How to turn off the led lights on your eero wi-fi units

Craig Lloyd
Craig Lloyd
Writer

Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile. Read more.

Those tiny lights on your Eero router may not seem very bright, but once you turn the lights off in the room, it’s like they shine as bright as the sun. There are ways you can block or dim the LED lights on all your device, but the Eero actually has an option to turn these off.

In the Eero App

To turn off the LED lights on your Eero units, you can do so within the app. Start by opening it up and tapping on one of your Eero units at the bottom of the main screen.

Select where it says “LED light”.

Tap on the toggle switch on the right to turn off the LED light for that specific Eero unit.

Go back and repeat the same steps for your other Eero units if you’d like. Unfortunately, you can’t off the lights on all the units at the same time.

Using Alexa

If you have an Amazon Echo or another Alexa-enabled device, you can use voice commands to turn off the lights on your Eero units, as long as you have the Eero third-party Alexa skill installed first (and your Eero account is linked).

You can then turn off the LED lights on all the units at once, buy saying something like “Alexa, tell Eero to turn off the LEDs.” You can also say “lights” instead, or you can tell Alexa to only turn off the light on a specific Eero unit by saying “Alexa, tell Eero to turn off Living Room light.”

Unfortunately, though, you can’t use Alexa to turn the lights back on—you must do it through the Eero app instead.

Keep in mind that if there’s ever a problem with your Eero network, the red LED light will continue to show, even if you’ve turned off the LED light in the app. The light is only off when your Wi-Fi network is functioning properly.

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Craig Lloyd
Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile.
Read Full Bio »
Craig Lloyd
Craig Lloyd
Writer

Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile. Read more.

For some people, a normal router works fine for their wireless needs. But if you have dead spots all around your house, you might benefit from a mesh Wi-Fi system, like the Eero. And even if you’re familiar with the Eero system, here are all the nifty things you can do with it that you may not have known about.

Use Your Other Router in Conjunction with Eero

Depending on how your internet connection is set up, you can use your main Eero unit as your only router—but if you have an advanced router you really like, or a modem/router combo you’re forced to use by your ISP, you can still use that old router. You just need to put your Eero in bridge mode.

To do so, tap on the menu button and navigate to Network Settings > Advanced Settings > DHCP & NAT and select “Bridge”. This will simply turn your Eero network into a basic mesh Wi-Fi network, while still relying on your existing router to assign IP addresses and such.

Reboot Them from Your Phone

Are Your Eeros acting up and need to give them a stern kick in the rear? Like every other router, sometimes a reboot can help. Unlike most routers, though, you don’t need to physically unplug and replug your Eero routers if they’re giving you trouble.

Thanks to the Eero app, you can reboot them right from your phone without getting off the couch. Just tap on a Eero device on the home screen and then select “Restart Eero”.

Create a Guest Wi-Fi Network

Your family and friends that come over are probably trustworthy enough that you’ll easily give them the password to your Wi-Fi network. But there’s still good reason to create a separate guest network for them, and Eero lets you do that.

All you have to do is tap on the menu button and select “Guest Access”. From there, enable it and then set up your parameters. Then, your guests will be able to access the Wi-Fi at your place, but they won’t have access to anything else that’s on your network.

Rename Devices on Your Network

By default, devices on your network will show up as jumbled nonsense in the Eero app, but you can rename these devices to things that make a bit more sense.

All you have to do is tap on where it says “XX Connected Devices” at the top of the home screen, select a device from the list, and type in a new name for the device under “Nickname”. That way, you know who’s connected when (and if someone’s connected who shouldn’t be).

Turn Off the LED Lights

Don’t like the bright LEDs on the front of each Eero unit? You can turn them off right from within the Eero app.

Just tap on an Eero unit on the home screen and then select “LED Light” on the next screen. From there, you can turn it on and off.

Control Your Eeros with Alexa

While you can’t do a whole lot with Alexa when it comes to your Eero network, it’s still pretty cool to be able to do some things using the power of your voice.

All you have to do is install the Eero Alexa skill and then you’ll be able to pause the internet, turn the LEDs on and off, and even locate your phone, depending which Eero unit it’s closest to.

Forward Ports for Remote Access

Port forwarding is available on pretty much every single router in existence, and the Eero is no exception.

There might be some applications on your computer that need some help connecting to the outside world, and this is where port forwarding comes in handy. In the Eero app, you can do it by tapping on the menu button and navigating to Network Settings > Advanced Settings > Reservations & Port Forwarding. From there, it’s really easy to forward any port you need.

Limit Internet Access to Certain Family Members

If you have kids in the house and want them on a strict internet diet, you can restrict their access to the internet using Eero’s Family Profiles feature.

Just hit the menu button and select “Family Profiles”. From there, you can create a profile for a specific household member and set time limits or scheduled times where they can access the internet.

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Craig Lloyd
Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile.
Read Full Bio »

NEW YORK—I’ve been a big fan of the $499 eero Wi-Fi system since February when it solved the poky networking issues and dead zones in my house that had previously made my Internet hiccup and stutter all too often.

On Thursday, eero inc. promised to make the system even better, by enlisting the assistance of Amazon’s Alexa, the voice inside Amazon’s Echo speaker.

For folks with an Echo, Echo Dot or Amazon Tap, Alexa brings three skill sets to eero. You can ask Alexa to turn off the LED lights on an eero router, when, say, you want to watch a movie in pitch black or go to sleep.

If you’ve misplaced your smartphone or some other device that’s connected to Wi-Fi in your house, Alexa can help you locate it, by letting you know which eero it is closest to.

And here’s a feature parents may come to love. Alexa can “pause” the Internet on request for the specific Wi-Fi connected device that your kid is using at dinnertime or when he should be doing homework instead—and no, your smart aleck youngster can’t ask Alexa to turn it back on, since doing so requires mom or dad going into the eero app.

Eero had previously added this “family profile” feature, but you had to go into a smartphone app to turn it on as well as turn it off.

Since you bark requests out loud —“Alexa, tell eero to pause Sam’s profile”–directly into Echo not eero, you must link Alexa to eero inside the Echo app on your phone.

The basic Eero system consists of what are essentially three identical Internet routers that provide wireless access points and Wi-Fi extenders to cover your home, each compatible with modern Wi-Fi standards. In my house I have one in my basement, one on my main floor, and one in an upper bedroom. The system makes use of “mesh” technology that automatically seeks out the clearest possible network channel as one eero in your house communicates with another. You can add individual eero units for $199 each.

In the nine months since its launch, the company says it has compiled the largest ever consumer mesh network dataset, which it uses to improve diagnostics and performance. On Thursday, CEO Nick Weaver also announced what he refers to as eero’s “most significant product update” yet, a redesign of the company’s mesh technology that eero claims can bolster local area network (LAN) speeds by more than 40% on the average network, and makes the network more resilient to outside interference.

The eero smartphone app can give you information on device connectivity. (Photo: eero)

I’m curious to see if I notice any significant improvement in my own network once the update is applied overnight.

Meantime, the eero app on your phone has also been updated, with clearer indications of where potential network snags may be coming from—your Internet provider, say, as opposed to a problem within your own network —and what steps you might take to address the issue.

Here are some helpful Eero troubleshooting issues that should help you get your devices successfully connected to an Eero mesh network.

My migration to an Eero router at home initially failed. Here’s why and all the Eero troubleshooting issues I went through to get my Sonos, Alexa, iPad and older Windows laptop to successfully connect to an Eero mesh network.

Eero‘s wireless routers ($79+, Amazon) are an excellent networking solution for anyone looking to set up a mesh network in their home or small business. The Amazon owned company creates advanced but affordable hardware with an excellent and easy to use mobile app.

The Eero network setup process seemed easy enough. After I plugged in my new Eero router and Eero extenders, I made a few options tweaks in the iOS app and most of my devices connected fine. I even used the same SSID and password as my old router. My goal for doing this was to make it easier for my current devices to automatically connect to the new Eero router.

But frustratingly, half of my devices including my older laptops, Sonos speakers, iPad, HP printer and iPhone all wouldn’t connect to the Eero router.

My plan to easily migrate to an Eero router was a flop. Here’s where I ended up:

• HP printer not connecting to Eero
• iPad not connecting to Eero
• Samsung TV won’t connect to Eero
• Apple TV won’t connect to Eero
• Windows laptop won’t connect to Eero mesh network
• Does Sonos work with eero? My Sonos speaker didn’t.

I tried changing the Eero password, rebooting my Eero network and other Eero troubleshooting steps. But nothing worked.

I finally solved my main issue. I didn’t realize it at the time, but enabling WPA3 prevents older devices from connecting to an Eero mesh network. More on that below. But I also encountered several other issues including reconnecting my Sonos speakers and Alexa.

The Eero Troubleshooting Tips That Fixed My Connectivity Issues

Here are some helpful Eero troubleshooting issues that should help you get your devices successfully connected to an Eero mesh network.

How To Add A Device To Eero

Let’s start with the basics first and try to add your devices to the Eero network. To add a wireless device to your Eero network, open the Wi-Fi settings on your device and look for the name of your Eero network. Select your WiFi network and enter your password. After a few moments, your device should connect. If it doesn’t, then keep reading.

Computer Won’t Connect To Eero Mesh Network

If your Eero network’s SSID name is the exact same as your old router, then some Mac and Windows devices, like laptops, might have an issue connecting to your new Eero router. To solve this issue, you’ll need to manually “Forget the network” on each device and then reconnect to the Eero router.

I have an old Windows laptop and this trick helped get it to successfully connect to my new Eero mesh network.

How To Reset Your Eero Mesh Network

Another way to help force your devices reconnect to the router is to power cycle your Eero network. This will force all of your Eero units to turn off, and turn back on. It will also result in all the devices on your network getting new IP addresses.

First try rebooting your network from the Eero app. Go to Settings,

• Settings > Advanced > Restart Network

You can also try manually power cycling each one of your Eeros by unplugging them for 60 seconds, and then plugging them back in.

Make Sure WPA3 Is Turned Off In Your Eero Router Settings

During the setup process of my new Eero network, I foolishly enabled the WPA3 option. You can find this option in Eero Labs under the Discover section in the Eero mobile app. I didn’t realize it at the time, but enabling WPA3 prevents older devices from connecting to your network. This was my big issue. As soon as I disabled WPA3, most of my devices were able to successfully connect to my Eero network. Whew!

• Discover > Eero Labs > WPA3 (toggle off)

In general, you should disable all Eero Labs options if you are having trouble connecting devices to your Eero network.

NERD NOTE: What is WPA3? The WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) security standard is used to encrypt and protect Wi-Fi networks and their connected devices. Released in June 2018, WPA3 is the more secure successor to WPA2 and was developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks.

Alexa And Sonos Eero Connection Issues

Another issue I had with my Eero network setuop was my Sonos system. For some reason my Sonos speakers disappeared from my network as well as my Alexa app.

To solve this Sonos Eero connection issue, I had to re-add each Sonos speaker to my network. First I used an Ethernet cable to plug one of my Sonos speakers into the Eero router. This was so the other Sonos speakers would be able to see it on the network. Then I rebooted each speaker in pairing mode and re-added them to the system one by one.

Last, I had to sign into Amazon.com and diasable the SOnos Alexa skill and then enable it. Once I did that, Alexa was able to see my speakers again.

Eero Troubleshooting Tips

Hopefully these Eero troubling shooting tips were able to help you out and get your devices connected to your Eero mesh network. If you have additional questions or feedback about the tips in this article, the please leave a comment below.

