My PS3 vs Eircom's F1000 Modem -- a story of constant annoyances

Rilgar

Hello there, now, where to begin, really? Well, I guess I'll tell my story from the start....so you'd best grab a stool...

I guess I want to begin with saying that I am officially sick to death with Eircom and their 'supposedly super-awesome' eFibre F1000 modem.

We've been customers with the ISP for a long while now, but only signed up for broadband a few years ago. Then, earlier in the year, around June we applied for the fibre optic upgrade, and finally got it set up around the end of July. So yay, an upgraded connection, 'faster, uncongested speeds' and no more warring for Netflix buffering time, etc etc. The modem worked a treat with my laptop, android phone, and most other devices that wish to connect to the network. All, except, for my ps3.

*Sigh* So soon after we get the new modem installed, I'm thinking 'Great! no more laggy connections', feeling grateful that I could finally banish that nasty NAT3 connection from my memory. But, soon after, this is when my woes began. About a day or so after upgrading, I tried signing into the PSN network, but lo and behold I am greeted with a sign-in error. 'That's odd,' I start saying to myself, until I try sign-in again. And again. And again. Growing annoyed, I decided to leave it, and come back that night and try and sign in again; with similar results.

After that, my disruptions began. I started having hit-and-miss days where some times I could be signed in all day and nothing would happen, or on other days I could have a repeat of the above and not be able to sign in at all. Now I'm not a big 'online-gamer' but can you imagine how much of a hassle this would be to someone, especially after forking out the extra dosh for a 'superior connection.'

A record of the errors I've been experiencing can be viewed at the following links;
http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-Network-Technical/Can-t-Sync-Trophies-80710D23-Error/m-p/19509898#M24958
http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-Network-Technical/PSN-Woes-Part-2-Error-code-80710092/m-p/19698644#M29109

But that's not all. So, realising now that I'm stuck with a connection that works perfectly fine with everything else bar my ps3, I had to grow tolerate of its as-of-yet unexplainable tendency to randomly 'kick me' from the network, and render downloading and using media server a strictly hit-and-miss affair. But patience would only last for so long.

After about two weeks of this, I decided to bite the bullet and contact eircom, in the first of five phone calls to be made all pertaining to this exact same fiasco. Other than being frankly unimpressed by their 'tech support,' I began to try all solutions that they proposed, like adjusting firewall settings, etc etc. In short, half the time that I rang, I ended up telling them what I needed done, and the third timeI rang I ended up talking to some joker who tried telling me that when I used the old netopia silver box I 'was meant to have problems,' when in fact I did not. Not. EVER. AND I used TWO netopia boxes during different times and periods to connect with the ps3, and never had an ounce of trouble. But this is besides the point.

Growing weary of my troubles & also the staggering phone bills we'll probably be getting for these fruitless phone calls, I rang up eircom for the 4th time to file a complaint. I got told to expect a phone call 'within 7 working days' and then I got inadvertently transferred to tech support again. And this time, after waiting 10 minutes on hold, I got utterly fed up and cancelled the call.

Despairing by now, my Dad, whom is the account holder in our house, phones up eircom for the 5th and final time and sweet hallelujah, we finally get on to someone who knows his stuff and can relate. Willing to dedicate some of his off-work hours to help solve my problem, we spent a night trying all manner of ways to solve the problem. I'm not particularly techy with the works of the F1000 modem but what I can tell you is that between us we changed numerous settings, lowered and even turned off the firewall, done this, that and the other thing, all of which accumulated in trying to set up portforwarding.

In brief, that didn't even work, which left the guy who was helping me utterly stumped, and also his friend stumped too, which leaves me at a complete and utter loss for what to do next, save of ring up Sony to try and get their insight on this problem. But again, I shudder to think of the phone bill...

So, this is why I've come here, to get some perspectives on my woes, you know?

Stuff worthy of mentioning I guess; particular model of ps3 is the Super Slim edition, bought last October when my 'fat' ps3 died. Tried using the custom connection settings on it, like manually entering ip, primary DNS etc etc, but it was just not happening.

The console itself is in the exact same place it was when I used to connect to the old modem.

Ahmmm. Nothing else is in the room that I'd say would interfere with the signal...if that's any help...haha...

Another thing; after fiddling with the settings that time, as soon as I get kicked, I can sign in again straight away, and it is behaving better...but I still worry....

Not sure what else to add, other than saying I'm getting really pissed off at Eircom and their ****-tastic modem.

So I would gladly appreciate some help.

Thank-you.

hallo dare

Have you tried port forwarding?

Rilgar

I mentioned we did try and set it up but for some reason it wasn't working. He said put in port 80 for start and finish ports and leave the other two blank, but it wasn't accepting it and kept giving an invalid 'something something' error. I can't remember the error, but if someone could help me try portforwarding again, since I honestly don't understand it, I would like that.

listermint

Personally ive never found any providers modems to be particularly good.

so i just bought a belkin and used it as an access point. Never had an issue since then. This is with Eircom and UPC.

