Eir FTTC broadband router port opening

Irish Steve

Have Eir FTTC broadband, with F1000 modem, and we've had a letter asking us to open a specific port for the credit card terminal, as they are going to need it for additional procedures "in the near future", so they need us to ensure that the port is not blocked.

Tried to get the information about this from Eir support, and I might as well have been speaking swahili to them, the person I got hadn't got a clue about anything to do with changing settings on the modem, so it was a complete waste of (significant) time even trying to get the information I needed, and they were'nt about to offer to escalate the call to someone who might know what was needed.

So, anyone here can tell me how I make sure that a specific port is open, so that the terminal will work correctly when they roll out the new updates?

Gooey Looey

Irish Steve wrote: »

Have Eir FTTC broadband, with F1000 modem, and we've had a letter asking us to open a specific port for the credit card terminal, as they are going to need it for additional procedures "in the near future", so they need us to ensure that the port is not blocked.

Tried to get the information about this from Eir support, and I might as well have been speaking swahili to them, the person I got hadn't got a clue about anything to do with changing settings on the modem, so it was a complete waste of (significant) time even trying to get the information I needed, and they were'nt about to offer to escalate the call to someone who might know what was needed.

So, anyone here can tell me how I make sure that a specific port is open, so that the terminal will work correctly when they roll out the new updates?

As you are obviously running as business do yourself a favour employ an IT expert and provide your own router. This way you will have full control and will be in the position to change provider without being tied to the provider router, which is a cheapo pos by the way!

Irish Steve

So many assumtions, and not exactly friendly, but sure, that's Boards these days.

It's not "my" business, a friend of mine who's business it is had a pretty vague E-mail from his card service provider about changes that are coming shortly, and from what I already know, the service provider will have to give me quite a bit more information before the F1000 can be properly set up to do what's needed, and yes, it's a nasty piece of kit, but what's new, most ISP terminator devices are cheap and nasty, and have restrictions or limitations of one sort or another.

I suspect I'm also going to have to sort our a static IP address from Eir, but that should be relatively painless, they're dealing with that on a regular basis. There is also the complication that a reliable router can be expensive, and with Covid cash flow issues, I'm trying to avoid spending money that's not essential right now.

IT expert? Most of the time, I end up "coaching" the experts that supposedly know more than they think I do, which might have something to do with over 50 years of working with one form or another of computer, starting with electro mechanical "computers" that were little more than an intelligent teletype terminal running on dedicated 1200 Baud lines to a central mainframe that has little more capacity than a modern smart phone. Later systems were a LOT more complex, and so was the software.

I was hoping that someone had already dealt with the F1000, given the number of the things there are out there, to save having to waste a lot of my time getting it right from woeful documentation, and clueless support from Eir.

Gooey Looey

You can get a very decent enterprise router for less than 100 quid, you'll have to bridge the f1000
https://www.irishwireless.net/rb962uigs-5hact2hnt

If you value your sanity stay away from trying to do anything with an f1000

Gooey Looey

Or you could change provider to one that supply a decent router. Airwire and Westnet offer the choice of Mikrotik or Fritz!Box routers. I have Westnet myself and it's a static IP

Irish Steve

Will have a chat with the owner, the broadband is part of a business package that includes landline, and a number of mobiles, so unbundling the broadband could be an issue, given how bad Eir are with just about anything at the moment.

First port of call will be the card provider, to see exactly what they are expecting, and once that's clear, I can decide what needs to be sorted, and who is the best company to do that with.