Amazon has announced that it’s acquiring Eero, maker of home mesh Wi-Fi systems (for our review, see “Eero Provides Good Wi-Fi Coverage in a Handsome Package,” 25 June 2016). The announcement sparked alarm amongst privacy-conscious users given Amazon’s penchant for data collection. That said, we anticipate there will be significant scrutiny of network traffic going through Eero devices once Amazon is in charge, and that attention may prevent Amazon from engaging in any shenanigans. If Eero’s new ownership concerns you and you’re planning to switch to a mesh-based system now that Apple is officially out of the router business (see “RIP: Apple AirPort, 1999–2018,” 27 April 2018), consider the Linksys Velop system, which Apple sells and which Julio Ojeda-Zapata reviewed positively last year—see “Velop Provides First-Rate but Expensive Wi-Fi Mesh Networking” (9 July 2018).
Comments About Amazon Buys Mesh-Networking Company Eero
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This topic was discussed at length a while back in TidBITS Talk:
I am in no hurry to replace AirPort Extreme basestations. I am looking at the spread of voice over IP (VOIP) as replacement for land line telephones. Most current Customer Premise Equipment does not properly share bandwidth between file transfers, screen updates, and voice. This can result in choppy or interrupted voice transmission which makes it difficult to understand others in a conversation. The underlying problem has been termed “buffer bloat”. So far, Eero appears to be the only company actively deploying newer Active Que Management technologies which help prevent large transfers from hampering VOIP. This is why Eero is my current choice for new installations.
There is an outfit that sells a router called iQrouter that is very active in resolving bufferbloat. I’m trying to figure out if this router would work for me. I like the Peplink Surf Soho but its throughput maxes at 600mbps.
As for my two Airport Extremes. I’ve recently found out there is a known security issue with a Broadcom wifi chip that may be used in the AE but I can not determine if the issue applies to my versions.
I’m aware of recently found vulnerabilities with a couple of Broadcom software drivers that are apparently in common use, but not anything involving the chip itself. Apple is listed as affected. https://kb.cert.org/vuls/id/166939/
Can you point me to details on what you found?
I stand corrected. Your post shows the article I misunderstood.