As someone who has worked from home for the past 15 years, there aren’t many things more frustrating than my internet connection dropping in the middle of a work day. Sure, my kids act like it’s the end of the world when it happens after school, when they try to unlock some forbidden fruit on Roblox or whatever, but that’s nothing compared to the inner rage I feel when I watch the camera stutter on a video call.
My current Internet Service Provider (ISP) has become more reliable, but there was a period where I complained about them so much on Twitter that four technicians and their boss randomly showed up at my house, asking if they could run a new line of service in an attempt to fix my problems.
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Then I found Eero Signal
I currently use one of Eero’s mesh Wi-Fi systems, so when Eero announced their latest product, the $99 Eero Signal, my interest was piqued.
The little device that looks like a wireless charging stand for your phone connects to a compatible Eero router. When your primary Internet connection goes down, your Eero system automatically switches to the LTE connection provided by Signal. (There will be a 5G model later this year that I would instantly upgrade to.)
I’ve had Signal up and running in my home for several weeks now and I have to admit, I’m in love. It perfectly picks up where my service provider let me down.
Setup was easy and has deep controls.
After unpacking the Signal and a 45W power adapter, I immediately connected it to my Eero system and the included power supply. The rest of the process required a few taps on my phone, adding the device to my home system, making sure I had an Eero Plus plan for the basement portion, and was up and running.
Eero offers two plans. You can pay $99.99 a year for 10GB of data per month, while $199.99 gets you 100GB of data per month over the Signal connection.
To test Signal, all I had to do was temporarily disconnect the wired Internet connection from my Eero system and it switched to Signal almost immediately.
A perfect backup internet connection was achieved.
The last step to complete the setup was to review the list of devices in the Eero app, approving or prohibiting data access when Signal is active. It’s a quick and easy way to ensure your work laptop or home alarm system and cameras stay connected to the Internet during a power outage, but prevent your streaming devices from eating up your data allowance.
Recent maintenance put Eero Signal to the test
My home network setup is complex, and while the work video calls mentioned above are a priority, so are all the self-hosted websites and services I have running, including personal and business websites from my basement. When my sites go down, I get sad. I don’t like being sad.
But since installing Eero Signal, my sites have had virtually no downtime due to no internet.
Signal’s reliability and speed were put to the test a couple of weeks ago when my Internet Service Provider announced routine maintenance in my area that would leave my connection offline all day.
Dale, I said to myself as I read the email.
The morning of the scheduled downtime, while I was out of town and far from home, I received an alert that my connection had dropped and my network switched to Signal and then… nothing. I didn’t get an alert that any of my sites were down and I was able to get a live feed of my Ring security cameras.
Several hours later, I received another alert that the day’s work was done, but they couldn’t finish everything and were expecting a long outage the next day.
The second day came and went much like the first: Signal sprang into action and took over, providing data to my home network and self-hosted services, while I was able to call a Teams meeting. Signal’s LTE connection averages 50Mbps down and 10Mbps up for me, which isn’t very fast compared to my standard connection, but it’s enough for short periods.
Internet outages are a thing of the past
I had gotten so used to dealing with sporadic internet outages that I didn’t realize how much time I spent worrying about them. On the other hand, being connected to the Internet during the day is how I do my job, and without it I’m not very productive, so it makes sense.
It also makes sense that after setting up Signal and realizing that it delivers on its promise, I felt relieved. A couple of months ago, those messages alerting me about upcoming maintenance would have stressed me out for days.
Instead, all I did was get excited because it was going to be a stress test for Signal, and it passed easily.
That relief alone is worth it. Now I can spend that energy on something productive.
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