Problem with Zyxel Router or connection (Eircom)

johnwoods · 12-05-2011 11:51am

I have that piece of **** zyxel router, so I feel your pain.

It's muck. Plus it's made out of such cheap materials it feels like a fischer price toy.

I have solved my problems with it by putting it in bridge mode, this turns it from a layer 3 router into a bridge connecting layer 2 components.

It basically dumbs down the router so literally all it's doing is demodulating the incoming data.

Thus by dumbing it down it no longer causes NAT table issues, wireless issues, port forwarding issues and just sits there leaving all that to a competent device, in my case an Apple Airport which has nice fast dual band 300Mbps wireless and excellent NATting and Port utilities.

I used to have problems when I was playing online just using the Zyxel before I bought my current Router.

It happend whenever I was playing CounterStrike / Xbox, for example i'd be refreshing a server list in CS and after a couple of seconds the internet connection would just timeout, it took me a while to figure out but as an earlier poster said, the NAT table on the Zyxel routers is by default INCREDIBLY small. (by default 256)

take this point: The Zyxel router can only support a maximum of 256 NAT connections. When all 256 entries of the NAT table are in use, no more new connections can be established. TCP sessions that are not properly closed occupy a NAT table entry for up to 270 seconds. A program that opens and closes many TCP connections within a short time uses up all of the 256 NAT table entries and blocks the router for new connections.

Thus you end up with a timeout and internet down for 270 seconds until the NAT table clears.

Basically if you play online gaming buy a decent router and put the POS Zyxel in bridge mode OR use the Zyxel and increase the NAT table to 2048 max simultaneous connections.

Which is still too low but theres nothing you can do about that.

and to put it in perspective when you refresh a list of games on PC or Xbox or whatever... each entry listing a game IS a new NAT connection thus if you refresh after 256 different servers are listed your connection is toast.

trev44 · 13-05-2011 4:17pm

you've got to feel sorry for all the average punters who must also have these issues but think its their fault.

guil · 14-05-2011 11:19am

nearly sure i posted it in this thread but a few months ago i bought a netgear dgn1000 for 70 euro in pc world, since then i havent had a disconnect and have never reset the router

cork_south · 20-05-2011 6:01pm

I bought a netopia off eBay, delivered for €12!
I have been using it for the last few hours and have not had 1 single disconnect. Bliss!
I just wish I did it sooner!

confuseddotcom · 24-05-2011 5:16am

Currently have tooth-ache hence why I'm messing about on the internet at this time lol! But anyways for last 3 days, laptop has been constantly disconnecting every few minutes, it's really annoying. Over-bearing has just raised the bar and kicked-ass on tolerating now at this stage, it's gone beyond tolerable, it's just too much lol! Think will have to see about getting new Router if possible.

Changing the Re-auth Settings don't seem to be working now anymore for some unknown reason lol. It was going pretty good there for last while with those Timer Settings amended. But now, when I put in 9999, it just keeps saying I have to put in 10+. I don't know what the 10 is, is that seconds .....

Plus have noticed, the standard white page with the 1 sentence or so Internet Explore Cannot connect to this, seems to be now giving me a message something about mis-configured firewall or proxy server .... :eek: Telling me to go to Wrench Menu and change Proxy Settings. Bit clueless here. What is a proxy to start with?!? Am I supposed to have a Proxy?! If not I must have selected it by accident .....

Richard Dower · 01-06-2011 2:01am

jonski wrote: »

I fixed my problems with the Zyxel modem ........................ I bought a Netgear DG834PN on Adverts for €30 and haven't had a problem since .

Glad that modem is working out for you Jonski....

radve · 06-06-2011 5:32pm

Hi all

I bought Netgear dgn1000 to replace my xyzel and it works usually just fine, but my connection "jams" pretty often for a 3 minutes or so and then it works fine again. I have Avast Antivirus and Windows firewall but I dont think the problem is on my computer ( I had disconnect issues when i used xyzel)

Any Ideas what could be wrong or how could I start researching possible problems?

lucernarian · 07-06-2011 10:34am

radve wrote: »

Hi all

I bought Netgear dgn1000 to replace my xyzel and it works usually just fine, but my connection "jams" pretty often for a 3 minutes or so and then it works fine again. I have Avast Antivirus and Windows firewall but I dont think the problem is on my computer ( I had disconnect issues when i used xyzel)

Any Ideas what could be wrong or how could I start researching possible problems?

