Everything you need to know about Eero, the fan-favorite WiFi router company that Amazon just bought

Mesh systems have the same core idea as a traditional WiFi router and WiFi extender setup: Deliver WiFi all over your home where a single WiFi router might not reach.

Unlike a traditional WiFi router and extender setup, mesh systems are designed to use several satellite units throughout a home. Compared to traditional extender setups, Eero delivers much faster internet speeds via each satellite unit. And because you'd ideally have several satellite units throughout your home, the WiFi signal strength should also be stronger.

Mesh WiFi systems also offer other things that traditional routers and extenders don't ...

Eero's setup is incredibly easy. All you have to do is install the Eero app on a mobile device and follow the setup instructions.

The setup instructions are simple: For the primary Eero router, all it involves is plugging into power and connecting it to your model with an Ethernet cable. After you give your mesh WiFi network a name and password, the Eero system and app largely do the rest.

As for the Eero satellite units, you just plug them into power and tell the app you want to set up a new Eero device. From then on, the Eero satellite units and the app do most of the work of connecting to other Eeros to form a mesh WiFi network.

The whole setup experience is painless, simple, and pretty quick, which aren't usually things that can be said about traditional router and extender setup process.

Anyone who's used a traditional WiFi extender will know that you sometimes need to manually switch your devices to the extender's own WiFi network when you're too far from your main WiFi router. That's mostly because WiFi extenders have their own network name that's slightly different to your main WiFi network's name. For example, an extender's network name might be your main network's name with the letters "EXT" tagged on, to indicate that it's your extender's WiFi network.

Mesh systems like Eero, on the other hand, help your devices automatically switch to the nearest Eero, and each Eero broadcasts the same WiFi network name.

Eero will also automatically connect your devices to the appropriate WiFi band — 2.4GHz and 5Ghz — depending on their needs. If your devices need better range, Eero will automatically connect your devices to the longer-range 2.4GHz band. If you're close enough to an Eero router, it'll connect your devices to the 5GHz band, which offers faster speeds, but has less range than the 2.4GHz band.

To be fair, some recent extenders give options to keep your main WiFi network's name and bands to make switching easier and automatic. At the same time, you might need to go into the extender's settings to enable that feature, which can be complicated for a lot of users.

Eero devices download and install updates automatically without interfering with your daily WiFi usage.

Traditional routers, at least those that I've tried, usually need to be updated manually by going into their settings. Some traditional routers have apps these days that make it easier, but some older models still need you to access the settings via a web browser in a process that's more complicated than using Eero's app.

WiFi router updates are necessary for security and bug patches, new features, and performance improvements.

Using apps to control your WiFi network and WiFi routers isn't especially new, but big networking companies don't seem to design apps that well, at least when you compare them to apps from companies like Eero and Google.

Netgear's Orbi mesh system app, for example, isn't as intuitive as Eero's app.

High-end traditional WiFi routers tend to have aggressive designs with antennas sticking out all over the place, like this:

Eero's $99 per year Eero Plus subscription service offers a threat scan that checks websites for known threats, and prevents you from accessing sites that contain threats.

Eero Plus also tags websites that contain violent, illegal, or adult content, and it lets you manage which devices can or can't access those sites. It's handy for preventing kids from accessing sites you don't want them to visit.

Ad blocking, which blocks ads on websites, comes as part of Eero Plus as well.

You also get subscriptions to three other services with Eero Plus, including up to five accounts with a VPN service called Encrypt.me, a five-member plan with the 1Password password manager, and a three-device plan with anti-malware software Malwarebytes.