How to run two routers (one for internet + VPN & other for Land telephone) from a single Eir Fibre connection

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TestLink

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At the moment I am with VirginMedia, for which the VM hub is in bridge / modem mode. I then connected the VirginMedia hub to my AX wireless router. So my personal WiFi router gives DHCP leases to all devices in my home on which I have setup open vpn client, so all devices in my home are protected.

I am currently thinking about switching to Eir Gigabit fibre. In order for the Eir phone to work it has to be connected to the Eir router. But I want to continue using my personal AX WiFi router for VPN protection. The Eir ONT has only 1 Ethernet port. But I need 2 routers to work in my home, my own personal router for internet access for all devices in my home and the Eir router just for land line telephone. As far as I know the telephone cable has to be connected to the Eir router and not the Eir fibre ONT.

What is the best way to make the above work?

1. Would it work if I use a Ethernet splitter. The Ethernet cable from Eir modem connected to the splitter input and then from the output, one cable goes in to the eir router and the other one to my personal WiFi router.

2. The Ethernet cable from the Eir Fibre ONT goes in to a Gigabit switch. From the switch one cable goes into the eir router and the other one my Wifi router.

If I choose Eir Gigabit fibre connection, how to make 2 routers work from the single fibre connection to my home. I am not sure whether OpenEir will allow me to establish twin connection for single account.

Any advice regarding this.

Thanks...
 
Can you link to what you mean by "ethernet splitter" ? Don't think that will work.

Gigabit switch would work. However if the eir router has multiple ethernet ports, just use it as a switch and plug your WiFi router into it.

Whatever configuration you end up with, need to make sure both routers aren't answering DHCP requests on the same ethernet segment.
 
Please see the attached pic of Ethernet Splitter. One incoming connection which get splited into two.

I can disable DHCP on the eir router and give that job to my personal router. Then use only 1 port on the eir router and connect it to the personal wifi router. Would this would work?
 

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Some Eir routers can be tricky, but basically connect the second router (the one you call "personal) via an ethernet cable from one of the LAN ports (usually 4 LAN ports the same) on the Eir router into the WAN port (usually only one WAN port on each router) on the personal router. Set up the VPN on the personal router correctly and bob's your proverbial. To help you find the information you need, can you post more details of the Eir and AX router models?
 
TestLink said:
Please see the attached pic of Ethernet Splitter. One incoming connection which get splited into two.
Click to expand...

Thanks. You've attached a picture rather than linking, but I'm still pretty sure this won't work for your use case.

There are two types of these passive splitters. The first type are for sharing one cable run between two ethernet ports - this way half the pins go to each port. What you seem to have here is the second type, for sharing a port with two computers - but all pins go to both ports. Usually this means only one computer can use the port at a time (although if you're very lucky it might work as an unreliable ethernet hub). In any case, it's unlikely either type is rated for gigabit ethernet.

You'd need an active splitter for this to work well, which would effectively be a switch. But I've never seen one in this form factor.

I can disable DHCP on the eir router and give that job to my personal router. Then use only 1 port on the eir router and connect it to the personal wifi router. Would this would work?
Click to expand...

Yes, alternatively use the WAN port on your WiFi router, as Hooverfish suggests.
 
Hooverfish said:
Some Eir routers can be tricky, but basically connect the second router (the one you call "personal) via an ethernet cable from one of the LAN ports (usually 4 LAN ports the same) on the Eir router into the WAN port (usually only one WAN port on each router) on the personal router. Set up the VPN on the personal router correctly and bob's your proverbial. To help you find the information you need, can you post more details of the Eir and AX router models?
Click to expand...


1. From the Eir fibre modem (only 1 RJ45 port), make a connection to the Eir router wan port.

2. From the Lan port of the eir router, make a connection to the WAN port of my AX router.

Am I correct? Would the above setup work?

Do I need to disable dhcp on the eir router?
 
1 and 2 are correct. DHCP disabling probably. You may need to bridge the Eir router to prevent "double NATing" and all these things usually involve connecting your computer directly to the router by ethernet to one of the LAN ports temporarily and then browsing to the router's control page to change settings. Some Eir routers are tricky as I mentioned and we all know how wonderful their support is... I can't really give any more specific information without knowing the exact models and even then, I'm really only googling for you - I am a tech support person, but my area is assistive technology. To some extent, given how cheap an ethernet cable is, I'd just plug it in and see if it does what you want, if you aren't able to provide the router model information?
 