What are the DSL line "statistics"? (there will be terms like signal margin and attenuation) Post them here.

radve · 07-06-2011 10:47am

Hi!

I have them here:

Connection Speed 15041 Kbps 765 Kbps
Line Attenuation 32.9 dB 20.0 dB
Noise Margin 5.7 dB 20.0 dB

lucernarian · 07-06-2011 11:10am

There's a chance the line is having issues with disconnects. It's not quite able to connect at the 15mb level. (15 mbps is actually 15360 kbps.)

Unless you can find some way to improve the internal wiring in your house and disconnect unnecessary extension wires and sockets etc., you *may* find the internet will work better if you tell eircom to reduce the speed down a notch. That would means they drop it to 12 mb. For some reason they only offer certain limits which aren't flexible. So they won't put a 14mb limit on your line unfortunately. But all it might take is an old forgotten extension wire which could be removed and this would give you a more reliable connection. Sky boxes are also a pain, people often forget to put filters on them too. And phone alarms sometimes are installed without considering the broadband connection and they can cause big speed and reliability problems.

But I'm not sure if DSL disconnections are the problem anyway. When the internet stops responding for 3 minutes, do the lights on the modem indicate a problem? Can you check the router's page when one of these interruptions happen and see if the DSL connection is still working?

Scruff · 07-06-2011 2:20pm

been having cronic problems with my older Zyxel 660HW-61 lately. As soon as more people go online on the evenings and weekends my router basically gives up and cant sync at all. Max SNR i've seen is when its connected is 6db.
Have just got a loan of another router to double check my line but its a Zyxel as well. Slightly newer but so not holding out much hope

Scruff · 07-06-2011 9:17pm

borrowed eircom zyxel 660dw-t1-v3 router seems better so far...at least i can connect to the internet now.

i've tried updating to the latest fimware for it but it wont accept it...
http://www.zyxel.com/web/support_download_list.php?indexflag=20040906164737&ModelIndexflags=0,420041221102511,420041221102520,420050117110858,420050117110916,420050117110934,420050831093216,420050831095441,420060420160946,420060420161739,420060816160116,420080815092146,420090427144843#

IvySlayer · 25-06-2011 11:24pm

Got a new router in the post from zyxel. Was excited

I replaced it with my Netopia one..big mistake. Constant connection interruptions. Switched back my old Netopia, no problems.

P38Man · 08-07-2011 3:12pm

My ancient Netopia router bit the dust and Eircom sent me a Zyxel P-66oHW-T1 v3. Managed to connect to the internet with my devices - desktop PC, MacBookPro; iPOD, iPhone, etc. But then noticed that I can no longer use my Apple TV as it can't see my iTunes libraries on either the PC or the Mac; I can no longer access shared folders on either the PC or the Mac; and I can no longer print wirelessly to my printer from either the PC or the Mac. I cannot even see the other devices on the network!

My initial thought was that I had somehow screwed up the network in the house but I made no changes to anything other than replacing the broken modem with the Zyxel.

Eircom broadband support were as expected: not concerned coz I could access the internet. They suggested I call someone who knows IT and could help me, or talk to someone in a computer shop, or just buy another modem!

Has anyone else had this problem with internal network communications / visibility. It must be down to some settings on the Zyxel but while not a noob when it comes to PCs I cannot figure out the complex settings on the modem.

Help!

thefinalstage · 08-07-2011 3:51pm

P38Man wrote: »

My ancient Netopia router bit the dust and Eircom sent me a Zyxel P-66oHW-T1 v3. Managed to connect to the internet with my devices - desktop PC, MacBookPro; iPOD, iPhone, etc. But then noticed that I can no longer use my Apple TV as it can't see my iTunes libraries on either the PC or the Mac; I can no longer access shared folders on either the PC or the Mac; and I can no longer print wirelessly to my printer from either the PC or the Mac. I cannot even see the other devices on the network!

My initial thought was that I had somehow screwed up the network in the house but I made no changes to anything other than replacing the broken modem with the Zyxel.

