Eircom Broadband losing connection

trance2004

Hi folks,

When we moved house we couldnt get smart at the new address so we went with eircom for our broadband connection. Since we got it I've been having problems with losing the connection once every hour. Its very annoying, because we have mac, pc (wireless) and apple tv (wireless) on the network. When it happends pc and apple tv need to be restarted which is real pain to do because we cant even watch a movie from start to finish on appletv.
Does anyone else have similar problem? Is that one of the zyxel eircom issues?
I wonder if its possible to configure my wireless modem I got from smart to work with eircom broadband?

Cheers for any help and info

slimjimmc

I wonder why are you restarting the computers, that's not necessary if the Eircom line or router is dropping connections. In fact it's not necessary to restart the computers for any network issues unless there are software or hardware problems and it's unlikely that 2 devices are failing together.

trance2004

Hey slimjimmc,

The connection wont come back after the drop via wireless, I just noticed that the ps3 is affected by it too. It was downloading the update and it just stopped with error (unable to connect to server 80****) and I got signed off as well.
Dont think its the hardware/software problem with any of my devices as I would find hard to believe that the ps3,pc and appletv are gone faulty all together. My imac is connected via ethernet cable so when it goes it comes back after about 2 minutes.

slimjimmc

I don't believe it's an issue with any of your devices either, I recently had a problem with frequent dropped connections on my Eircom line too. It only lasted a few weeks and has been fine for the last fortnight.

Don't know about the apple gizmos, but on the PC (I assume it's running Windows) the wireless connection can be reconnected from the icon on the system tray. It can also be set to automatically connect. That should save you the hassle of having to reboot every time.

trance2004

On a pc we have belkin wireless thingy and it wont reconnect on loss for some reason, the same goes for apple tv- when it drops whatever we were watching freezes and only restart of the apple unit does the job.
I might give eircom a call tomorrow if they can share some light on that.

Zapp Brannigan

My connection seems to drop periodically as well. When I go to the modem homepage it says WAN connection failed. And then the DSL and connection is down.

dub45

When a connection is dropping regularly (having first ensured that it is not the wirless network that is giving problems) - you should be checking your line stats and also possibly your internal wiring to see if there is an issue there.

trance2004

I will try to hook up the modem to different point in the house so and see if that changes anything. How can I check my line stats? lol

trance2004

Just a quick update on this:

I managed to get brand new netopia router from eircom and its been on since last night and so far no disconnections whats so ever:D
Will keep an eye on it anyway just to be sure

Blazer

I noticed my eircom wireless signal is fluctuating big time and also dropping..
Must do some further investigation as I'm currently using a linksys router..

justo

Berkut wrote: »

I noticed my eircom wireless signal is fluctuating big time and also dropping..
Must do some further investigation as I'm currently using a linksys router..

I have a netopia router with Eircom for year and half. I have PC laptop and macbook set up wirelessly. Never any problems. Bought a new iMac last week and it drops the signal every hour and sometimes every few minutes and sometimes stays on for a few hours.

iMac guy says its an Eircom problem, Eircom says its an iMac problem (and I agree). Eircom suggested changing the frequency on the Router through the netopia webpage which I have done... got as far as 7 which seemed to work but lost signal again today. The iMac wifi icon never reaches full black bars, although the two laptops show excellent strength signals.

AGGGHHHH!!

I will let you know if I fugure it out, or throw the iMac out the window.

Possible solution here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2418390&tstart=0

Same issue here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2399052&tstart=15

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2379026&tstart=15

dub45

Your imac guy is talking nonsense. A wireless network is not the responsibility of your isp. Their job is to supply you with a bb signal.

As all your other equipment seems to be working fine it would seem that the problem is with the imac.

justo

dub45 wrote: »

Your imac guy is talking nonsense. A wireless network is not the responsibility of your isp. Their job is to supply you with a bb signal.

As all your other equipment seems to be working fine it would seem that the problem is with the imac.

I agree. I'm going to try the remaining channels 7 tru 13 tonight to get a stable connection. Failing that I am going to change the network security from wep to wpa - someone said MACs do not like wep.

Next step is for MAC guy to come take the ol' fella back.

lucernarian

justo wrote: »

I agree. I'm going to try the remaining channels 7 tru 13 tonight to get a stable connection. Failing that I am going to change the network security from wep to wpa - someone said MACs do not like wep.

Next step is for MAC guy to come take the ol' fella back.

Changing from WEP is an absolute must, those networks can be easily cracked by anyone with a linux computer. Unless you have a nintendo DS version that insists WEP is the only security out there...

justo

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Changing from WEP is an absolute must, those networks can be easily cracked by anyone with a linux computer. Unless you have a nintendo DS version that insists WEP is the only security out there...

actually on second glance i was on wpa. is there any significance on the type of wpa i choose?

iMac still a dud for internet.

lucernarian

Not very. WPA2 is more secure, but WPA has only theoretically been hacked. Go with WPA2 unless you think your wireless devices act wonky as a result.

Nefilim777

I'm having a similar issue with my macbook. The connection drops from time to time, usually when downloading something. How do I change channel and from WEP to WPA?