I’ve got two eero Pro 7s on a gigabit fiber connection. Main one is connected to the ONT, second one is upstairs using wireless backhaul.
Download is generally great. My laptop will happily pull 600–700 Mbps upstairs, but upload is all over the place. Sometimes it’s normal, other times I’m getting 10–20 Mbps and video calls start acting up.
The weird part is that my phone can get a completely different upload result while sitting right next to the laptop.
The gateway’s own internet speed test looks fine. I’ve also rebooted the system a few times, which seems to help temporarily, but I’m not exactly thrilled about rebooting expensive networking gear whenever it gets moody.
Is this just wireless backhaul being wireless backhaul, or is there something else I should be looking at before I start running cable?
I’d temporarily wire the second eero and see what happens. Not saying you need to commit to a permanent cable run yet. Just test it. If the upload problem disappears with wired backhaul, you’ve narrowed things down quite a bit.
@auto.loser Sure, but “wire it” isn’t really an explanation. If download is doing 700 Mbps, why would the backhaul suddenly be incapable of sending 20 Mbps in the other direction?
@ED_Sniper Because wireless links aren’t necessarily symmetrical. The AP and the client don’t transmit at the same power, and the conditions in each direction can differ. A device might hear the AP reasonably well while the AP has a harder time hearing that device. Then you’ve potentially got another wireless hop back to the gateway on top of that. Doesn’t prove that’s what’s happening here, but good download doesn’t automatically clear the RF path.
@ED_Sniper That’s the part I wasn’t understanding. I assumed if placement was bad, both directions would be equally bad.
Also make sure the laptop is actually connected to the upstairs eero. Being physically closest to an AP doesn’t guarantee the client has roamed to it. You could be sitting next to the upstairs node while the laptop is still hanging onto the downstairs one. And if the phone and laptop are getting wildly different results, I’d want to know whether they’re even on the same band/BSSID before comparing them.
@NodeRunnerY Yep, that’s where I’d start collecting some actual data instead of guessing. NetSpot can show you the BSSID, band, channel and signal level, so you can check what the laptop is really connected to as you move between the two eeros. I’d also look at the surrounding channel situation and compare the signal near each node. For the upload issue, I’d run a local throughput test to a wired machine too. NetSpot has iPerf integration, or you can use iperf3 separately. That helps separate the local WiFi path from the internet connection. It won’t directly tell you “your mesh backhaul is broken,” but it should help narrow down where the problem starts.
@Fair-Algae-3150 Exactly. Especially the local test. If the gateway’s internet test is fine but the laptop-to-wired-PC upload is awful, I’d stop chasing the ISP for the moment.