Eircom router - only 4 active connections?

BionicRasher

Is this right?
thinking of getting NGB but I see router details say the following. No good for me as we have up to 6 things on-line most days and I plan to add more stuff around the house

Wi–Fi router with firewall included
This is a wireless modem worth € 49.78 that we give to you for FREE. It allows up to 4 users to surf at the same time anywhere in the house.

eircom: Tony

tui0hcg wrote: »

Is this right?
thinking of getting NGB but I see router details say the following. No good for me as we have up to 6 things on-line most days and I plan to add more stuff around the house

Wi–Fi router with firewall included
This is a wireless modem worth € 49.78 that we give to you for FREE. It allows up to 4 users to surf at the same time anywhere in the house.

Hi tui0hcg
there are four active ethernet connections on eircom routers but you can still connect further devices by wireless.
Did you intend to connect all devices by ethernet?
What modem do yuo have?
Tony

BionicRasher

No – I intend to cable some connections for streaming movies etc to TVs in bedrooms but will be using wireless for most things like laptops, phones and a couple of games consoles.
I found it strange that it says you are limited to 4 connections with a wireless router

Its just a little confusing in the way it says It allows up to 4 users to surf at the same time anywhere in the house. That to me suggests you can only have 4 connections at the same time – maybe the details need to be updated a little on the website

At the moment we just have a Zoom Wireless-N Router Model 4501 that is used for mobile broadband modems / dongles

thefinalstage

tui0hcg wrote: »

No – I intend to cable some connections for streaming movies etc to TVs in bedrooms but will be using wireless for most things like laptops, phones and a couple of games consoles.
I found it strange that it says you are limited to 4 connections with a wireless router

Its just a little confusing in the way it says It allows up to 4 users to surf at the same time anywhere in the house. That to me suggests you can only have 4 connections at the same time – maybe the details need to be updated a little on the website

At the moment we just have a Zoom Wireless-N Router Model 4501 that is used for mobile broadband modems / dongles

The Eircom router theoretically allows upto 199 devices to connect to it at the same time. In practice four would be the max to work without slow down of some kind. Depends on the connection speed though.

BionicRasher

poisonedstream wrote: »

The Eircom router theoretically allows upto 199 devices to connect to it at the same time. In practice four would be the max to work without slow down of some kind. Depends on the connection speed though.

Is this 4 wired or wireless?
I dont believe a router will only allow 4 wireless connections - even a 5 year old piece of junk old router I have at home is capable of more than this with no loss of speed - I do realise all connections share bandwidth but surely I can connect more than 4 devices

can anyone give me a link to the specs of the router?

eircom: Ant

tui0hcg wrote: »

Is this 4 wired or wireless?
I dont believe a router will only allow 4 wireless connections - even a 5 year old piece of junk old router I have at home is capable of more than this with no loss of speed - I do realise all connections share bandwidth but surely I can connect more than 4 devices

can anyone give me a link to the specs of the router?

Hi tui0hcg,

Thanks again. As poisonedstream mentions above, in theory there is a limit with most modems regarding active connections - wireless or non-wireless.

As you say, you're aware that the more devices you connect on your modem the more they share the bandwidth.

The following link (.pdf) may give you some more information on the spec for the eircom standard modems : Netopia and Zyxel :

http://broadbandsupport.eircom.net/download/

Best regards,
Ant

BionicRasher

eircom: Ant wrote: »

The following link (.pdf) may give you some more information on the spec for the eircom standard modems : Netopia and Zyxel :

http://broadbandsupport.eircom.net/download/

Best regards,
Ant

These all look like 802.11g routers would that be standard or are there 802.11n available too?

eircom: Ant

tui0hcg wrote: »

These all look like 802.11g routers would that be standard or are there 802.11n available too?

Hi tui0hcg,

Thanks again. Yes the standard on the eircom modems is 802.11g, though it would be backward compatible with all other standards including 802.11n.