Many Thanks Hooverfish. The eir telephone is connected to the eir router. And if the eir router is in modem mode or Bridge mode, the telephone might not work. I tried to get info on this from eir pre-sales, but they told me to contact eir technical support. But when I call the number they provided it wont even connect to the eir tech support with out an eir account number or eir telephone number! So I have to find out some one with their eir router in modem mode to see if it works.
 
TestLink said:
Many Thanks Hooverfish. The eir telephone is connected to the eir router. And if the eir router is in modem mode or Bridge mode, the telephone might not work. I tried to get info on this from eir pre-sales, but they told me to contact eir technical support. But when I call the number they provided it wont even connect to the eir tech support with out an eir account number or eir telephone number! So I have to find out some one with their eir router in modem mode to see if it works.
Click to expand...
Just following up from your other thread as this is probably a better place to discuss your query ref. using the phone line and the modem in routing/bridge mode. I'll test what I can for you, two questions though -
1. Do you really need the Eir phone line? I didn't bother connecting mine, the only thing fixed phones seem to be useful these days are receiving scam and sales calls?
2. You mention using the VPN for 'protection', might be worth taking another look at what you are protecting from, how necessary that is and thus whether what you are trying to do is over complicating matters for you? As somebody working in IT and infosec the only value I see in these consumer VPN solutions is to pretend you're coming from a different country to access geo-locked content (Channel4, BBC, NetFlix etc.). Protection wise the value is very questionable.

Notwithstanding that, let me know if you want some photos or info from the modem admin console and I'll take a gander.
 
Zenith63 said:
Do you really need the Eir phone line? I didn't bother connecting mine, the only thing fixed phones seem to be useful these days are receiving scam and sales calls?
Click to expand...
1. 10 euro per month Eir phone line allows you to make UNLIMITED calls to ALL land lines and ALL mobiles in ALL countries except Nigeria. So I think it is worth keeping.
2. Currently I am connecting my VirginMedia landline to the VirginMedia hub operating in Modem / Bridge mode. So I am using my own router for internet connectivity. I prefer to keep in that way, if possible.
 
Fair enough, maybe I'm just too used to an all-you-can-eat company mobile :).

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question about whether the phone will continue to work with the Eir device in modem/bridge mode. However what should work is to leave the Eir equipment configured in normal routing mode, but sit your own router behind it also acting as a router. You will be double-NATing but unless you're doing something quite specific (eg. forwarding ports from the Internet to internal devices), this will generally not impact usage and your VPN will likely mask all of this anyway.

So you would have -
Code: 
Internet via fibre termination equipment
|
|
WAN port (public IP address)
[Eir router]
LAN port (default private IP address like 192.168.1.254)
|
|
WAN port (IP address in same subnet as Eir LAN port, eg. 192.168.1.253.  Default gateway set to 192.168.1.254)
[TestLink's personal router]
LAN port (private IP address in separate subnet to above, eg 192.168.0.254)
|
|
TestLink's internal network (devices should have 192.168.0.x IPs and default gateway 192.168.0.254)
 
Last edited:
Many Thanks Zenith63. Can you please confirm?

Connection:
Eir Fibre ONT -> WAN Port of Eir Router
LAN port of Eir Router -> WAN port of my personal Router
LAN port of my personal Router -> Devices in my house via Wireless or Wired connection.

Settings:
Put both devices on the same class C ip range
Put the default gateway of my personal router to one of the static ip on the Eir router.

Do I need to disable DHCP & Wireless on the Eir router?
 
TestLink said:
Many Thanks Zenith63. Can you please confirm?

Connection:
Eir Fibre ONT -> WAN Port of Eir Router
LAN port of Eir Router -> WAN port of my personal Router
LAN port of my personal Router -> Devices in my house via Wireless or Wired connection.

Settings:
Put both devices on the same class C ip range
Put the default gateway of my personal router to one of the static ip on the Eir router.

Do I need to disable DHCP & Wireless on the Eir router?
Click to expand...
The connections are right yep.

On the settings side though, just to clarify they're not all on the same class C subnet. You've got one subnet which is just shared by the LAN interface of the Eir router and the WAN interface of your router, I'd suggest 192.168.1.x just because that's the default the Eir router will come with so minimises changes to it. You then have a different class C subnet that your internal devices sit on (can be anything, but 192.168.0.x is my example).

You can disable DHCP and wireless on the Eir router yes, and the firewall as well if this is an option. NAT must remain on.

For the craic you could do this same setup with your Virgin Media connection just to prove that it will work for you. Just backup the config on your own router so you can wipe it and put it back if it all goes pear-shaped.
 
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