Puck-sized gadget aims to simplify wireless home networking setup, management
If the folks at eero have their way, the days of setting up a wireless home network and range extender will be as easy as plugging in a gadget to a power outlet. The company today launched its eero, a puck-sized gadget and system that creates a wireless mesh network for the home.
The system includes setup via mobile device (either smartphone or tablet, with both iOS and Google Android support), and each eero unit can talk to the other within the network to create the wireless mesh. As long as one eero device is connected to your Internet modem, the other devices can talk to each other. The company says that three eero devices can cover a typical home, eliminating the need for wireless range extenders.
Eero The eero gadget is small enough to place anywhere in a home (as long as it’s close enough to a power outlet).
Each eero unit includes a 1.0GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 1GB of flash storage, with dual Wi-Fi radios (2.4GHz and 5GHz) to create the wireless mesh. The 802.11ac system also includes Bluetooth 4.0 (which lets users configure/manage the network via their mobile device). Security and networking services include WPA2 Personal/Enterprise, 802.1x, DHCP, NAT, DNS Proxy, IPv6 and VPN passthrough.
The company also says its software can regularly run checkups on its devices, knowing which ones are connected and rebooting itself in case one of them goes down. This self-correcting feature is also used to update the device’s firmware, eero says. In addition, the system can send alerts whenever other devices try to join the network, and guests can join the network via the eero app or you can send them a text message with network access information.
Eero says it plans to ship the devices by the early summer of 2015, with a $125 cost for one device, or a 3-pack for $299. We’re hoping to receive some review units when they’re ready; stay tuned to see if the future of wireless home networking is made easier via the mesh.
