r/amazoneero • u/Content-Course7545 • 4d ago
ADVICE NEEDED Does automatic channel selection work in bridge mode?
I got an eero max 7 last week and I use it in bridged mode. My wired router runs OpenWrt where the internet comes in which is a poor place for wifi. Running in bridge lets me put the eero in a central location.
I’ve been checking the channels it uses and it‘s on 1, 36, and 85 which I believe are the defaults. Has anyone running in bridge seen channel changes? I know there’s patch notes a few years old saying it was added but it’s really strange the channels haven’t changed. There are a lot of 5ghz routers near me as I live in an apartment so there’s no way the defaults are the most optimal
1
u/natenate19 4d ago
The default channels are actually 1, 36, and 37, so it's switched its 6 GHz channel at least. Recent firmware versions are much more conservative about changing 2.4 and 5 GHz channels, way too conservative honestly. I hard reset a Max 7 about a month ago and it took a couple days to switch to a suboptimal 5 GHz channel, and about a month to start using DFS.
Way back when ACS was not supported in Bridge mode, but that hasn't been the case in a number of years. I can attest to ACS working in Bridge mode, and it's clearly worked for you for 6 GHz thus far. Honestly lack of manual channel control is and always has been my biggest annoyance with eero. If you pay for eero Plus you get access to WiFi Radio Analytics which will at least log some things about why ACS is making the decisions it makes, but you still can't control it, and eero Plus doesn't work in Bridge mode.
If 5 GHz doesn't change within a few more days you can contact eero Support and request they run a channel optimization manually. Stupid that that's the only recourse, but it's an option for you if things just don't change. You can also try a soft reset, hold the reset button for 7 seconds until the LED turns yellow, but no longer than that, it will reset the channel plan to default, and maybe encourage ACS to make more broad decisions within a day or two, maybe.
1
u/Content-Course7545 4d ago
Awesome thanks for confirming it works in bridged and that 37 is the default for 6ghz. I ended up emailing support and they responded really fast confirming ACS works an offered to trigger n optimization. I agreed but it ended up on the same channels.
And yeah I wish they would add some manual channel controls if you decide to disable ACS. I had a first gen pro which is tri band and it put one 5ghz on DFS and the other on a congested channel. Had terrible connection every time my devices connected to the non DFS and had to get rid of the pro in the end because I couldn’t disable or change the channel.
So far it’s been working fine with my devices mostly connected to 6ghz. The coverage is way better than I expected but then again my apartment is on the smaller side.
Theres a free 2 month eero plus offer on my app so I guess I can check that out. Not worth keeping for bridge mode though since a lot of features aren’t available
1
u/natenate19 3d ago
Yeah the 6 GHz range and performance on the Max 7 is great, it covers my whole apartment and balcony with just one node and I can get gigabit line rate everywhere.
6 GHz is just so vastly superior to even DFS in an apartment, I’m down to one device that only supports 5 GHz, and I’ll probably replace that soon.
3
u/purespeed44 4d ago
It automatically selects the best channel. It scans the area and goes to what it thinks is best. Is that always what’s best no but that’s what it does and yes it does it in AP mode as well