Again on the issue of active connections, please see previous posts and the website link will give you some idea about general spec on eircom's wireless routers.

All the best,
Ant

BionicRasher

eircom: Ant wrote: »

Hi tui0hcg,

Thanks again. Yes the standard on the eircom modems is 802.11g, though it would be backward compatible with all other standards including 802.11n.

Again on the issue of active connections, please see previous posts and the website link will give you some idea about general spec on eircom's wireless routers.

All the best,
Ant

Thanks Ant
Is 802.11n not forward of 802.11g?
Should it not be the case that the router needs to be forward compatible?
Sorry for all the questions - just dont want to get a dud bit of kit that's out of date
Cant find any mention of device limits in the links you gave or an exact mention of the wireless network standards used on these (some links are 6 years old by the way) but according to my maths should these not be capable of up to 253 wireless connection concurrently?

eircom: Ant

tui0hcg wrote: »

Thanks Ant
Is 802.11n not forward of 802.11g?
Should it not be the case that the router needs to be forward compatible?
Sorry for all the questions - just dont want to get a dud bit of kit that's out of date
Cant find any mention of device limits in the links you gave or an exact mention of the wireless network standards used on these (some links are 6 years old by the way) but according to my maths should these not be capable of up to 253 wireless connection concurrently?

Thanks again,

The following article on Wireless standards may assist with describing the evolution of 802.11g (which is the standard for many of today's modems). There is also ample material and information available online on the same subject:

802.11g

Main article: http://bit.ly/pZranQ


In June 2003, a third modulation standard was ratified: 802.11g. This works in the 2.4 GHz band (like 802.11b), but uses the same OFDM based transmission scheme as 802.11a. It operates at a maximum physical layer bit rate of 54 Mbit/s exclusive of forward error correction codes, or about 22 Mbit/s average throughput.[10] 802.11g hardware is fully backwards compatible with 802.11b hardware and therefore is encumbered with legacy issues that reduce throughput when compared to 802.11a by ~21%.I][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed"]citation needed[/URL][/I
The then-proposed 802.11g standard was rapidly adopted by consumers starting in January 2003, well before ratification, due to the desire for higher data rates as well as to reductions in manufacturing costs. By summer 2003, most dual-band 802.11a/b products became dual-band/tri-mode, supporting a and b/g in a single mobile adapter card or access point. Details of making b and g work well together occupied much of the lingering technical process; in an 802.11g network, however, activity of an 802.11b participant will reduce the data rate of the overall 802.11g network.
Like 802.11b, 802.11g devices suffer interference from other products operating in the 2.4 GHz band, for example wireless keyboards.


Hope this helps,
Ant

BionicRasher

eircom: Ant wrote: »

802.11g

Main article: http://bit.ly/pZranQ


In June 2003, a third modulation standard was ratified: 802.11g.

Ant,
I know this but I am asking about 802.11n

IEEE 802.11n-2009 is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11-2007 wireless networking standard to improve network throughput over the two previous standards—802.11a and 802.11g—with a significant increase in the maximum raw data rate from 54 Mbit/s to 600 Mbit/s with the use of four spatial streams at a channel width of 40 MHz

All I need to know is are the routers n capable as the range and speeds are far superior to g
The routers you listed are not even on the manufactures list of products and as I say some documents you link to are 6 years old

NeitherJohn

An 802.11n router will work with b/g equipment but will set itself to b/g speeds only.

If you need more ethernet ports for cabling just plug a network switch into port 1 of the netopia router. The router on it's own with no switch obviously only supports 4 users at a time since there is only 4 ethernet ports on it. That's just the way it's worded (badly!) and not a technical limitation of the router.

I have a netgear switch similar to the one in the link below.

http://bit.ly/pNwD97.

I have 7 wireless devices on my router at home, (iPad, three laptops, one computer, one xbox and my HTC Desire HD smartphone) and it's grand.

