Eircom Netopia problem

electrogrimey

I've had a persisting problem with the network at home for months, possibly over a year.

The problem is that the internet will cut out about 3 or 4 times a day, often more. When it dies, I turn on and off the router, and after a minute or so it works again.

All the computers in the house (a PC, 2 macbooks and a laptop) have the same problem, and it cuts out at the same time for everyone.

Today when it cut out, I plugged my macbook in via ethernet and it worked, although I'll have to try this a few more times to make sure it definitely always works with ethernet, and I'll check the router page too next time it happens and see what it says.

It's a Netopia 3347NWG 7.5.0.

A secondary problem is that one of the rooms in the house doesn't get signal, so I was thinking of buying a range booster. If somehow the solution could incorporate both these problems that'd be handy.

phog

Can you ask eircom for a new modem? Not too technically minded but I cant see a booster helping the "cutting out".

BoB_BoT

sounds like the router itself is somewhat faulty. If you feel like going through the hassle, call eircom and troubleshoot it, may lead to a replacement being sent out.

Regarding the signal boost, what you need is a "repeater". It needs to be within range of the router, it takes the signal, amplifies it then rebroadcasts the signal. Only downside to this is it halves the bandwidth of the wifi connection (only for devices connected to the repeater and not the main router).

electrogrimey

Bandwith isn't a problem, if it's just for one room in the house.

How easy is it to connect a new router to your network? If I was to pick up a new router, could I plug it straight into the wall, or do Eircom need to do it?

BoB_BoT

an adsl router is generally pretty straight forward to setup, it's all in the manual too. You will have to configure it for the eircom username and password, there is generally wizard that guides you through this when you first setup the modem (on home user models). When asked for the internet connection username and password enter;
username: eircom
password: broadband1

electrogrimey

Anything I should look for in a new router? Range is the big issue, and speed would be good too (streaming and browsing mainly). Any recommendations?

dub45

Before you invest in a new router it would be good to have a look at the problem a bit more.

Firstly it would be wise to make sure that the connection itself is not dropping.

What are your line stats?

Have you checked to see if there are any other wireless networks around you particularly ones using the same channel? (download netstumbler for this)

any wireless gizmos in the house? tv senders? microwaves in regular use?

electrogrimey

Set up the new router and so far the wireless dropouts have stopped, have had no problems for far, and it used to happen really often. It seems to have sped up a bit too, which is a plus. Strangely, upgrading from a G to an N router doesn't seem to have helped the range much though...

nin2010

electrogrimey wrote: »

Set up the new router and so far the wireless dropouts have stopped, have had no problems for far, and it used to happen really often. It seems to have sped up a bit too, which is a plus. Strangely, upgrading from a G to an N router doesn't seem to have helped the range much though...

You need wireless cards compatible with 802.11n to be able to make use of it. Your router by default is likely setup in mixed mode so it allows B, G or N clients to connect to it. To optimise speed and range of your wireless network you need to select the option on your router to use 802.11N only. Mixed mode will reduce the speed of your wireless connection to the lowest mode, so if you have the router setup to use B/G/N then you will only get maximum 11mb/s available on a B network.

I highly recommend this wireless nic which supports 802.11N if you decide to switch over to an N wireless network. As soon as I bought othe G version of this I went from 1 bar signal on my laptop to 5 bars and full download speed as if I was on an ethernet connection to the router. Just make sure you set the nic in the settings to operate in N only mode aswell as the router.

Alfa WNiC

dub45

nin2010 wrote: »

You need wireless cards compatible with 802.11n to be able to make use of it. Your router by default is likely setup in mixed mode so it allows B, G or N clients to connect to it. To optimise speed and range of your wireless network you need to select the option on your router to use 802.11N only. Mixed mode will reduce the speed of your wireless connection to the lowest mode, so if you have the router setup to use B/G/N then you will only get maximum 11mb/s available on a B network.

I highly recommend this wireless nic which supports 802.11N if you decide to switch over to an N wireless network. As soon as I bought othe G version of this I went from 1 bar signal on my laptop to 5 bars and full download speed as if I was on an ethernet connection to the router. Just make sure you set the nic in the settings to operate in N only mode aswell as the router.

Alfa WNiC

To get the benefits of the 'n' standard all the wireless cards have to be fully 'n'. G cards are compatible but your network will operate to 'g' standards.

So if you have even one laptop with a g card where say two others have n cards they will all be operating to the g standard.

electrogrimey

dub45 wrote: »

To get the benefits of the 'n' standard all the wireless cards have to be fully 'n'. G cards are compatible but your network will operate to 'g' standards.

So if you have even one laptop with a g card where say two others have n cards they will all be operating to the g standard.

Are the cards on Macbooks N compatible? And do they all drop to G standard when one laptop with a G card connects, or all the time?

nin2010

electrogrimey wrote: »

Are the cards on Macbooks N compatible? And do they all drop to G standard when one laptop with a G card connects, or all the time?

Best thing to do is look up the specs on your macbooks on the apple website and see if they are N compatible. Or you could go to the driver properties in device manager and see if theres an option to switch it to N mode or if it just says B and G. I'd imagine it's unlikely they are N compatible...

You either get all N wireless network adaptors or you don't bother with it at all as you can't get the benefit of using 802.11N with 802.11B/G clients connected to the router.

If it's just one room of the house you are worried about then you could just buy one of those ALFA wireless nics and that will pick up the signal no problem on a B/G network.

dub45

If its a fairly recent Apple laptop it could be N as Apple adopted N in the last few years.

Kanedmick

Hi! I have a similar problem in one room the is most likely too far from the Netopia router.

Query on the Nic "N" thingy - does that plug into the Netopia Router?

What about http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/5106596/art/d-link/cpl-dhp-200-and-dhp-201-e.html

Anyone got experience of these boyos?
I've got two rooms upstairs that it would suit. Again, not too clear on how it works but I suspect one box plugs into Netopia and the other two plug into a socket in the upstairs room close enough to computer to run an ethernet cable from it. That correct?

Thanks!

Kanedmick

anyone got an opinion on this? Thanks!

pieface_ie

Also try changing the channel the router is using as you could easily be getting interference from other devices in the house.

Kanedmick

Hi! Thanks for replying - tried that. Spent an evening going through all of them. No one setting appeared to be any better than any other.

Any more ideas please?