Groupnet Home
Please note that Groupnet Communications are not responsible for your wireless router as we do not supply wireless routers.

If you already have one then it is your own personal equipment which you bought either from a shop or you bought it directly from the installer.
If you are having issues with it you should contact whoever you bought it from.

Some FREE advice from Groupnet Communications about wireless routers.
Wireless routers are great in that they allow you to use Groupnet broadband on several devices around your home without any wires.
Thats the good side but unfortunately they can cause many problems. That is why we decided to offer you some free help here.

What kind of wireless router do I need ?
You must get a NETWORK router.
You are quite likely to be offered a DSL router. This will not work as its only got a telephone connector on the WAN PORT.
Also get one with N type wireless as this gives better speed and gets through about three walls if your lucky.

How do I set it up ?
Take the cable from your computer and plug it into the WAN port (It may be marked as INTERNET).
You can usually identify it as there are five ports. Four of them will be identical and are LAN ports and the one different one is the one you need.
We recommend if you have a Desktop computer it should be conneced to one of the four LAN ports directly by cable which is usually supplied.
Power it up, give it two minutes to boot up and you should have internet.

What to do if it doesn't work ?
You may need a fixed IP on your router.
Check if your computers LAN port has a fixed IP. If it has note all details of IP, Mask, Gateway and DNS.
Change it to OBTAIN AUTOMATICALLY.
Log into the Router.
To do this start Internet Explorer and in the address bar type http:// followed immediately by the IP of your router. Press Return.
(check your booklet. but it is often 192.168.2.1 so you put http://192.168.2.1 in the address bar where you usually see http://www.google.ie)
Now you should get your router log in page.
Type user name and password (check the booklet again. Usually Admin and 1234 or admin again)
Change the WAN type to FIXED or STATIC and put in the details you took down from your computers LAN in it.
(how exactly to do this varies from one router to another but the booklet should tell you)
It should work now.

If your routers ip is 192.168.1.1
This ip is reserved and must be changed. We recommend changing it to 192.168.2.1.
To change its ip, start Internet Explorer and in the address bar type http://192.168.1.1 . Press Return.
Log in as above and go to the network or lan settings (see your own book for exact details) and change it to 192.168.2.1.

Note about Router Wireless Channels
In some cases the channel used by your wireless router may be interfering whith your broadband reception.
This will result in slow broadband speeds.
You can go to the wireless settings in your router and experiment by going to the lowest, highest or mid channel to see which gives best results.

Security
The most threat from having an unsecured router is that someone else may connect and drain your bandwidth away leaving your connection slow.
Contrary to belief there is very little likelyhood that anyone could access your computer or look at what information you are sending or receiving.
We recommend WPA2 security as it gives good security and is simple to enable in the wireless section of your router.

If I make a mess of it and get locked out of my router
You can always put everything back to how you got it by pressing the reset button for five seconds.
Its outside on the back of some and others have it inside a little hole so you need a straightened paper clip or straight pin to get at it.

Last but not least.
Do make sure that you are close enough to pick up a good signal.
And do make sure you don't have the wireless turned off on your laptop.
You would be surprised how often this catches people out.
To switch it on there is usually a symbol of a mast or dish on the wireless switch which may be along the edge and sometimes along the top of the keyboard of the laptop.
Alternatively it will be a combination of two keyboard buttons usually the FUNCTION button and one of the F buttons along the top of the keyboard (often with the mast or dish symbol blue) Check your laptop handbook for details.

We hope the above guide is a help to you and if you think it can be improved drop us an email with your suggestion.