
Wi-Fi startup Eero lays off 30 employees - nickmain
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/03/wi-fi-startup-eero-lays-off-30-employees/
======
dmourati
Many people who I think highly of subscribe to the benefits of mesh networking
which I suppose can be summarized as simplicity, ease of use, and relatively
low cost. I was almost lured into mesh when I changed my mind and decided to
investigate Ubiquiti Unifi. Having chosen Ubiquiti, I'm pretty convinced I
made the right choice. When I continue to hear people coming out of the
woodwork lauding the mesh systems like eero, I keep wondering if their use
case or preferences are that different from mine.

~~~
TomVDB
I switched from Ubiquiti to Eero and couldn't be happier.

The problem with the Unifi accesspoints (I used an AC Pro) is that their reach
is quite a bit lower than standard cheap access points such as a TP-Link
Archer C7. The only way I'd get decent coverage in my house was to install a
bunch of them, but then you'd still not have seemless handover.

At first I reverted back to My old solution of the TP-Link AP and a Netgear
repeater, but once the second gen Eero came on the market, the choice was
easy.

~~~
leonroy
For everyone using Ubiquiti in a home setting how do you place your access
points?

From what I understand they're supposed to be ceiling mounted so the domed
side is broadcasting 'down' into the room. I'd imagine most domestic users
aren't wiring them into the ceiling so are you just placing them on sideboards
and tables sub-optimally?

~~~
thunfischbrot
Tried both. No difference in my apartment with two UAPs.

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electricslpnsld
I hope Eero stays afloat, once Apple abandoned the Wi-Fi router business Eero
has been the most reliable consumer solution I've found.

~~~
dogma1138
Ubiquiti is dirt cheap for the entry level which pretty much outperforms any
consumer oriented routers on the market.

I’ve replaced my entire setup with an edge router and 2 APs for less than what
a mid to high end linksys or similarly performing routers would cost.

The QoS you get is 10 times better I can have 100% utilization on both uplink
and downlink without a single real time application affected.

Security and networking features are also in an entirely different league even
with taking DDWRT and OpenWRT and the likes into account.

~~~
snowwindwaves
Ubiquity is using openwrt since a few years ago with their own UI I thought?

~~~
dogma1138
Not as far as i know they use EdgeOS for the routers and AirOS for their
managed APs, with a few others for their SGAs and managed switches.

As far as I know they never used OpenWRT or anything like it, if they did they
hid it very well to the point where it would be legal for them to remove it
from their license agreements.

The CLI and the file system you can see on the router looks and acts nothing
like OpenWRT.

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meritt
I've been an eero user for a year and a half and I've been very happy. Prior
to the purchase my research indicated that Ubiquiti would have been a
technically superior option but the setup/configuration looked far more
daunting than the amount of time I wanted to dedicate to setting up my home
wifi.

Eero just works but it's definitely very limited in configuration/control.
Wifi reliability, coverage, and speed across the entire home (including fully
encompassing the yard) is superb. The setup is absolutely amazing. You plug
them in and you're done.

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AlexAltea
Somewhat offtopic but:

> Eero [...] has laid off _20 percent of its workforce (about 30 employees)_ ,
> TechCrunch has learned. Eero confirmed about 30 employees were let go but
> _declined to comment on its total workforce size_.

