WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE JRS ROUTERS?

Our Eco-wifi routers are compatible with any provider and Internet modem. You simply connect the Eco-wifi to your existing Internet modem with the included network cable, using the standard LAN connection that is available on every Internet modem.

You need to retain your Internet modem because it provides the conversion of the Internet signal to ADSL, cable or fiber, the specifics of which depend on your Internet provider.

If your Internet modem has built-in wifi, this needs to turned off in order to minimise wifi radiation. On some modems you can simply turn off the wifi with a switch on your modem, or login to a settings menu. If you don’t know how, call your provider’s customer service and ask them for help. Some modems of Internet providers also transmit a public wifi network which also needs to be switched off.

An ordinary wifi router broadcasts beacon signals 24 hours a day, 10 times a second. This generates a considerable amount of radiation in the home, clearly measurable. The unique JRS^® Eco 100 Wifi-router automatically switches to Full Eco stand-by mode, reducing radiation to zero, when you turn off wifi on your computer and phone. When you reconnect to the wifi, the JRS Eco 100 router automatically switches the signal on again.

What makes these Asus^® routers special is the JRS Eco firmware that runs on them. The first generation of JRS Eco-wifi routers already significantly reduced the amount of electrosmog by reducing the pulse frequency of the beacon signals by a factor of 10. The JRS Eco 100 technology takes it one step further.

When you install the JRS Eco 100 router, it first goes into learning mode, allowing you to easily connect all your wifi devices. The router automatically keeps a list of the devices that have been connected to it. After all your devices are listed, the router automatically switches to Full Eco mode, in which it is completely radiation-free when no wifi devices are connected.

When one of the devices in the list sends a connection request, the JRS Eco 100 router immediately switches wifi on again. This means that it only switches on for devices that are yours. Your wireless device sends such a connection request when you turn on the wifi or open the list of available wifi networks. This happens automatically and you won’t notice any difference with a regular wifi router.

The globally unique JRS Eco 100 technology is compatible with all brands and models of wireless devices: Android^®, Apple^®, Windows^® and others. You don’t lose any wifi speed, range or stability. The JRS Eco 100 also offers a reduced pulse frequency, just like the previous generation JRS Eco wifi, even during use.

Can I accomplish the same by adjusting the settings in an ordinary router?

The JRS Eco 100 functionality, which automatically turns off the wifi signal completely in stand-by, is unique to the JRS Eco 100 operating system and is not available on ordinary routers.

People sometimes think that by setting a “Hidden SSID” on a regular wifi router, they reduce radiation. This is a misconception. With a ‘packet sniffer’ program like Wireshark you can determine that the router is still transmitting beacon packets, only the so-called ‘SSID’ field in these packets is set to zero. It doesn’t reduce radiation from the router in any way.

What about other settings? Often you can’t adjust the transmitting power in ordinary routers or only in rough steps. The JRS Eco 100 firmware offers fine tuning of the transmission power with a step size of 1 milliwatt, which is not available in the regular Asus^® firmware.

To what extent does an Eco router reduce my exposure to wifi radiation?

Wifi is two-way traffic. Although the Eco router greatly reduces the radiation of your router during stand-by and partly during operation, it does not reduce the radiation of your wireless devices. For each piece of data sent from the wifi router, a confirmation is sent back by your device. Wifi radiation from the devices is very strong and you keep the device very close to your body. Especially in data-intensive applications such as video, a lot of wifi radiation is emitted. By working with a wired Internet connection, you can minimise your exposure to electromagnetic radiation.

The JRS Eco routers have the same range as ordinary wifi routers. Our models have external antennas. How much range you achieve in practice depends on the building materials used in your home. For example, reinforced concrete attenuates the signal more than wood. There is no difference in range between the models.

Doesn’t the 90% reduction in the pulse rate of the Eco-wifi router cause my wireless devices to increase their transmitting power so that there is an unintended increase in radiation? Similar to how a mobile phone transmits at higher power when the range is poor? In other words, don’t the receiving devices have to ‘work harder’ to maintain the connection, potentially increasing EMFs locally?

No. There is no power control in the 2.4 Gigahertz wifi standard. The transmitting power of wifi clients is fixed and does not depend on the received signal strength. The default setting on all wifi devices is almost always 100% (max. power). Therefore the devices unfortunately always emit wifi radiation at full power, the same as when connected to a non-Eco router. Measurements even show that wifi is the strongest source of electrosmog in modern smartphones. For some devices with wifi, especially Windows clients with an Intel wifi adapter, it is possible to reduce the transmitting power in Device Manager, but this is also a fixed setting.

