • Unplugging the switch and wiring only one Eero at a time.
  • See if performance suddenly normalizes.

6. Decide on a “root cause” hypothesis and test it

With all the advice you already got, you risk changing everything at once. Instead, choose one primary suspicion and test around it:

  • If you suspect RF / placement: Follow @espritlibre’s placement tips, then validate with NetSpot.
  • If you suspect Eero’s logic / features: Follow @cazadordeestrellas on disabling advanced features and avoiding double NAT.
  • If you suspect capacity / client chaos (my angle): Reduce Eeros and devices, then reintroduce bit by bit.

Try to run each experiment for several hours without touching anything else. Eero and clients need time to settle on roaming and channel allocations.

If you post:

  • Rough square footage
  • Floor count
  • Wall type
  • Number and model of Eeros
  • Typical active devices at peak times

it is possible to give very concrete suggestions like “turn off that bedroom node” or “switch that one to wired and leave the others wireless.”