Eircom broadband support were as expected: not concerned coz I could access the internet. They suggested I call someone who knows IT and could help me, or talk to someone in a computer shop, or just buy another modem!

Has anyone else had this problem with internal network communications / visibility. It must be down to some settings on the Zyxel but while not a noob when it comes to PCs I cannot figure out the complex settings on the modem.

Help!

There is a patch floating around for just that issue.

P38Man · 08-07-2011 4:54pm

Any idea where the patch might be located?

cork_south · 08-07-2011 5:38pm

P38Man wrote: »

My ancient Netopia router bit the dust and Eircom sent me a Zyxel P-66oHW-T1 v3. Managed to connect to the internet with my devices - desktop PC, MacBookPro; iPOD, iPhone, etc. But then noticed that I can no longer use my Apple TV as it can't see my iTunes libraries on either the PC or the Mac; I can no longer access shared folders on either the PC or the Mac; and I can no longer print wirelessly to my printer from either the PC or the Mac. I cannot even see the other devices on the network!

My initial thought was that I had somehow screwed up the network in the house but I made no changes to anything other than replacing the broken modem with the Zyxel.

Eircom broadband support were as expected: not concerned coz I could access the internet. They suggested I call someone who knows IT and could help me, or talk to someone in a computer shop, or just buy another modem!

Has anyone else had this problem with internal network communications / visibility. It must be down to some settings on the Zyxel but while not a noob when it comes to PCs I cannot figure out the complex settings on the modem.

Help!

Do yourself a favour and buy a netopia off eBay as soon as possible.
Trust me, I went thru 2 zyxels and 6 months of connection drops before I paid 12 yoyos for a 2nd hand netopia on eBay. Havnt looked back since.

P38Man · 09-07-2011 11:03pm

I found a solution - bought myself an Apple Express, disabled wiFi on the Zyxel, connected the Apple Express to the Zyxel & used the Apple Express for the wireless network. All working fine now.

Moral of the story is do not take a Zyxel modem from eircom if you have more than one device on your home network and you need to communicate with them.

Gerb68 · 10-07-2011 12:53am

The Zyxel P-66oHW-T1 v3. Eircoms answer to Sinclair C5 and the Electronic voting machine.

This can be used to test your line speeds:
ADSL and ADSL2+ Line Capability Estimator - http://www2.farina1.com/adsl/

Can anyone tell me any info about these stats:

Speed: 10240 kbps /670 kbps
Line Attenuation (Down/Up): 38 dB /19 dB
DSL Noise Margin: 6 dB /17 dB

Is my SNR margin 11 dB?

Thanx for any reply.

Wolvie · 25-07-2011 3:55pm

Hi, I just recieved my Zyxel P-66oHW-T1 v3 last thursday and have been getting intermittent dsl reset during use altho my speed seems to be good
https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/468185/168349.png
after contacting eircom and feeling like a ball in a pinball machine with all the department switching it seems my NGB 24mb line can now only handle 4mb speeds that as yet they are unaware of should i just try a diffrent router?

deelite · 18-09-2011 4:26pm

Don't know whether this is the right forum to be posting this but any help at all would be appreciated. I have wireless in my house (xbox and laptops are all working working great). My computer upstairs has a built in modem so we were advised by Eircom to get the Zyxel adapter which has been installed. I still can't get connected to the internet. I've been on the phone to eircom (nearly an hour) and they think there might be a problem with the actual adapter. Any ideas? Thanx in advance.

PC upstairs does have a built in modem!!!!

dub45 · 18-09-2011 4:42pm

deelite wrote: »

Don't know whether this is the right forum to be posting this but any help at all would be appreciated. I have wireless in my house (xbox and laptops are all working working great). My computer upstairs doesn't have a built in modem so we were advised by Eircom to get the Zyxel adapter which has been installed. I still can't get connected to the internet. I've been on the phone to eircom (nearly an hour) and they think there might be a problem with the actual adapter. Any ideas? Thanx in advance.

Is the pc picking up the wireless network at all?

deelite · 19-09-2011 6:55am

dub45 wrote: »

Is the pc picking up the wireless network at all?

