Eir F2000 replacement recommendation

Dunnie1982

I have Eir Fibre at home and I can't deal with the F2000 modem any more as it's beyond rubbish, so I wan't to buy a replacement. I was looking at the Asus RT-N66U which is currently half price on Amazon & was wondering is it just a matter of connecting it to my phone line and putting in the Eir settings into it for it to work? I don't see an RJ11 socket on the back of it either so how would I go about connecting it to my phone line? Would I need an external modem for it? Would anyone recommend another router or modem for me to buy or would this be a good one to buy? Thanks in advance.

mass_debater

You cannot just buy a modem as what you need needs to support a technology Eir use called vectoring and there are only about 5 that do. You will need to bridge the F2000 so it just acts as a modem and add a better router with ethernet wan port.

Dunnie1982

mass_debater wrote: »

You cannot just buy a modem as what you need needs to support a technology Eir use called vectoring and there are only about 5 that do. You will need to bridge the F2000 so it just acts as a modem and add a better router with ethernet wan port.

Thanks, I got a loan of a Fritzbox 7390 from someone this morning and will try to bridge the F2000 later on, is this difficult to do? I did some computer networking in college, but it has been a few years and can't remember most of it as it wasn't my favourite subject to begin with.

r3nu4l

Slightly off topic here but what is it about the fibre router that is so bad? Éire fine is coming to my area this year and I'm considering it as an option...

Would be good to know in advance

Dunnie1982

r3nu4l wrote: »

Slightly off topic here but what is it about the fibre router that is so bad? Éire fine is coming to my area this year and I'm considering it as an option...

Would be good to know in advance

It has to be reset every day. It assigns ip addresses to devices but won't give them internet access (i can ping the devices from my desktop) so needs to be reset for it to work correctly. Since I put wifi extenders onto the system lately it's gone even worse. I have no neighbours so it's not interference and I'm only 20 metres from the cabinet on the road. I've tried every fix I could, changed dns settings etc & still no better, and Eir support is very poor.

ED E

Sorry but I'm going to totally disagree with you Dunnie1982, the 2000 is an excellent unit. You've got something weird going on specific to you.

The F1000 was a overly cheaped out junker from Zyxel, the 2000 checks every box. WLAN performance is excellent and they don't tend to fall over.

The only thing that would prevent me using one is the third octet of your subnet can't be changed but for 99% of people that isnt an issue.

jca

I must agree with ED_E here too. I've had an F2000 for a number of months now and find it brilliant I've never had to reset it everything just works. Maybe yours is faulty.

uck51js9zml2yt

Same here. Had the f1000 and nothing but grief. Upgraded to the f2000 a few months ago and not an issue.

Dunnie1982

Have the Fritzbox on for 24 hours now with no problems. It must be a problem with my F2000 if other people aren't having any problems. Going to give Eircom a call during the week for a replacement.

swoofer

A friend has got the f2000 and they say wireless range is woeful, ie in a 2 storey house, no signal upstairs on either 2.4 or 5ghz. thats not very good. and eir sent out a replacement as well, no better.

Dunnie1982

swoofer wrote: »

A friend has got the f2000 and they say wireless range is woeful, ie in a 2 storey house, no signal upstairs on either 2.4 or 5ghz. thats not very good. and eir sent out a replacement as well, no better.

I'm in a bungalow, I have the modem in the attic as it's the only place I can get good range from it due to internal concrete walls. I have a set of TP Link powerline wifi adapters to get wifi at one end of the house as it was non-existent in the past, I still have areas of the house with very bad WiFi & the house is only average sized. The modem I have set up temporarily is not much better when it comes to WiFi range, but everything is staying connected to the internet which wasn't happening at all with the F2000, even in the room directly below it.

Dunnie1982

Dunnie1982 wrote: »

Thanks, I got a loan of a Fritzbox 7390 from someone this morning and will try to bridge the F2000 later on, is this difficult to do? I did some computer networking in college, but it has been a few years and can't remember most of it as it wasn't my favourite subject to begin with.

I have it from AVM that the 7390 does support vectoring so you could use it in place of the F2000. It's just a case of adding the username and password to the Account Info section, and setting the VLAN ID to 10.

xband

Actually have had no issues at all with the F1000 and have had it for ages.

Sounds like your F2000 might be faulty though. Maybe ask for a swap.

xband

Actually have had no issues at all with the F1000 and have had it for ages.

Sounds like your F2000 might be faulty though. Maybe ask for a swap.

xband

I'm not sure what the story was with the AVM units Digiweb were using initially but they did not like OpenEir's vectoring setup and wouldn't give the full speed. I'm not sure if that's resolved now or not.

AFAIK, OpenEir vectoring is standards complaint though there's nothing that should be that strange about it, although it is one of the few operators running it at 100Mbit/s most VDSL setups are a lot slower around Europe and the states.

xband

I'm not sure what the story was with the AVM units Digiweb were using initially but they did not like OpenEir's vectoring setup and wouldn't give the full speed. I'm not sure if that's resolved now or not.

AFAIK, OpenEir vectoring is standards complaint though there's nothing that should be that strange about it, although it is one of the few operators running it at 100Mbit/s most VDSL setups are a lot slower around Europe and the states.

xband

xband wrote: »

I'm not sure what the story was with the AVM units Digiweb were using initially but they did not like OpenEir's vectoring setup and wouldn't give the full speed. I'm not sure if that's resolved now or not.

AFAIK, OpenEir vectoring is standards complaint though there's nothing that should be that strange about it, although it is one of the few operators running it at 100Mbit/s most VDSL setups are a lot slower around Europe and the states.

I know a company in Drogheda who are using a pair of Digiweb-provided 7490s. They seem to work fine. The only issue we had is that we couldn't bridge one of them to install a Sonicwall, but admittedly, bridging a Fritz is a bit pointless.

ED E

xband wrote: »

AFAIK, OpenEir vectoring is standards complaint though there's nothing that should be that strange about it, although it is one of the few operators running it at 100Mbit/s most VDSL setups are a lot slower around Europe and the states.

Eir purchased the latest gear from Huawei who are leading the way, they've been guinea pigs for them to some extent. Lots of europe uses VDSL1 or different Annexs which provide different bandwith profiles (Annex 8 goes further).

xband

From what I gather Eir's decision was around the need to have something that was capable of competing with UPC/Virgin Media. 40Mbit/s wasn't going to cut it, hence they went with this implementation of VDSL2.

I wonder if they'll buy any of Huawei's micro-DSLAMs (i.e. tiny VDSL2 DSLAMs located on poles / in underground vaults [manholes]). They could extend service and increase speeds a lot. G.Fast is also possible which would really crank up the speeds without a massive rewire if there are difficulties getting fibre up driveways ...

ED E

I get the impression they've tried most technologies in Belcarra and Sandyford and the only thing we've seen leave the test environment is GPON. GFast sounds nice in theory but the realities of working with copper and the labor involved you may as well do that small bit extra and be done with for the next two decades vs coming back in 4yrs to replace copper drops. Same goes for micro DSLAMs, especially as I doubt they could be passively powered by CPE and would then involve huge costs for ESB pillars.

xband

BT seems to be enthusiastic about G.Fast in Britain.

Their urban areas are mostly not a lot different to ours in terms of building types and density - lots and lots of housing estate type stuff and sprawl.

That being said BT isn't exactly a great benchmark for broadband.

Orange in France has has good success with GPON despite all the initial nay sayers over there.

I always wondered why Eir couldn't power the DSLAMs from the PSTN lines though.

The PSTN produces a fairly chunky 48V DC. You just would need multiple pairs to give it enough umph but I would suspect you could power a small DSLAM off a feed from the exchange over copper. Take the ESB out of it.

BT is using reverse powering where it steals power from the router in your house to power G.Fast nodes.

ED E

You can't just vampire off that DCV. The POTS system is a regulated one and eir are mandated to keep it to spec by COMREG. Users who want to keep PSTN instead of a VOIP line are allowed to at present so an 8 pair DP might have 4 pensioners off it preventing cannibalizing of their copper loops.

Also its only about 20ma per handset (Max 4), 80ma requires a lot of lines to power even a 10W DSLAM.


G.Fast and reverse power are nice but you still have the maintenance of copper and issues associated with customer owned equipment.

xband

ComReg has started a discussion and public consultation on the phaseout of copper now.

May not be a requirement for much longer

jones

I actually find the F2000 to be a very good modem..very happy with its performance..5ghz doesn't have great spread but that's more an issue with the technology itself than any fault of the modem

Insecure Abnormality

The f2000 modem router is a complete joke. Eircom have port forwarding locked down on all the standard ports i.e SSH, HTTP, HTTPS etc etc.
Despite the detailed user manual specifically saying this is a feature, it is not possible to route along any of these ports even if coming from a non standard external port. This product is completely unsatisfactory and unfit for purpose and Eircom offer no support in any of these areas. It's a bloody joke. Wasted 2 days on this pointless back and forth with their technical support.

mass_debater

Insecure Abnormality wrote: »

The f2000 modem router is a complete joke. Eircom have port forwarding locked down on all the standard ports i.e SSH, HTTP, HTTPS etc etc.
Despite the detailed user manual specifically saying this is a feature, it is not possible to route along any of these ports even if coming from a non standard external port. This product is completely unsatisfactory and unfit for purpose and Eircom offer no support in any of these areas. It's a bloody joke. Wasted 2 days on this pointless back and forth with their technical support.

Madness to expect support. The idea is that you bridge it and use your own router.

_Kaiser_

^^^^ Ah that would explain why I can't get DirectAccess running on my home LAN. Server config looks good, GPOs are pushing correctly to the client laptop, I've forwarded port 443 to the server but can't get to it from outside (sticks at "connecting" and can't ping my WAN IP either)

I've an old Buffalo router that's running DD-WRT firmware but would rather use something a bit more modern with dual-band Wireless etc... any suggestions?

mass_debater

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I've an old Buffalo router that's running DD-WRT firmware but would rather use something a bit more modern with dual-band Wireless etc... any suggestions?

Archer C7/C8 or C9, lots of threads about them here

Insecure Abnormality

@mass_debater That is completely ludicrous. The product is advertised as being able to support these features. It's standard networking stuff and makes the product completely unfit for purpose. I am on a business plan with Eircom and they have been completely reticent in any help in this matter. Had I known this in advance I would have gone with another supplier. I'm pretty sure Junior Certificate Business Studies quoted the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services act 1980 saying that goods must be fit for purpose. This is completely unsuitable for the purposes of any business requiring a network. In the latest firmware upgrade the GUI has removed the option for bridging connections ultimately I am after having to purchase a vodafone router off someone (in the last hour) as I cannot afford to be wasting any more time on this matter. The product is totally unfit for purpose and I find it highly questionable that Eircom are advertising a product which does not do what it claims to be able to do.

ED E

Insecure Abnormality wrote: »

@mass_debater That is completely ludicrous. The product is advertised as being able to support these features. It's standard networking stuff and makes the product completely unfit for purpose. I am on a business plan with Eircom and they have been completely reticent in any help in this matter. Had I known this in advance I would have gone with another supplier. I'm pretty sure Junior Certificate Business Studies quoted the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services act 1980 saying that goods must be fit for purpose. This is completely unsuitable for the purposes of any business requiring a network. In the latest firmware upgrade the GUI has removed the option for bridging connections ultimately I am after having to purchase a vodafone router off someone (in the last hour) as I cannot afford to be wasting any more time on this matter. The product is totally unfit for purpose and I find it highly questionable that Eircom are advertising a product which does not do what it claims to be able to do.

Talking out your proverbial.

They supply a service, not a product. The router is just a freebie thrown in to sweeten the deal. The service supports everything.

If you disable WAN management you can use any of those services, right now the management UI is catching packets before forwards are processed.

mass_debater

Insecure Abnormality wrote: »

@mass_debater That is completely ludicrous. The product is advertised as being able to support these features. It's standard networking stuff and makes the product completely unfit for purpose. I am on a business plan with Eircom and they have been completely reticent in any help in this matter. Had I known this in advance I would have gone with another supplier. I'm pretty sure Junior Certificate Business Studies quoted the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services act 1980 saying that goods must be fit for purpose. This is completely unsuitable for the purposes of any business requiring a network. In the latest firmware upgrade the GUI has removed the option for bridging connections ultimately I am after having to purchase a vodafone router off someone (in the last hour) as I cannot afford to be wasting any more time on this matter. The product is totally unfit for purpose and I find it highly questionable that Eircom are advertising a product which does not do what it claims to be able to do.

You've a business connection, why the fcuk are you relying on a cheap as chips provider supplied router, it's about 20 quid worth. Go and buy one that offers you the functions you require like every other business does. This is the same on any provider.

_Kaiser_

mass_debater wrote: »

You've a business connection, why the fcuk are you relying on a cheap as chips provider supplied router, it's about 20 quid worth. Go and buy one that offers you the functions you require like every other business does. This is the same on any provider.

Just as a follow-up to my own earlier question then..

If I wanted to replace the F2000 outright with something equivalent BUT which had no restrictions around which ports/services can be used, what would you recommend?

The Archer would rely on the ability to configure the F2000 as a bridge which (per the poster above) has been removed in the latest updates?

_Kaiser_

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Just as a follow-up to my own earlier question then..

If I wanted to replace the F2000 outright with something equivalent BUT which had no restrictions around which ports/services can be used, what would you recommend?

The Archer would rely on the ability to configure the F2000 as a bridge which (per the poster above) has been removed in the latest updates?

I have my F2000 bridged to a Fritz 7490. No problems. While the 7490 does have its own VDSL modem, it doesn't perform as well as the F2000. The F2000 happily syncs at 100/20 with a comfortable SNR margin while the 7490 struggles to get 95/20 with 9dB downstream SNR margin.

mass_debater

I bridged an F2000 2 days ago, it was up to date as it was being used for weeks, has there been an update since?

rolion

OK, so apart of F1000 vs F2000 ... no one can say for sure that we can use that Draytek model instead of bridging of the supplied by Eircom routers !??

ED E

rolion wrote: »

OK, so apart of F1000 vs F2000 ... no one can say for sure that we can use that Draytek model instead of bridging of the supplied by Eircom routers !??

One of them definitely works inc full vectoring support, but I'll have to dig up which.

murphaph

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

If I wanted to replace the F2000 outright with something equivalent BUT which had no restrictions around which ports/services can be used, what would you recommend

I'd also like a definitive answer to the question "which modem/router can slot in as a replacement for an F2000 so the F2000 can be put away in a drawer?"

The reason I ask is because I live in Berlin. My mother lives in Dublin. She has no clue about tech. I would like to slot in something offering:
-dynamic dns updating not tied to just dyn.org (I prefer to use selfhost.de as it's free and you never have to "confirm your account" like NO-IP)
-a VPN server

I want a "slot in" replacement so if her DSL has problems, she can physically unplug the replacement and plug in the F2000 (that much she'd manage) so Eir can offer tech support, which the will refuse to do if a third party modem is in use, so bridging the F2000 is not an option in this use case as in the event of a DSL problem, she would never be able to unbridge the F2000.

Can anyone list the "swap in replacements" for the F2000?

ED E

murphaph wrote: »

(I prefer to use selfhost.de as it's free and you never have to "confirm your account" like NO-IP)

Thanks for that tidbit!


We need a poster like Sean who's willing to do a full lineup on the same line (preferably a longish one) to give us a full picture of what options work.

Cisco? :pac:

rkdub

So any further recommendations here?
As for the vectoring requirements I guess that doesn't apply to fibre terminated connections?

ED E

rkdub wrote: »

So any further recommendations here?
As for the vectoring requirements I guess that doesn't apply to fibre terminated connections?

As the word fibre is used in both products you kinda need to be more explicit but assuming you're talking about FTTH then there are only two requirements:
A) VLAN tagging on WAN
Ability to WAN to LAN fast enough for the product chosen.

rkdub

ED E wrote: »

As the word fibre is used in both products you kinda need to be more explicit but assuming you're talking about FTTH then there are only two requirements:
A) VLAN tagging on WAN
Ability to WAN to LAN fast enough for the product chosen.

yes, I should have been explicit. as you say FTTH. almost any new router should have no trouble so. many thanks.

rkdub

ended up going with Netgear R7000.
requires latest firmware that supports vlan, but works a charm.
very reliable; stronger single throughout the house; better performance wired.

may end up hacking the f2000 with another firmware to see if i can make better use of it.

glanmiredj

Anyone know if the Asus AC68U is compatible with Eir E fibre Broadband?

Dunnie1982

glanmiredj wrote: »

Anyone know if the Asus AC68U is compatible with Eir E fibre Broadband?

There are 2 versions of the AC68u, the RT version which is a router only, and the DSL version which is a modem/router. As far as I know the DSL version supports vectoring so should be compatible, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

ED E

If you're on FTTH get the RT as above, the DSL is compatible for FTTC. See notes in compatible modems thread.

Dunnie1982

My Fritz.Box 7390 which I put in at the time I started this thread, packed in recently. It won't keep the DSL connection, but it works as a router when bridged to the F2000. I've factory reset it a few times, but still no luck.

When I use the F2000 on it's own it stays connected, but I have the same issues with it as before, such as deviced being assigned an ip address but not connecting, devices taking ages to connect (Xbox One takes up to 10 minutes to connect).

When the F2000 is bridged to the Fritz.box I have the slow connection issue but no ip issues. The Fritz.box was second hand and a few years old when I got it, so wasn't expecting it to last forever.

I was looking at the Asus DSL-AC88u but I don't know if it supports vectoring. Does anyone know if it does or has anyone got one working with Eir?

ED E

Dunnie1982 wrote: »

My Fritz.Box 7390 which I put in at the time I started this thread, packed in recently. It won't keep the DSL connection, but it works as a router when bridged to the F2000. I've factory reset it a few times, but still no luck.

When I use the F2000 on it's own it stays connected, but I have the same issues with it as before, such as deviced being assigned an ip address but not connecting, devices taking ages to connect (Xbox One takes up to 10 minutes to connect).

When the F2000 is bridged to the Fritz.box I have the slow connection issue but no ip issues. The Fritz.box was second hand and a few years old when I got it, so wasn't expecting it to last forever.

I was looking at the Asus DSL-AC88u but I don't know if it supports vectoring. Does anyone know if it does or has anyone got one working with Eir?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=103789025&postcount=23

Dunnie1982

ED E wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=103789025&postcount=23

Thanks for this, but no mention of the 88u here, only the 68u.

glanmiredj

Can confirm the 68u works a treat.Can't advise on the 88u though.

TumblingDice1

Hi,

Would anyone know if the TP-LINK AC1600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit VDSL/ADSL Modem Router

or the TP-Link AC1900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit VDSL/ADSL Modem Router

would work as a direct replacement for the F2000 router?

Sorry can't include Amazon links, new user!

johnytwentyten

http://finbarrbrady.com/2017-07-13-replace-eir-f2000/

Do the people who understand this deem it correct? According to this you can use any router and throw the f2000 away?