The second part of the answer is that the 90% reduced pulse rate of the Eco router does not reduce the transmitted peak power, although the average power is lower. The peak power determines the range of the router, and therefore the signal strength that your wifi devices ‘see’. Only when you reduce the transmitting power of the Eco-router via the settings menu, will the range and received signal strength be reduced, but your wifi devices will still not change their transmitting power, as described above.

Easy installation. The Eco-WiFi router is connected to your internet modem using a standard network cable (included). If your internet modem has built-in Wifi, switch off its Wifi function. You may ask your internet provider’s customer service how. All functions of your existing internet modem, like for example internet telephony, can still be used.

The exposure to EM radiation from the laptop or other wirelessly connected equipment remains unchanged. Set your smartphone to switch its wifi off in stand-by mode. In some cases you can reduce the transmit power of your computer’s WiFi adapter using the Device Manager in Windows. A wired internet connection is radiation-free and minimizes health risk.

No. Download speed, connection quality and range are the same as for ordinary wifi routers.

The real speed measured with speedtest.net for the JRS Eco 100 D1 and D2 models is 400+ Mb/s. These are real measured throughput speeds, not theoretical values like ‘AC1900’.

The speed is the same as with the stock Asus firmware.

Yes, the Eco-wifi offers a programmable wifi on/off scheduling option. You can set the wifi to automatically turn off completely for example at night times.

You may override this by pushing the wifi on-/off- button. The router will resume the program as soon as it is time to execute the next rule.

You need to retain your Internet modem because it provides the conversion of the Internet signal to ADSL, cable or fiber, the specifics of which depend on your Internet provider. If your Internet modem has built-in wifi, this needs to turned off in order to minimize wifi radiation. You don’t need that wifi signal anymore because the wifi function is taken over by the Eco-wifi router.

On some Internet modems you can simply turn off the wifi with a switch on your modem, or login to a settings menu. We regularly receive questions about how to do this. Please understand that we cannot support all the different providers and modems. This is outside of our scope of influence. However remember that turning off the built-in wifi is always possible. If you don’t know how, ask your provider’s customer service to help you. Alternatively you may search for a do-it-yourself manual on the Internet by typing the provider name and the make and model of your Internet modem. Usually the built-in wifi can be turned off in the settings menu of your Internet modem, which can be reached through a web browser by typing in the correct address, an IP number.

If your Internet provider also operates a public wifi network through its Internet modems, please make sure to also turn this public wifi network off. In some cases you need to do this on a separate web page of the Internet provider with a personal login. You can check if your modem is not emitting any wifi anymore by holding your smartphone next to it and scanning for wifi networks. Make sure there is no strong wifi network on top of the list with the name of the public network.

There are a number of important differences:

• The Eco-wifi reduces the wifi pulse frequency down from 10 to 1 pulse per second.
• A router guard degrades the receive sensitivity of the wifi router because it also attenuates the received signal.
• The Eco-wifi offers a fine adjustment of the range with a 1 milliwatt step size, so you can achieve up to 95% reduction in transmit power.

First of all, we would certainly recommend hardwiring the whole house with Ethernet cables as this will minimize your radiation exposure. Wifi is two-way traffic and your iPad, smart phone and other wireless devices still emit the same amount of radiation.

How many routers you would need really depends on the building materials. For example, reinforced concrete walls and ceilings attenuate the wifi signal strongly while the signal will pass through wood virtually unattenuated.

The best advice is to place a number of Eco-wifi routers in enough locations in your house to provide optimal coverage, and hardwire the LAN connections from your Internet modem to each of them. Alternatively you may daisy-chain them by pulling a wire from one Eco-wifi router to another.

If you have existing coaxial TV cabling in your house a network adapters may be a good solution so that you don’t need to pull LAN cables. The way these work is that you place a 2nd Eco-wifi router in the room where you want to have additional wifi coverage, then connect that router to the Hirschmann MA32 adapter, and connect the Hirschmann MA32 to the TV coax outlet available in that room. Then you connect your Internet modem to the 2nd Hirschmann MA32 adapter, and connect that Hirschmann MA32 to the TV coax cable/outlet near the Internet modem. In this way the coax connection replaces the Ethernet LAN cable you would otherwise need to pull from the Internet modem to the 2nd Eco-wifi router.

Another solution exists, powerline adapters, but they work with a signal at a frequency of around 30 Megahertz that is fed into the power lines. These act as a kind of antenna because they are not shielded, and radiate the signal around your house. Sometimes neighboring amateur broadcasters even complain about the interference of the powerline adapters. This option is therefore not completely radiation-free and it is much better to pull LAN cables.

It may be tempting to use a wifi mesh router system, but do understand that these are dramatic in terms of wifi radiation exposure. All wireless signals are transmitted twice or more from one mesh node to another.