Yes it is (I posted I didn't have a built in modem ooops). I get to wireless network and it shows 2 or 3 of them - my one is there and it has "full bars" so I double click on it and it says put in your network key (I put in the WPA one) - then it goes back to ask me to chose a network and put in the WPA key all over again.

confuseddotcom · 19-09-2011 12:09pm

Haven't posted around these parts in a while, fortunately no need to at the moment; - still get time-outs but on an irregular basis thankfully and they are manageable, so I won't complain.

Just one thing to crib about lol, if this particular Thread (I stand corrected if I'm wrong!) But if this particular Thread was pretty much designated to situations and circumstances where time-outs and re-connections occur, can we not keep it to that. And open up another Thread for box installation help etc. or hardware type things. (I reckon it'll get flooded with replies looking for installation help and kind of get lost/forgotten/hidden in the pile, and whilst these annoying Time-outs may be random/rare occurrences for some, it's nice to have the Thread to look back on for help/ideas for what to do, but may be hard to find if it gets mixed up with other things.)

craze7 · 20-09-2011 5:05pm

Not sure if this is the right place for this but I'm with Eircom broadband and for more than a year now my internet has been temperamental meaning it keeps disconnecting every 10 minutes. I talked to Eircom about it and they sent a guy out but he didn't even do anything, well as far as I know! They said it might be a switch board problem or something but that was about 3 months ago and the problem is still the same. Its almost impossible to finish a game of Call Of Duty on line anymore.

Anyway i recently started reading some stuff on here about noise and crc errors and such but I have no clue what the mean but I turned my router (Netopia 3347NWG) on this morning at 12 o clock and here are the DSL stats:

Line State Up
Modulation DMT
Data Path Interleave

Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 6144 512
SN Margin (dB) 16.00 11.50
Line Attenuation (dB) 26.00 14.00
CRC Errors 17016 616

That's alot of errors!

Does anybody know what could be causing this?

trev44 · 22-09-2011 9:16am

craze7 wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right place for this but I'm with Eircom broadband and for more than a year now my internet has been temperamental meaning it keeps disconnecting every 10 minutes. I talked to Eircom about it and they sent a guy out but he didn't even do anything, well as far as I know! They said it might be a switch board problem or something but that was about 3 months ago and the problem is still the same. Its almost impossible to finish a game of Call Of Duty on line anymore.

Anyway i recently started reading some stuff on here about noise and crc errors and such but I have no clue what the mean but I turned my router (Netopia 3347NWG) on this morning at 12 o clock and here are the DSL stats:

Line State Up
Modulation DMT
Data Path Interleave

Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 6144 512
SN Margin (dB) 16.00 11.50
Line Attenuation (dB) 26.00 14.00
CRC Errors 17016 616

That's alot of errors!

Does anybody know what could be causing this?

very likely its the crappy zyxel modem. get an old one from adverts.ie or ebay for 20/30 and most problems are solved.

dub45 · 22-09-2011 10:11am

deelite wrote: »

Yes it is (I posted I didn't have a built in modem ooops). I get to wireless network and it shows 2 or 3 of them - my one is there and it has "full bars" so I double click on it and it says put in your network key (I put in the WPA one) - then it goes back to ask me to chose a network and put in the WPA key all over again.

Try turning off the security (temporarily) and see if you can access the network.

trev44 · 22-09-2011 4:50pm

Eircom called today to ask how i was finding their service... i referred her to this thread..

metalgear2k2 · 05-10-2011 2:27pm

I just changed up to 24mb broadband with Eircom and they said they are sending out a new modem for the higher speed broadband, ( I was on 7mb, and they sent the pice of sh1t Zyxel modem which I changed for a motorola unit and that has been working perfect since)

I was wondering what kind of modem is it that they are sending out, has anyone got one, have they had any issues etc?

thefinalstage · 05-10-2011 5:49pm

metalgear2k2 wrote: »

I just changed up to 24mb broadband with Eircom and they said they are sending out a new modem for the higher speed broadband, ( I was on 7mb, and they sent the pice of sh1t Zyxel modem which I changed for a motorola unit and that has been working perfect since)

I was wondering what kind of modem is it that they are sending out, has anyone got one, have they had any issues etc?

They send the Zyxel out. That's the standard.

Problem with Zyxel Router or connection (Eircom)

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