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On last week’s IoT Podcast, our voicemail hotline got a question from Mike about his smart Christmas lights. It turns out that he’s having issues connecting them to his home Wi-Fi network, which is built around a Google OnHub. It also turns out that this is a common problem, even though Wi-Fi smart lights, switches, doorbells and other devices are built around Wi-Fi standards, and therefore should just work on the network.

This is a two-part problem directly related to the growing number of mesh Wi-Fi networks, which is what Mike is using in his home. The other piece to this puzzle is the Wi-Fi chips used in many smart home devices.

Remember, mesh Wi-Fi networks combine both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies into a single network. That’s different from the “old days” where a router often had a separate network for each of these signals. In that scenario, you’d have two different networks in your home; with today’s mesh networks, you only have one.

So that presents a challenge for devices using lower-cost 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi chips because they’re looking for a 2.4 GHz network to latch on to. And in a mesh network situation, there really isn’t one to find, hence the problem.

I’ve experienced this problem myself on a number of devices with my Google Wi-Fi setup; it’s frustrating, to say the least. At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in January, I spoke with several industry contacts who make Wi-Fi smart devices and they’re well aware of the problem. Some weren’t prepared for the fast uptake of mesh networks in the home, while others said the standards were still evolving. In either case, they chose 2.4 GHz wireless chips for network connectivity at the time.

The situation is likely to get better but it won’t happen overnight since designing and producing hardware can take months, if not years. So what can you do now if you’re having the same issues as Mike?

Your best bet is to manually set up a separate low-cost 2.4GHz router that’s attached to your mesh network, unfortunately. Yes, this could confuse things since you’ll now be back to a dual-network situation but you only need the new 2.4GHz option for any smart devices that can’t seem to connect to your mesh network.

To hear Mike’s question in full, as well as our conversation about the issue and solution, tune in to the podcast below.

Nest Wifi points have a built-in speaker with the Google Assistant, so you can play music, manage your Wi-Fi network, find answers, control your connected devices, and more using just your voice.

You can adjust the Nest Wifi point speaker volume and light brightness from your device settings. This is a good option if you want to customize the volume and brightness of the point for your home but still want to use the Assistant.

Adjust the volume and brightness of your Nest Wifi point

Adjust the volume

Tap on the right side of Nest Wifi point.

10 total taps will be maximum volume.

Note: This only adjusts the volume of media and your Google Assistant. At volume level 0, all media will be muted but your Google Assistant will still speak at a minimum level. It doesn’t adjust the volume of alarms and timers.

Tap on the left side of Nest Wifi point.

10 total taps will mute all audio except your Google Assistant.

Note: This only adjusts the volume of media and your Google Assistant. At volume level 0, all media will be muted but your Google Assistant will still speak at a minimum level. It doesn’t adjust the volume of alarms and timers.

Adjust the bottom light brightness

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. From the Home tab, select your Nest Wifi point.
3. Tap Settings .
4. Adjust the LED brightness using the slider under “Bottom light brightness.”

Turn off the Google Assistant on your Nest Wifi point

You can turn off the Google Assistant at any time by following the steps below.

Turn off the microphone

Turning off the microphone prevents the Nest Wifi point from listening or responding to your queries. You can continue to use it as a speaker via Cast or Bluetooth.

1. Use the switch on the back of Nest Wifi point, next to the power cord to turn off the microphone.
2. You’ll know the microphone is off when the on or off switch displays orange.

​Turn off the mute light on the Nest Wifi point

When the microphone on Nest Wifi point is off, a glowing orange light will appear under the device. You can choose to turn off this glowing orange light under the device settings.

LED strips, unfortunately, are not as simple as traditional incandescent light bulbs when it comes to installation and set up. Because they run on low voltage DC, they require a power supply device that converts 120V/240V AC (depending on your location) into the voltage signal that LED strips can use. Below is our simple, no-stress, 3-step guide that will help you select a power supply.

As an example, let’s suppose that you’ve found the following LED strip product: WenTop Waterproof Led Strip Lights SMD 3528 and want to see if this power supply will work with it.

Step 1: Determine the LED strip voltage

The first step is to figure out what the voltage of the LED strip is. The majority of LED strips available on the market run at 12V DC. Others are primarily at 24V DC.

In the case of WenTop’s product, we find it listed in the product description:

Also confirm that the input voltage on the AC side matches your country’s voltage (120V for North America, etc).

Bonus tip: if you have a power supply lying around at home, for example, you can also check the backside label and see if the voltage is listed there.

Step 2: Determine the power draw of the LED strip

The LED strip lists the total wattage as 24 Watts, or 4.8 Watts per meter. This checks out, because there are 5 meters per reel, and 4.8 Watts/meter * 5 meters = 24 Watts.

Although it’s not listed here, we can calculate the amperage using the formula P = V x A, where P is the wattage, V is voltage and A is amperage. To solve for A (amperage), simply plug in 24 for wattage and 12 for voltage, and calculate:

In electrical terms, we now know that at 12V, this LED strip will draw about 24 Watts per reel (5 meters), or about 2.0 Amps.

Now, let’s check the power supply.

We see that it has a rating of 36W, or 3A. Again, if we use the formula P = V x A, this checks out, because it is a 12V power supply.

What this means is that this power supply is capable of supplying up to 36 Watts, or about 3.0 Amps.

Because the power supply’s capacity is higher than the LED strip’s power draw, we can safely conclude that these two products can be paired together.

Power supply wattage and amperage ratings can confuse and even scare some people. It isn’t unreasonable to assume that a power supply that pumps 36 Watts into a 24 Watt LED strip would cause damage. Furthermore, what if you decided to one day cut that LED strip in half, turning it into a 12 Watt LED strip?

This is why we emphasize capable and capacity above. Just because a power supply has a rating of 36 Watts does not mean that it will necessarily supply that much power. On the contrary, the power supply will actually supply as little as is needed, and match the power draw based on what is hooked up to it. If the power draw exceeds the power supply capacity, however, then the power supply can experience abnormal operation and damage.

Therefore, this power supply can be used to power any LED strip that draws between 0 Watts and 36 Watts.

Step 3: Determine the connection method

You will likely see this specified as 5.5 mm x 2.1 mm. Be careful as 5.5 mm x 2.5 mm may not work with LED strip plugs.

Find out if the LED strip reel comes with a DC plug like this:

If so, it should be compatible with the power supply plug, and you can directly plug the power supply into the wall on one end, and into the LED strip on the other end.

On the other hand, if you are looking to cut up your LED strip into multiple segments, or if the entire reel comes with just two bare wires (typically red & black) like this:

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Community, In searching for what I was looking to do, I was unable to find any CLEAR discussions so I thought I would share what I learned here.

I have a large house with many floors, built long ago (1900) and luckily added cat6 in the last go around of renovations. Being an old house, meshing these eeros was a non-starter, I needed to use my wired lan for backhaul to my egress to the internet.

Additionally, I have an existing network and advanced firewall which I wanted to keep, so this write up is assuming bridged mode, which disables a lot of advanced features with regards to policy and user controls.

Step 1: Setup your first eero in a place that you plan to leave it, connect it with ethernet to your lan, set it in bridge mode and update the software to the most current.

Step 2: Plug in your next eero in the vicinity of the first. In the app/network select add eero and follow the steps for placement and upgrade again to current. Once this step is complete you have two eeros in the same “network” using wireless to extend from the first. At this point, you can power down your second eero and move it to where you really want it, where you have a wired connection back to the house lan (and the other eero). Once this second eero is powered and booted, your app will show it as in network and online, using wired as it’s connection.

Step 3: Repeat until you are done.

In my case I have 4 eeros and 1 beacon all performing very well but this would not be the case if I were trying to mesh without a wired lan. I also have other devices connected to my wired eeros and they are performing well via the switch/bridge in the eero’s themselves. Overall I am very impressed with this platform and look forward to playing more with it!