As someone who has worked from home for 15 years, there aren’t many things more frustrating than my internet connection dying 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’re trying to unlock forbidden fruit on Roblox or whatever, but that’s nothing compared to the inner rage I feel when I see my camera feed stuttering on a video call.
My current Internet Service Provider (ISP) has become more reliable, but there was a time when I complained about them so much on Twitter that four techs and their boss would randomly show up at my house, asking if they could run a whole new service line in an effort to solve my problems.
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Then I found Eero Signal
I’m currently using one of Eero’s mesh Wi-Fi systems, so when Eero announced its latest product, the $99 Eero Signal, my interest was piqued.
The little device that looks like a wireless charging pad for your phone connects to a compatible Eero router. When your primary Internet connection is interrupted, your Eero system automatically switches to the LTE connection provided by Signal. (There will be a 5G model coming later this year that I would upgrade to instantly.)
I’ve installed Signal and been using it at home for several weeks now, and I have to admit I’m hooked. It’s picked up perfectly where my service provider let me down.
Setup was easy and has in-depth controls
After unboxing 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 clicks on my phone, adding the device to my home system, making sure I was on an Eero Plus plan for the basement portion, and I was up and running.
Eero offers two plans. You can pay $99.99 per year for 10GB of data per month, while $199.99 gets you 100GB of data per month via Signal’s connection.
To test Signal, all I had to do was temporarily disconnect the wired Internet connection going to my Eero system, and it switched to Signal almost immediately.
Transparent backup internet obtained.
The final step to complete the setup was to go through the list of devices in the Eero app, approving or disallowing 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 an outage, while preventing your streaming devices from eating up your data allowance.
Recent maintenance put Eero Signal to the test
My home network setup is complex, and beyond the previously mentioned video calls for work, so are all the self-hosted websites and services I use, including the personal and business websites in 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 lack of internet.
Signal’s reliability and speed were put to the test a few weeks ago when my internet provider announced routine maintenance in my area that would take my connection offline all day.
bring it, I said to myself as I read the email.
The morning of the scheduled downtime, while I was out of town and away from home, I received an alert that my connection had been interrupted and my network had switched to Signal, and then… nothing. I didn’t receive any alerts that any of my sites were down and I was able to view a live feed from my Ring security cameras.
A few hours later I received another alert stating that work was complete for the day, but that they were unable to complete everything and were expecting an extended outage the next day.
The second day went much like the first: Signal came in 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 50 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up for me, which isn’t very fast compared to my standard connection, but it’s good enough for short periods of time.
Internet outages are a thing of the past
I was so used to dealing with sporadic internet outages that I didn’t realize how much time I spent worrying about them. Then again, 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 creating Signal and realizing that it delivers on its promises, I felt relieved. A few months ago, these messages warning me of upcoming maintenance would have stressed me out for days.
Instead, all I did was get excited because this was going to be a stress test for Signal – and it passed easily.
This relief alone is worth the cost. Now I can put that energy into something productive.
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