Eero’s latest business outfits rentals with built-in mesh Wi-Fi

Eero could bring its easily managed mesh routers to landlord-managed Wi-Fi networks in your next rental. The company has a new program called Eero for Communities, and for renters, it means that they’d only need to log in to the existing Wi-Fi setup to get online after moving in. Eero is well known for its user-friendly setup and management, and it tends to work much better than ISP-provided Wi-Fi / modem combo units, even if some of its routers can be flaky.

According to the press release, residents will still be able to control the Eeros via the Eero app on their smartphone and can even sign up for Eero Secure, its subscription service that gives users access to features like Eero’s extra security, ad blocking, a VPN service, and Eero Internet Backup, which can let you designate a wireless hotspot or another nearby Wi-Fi network as a fallback in case your internet connection goes down.

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

There are caveats that come with Eero — by design, it’s not geared toward advanced Wi-Fi nerds, so things only get about as complex as setting up IP reservations and port forwarding rules or choosing a custom DNS (at the expense of your Eero Secure features). You also end up limited to two ethernet ports per Eero node at most, depending on the devices the apartment complex provides, and you can’t split the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands to their own SSIDs, which can be a problem with some smart home devices (though you can disable the 5GHz band when onboarding them to the network).

Eero’s announcement shows a hub to manage each router and network but didn’t mention how much access property managers may have to other data, like traffic, bandwidth used, or which devices are connected. The press release also didn’t list any other ISPs besides Frontier that will offer the service or the eligibility requirements for property managers.

Correction July 25th, 2023, 4:38PM ET: In a previous version of this article, we called Eero Internet Backup an “Amazon Sidewalk-based” feature, but that is incorrect. In fact it is a separate feature allowing you to designate a specific fallback connection like another wireless network. We regret the error.