eero - eero PoE 7 and eero PoE Gateway

i’m a month into max 7 three oak system (larger home ) and have the gateway one in garage , one on main floor and one upstairs in hall and getting 849 to my bedroom wirelessly , 25% off now as we text go that way , room for growth and be done. buy once cry once

It's my understanding that the Max 7 additional antennas are for improved wireless mesh (eero max 7 <<>> eero max 7 communication). If you have wired infrastructure from eero to eero you won't need the extra radios in a Max 7. I went with PoE so I could have a UPS and keep the whole system up. We don't lose power often but we have brownouts that would force the system to reboot.

In my research it seems the POE 7 and Pro 7 have about the same performance and specs, with the POE 7 being able to power with POE they can be mixed and matched. If I was in your situation I would use the POE 7’s in the locations that are mounted and needing to be powered with POE and in any location that would work for not needing mounted using a Max 7 for the benefit of the extra output and extra antennas.

Another option that would be great for your wiring scenario would be using Eero gateway as your router and switch , put it in your panel hooked to your spectrum modem, then connect the outgoing cats to it. Connect your eeros to the wiring in the room that they are in .

The best options in terms of performance but not cost: (cost would be inverse) - eero gateway - eero 7 max - eero 7 pro - eero 6e (consider getting one used if you can) - eero 6 pro or any other eero with 2 wired ports If you have 2 gig internet the best options are probably the eero gateway or one of the eero 7s.

The best case is to get the Max 7s and then run Ethernet between them where you can, but that is optional and you can use mesh. The only thing the PoE stuff adds is a different way to power it and form factor. Technically you could run only power over PoE and it would just mesh, but that would be a waste of ethernet. The only PoE ones I use are the outdoor ones because I don’t have an issue placing eeros around and I like the flexibility of not requiring PoE. Another use case is you can have an eero that connects to the network over mesh, but you can Ethernet devices to them and the devices will use the eero as a wifi bridge. This means any device connected to a Eero 7 Max via Ethernet and using the mesh does get the full benefit of the extra radios. I like this option because the less devices you have connected to WiFi the more free the airwaves are for devices that must use WiFi.

All eero routers are mesh systems when using more than one unit. The eero PoE 7 and eero Pro 7 are the same in terms of performance. The PoE version is just flatter and able to be powered over ethernet, making it more suited for wall mounted installs. As for the eero Max 7, it has extra radios that allow it to reach higher maximum speeds and provide a slightly larger coverage footprint, but there are still few consumer devices that take advantage of this (and even fewer that actually need it, imo). If I’m being honest with you, I can’t even tell the difference between my eero Pro 6 setup and my eero Pro 7 setup. My use cases simply don’t push these systems hard enough. I would say save some money and go with the PoE 6 if you’re not on a multi-gig fiber connection.

The folks suggesting Omada and Unifi aren't wrong. Those are *great* systems, but they're pretty "pro". If you don't need advanced networking features (e.g., VLANs beyond isolated guest networks, traffic rules)/want something that's more plug-and-play, a mesh system that supports wired backhaul might be a better fit. Asus ZenWiFi performs well, supports wired backhaul, and offers some useful advanced settings. It's not as configurable as Omada or Unifi or MikroTik, but it's simpler to manage and "good enough" (multiple isolated guest networks, band-specific networks, QoS) for lots of home users. Eero also performs well but doesn't support as many advanced features as Asus.

Eero (Amazon), tp link Deco, and Asus ZenWifi are all well-reviewed and perform well. If you've got to go mesh, look for a tri-band system with a dedicated backhaul channel (Eero, Deco, and ZenWifi all have models). Eero and Deco are a little more "plug and play". ZenWifi is also easy to set up, and some models give a few more config options/control than Eero or deco. The tricky part is that you don't know how well mesh will perform until you set it up in your place. Two nodes might be enough, but you might need three (or four). A 6 ghz backhaul channel might work, but, if the walls and floors in your place cause a lot of interference, you might see better perf with a 5 ghz backhaul. So buy from a place you can return it, maybe start with three nodes, test how coverage and speeds look, go from there. All three have 2.5 Gbps ports. 3 gig is a *lot* of bandwidth for a residential setup. Unless you're regularly downloading gigantic files (video, game updates), you probably won't exceed ~300-500 Mbps, and WiFi will de facto limit the perf on any device to ~200-600 Mbps. For most homes, 200 Mbps is plenty. If the 3 gig price isn't much different than ~300 Mbps (if you're in the US, it's hard to find service under ~300 Mbps), go for it, but if you're paying a premium for 3 gig, you can save some coin and you almost certainly won't notice a difference in performance. If you're in Europe, you rule!, fiber away because you're prob only paying like €40 for 3 gig.

I switched from a gen2 eero to the base 7 eero and it doubled my WiFi speed from about 300mps to 690mps. This is with 1 gig wired. I’m sure this is not as good as the Pro or Max, but I’m very happy with the change. I’m waiting for my devices to shake out for a few days before deciding to upgrading my remaining base extenders to 6e.

Sure. The Deco does not have nearly as much engineering put into it as the Eero does. Eero has a bunch of unique (patented) technologies that make it work better in certain environments.

Great reply. I agree with all points. The only suggestion I would make is to buy a better Eero for the gateway (7 class product) and use the 6+ as an extender. You might find that you don't even need the extender with the better gateway.

This won't work. If your modem is also a router and you have the eeros in bypass it will work, but not well. Modem -> Eero -> Switch -> Eero is the correct way. If your concern is the lack of multi gig ports on the Eero or the need to home run to a place where there is no need for an Eero, pick up a POE gateway.

If you’re going to buy eero, get either Pro 7 or Max 7 access points. That size house might take 3 of them. As people are saying, hardwired backhaul is better than wireless, but the wireless with eero is pretty darn good.

You don’t want the base 7 if performance is important. Full stop. Either pro or max.

Nice guide, and it validates my budget-driven choice to run a Pro 7 gateway and Pro 6 mesh.

eero if you’re reading this…here’s what I would love for you to include with eero plus: - more robust notifications for devices accessing blocked content (parents need to parent) - DPI (I know it will never happen because of privacy but I will never stop asking :) - CPU and RAM stats. Please. Real time info. Nerds everywhere love it. - make the content blocking work better. Is there a way to not redirect to DNS and do it naively? - insight web gui (come on) - multi SSID - make live usage more visible - show us WiFi radio broadcast power. Could we adjust it? If not, at least show us if it’s high, medium or low. Here’s my hardware wish list: eero poe 7 and eero Poe 7 max. Eero Poe gateway updated to Poe++ ports. A unmanaged network switch with lots of Poe power. That’s it for now. 😂😀