If you’re wondering what are the best eero settings for gaming, this is the guide for you!
If your eero router is still using the default settings, perhaps some of them are causing your network to work slower than necessary for gaming.
So, in this quick guide, we’ll help you configure and optimize an eero router and network for your games to run lag-free.
The best gaming settings on an eero router are enabled Quality of Service and Universal Plug and Play. In contrast, settings such as Guest Networking and Family Profiles should be disabled as they don’t contribute to your gaming experience.
There is much more, so continue reading!
Should You Use an Eero Router for Gaming?
Yes, you can use an Eero router for gaming!
However, the Eero router settings play a vital role in your games’ behavior, so you’ll need to pay attention to some essential features.
When misconfigured, the wrong Eero router options could make the internet slow, fluctuate, or drop out, which will cause issues while playing games.
Also, another thing that matters a lot is the type of connection you use.
Even when all the Eero router options are correct, hardwired machines will always perform better when compared to wireless devices.
So, to unwrap more and learn exactly what to do in your case, keep reading!
What are the best Eero Settings for Gaming?
Note: If your router is with the default settings, implement all the tips below!
1. Enable the Quality of Service
The first and most important step for every gamer with an eero router is to enable the QoS (Quality of Service) feature, which is a game-changer feature.
This option will prioritize the gaming packets over other internet demands on your network to optimize the performance and decrease your lag tremendously.
To enable the QoS on your Eero router, follow the steps:
- Connect a phone to the Eero router’s Wi-Fi.
- Open the Eero app on your mobile device.
- Go to the “Menu” and “Network Settings.”
- Select the “Quality of Service” to enable it.
You don’t need to restart your Eero router when you’re ready. You can jump into gaming to see whether your latency has been improved.
Feel free to explore other optimization methods!
2. Disable Unnecessary Features
There are quite a few network features on your Eero router that are enabled by default and may not play a vital role in your networking.
Hence, disabling some of these features will provide additional optimization for the Eero router and improve your gaming experience.
We’ll review each of the settings and let you know what they do so you can decide for yourself whether to disable or enable, based on your preferences.
How to Disable Guest Networking?
The Guest Network is a feature of your Eero router that provides an additional layer of security and a separate network for your guests to connect to.
- To disable the Guest Network, go to the app’s Settings → Network Settings!
This feature may come in handy if you host parties or invite unknown people into your home, but for gaming optimization, we recommend disabling it.
Even though your Eero router doesn’t need much effort to enable an additional Wi-Fi network, when disabled, it’ll improve the performance.
How to Disable the Family Profiles?
The Family Profiles on your Eero router is a feature that allows you to customize your network for specific members of your home.
Even though it’s a light feature, when enabled, it contributes to the congestion that can eventually impact your gaming experience.
- To disable the Family Profiles, go to the Settings of the Eero app → Network Settings!
When you’re ready, and the feature is disabled, reboot your Eero router to refresh the network and check whether your gaming experience is better.
Tip: We recommend looking at your “ms” (latency).
3. Enable the eero’s UPnP Feature
The UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) is the network protocol of your eero router that allows devices on the local network to discover and communicate automatically.
So, enabling UPnP would allow you to connect more quickly and efficiently, optimizing your gaming experience.
Here’s how to enable the UPnP for your Eero router in easy steps:
- Open the Eero application on your mobile.
- Tap on the Settings from the bottom right.
- Go to the “Advanced” settings of the eero.
- Finally, tap the “UPnP” to set the toggle on.
We strongly recommend rebooting your Eero router by performing a power circulation when the setting is enabled.
This will provide an opportunity for your devices to reconnect to your network automatically, and when ready, you can test whether your gaming experience is now improved.
Reminder: To change the eero app settings, you must be connected to the internet!
4. Optimize Conferencing & Gaming
When gaming on Wi-Fi, the Eero app provides an option to balance network usage called “Optimize for Conferencing and Gaming.”
This setting will only affect Wi-Fi devices that use up to 500 Mbps, and you’ll notice a significant improvement.
However, on other devices, you’ll see a slowdown in the speeds to compensate, boosting your machine’s gaming performance.
Here’s how to optimize your eero for conferencing and gaming:
- Open the Eero app on the mobile device.
- Go to the “Discover tab” from the Menu.
- Enter the “Labs” tab (for beta features).
- Tap “Optimize for Conferencing and Gaming.”
You’ll immediately notice an improvement in the bandwidth, so go ahead and test gaming!
5. Optimize Your Wireless Network
Note: Skip this step if you’re gaming on a hardwired to the eero router device!
If you’re gaming on an eero Wi-Fi, there is a lot you can do to improve the wireless signal and even reach the internet speeds of a hardwired device.
Many things can impact and slow down your Wi-Fi network, so we’ve prepared some tips to try at home, even if you’re not into networking.
Here’s how to optimize your Wi-Fi network for gaming:
Shorten the Wi-Fi Proximity
To optimize your gaming experience on eero Wi-Fi, keep the gaming machine as close as possible to your router.
To prevent lag and high MS, we recommend setting your router and gaming machine next to each other.
Disconnect Unused Devices
A very effective way to relieve your network from unintended utilization would be to disconnect all currently connected devices you don’t use.
Even if you’re not using those connected devices, they update automatically, perform downloads, and all kinds of network-demanding processes.
So, disconnect those devices from your eero router’s Wi-Fi and keep only the essential devices connected, such as your gaming machine.
Switch to the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi
If you’re gaming, you don’t need fast internet; you need consistent internet. So, if you have the Eero 6 dual-band router, you would have 2 available Wi-Fi networks, which are 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.
The difference is that the 5 GHz Wi-Fi is a much faster but more fragile connection on devices away from the router.
In contrast, the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi is limited in speed but more consistent and robust, precisely what you need for gaming.
Note: The Wi-Fi SSIDs should contain “2.4” or “5” for easier recognition!
6. Switch to an Ethernet Connection
Perhaps one of the best things you can do to improve your gaming on an Eero router is to connect directly to your gaming machine via Ethernet cable.
The wired connection can’t be compared to the wireless (Wi-Fi) connection because, with the cable, you’ll reach the maximum internet speed possible.
Also, the Ethernet connection is not subject to any wireless interference, and your games should run at the least possible latency.
Here’s how to connect your gaming machine to your router:
- Acquire a long enough Ethernet cable RJ45.
- Disable the Wi-Fi and unpair from the network.
- Plug one side into a “LAN” port on your router.
- Connect the other side to the gaming machine.
- Wait for 60 seconds for the connection to start.
When gaming on an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi, you’ll immediately notice the improvement in your latency.
Your internet will now stop only when disabled by the supplier or something is wrong with the Eero router, and you’ll not be bothered by wireless interference, congestion, etc.
Quick Recap:
Hence, the best Eero settings for gaming are Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and Quality of Service (QoS) settings.
To optimize Eero for gaming even further, disable your Guest Network and Family Profiles and switch to a wired connection.
We hope this guide improved your gaming on Eero!
Finn Wheatley holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from UCL, London. He helped small data science consultancy firms, helping large corporations to grow their data capabilities, deploy advanced machine learning-based analytics and troubleshoot tech-related issues. Check out more about him here.