Prior to that nothing but constant issues on their proprietry equipment. So IMO get your own router /access point and add it on to the network. It saved me wasting my time. Doing anything else.

Rilgar

That was one of the conclusions I came to. But, weary of the price tag of a new modem, what are some modems that would be recommend? And in the event that I do buy a new modem, is there any steps I need to take to accommodate the switcharoo? Or is it a simple matter of just hooking up the new modem to the cable, plug it in and switch on?

Liquidchild

I had constant problems also with Eircom, not so much with the ps3 gaming but with it taking 15 hours to download an average 90 minute movie.... My 45 euro a month bill could have been better spent with another company...To any newcomers undecided on which ISP to choose, my honest advise is STAY AWAY FROM EIRCOM.

listermint

Rilgar wrote: »

That was one of the conclusions I came to. But, weary of the price tag of a new modem, what are some modems that would be recommend? And in the event that I do buy a new modem, is there any steps I need to take to accommodate the switcharoo? Or is it a simple matter of just hooking up the new modem to the cable, plug it in and switch on?

Well with UPC i networked it as an access point. As the UPC modem is a cable modem so retained that as the modem to the outside world.

When i had eircom i ditched the netopia completely and had the Belkin plugged straight into the phone point. You would need login details and IP address from the Netopia first to put into the new modem.

I simple dont rate anyones equipment.

Rilgar

Liquidchild wrote: »

I had constant problems also with Eircom, not so much with the ps3 gaming but with it taking 15 hours to download an average 90 minute movie.... My 45 euro a month bill could have been better spent with another company...To any newcomers undecided on which ISP to choose, my honest advise is STAY AWAY FROM EIRCOM.

Yes, I agree, and can't stress this enough! I think we were paying for a 8mb package (don't know price) but we were only getting about an 1/8 of that, event hough there are boxes (which now includes one of those 'V' green-with-hinge-lock box) outside our house and still we were told the exchange was further up the road. Ridiculous.

listermint wrote: »

Well with UPC i networked it as an access point. As the UPC modem is a cable modem so retained that as the modem to the outside world.

When i had eircom i ditched the netopia completely and had the Belkin plugged straight into the phone point. You would need login details and IP address from the Netopia first to put into the new modem.

I simple dont rate anyones equipment.

Ah, okay. Thanks for the info, nonethless.

ED E

Liquidchild wrote: »

I had constant problems also with Eircom, not so much with the ps3 gaming but with it taking 15 hours to download an average 90 minute movie.... My 45 euro a month bill could have been better spent with another company...To any newcomers undecided on which ISP to choose, my honest advise is STAY AWAY FROM EIRCOM.

You mean stay away from DSL really. Its not eircom per say, its that phone lines werent designed with the internet in mind. That line would be the same with Vodafone, Sky, UTV, etc.

Rilgar

Wow so that means a lot of households are pretty much goosed with their connections hmm? Think it's time I moved to the east, haha.

ED E

Within 2KM of an NGB exchange or in a fibre enabled area you're fine, outside that its totally hit and miss.

A lot of people are happy with a 1-3Mb connection because they've known no other, but as sites get larger thats continually be less and less true.

Rilgar

Yeah, we were like that. Actually starting to regret this upgrade but then we were moving with the changing times...

Liquidchild

Cheers for the replies! How difficult is it to get out of the 18 month contract I've signed with them so? Not looking for tips or anything illegal but your advice is appreciated! :-) The way I see it is I paid for a service I don't receive. So in my eyes, its THEM whom misled ME with the contract!!! And I'm in the process of leaving them because pardon my French, its complete BULL****!

lmimmfn

Can't you put the ps3 in the DMZ? All ports will be forwarded.

murphaph

listermint wrote: »

Personally ive never found any providers modems to be particularly good.

Sad, my provider here in Germany supplies a high end Fritzbox 7360 as standard. The modems I had in Ireland were all bargain basement ones though.

ED E

Liquidchild wrote: »

Cheers for the replies! How difficult is it to get out of the 18 month contract I've signed with them so? Not looking for tips or anything illegal but your advice is appreciated! :-) The way I see it is I paid for a service I don't receive. So in my eyes, its THEM whom misled ME with the contract!!! And I'm in the process of leaving them because pardon my French, its complete BULL****!

It'd be easier to buy a decent modem and use that. There is one that works well, cant remember the make/model. Oh, its a Draytek!

The service isnt the problem tbh, its just shocking gateways. UPC do the same shít unfortunately. If they paid for proper gear they'd save it on support calls.

Rilgar

lmimmfn wrote: »

Can't you put the ps3 in the DMZ? All ports will be forwarded.

Just did this so fingers crossed my problems will end. Thanks.

Rilgar

Update; Nope, even after putting the ps3 in a DMZ, I got kicked out of PSN and errors galore. However, once I switched off the ps3 and switched it back on I was able to sign in again, so yeah.