BionicRasher

NeitherJohn wrote: »

An 802.11n router will work with b/g equipment but will set itself to b/g speeds only.

If you need more ethernet ports for cabling just plug a network switch into port 1 of the netopia router. The router on it's own with no switch obviously only supports 4 users at a time since there is only 4 ethernet ports on it. That's just the way it's worded (badly!) and not a technical limitation of the router.

I have a netgear switch similar to the one in the link below.

http://bit.ly/pNwD97.

I have 7 wireless devices on my router at home, (iPad, three laptops, one computer, one xbox and my HTC Desire HD smartphone) and it's grand.

Thanks NeitherJohn
However still no answer from Eircom to say if the routers are 802.11n or g for sure
Might mean I will have to look elsewhere for broadband

eircom: Ant

tui0hcg wrote: »

Ant,
I know this but I am asking about 802.11n

IEEE 802.11n-2009 is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11-2007 wireless networking standard to improve network throughput over the two previous standards—802.11a and 802.11g—with a significant increase in the maximum raw data rate from 54 Mbit/s to 600 Mbit/s with the use of four spatial streams at a channel width of 40 MHz

All I need to know is are the routers n capable as the range and speeds are far superior to g
The routers you listed are not even on the manufactures list of products and as I say some documents you link to are 6 years old

Thanks for post tui0hcg,

I'm sure you are very aware of the router and wireless standards. These are now quite common knowledge and more information can be found out online, than I could give here. Just ignore the .pdf documents I referred on our download site, they are just to give an idea of basic spec of the eircom routers. You can find more information on sites like wikipedia or even youtube.

I spoke toTechnical Support and they assured me that the 802.11g is backwards compatible with 802.11n.

As previous post, the 802.11n router will work with b/g equipment.

On your previous primary query: on the amount of active connections allowed on the router? As advised by NeitherJohn: 'If you need more ethernet ports for cabling just plug a network switch into port 1 of the netopia router'.

Have a great weekend,
Ant

NeitherJohn

tui0hcg wrote: »

Thanks NeitherJohn
However still no answer from Eircom to say if the routers are 802.11n or g for sure
Might mean I will have to look elsewhere for broadband

The Zyxels are g/b anyway. The old Netopias 2247-02's are also b/g (possibly 802.11a too, since my xbox seems to connect on 802.11a if I set it to do so.)

I don't think eircom supply 802.11n routers at the moment as they have no consumer product fast enough at the moment to warrant 802.11n speeds (although I hope that changes with fiber rollout).

You can still buy your own 802.11n gateway (modem/router) and input the eircom settings, but if something is wrong with the connection then eircom, understandably, won't be able to give tech support if their equipment isn't connected.

BionicRasher

eircom: Ant wrote: »

I spoke toTechnical Support and they assured me that the 802.11g is backwards compatible with 802.11n.

As previous post, the 802.11n router will work with b/g equipment.

OK still not answering the question - are these 802.11n or b/g routers?

NeitherJohn wrote: »

The Zyxels are g/b anyway. The old Netopias 2247-02's are also b/g (possibly 802.11a too, since my xbox seems to connect on 802.11a if I set it to do so.)

I don't think eircom supply 802.11n routers at the moment

This answers the question - thanks NeitherJohn

as for the bit about active connections - maybe the website should be updated to say something like
It allows up to 4 users to surf via a wired connection and will allow multiple wireless connections (up to 254) at the same time anywhere in the house.

eircom: Ant

Cheers,
Yes, NeitherJohn, eircom don't supply 802.11n routers.

Thanks for your advice here on router standards. We're hoping the fibre rollout will grow and we'll offer those amazing speeds and service, iptv advances, etc., which has been widely flagged!

On another subject all together, but related to performance, I think whatever we do, it will be hard to beat last weekend's amazing Irish victory in the rugby WorldCup. Not to forget the Dubs gave it everything and deserved the win: plus beating Kerry, best team in the country.

regards
Ant

jay93

I think what ANT ment to say was that the 802.11G is backwards compatible with 802.11 A+B the newer 'N' standard isn't supported by Eircom routers.

