A long overdue update!
John and I had several offline conversations about his Ubiquiti setup. I really wanted to go that route, and had all of the components in my Amazon cart not once, but twice. But I didn't pull the trigger. It is an expensive option (well, they all are), and I was overwhelmed reading through the manuals, user forums, and help sections. Ubiquiti has a stellar customer service reputation, but I felt similar limitations as I had when comparing tuning my 1958 MG with mechanics tools and then finding tuning my 2002 Subaru WRX required a teenage kid with a computer...
So, I didn't do anything. Then, on Amazon Prime Day, the Eero was on sale at 50% of regular price. So I bought three Eero Pro units.
As noted above, I was already running Cat 6 cable while our walls were opened up for our remodel. On the Airport setup, I had the base station hardwired to the modem, and *everything* else was on wifi. That included three Macs, two iPhones, two iPads, Deb's Watch, Apple TV, Ring doorbell and chime, two Sonos speakers, three Echo Dots, Philips Hue Hub (and it's 8-10 bulbs), GE Range, four Sharx IP WebCams, an HP printer, a Roku, an Amazon Fire Stick, and a Withings scale. Probably something else, too.
Now, the first Eero is connected to my ISP's Modem/Router/Telephone combination unit (with the router in *bridge* mode.) The Apple TV, and second Eero are hardwired to the first, and myiMac, HP printer, and Philips Hub are hardwired to the second Eero. Once the electrical is finished in our remodel, the third Eero will be hardwired to the first, as well.
I have wiring in place to power at least two of the Sharx cameras via PoE, and an option to add a fourth hardwired Eero (or a PoE switch) and then hardwire the Fire Stick and one more of the Sharx cameras. Plus wiring to switch where the Spectrum cable comes in, and move the first Eero there, if we turn the downstairs bedroom into an office. So, a lot less relying on wifi than previously.
Setting up the Eero system was a snap, as was adding the second and third unit. I had all three up and running in under 30 minutes. I set up the Eero network using the same network name and password as the Airport network, so almost all of the wifi devices recognized the new network right away. A couple devices required a reboot, and then connected without a hitch. I did forget to open a port for accessing SecuritySpy from outside my network, and one of the four Sharx cameras isn't accessible from outside the network for some reason.(Oddly enough, it was the only one that I messed with it's settings, so I'm blaming it on something I did and haven't sorted yet.)
Our internet connection has been flakey for the past few weeks, with occasional outages of a few minutes. I sure hope it isn't something of mine behind a new wall! But it was doing this, albeit less frequently; before switching to the Eero. And, as noted in previous posts, when the Eero unit loses access to the Internet, the internal network also stops working. This is a stupid way to have a network operate! The Airport network continued internally when the Internet was off, so there shouldn't be a need for an outside connection on the Eero (and its ilk.) Hopefully, this won't be problematic and something they can change in a firmware update down the road.
I'll add to this as I continue experimenting. Thanks to all of you for your input and suggestions, and a huge thank you to John for the long emails and phone calls helping me better understand what I was trying to do.
Steve
(The Living Room Eero is offline right now, because they are cutting flooring in there, so I moved it for the day.)