Rilgar

I'm curious, if I do wish to try portforwarding with this infernal thing, what are some recommended settings?

lmimmfn

Rilgar wrote: »

Update; Nope, even after putting the ps3 in a DMZ, I got kicked out of PSN and errors galore. However, once I switched off the ps3 and switched it back on I was able to sign in again, so yeah.

after you configure the router, when moving stuff around i.e. to DMZ its best to reboot the router( normally required anyway, but reboot all clients to that router also ).

Can you say if its still and issue following the PS3 reboot?

Rilgar

I haven't been playing the ps3 much to report how it's been behaving since placed in a DMZ but when and if I do have something to report, I'll add it here.

smee again

Can you bridge the modem and add a better router? Consoles like plug and play, uPnP, where they forward their own ports through the firewall. I've never had an issue with any router that has plug and play enabled. Putting the console in the DMZ is not the answer, it is ok for TCP traffic originating on the console, but when random packets arrive at the router on the port used for gaming, the router has no idea where to send them and drops them.

Rilgar

smee again wrote: »

Can you bridge the modem and add a better router? Consoles like plug and play, uPnP, where they forward their own ports through the firewall. I've never had an issue with any router that has plug and play enabled. Putting the console in the DMZ is not the answer, it is ok for TCP traffic originating on the console, but when random packets arrive at the router on the port used for gaming, the router has no idea where to send them and drops them.

Wow, this is really helpful!

Ah, bridging. For the moment, no, as the only other modem we have in the house is the old silver Netopia one previously got with eircom and we all know the line doesn't carry the signal for it any more (at least that's what I've been told?) That would explain the dodgy times I've been having online lately, as I've just tried it tonight and I'm having trouble connecting with other players, but the ps3 itself still seems to be signed into the playstation network.

*Sigh* I guess I shall really have to invest in a better modem.

Or another solution might be, considering I'm only having issue with the ps3, is to buy an AOSS router for it, since it seems to support this method. Although, will it be worth it, I wonder.

I don't know. Desperately searching for solutions other than forking over more dosh to replace this deplorable piece of slag-tech.

diarmaidol

Have you tired turning off the wireless on the F1000 and only using wired connections.

I'm not suggesting it as a solution, however I think the bridging on the F1000 is very seriously broken. I would be interesting to know if it fixed you issue.

Rilgar

I have gone with a wired connection simply to test it out and it does work but the position of the router relative to where I have my ps3 is very awkward (the router is on a table just inside the door, whereas the ps3 is upstairs).

diarmaidol

Right, I think you are being affected by the same issue I was having.

I posted this in another thread which for me at least seems to make things better.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=86508820&postcount=71

Rilgar

diarmaidol wrote: »

Right, I think you are being affected by the same issue I was having.

I posted this in another thread which for me at least seems to make things better.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=86508820&postcount=71

I have just applied these changes, but won't be able to really test it out until later in the week. When I can, though, I'll again report back to see how things are fairing.

Glad to know at last that there was some one else who's been experiencing this. I was really going mad and hopping off of Eircom an awful lot. I agree with what you said in that post, too, they should've, shall we say 'field tested' the router a lot more.

Rilgar

Well, here's an update I guess. It's the following day and, after turning on the router today, still experiencing disconnections, with a shiny new psn sign error code to boot. *Sigh*

smee again

Rilgar wrote: »

Well, here's an update I guess. It's the following day and, after turning on the router today, still experiencing disconnections, with a shiny new psn sign error code to boot. *Sigh*

Can you bridge the modem and add a proper router?

Tommy Lagahan

Is it worth buying a Fritz!Box?
I've the Zyxel F1000 set up to bridge to my ASUS RT-N56 and it works fine for short periods of time until the ping doubles and packet loss starts, then the Zyxel goes into a reboot loop when I reset it because bridge mode causes a bug with DSL connecting while in bridge mode etc... etc..

Have had nothing but trouble, even the old Zyxel p660 was great compared to this heap, at least bridge mode worked.
Its worth noting that I have a beta firmware on it that Eircom pushed out to it but it still doesn't fix boot loop, random ping spikes, connection drops and periods-of-high-ping-for-no-reason-under-no-load.
I've turned off everything, all the security and wireless, the only thing enabled is DSL and the bridged ethernet port. No improvement.

Friend of mine just got a FritzBox with Smart telecoms fibre, I'll be checking it out for a while before looking at one myself.

smee again

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

Is it worth buying a Fritz!Box?
I've the Zyxel F1000 set up to bridge to my ASUS RT-N56 and it works fine for short periods of time until the ping doubles and packet loss starts, then the Zyxel goes into a reboot loop when I reset it because bridge mode causes a bug with DSL connecting while in bridge mode etc... etc..
Have had nothing but trouble, even the old Zyxel p660 was great compared to this heap, at least bridge mode worked.
Its worth noting that I have a beta firmware on it that Eircom pushed out to it but it still doesn't fix boot loop, random ping spikes, connection drops and periods-of-high-ping-for-no-reason-under-no-load.
Friend of mine just got a FritzBox with Smart telecoms fibre, I'll be checking it out for a while before looking at one myself.

FritzBox is more of the same, generic household crap, see what I suggested in this thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057038212