Wi-Fi woes? Google unleashes cheap rival for eero

NEW YORK—As a fix to the slowpoke Internet connectivity I’d tolerated for way too long, eero's wireless home networking system earned a well-earned a spot on my best products of the year list.

Now along comes Google with a similar system called Google Wifi, which in my tests performed just about as well. And it bludgeoned eero in one very important comparative measure — price.

Both eero and Google Wifi are built around so-called “mesh” networking technology, in which you strategically place individual routers, or what Google refers to as Wi-Fi points, around the house. These boxes communicate with one another to manage and intelligently distribute Wi-Fi connectivity throughout the home.

In my house, I hooked up the first of three Google Wifi units to a FIOS modem in my basement, using an Ethernet cable. Apart from power cords, that cable was the only wired connection that was required. Incidentally, the power cord relies on the emerging USB-C standard.

I placed a second and third Google Wifi unit in my living room and in an upper bedroom, respectively, the same locations where I positioned eero’s. Google recommends placing these Wi-Fi points in an open space, no more than two rooms away if possible. You complete the setup by following along through an app on the phone, very simple.

Cheaper than eero

According to Google, a single unit provides Wi-Fi coverage for a 1500-square foot home, two units up to double that space, and three units up to a 4500-square foot area.

A Google Wifi three-pack costs just $299, undercutting the $499 eero by $200. If you need just one (or want to add on later), an individual Google Wifi unit costs $129, versus $199 for a single eero.

Where the eeros are roughly one-inch square boxes, Google Wifi units are not quite three-inch tall hockey pucks. In other words, neither takes up much room and neither is an eyesore.

Google isn’t entirely new to the Wi-Fi game. Last year with partners such as Asus and a Chinese networking company TP-Link, Google unveiled cylindrical OnHub branded routers that, unlike the geeky-looking contraptions with antennas sticking out, were more typical of router designs that were meant to be prominently displayed. If you own an OnHub or buy a new one—originally around $200, they’re now being heavily discounted—you can add it to your Google Wifi mesh network. Google’s mesh network is not compatible with non-OnHub or Google Wifi routers.

You can easily manage both OnHubs and Google Wifi units from the same app on your smartphone, even remotely. Eero is also easily managed from an app on your phone.

I disconnected eero when I installed Google Wifi to test the networks separately, but eventually I had the two networks running at the same time. I got lightning fast results using both networks but for what it’s worth the speed test tool within the eero app consistently reported slightly zippier upload and download speeds than the speed test within the Google Wifi app—not enough to notice when I instantly streamed a movie off Apple TV with no hiccups or used all the other Wi-Fi connected devices in my house.

OK, my 9-year old Samuel claimed the YouTube app on his iPad was faster and steadier when he connected through eero than on Google Wifi but I’ll take his observation with a grain of salt.

Speaking of your kids, through the Google Wifi app, you can apply parental controls that pause their Wi-Fi devices, perhaps during dinner or homework time. Eero has a similar feature, which you can turn on or off using voice if you have an Alexa app on an Amazon Echo. You can't yet use the Google Home speaker to control Google Wifi by voice.

But you can employ Google Wifi to control such Internet of Things connected devices as Philips Hue bulbs.

On Google Wifi, you can pause multiple devices at the same time by grouping them together—perhaps the devices all your kids use. Nice.

The apps let you see which devices are tapping into the network and which devices might be currently paused. As with OnHub, you can prioritize traffic to a specific device for an hour, two hours or four hours at a time. That doesn't mean you can't use Wi-Fi for other devices, just that the prioritized device is first in line if there's network congestion.

Both eero and Google Wifi let you easily set up a guest Wi-Fi networks through the app.

I’m not going to ditch my eero Wi-Fi because Google Wifi has come along. But if you’re looking for a less expensive but equally strong remedy for poky network connectivity, Google makes a compelling case.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter