Eir Fiber worse than Imagine....

vidapura

Fiber finally arrived.. we ditched Imagine'ary and jumped on it.

Now, sadly we are in a worse situation.. while Imagine used to drop below 10 megs when a match was on, at least outside of that it didn't drop streams.

Eir is dropping while streaming movies and tv.. and worse.. its dropping in the middle of my Teams calls.

So, now... I'm told their modem/router is rubbish and I should replace it with an Asus or a TP-Link.

I have an Asus zenwifi xt8 that I was using as a mesh.. but apparently I can use it to replace the Eir box...

(actually, what IS it? tThat Eir box.. A modem or a router? its plugged into the NBI box.. )

Can anyone point me at instructions or even just a full list of the settings I need for doing this please?

Thanks in advance...

The DayDream

There is usually a legally mandated cooling off period (was 2 weeks when I worked for a UK telecom) if you want to just tell cancel it

vidapura

Outside of that period now sadly...

Got on 20th Dec. And have already cancelled Imagine.

No, want to stick with Fibre .. and will try the third party router option first.

Glaceon

Looking at the specs of the Asus, it seems to have a WAN port so you should be able to plug it into the NBI box. You'll need to set the VLAN ID in the WAN configuration to 10 and leave it on DHCP. PPPoE should work with eir@eir.ie as the username and broadband1 as the password, but try DHCP first.

vidapura

Thanks...

Just found the following on Eir's site...under Can I use my own modem...

You can use a third party modem to connect to our services, however, we do not support these devices so we will be unable to help with the configuration of them. 

The basic settings you should need to get up and running are as follows; 

• Username: eircom
• Password: broadband1
• Encapsulation: PPPoE
• Multiplexing: LLC Based
• Authentication: Chap
• WAN IP Type: Dynamic
• VPI: 8
• VCI: 35

So thats a little different... hmm...

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121629254#Comment_121629254

They're the settings for very old DSL modems.

mac167

Are you using WiFi ? The router provided by Eir may not be the best at getting the signal out. If you are couple of walls away from the router you might struggle to get a strong WiFi coverage.

Test the connection speed on a LAN cable plugged directly into a router first. If the speed on LAN is fine and no drops, then the problem is the WiFi strength from the router itself.

vidapura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121629320#Comment_121629320

Ohh feck.. right.

Thanks so much for saving me from that !!

vidapura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121629447#Comment_121629447

Its not so much the speed as the stability...

I have tried it with the Eir box wifi and with the much better Asus mesh wifi.. and it drops the stream in both cases.

I get 120 megs at the TV with the Eir wifi, but 370 with the Asus. But its no use if the streams keep dropping...

With the same Asus mesh the ould Imagine router streaming didn't falter (once the contention wasn't too hard)

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121629671#Comment_121629671

here you go instructions to replace the eir router.

https://conor.engineer/2018/02/10/replace-the-eir-f2000-router/

something is up though, you shouldnt be having issues like, have you changed your DNS servers to cloudflare or google?

vidapura

Thanks for those...

I haven't change the DNS servers on the Eir box... or the Asus Mesh.. or on the tv box.. is that what you mean?

Thanks

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121629721#Comment_121629721

yes, id chose a fast dns, cloudflare is good in the router settings.

So ditch the eir box, go direct to the asus with the settings above and change the dns on your network to cloudflare and then see.

vidapura

Right.. thanks very much...

Once I get this lot off to bed I might get peace enough to try all this...

vidapura

Ahh brilliant. It works!

Used the followiing:

PPPoE

eir@eir.ie as the username

broadband1 as the password

VLAN ID in the LAN configuration to 10

Still haven't done the DNS yet.. will see how it goes as-is.

Soon as I can figure out how to do full page screenshots I'll stick em up.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658785#Comment_121658785

great

id change the dns to be honest, its quick and you may as well use the best.

vidapura

Thats the WAN settings

vidapura

And of course the VLAN

vidapura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658828#Comment_121658828

Hmmm... I just changed there to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 in the WAN settings .. but its slower now if anything...

vidapura

Oh wait.. I just remembered I had the DNS changed on the laptop itself to get around restrictions of access to 1337 etc...

Kewl, thanks very much for taking the time to advise me.

vidapura

Just wondering about one thing.. the Data light on the NBI OTN now is flashing yellow rather than green...

Wonder is there an significance in that?

Guy on a different thread recommended not using PPPoE and using Automatic IP instead?

Would that be anything to do with it?

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659698#Comment_121659698

no idea on that, if you are getting full speed when wired i wouldnt worry about it,

ive always seen PPOE personally.

vidapura

WEll... I had the whole connection drop there in the middle of a Teams call.. so I have switched to Automatic now to see..

Its connecting.. the question is, for how long..

Glaceon

I was thinking earlier, Automatic/DHCP may only work on the OpenEir network, not sure.

vidapura

Jesus.. what a clusterf**k...

Had to go back to PPPoE.. and then the Zenwifi just stopped connecting to the internet altogether.. So I eventually tried a factory reset.. and got it workin again.

But THEN.. i wish I had known before I did that .. now I have to go back and re-connect every single smart light, telly, device and amazon echo in the house.. I'll be at this all night now.. sheesh.. Smart House my butt...

Ahh noo.. the dishwasher as well?? fergeddit..

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121661926#Comment_121661926

You shouldn't have to reconnect everything, change the SSID and password from the factory default to whatever you had before.

vidapura

Honest to god, I did actually do that.. but they all seem to think its a new SSID..

And all these silly lights etc have their own apps I have to go find again cos I set them up 3 years ago..

Ahh, I know its only Tuesday but I think its gtime for a beer..

I'm gonna try watch a movie .. if this thing drops the stream now I'll just cry...

smuggler.ie

panic/frustration usually does not help with tech, cursing does sometime gives satisfaction 😉

Have you established for sure that fault is on your equipment or is it still possibility that its on ISP side?

There remain unanswered question - does "drop" effect wired devices same time or wireless only?

If issue is related to WiFi only, be aware that most consumer units can support 32 connections simultaneously, and even if they state 64 i would take it with pinch of salt. As you started wording your "smart home" - how many WiFi devices we are talking? Only asking as official asus spec conveniently do not specify this number.

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121661964#Comment_121661964

"... I set them up 3 years ago.."

but you got Eir just before xmas and i gather it just worked by changing SSID and pass on Eir router to match the imagine settings. Or how was it?

Just in case, security level also need to match (WPA2 vs WPA3)

vidapura

Hi @smuggler.ie ,

Thanks for taking an interest in this.

Yeah, I had Imagine before Eir.. I had wifi turned off on the Imagine modem/router and had an ethernet cable from that to the Asus mesh. And in that configuration I never had a stream drop. (as long as there Imagine speeds were behaving, ie: no premership matches happening)

i don't really have that many wifi devices really.. its just a pain when they are all from different vendors requiring different apps to get them restored...

I have less than 20 devices using the wifi.

The 'drop' is only momentary.. basically I'd be on a Teams call or streaming a movie and next thing it drops the teams call or drops out of the movie.

It only seems to happen after an extended period of streaming.. like half an hour..

Personally I think its the NBI installation.. I had a look and the fiber cable has a very obvious kink in it. From what I remember from college, thats not a good thing for optical cables... There's no error light showing up during normal operation.. but I'll have to take a look the next time it drops.

I have had the same behaviour with the Eir router and my Asus router.. so maybe its simplistic thinking.. but the NBI install seems to be the common denominator.

smuggler.ie

Kink on fiber - if its damaged it would likely have constant effect, not 0.5h intervals or so, , however, i would have it replaced and it gives you ground for engineer call-out request

Still no clear answer to question: are the Ethernet connected devices effected by "drop" or WiFi only ? It is significant info to determine if fault potentially on ISP part or your LAN equipment.

If you get engineer and he determine that fiber-router-Etehrnet link is good, best you can expect is router replacement for WiFi part, if even that

If cable connection dropped too , leave WiFi for a time and resolve Ethernet/ISP.

Having more info will get you quicker through troubleshooting process if/when you call for support from ISP. Be aware that they wont support "third party" equipment, so dont even mention and be prepared to reconnect your Eir router before the call.

As far i know all LED's on ONT should be green in normal operational condition, however due to recent storm there were many sites left with crippled connections. Don't know if this relates to your amber light on Data indicator - ISP to answer, especially if it still remain on Eir router connected.

vidapura

Thanks again for the advice.

Sorry, I missed the Ethernet question. In fact I have nothing connected via Ethernet, everything is wifi.

The yellowdata light might have put me back on track.. last night I reverted back to using the Eir router .. and the Data light is green again.

I switched the Zenwifi to work in AP mode, with the same SSID, connected to the Eir router via ethernet. And I used a long cable to move the Eir box into a position where I could get reasonable speed at the TV downstairs.

Then just had the TV box and two laptops on the Eir routers wifi with the rest of the devices still on the Zenwifi mesh wifi.

Streaming last night on the TV seemed to work fine.. got through one episode of something.. but didn't have time for a movie.

So, you could be right.. it might just be the Zenwifi XT8 is a bit old and unable to cope. (bought in 2021..)

I'll let it run for a few days now and see how we go.. if thats the solution then I'll have to look at a newer mesh.