Seimens Gigaset SE587 4 port Wireless Router - Does it work?

Have you tried powering everything down? Modem, router, Mac. And then power up in sequence; modem, router, Mac, waiting one minute between each. Check System Preferences>Network>Show Ethernet>TCP/IP. Is the router supplying you with an IP address?

hmm, well the settings seem right enough - the more specific ones are presumably greyed-out, being pre-set by Tiscali in the router software?

a google shows some users having issues with setting up that router using Safari - you've tried another browser- Firefox say?

I also read of some people claiming that a conflict between their previous usb modem was the problem; sounds a bit unlikely, but who knows?.

your username is being entered as you@tiscali.co.uk ?





you've seen the user manual link here ?


the Tiscali moderators here seem helpful...

what was the outcome of this?

I have just been trying to set up one of these modems for someone with exactly the same result

have you tried another router/modem onto the tiscali account?

I am currently minded to say the SE587 is faulty.

When talking to the help line at tiscali they cut me of when we got to 'the adsl light is on but the online light is off' having spent ages going through the simple stuff like can I read, which they obviously couldn't.

I do not think that it is an Apple issue although early Safari will not set up this router (panther OSX vintage Safari that will not allow the router to save settings). I used internet explorer for mac as the web browser for this part of the process.

like I said I don't think this is an apple issue for following reasons,

1) you state same problem with Windows

2) the imac I was using talks to the router fine. Safari couldn't find the 'save settings' page, but this was doing something a bit special so it doesn't surprise me that safari doesn't like it. I have had a similar problem with a D-link router that is not fully safari compatible during set up, but works fine once configuration is complete. In fact this message is coming via that D-link.

3) The lights on the SE587 point to a problem between the router and the tiscali server, as though their server is not set up right such that the router sees carrier on the line but is unable to log into the server. This could equally be a problem with the router. Tiscali should be able to easily state weather the router has logged into the server, but even this simple bit of information seams difficult to get out of them. The fact that your Tiscali connection works through your modem but not through the router points to the router not the server.

4) The SE587 manual claims to be MAC compatible.

A high or significant number of defective routers doesn't surprise me. A dodgy batch of components will ensure the same fault on many units.

I am unable to try the router with safari 3.04 at present, as the router in question isn't mine, I was setting it up for a friend. I will take the lap top next time and try it with Leopard, just out of interest, but I do not believe that this will make the router work.

Hi Doverrog,
Right, well I recently got Tiscali at home and they sent me the same router. I got it set up on my Mac fairly easily and the network is shared with PCs (though I did the set up on the Mac).
I'm pretty sure I got a generic set up sheet as well as the CD which described how to set up the router using a browser. Anyway, I've done it a few times before so it didn't take me long to get it all set up. Looking at the email that Tiscali sent you (as you put in your first post), it seems they gave you the wrong info. Not surprising, unfortunately.

Log in to the router, as they described (use browser, enter http://192.168.1.1 and use the username and password admin and admin (if you haven't changed these already - but really it's one of the first things you should do) ).

Once logged in, in the top line of links click on Setup. This will take you to the basic set up page for the internet.

In the main frame where all the settings are, at the top is "Use" - as they said, it should be set to "Tiscali - data PPPoA".

Below that is PVC Selection. This should be set to "Tiscali data IPoEoA", not PPPoA as they said. On my router, the rest of that page is then greyed out.

Using this method, I haven't had to enter my account details either - but I'm connected, so it seems to work!
I suggest you give it a try and see whether that helps.

Regarding the lights; the router is downstairs, I'm upstairs so I can't check for sure now (and have only had the thing a week so don't know from memory) but we're connected and the thing is lit up like a Christmas tree, so you should have some lights on on the box as well.

For what it's worth, I've had a fair few different problems with the router and have had enough already. I'm digging my 3 year old Linksys out this week as, in spite of its age (and thus unreliability) I feel it's still a better box than this Siemens...



Edit: By the way, I can access and modify the router via Safari as well (just double checked, though I normally use Firefox) so it's definitely not an Apple issue.

Message was edited by: MonkeyMax

hello again

some progress,

I've just got in between trying to set up my friends SE587 and going to work, so this will only be a quick message.

I have had the SE587 working, and have consequently broken it again, but I am fairly confident I now know the problem.

Tiscali configure their system such that when you get a new account you get a username and password that are the same for logging in your computer to the internet (Tiscali server) and for your email. This is the information stored in the configuration set up of your SE587.

As the default password isn't very secure you will obviously want to change this. When you change the email password from the Tiscali web site it gives you some further instruction along the lines of 'you must now change your computer password (without telling you which password they mean) and that you must do it from your own machine' There is also a link, which i think if on a PC relaunches the Tiscali installer, which of course doesn't work on a MAC.

Anyway this is what I think happened / happens:

Friend had changed password on email only prior to my first attempt at set up from their works PC.

After the first failure last week, we changed their email password back to the default as supplied by Tiscali.

Upon attempt today, as soon as router was powered up it logged into tiscali server and gave a green online light, which was exactly what we could not get to happen last week.

Mac immediately happily attached to internet and every thing was fine, throughout power downs / ups, rebooting router etc.

We then decided to change email password back to a more secure one. Did this through Tiscali website as before. Did NOT carry out the further changes which Tiscali say you must do as I wanted to see if we could reproduce problem. Internet connection was maintained until we broke the connection by rebooting the router. Router came back as last week saying ONLINE in set up but the green online LED is now out and of course does not work.

Once in this situation, you need a second internet connection to log back into the Tiscali web site to change the password back, again!

Anyway, conclusion at present seams to be that for the SE587 to work correctly you must be using the same password for your email and for the internet connection.

As I said, off to work now, but I will update when I have investigated further.