They have a max of 4 ethernet ports but you can connect as many wireless devices as you want to providing your connection speed is fast enough.

Condatis

Eircom sent me a new ZyXEL about a month ago. The CD that they sent with it is not readable on a Mac, I requested a Mac CD on the day of delivery but have not received it.

The ZyXEL has a WiFi light. Does this mean that I can configure it for wireless?

cantthinkof1

Condatis wrote: »

Eircom sent me a new ZyXEL about a month ago. The CD that they sent with it is not readable on a Mac, I requested a Mac CD on the day of delivery but have not received it.

The ZyXEL has a WiFi light. Does this mean that I can configure it for wireless?

Hi Condatis

Yes you can configure it for wireless. If it has a WiFi light (and and ariel)
If you turn the modem upside down there will be a sticker with the wireless network name called the SSID and will look something like:
eircomXXXXXXX

Beneath that is the wireless security key that is a combination of numbers and letters: e.g. f222bcf0f642

All 0 = ZERO and not the letter O

Hopes this helps.

Condatis

cantthinkof1 wrote: »

Hi Condatis

Yes you can configure it for wireless. If it has a WiFi light (and and ariel)
If you turn the modem upside down there will be a sticker with the wireless network name called the SSID and will look something like:
eircomXXXXXXX

Beneath that is the wireless security key that is a combination of numbers and letters: e.g. f222bcf0f642

All 0 = ZERO and not the letter O

Hopes this helps.

That's interesting, thank you. What kind of arial would I use? Do I need to use software to configure the modem? The CD that Eircom cannot be read on my Mac.

eircom: Ant

Condatis wrote: »

That's interesting, thank you. What kind of arial would I use? Do I need to use software to configure the modem? The CD that Eircom cannot be read on my Mac.

Thanks Condatis.

The aerial (or antenna) is supplied along with the eircom Zyxel modem. You just need to attach this, if it is not already attached. If the aerial is not supplied, just let Technical Support know and they will get a new one sent out to you.

It's not necessary to use the eircom CD in order to setup your broadband, with either your wireless Mac computer or with a wireless PC/ wifi laptop / smartphone, etc.

Just ensure your airport is turned on your wireless Mac Computer.
Scan for wireless networks.
Once your modem Wifi light is on your modem and Mac, -you should be able to pick the wifi signal.
As the previous post, you should see a wireless network called : eircomXXX XXX.
Click Join this wireless network on your Mac Computer - Airport.
You will then be prompted for a 'security' or 'wireless' password.
Just type the wireless securtiy key, which is on the label underneath your eircom Zyxel modem.

Once you've 'joined' your eircomXXX XXXX wireless network, you will be able to browse and use the Internet freely throughout your house.

If you have any problems connecting over wireless on your Mac Computer, just call into eircom Technical Support :

Broadband Technical Support : 1890 260260 (lowcall); Hours : 08:00 - 22:00 (7 days).

Please let me know if I can help further.


Best wishes
Ant

BionicRasher

OK after much toing and froing and as I have not had a clear answer from Eircom I have gone with Vodafone. I was told all the details on the Vodafone router before I signed up and it will support the 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n protocols. The router also provides a USB connection for a Hard Drive and you can share files across the network to any connected PCs etc. It’s a media server.
This is an important factor in today’s world for many as it means we can share our content across our home network at 802.11n speeds which are significantly higher than 802.11b or 802.11g. This means not ‘gitter’ or un-synced picture and sound when I stream something like a movie from the USB hard drive (media server) to either my PC upstairs or my laptop in the kitchen or our Wii or my phone etc. I now have a home network running with 802.11n speeds and also connections that are wired so happy days

I really don’t understand why someone from Eircom could not have simply opened a router box and had a look at the router to see if they are 802.11n

Ah well – another potential customer lost