Eero’s Latest Business Outfitted Rental With Built-In Mesh Wi-Fi

Eero can bring its easy-to-manage mesh router to your next rental on a landlord-managed Wi-Fi network. The company has a new program called Eero for communities, and for renters, it means they only need to log into an existing Wi-Fi setup to get online after moving in. The Eero is well known for its user-friendly setup and management, and it works much better than ISP-provided Wi-Fi/modem combo units, even though some of its routers can be flimsy.

According to the press release, residents will still be able to control Eeros through the Eero app on their smartphones and can even sign up for Eero Secure, its subscription service that gives users access to Eero’s added security, ad blocking, a VPN service, Amazon Sidewalk-based Internet backup and more.

Amazon spokesman Connor Rice confirmed that Wi-Fi 6 and newer Eero devices support Eero for Communities, and that the program will be available for single-family rentals as well as apartment buildings.

With Eero comes a few caveats — by design, it’s not geared toward advanced Wi-Fi nerds, so things only become as complicated as setting up IP reservation and port forwarding rules, or choosing a custom DNS (at the expense of your Eero Secure features). You’re limited to a maximum of two Ethernet ports per Eero node, depending on what equipment the apartment complex provides, and you can’t split the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands into their own SSIDs, which can be a problem with some smart home devices (though you can disable the 5GHz band when onboarding the network).

Eero’s announcement reveals Hub to manage each router and network, but did not mention how much access property managers might have to other data, such as traffic, bandwidth used, or which devices are connected. The press release did not list any ISPs other than Frontier that will offer the service or eligibility requirements for asset managers.