Since the workforce size can be inferred from this information (specifically,
Eero seems to have gone from 150 to 120 employees approximately). Am I missing
something, or why do they say Eero declined to comment on the workforce size?
How did TechCrunch learn that those 30 employees represented 20% of the
company workforce?

~~~
dragonwriter
> Since the workforce size can be inferred from this information

The 20% information didn't come from, and wasn't confirmed by, Eero, only the
30 people part was confirmed by the company.

> Am I missing something, or why do they say Eero declined to comment on the
> workforce size?

Because Eero declined to comment on the workforce size.

> Am I missing something, or why do they say Eero declined to comment on the
> workforce size?

From whoever leaked then information about the layoffs, who was not speaking
on behalf of Eero when they did so.

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jwilliams
I've had both the Eero Gen 1 (3x Routers) and Eero Gen 2 (1x Router and 2x
Beacons).

The Gen 2 is much better. Part of that is topology. I've got a long railroad-
esque SF apartment. The beacons along the main hallway are unobtrusive and get
great backhaul to the main router. They also function as nightlights, which is
neat.

Hopefully they keep afloat and iterating the product. Having raised $90M
you've got to wonder if they're betting a lot on growth of their SaaS "Eero
Plus" product.

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duncan_bayne
I've heard good things about Ubiquiti, too.

Unfortunately, they are also pirates who have shamelessly violated the GPL:

[https://community.ubnt.com/t5/Business-Talk/Slashdot-quot-
Ho...](https://community.ubnt.com/t5/Business-Talk/Slashdot-quot-How-Ubiquiti-
Networks-Is-Creatively-Violating-the/td-p/1222643)

Massively unethical behaviour, and I've not seen anything to suggest they've
improved in this area.

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itpragmatik
My experience with Eero - it works if you don't close door to the room where
the main pod or wifi router is. If that room door is closed - the wifi
connectivity is absyml or even absent. Is this expected behavior? Also, I
think it need all pods in direct line of sight of each other - even if the
pods are placed at distance and in different rooms/floors?

~~~
dpark
> _My experience with Eero - it works if you don 't close door to the room
> where the main pod or wifi router is. If that room door is closed - the wifi
> connectivity is absyml or even absent. Is this expected behavior?_

Not expected unless your room is a faraday cage.

> _Also, I think it need all pods in direct line of sight of each other - even
> if the pods are placed at distance and in different rooms /floors_

Definitely doesn’t need line of sight. It’s just 2.4/5ghz WiFi transmission.
The less stuff in the way, the better it will work, but you don’t need line of
sight for typical homes. If your home is made of poured concrete and adobe,
yeah, you might have trouble, but that’s going to be the case with any WiFi
solution.

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shifter
Eero works okay but the consistency is not great (wild variations in ping
time, for instance). I switched to a Ubiquiti (Unifi) setup and it is a world
of difference. My ping times are super stable (like < 1ms of standard
deviation awesome) and that makes a big difference for any realtime demands.

~~~
rconti
My house is full of UniFi and I still had no idea that AmpliFi exists --
Ubiquiti's consumer-grade gear that's nowhere on their main website. It's well
worth checking out for the tech novices in your life. (Great app-based setup
for a WiFi router, mesh wifi, etc)

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tonydiv
Google Wifi has been fantastic for me and it's cheaper. Easiest product I've
ever setup too.

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plasticchris
From the official statement: Over the past year we explored several related
projects, and we’ve now made the tough decision to eliminate one new project
in favor of greater focus on our core business.

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debt
It's crazy that they'd pursue solving anything other than the very difficult
problem of providing consistent wifi indoors.

It's still largely an unsolved problem; most solutions are quite expensive.

~~~
floatingatoll
It's not crazy, but it's probably a bad idea, and the layoffs confirm that
they agree with you on that point :)

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dharma1
Now that regular ASUS routers can be meshed, I'm wondering if that would be an
option with better price and range compared to Google WiFi, Eero etc.

[https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/03/asus-mesh-wifi-
aimesh/](https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/03/asus-mesh-wifi-aimesh/)

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jacksmith21006
Purchased the Google WiFi and has worked extremely well for our busy house.
Have 8 kids and our house is the house to play.

The app is 1st rate.

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ksec
May be Apple should acquire them? Google already has its own WiFi and it seems
the idea of Eero fits Apple perfectly.

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mmagin
Are they still lacking ipv6?

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juskrey
Mikrotik. I mean we are on hackers forum, right?

~~~
garganzol
The last time I've checked, Mikrotik Wi-Fi wasn't great. It sporadically
rebooted in crowded environments where you see like 50 Wi-Fi stations nearby.

It's an excellent router though. But the built-in Wi-Fi is pretty crude.
That's why we had to turn it off and use Mikrotik exclusively as a WAN/LAN
router in our office. The Wi-Fi part was delegated to AmpliFi HD mesh system.

~~~
juskrey
Interesting. I am using "Mikrotik hAP ac" device and it works flawlessly in
pretty noisy environment too.

