Question Amazon Eero - Yey or Nay?

[Oasis Curator]

I currently have some Tp-Link Deco units providing Mesh WiFi around my home.

They're okay but I don't really use many of the features like parental controls right now. Although I do have you g kids (all under 5), I can't see needing to use it for some time yet.

The Deco units are a bit older, although I only bought them a couple of years ago.

I have an Eero 6 Pro.

The question is, during this time where Eero units are cheap (£80!), should I grab another one and leave the Tp-Link behind? Means I'd get WiFi 6.

I'm about to move house, so I was thinking about replacing the Deco units with Asus ZenWifi AX anyway.

I know the Eero doesn't come with parental controls unless you pay which puts me off considerably but not sure I'd need all the extras anyway? I enjoy having a Guest Network that's about it.

Any advice would be great.

 

[bill001g]

I hate all "mesh" stuff. Most of it is just equipment that used to be called repeater that they slapped "mesh" on. Kinda like they put "AI" on everything.

The problem is the repeater retransmits the repeated signal on the same radio channels as it received them on. This causes interference and also uses part of the radio bandwidth on those channels. You tend to get less than 1/2 the speed in exchange for more coverage.

The much more expensive mesh units can partially fix this using a dedicated radio which of course increases the cost. For a wifi6e you would need 4 radio chips to cover all three radio bands plus the backhaul network.

The best way to use so called "mesh" units is to use them as AP with a ethernet connection back to the main router. There are other options like MoCA is you only have coax to the remote rooms. Then again just buying AP or a cheap router is cheaper than buying the remote "mesh" units in many cases.

Parental controls are complete waste of money on modern routers. First all the traffic is encrypted by HTTPS so there is no way to see what is really being done. The hole that used to allow DNS query to be intercepted is almost totally closed with encrypted DNS. So you are left with IP address. Even that does little good with all the hosted data centers. If you look up www.weather.gov the IP used comes back to a Akamai IP range. So even the national weather service outsource its server hosting. Pretty much the only features you can use on parental controls are the time of day restrictions and if the kids are smart they will learn to change the mac addresses on their device.

In addition to even attempt parental controls all traffic must be seen by the CPU chip. Modern routers to get very fast internet connectivity have moved the calculation intensive NAT function to a special hardware accelerator. This means the traffic will bypass the cpu chip. So even if this feature worked you would likely cap your internet speed to about 300mbps.

 

[Oasis Curator]

I hate all "mesh" stuff. Most of it is just equipment that used to be called repeater that they slapped "mesh" on. Kinda like they put "AI" on everything.

I understand about that. Especially as the word "smart" got slapped on everything.
However, "Mesh" is now just a word meaning "wifi in lots of places" rather than relying on a singular router behind the TV.
I get good enough speeds on our wireless Deco, although on our 1GB connection, I only see 700 wireless when connected to the main Deco and 500MB on the wired Deco (but I am using a crappy cable - won't be in the new house).

The best way to use so called "mesh" units is to use them as AP with a ethernet connection back to the main router. There are other options like MoCA is you only have coax to the remote rooms. Then again just buying AP or a cheap router is cheaper than buying the remote "mesh" units in many cases.

This is how I use my current set up.
Although I have three Deco units, two are wired. In the new house, I don't know if I'll need three but I plan to wire all of them so there's no wireless backhaul.

Parental controls are complete waste of money on modern routers. First all the traffic is encrypted by HTTPS so there is no way to see what is really being done.

Pretty much the only features you can use on parental controls are the time of day restrictions and if the kids are smart they will learn to change the mac addresses on their device.

I did mention my kids are currently all under 5.
They don't even know MAC addresses exist.
It's more in 5/6 years time when the first gets their new phone, I don't want them accidently straying into porn websites or whatever.

In 5 years, I suspect the TP-Link Decos will be very out of date.
The Eero, perhaps not.

I think the one I have already is a WiFi 6E, where as the ones Amazon are selling for cheaper are just WiFi 6.

 

[bill001g]

In 5 or 6 years you kid will be able to tell you in detail how to install free vpn software