ViewQwest Fiber Broadband Official Thread - Part 3

[byobodybag]

ESPN videos are not playing for Singapore. Anyone else experienced this? Wondering if VQ has a workaround.

example, see vid on top:
Sergey Kovalev knocks out Blake Caparello - ESPN

 

[kernel.c]

They are completely different things. ESXi is a hypervisor platform; ZFS is a logical volume/file system scheme…

My ESXi uses my ZFS storage as a backend…

I just hoot another Icy Dock 4in3 SATA cage + 4x 4TB (WD4003 FZEX) lately. Trying to add it to my CentOS VM to expand it for all my photos taken during my photography expeditions.

I have 16GB of RAM in my ESXi host and they are shared with a number of VMs living in it.

Read that one needs 1GB of RAM per 1TB of ZFS storage. Is that true?

 

[maylyn]

ASUSWRT-MERLIN 376.44 Final is out

Howdy folks,

Asuswrt-Merlin 376.44 is now available for all supported models. The two biggest changes in this new release is the merge with GPL 376_2044 (which contains the first state of what Asus occasionally refers to as "Asuswrt 2.0"), and the support for the brand new RT-AC87.

Important: The JFFS2 partition layout has changed on the RT-AC56 and RT-AC68. If you have stored any file in this partition, make sure you make a backup of its content before flashing 376.44 (or any newer version)!

Important2:

If you ran one of the recent Beta on the RT-N66 or RT-AC66 it is strongly recommended that you do a factory default reset. There was a bug in Asus's code that caused one of the wireless-related nvram setting to be assigned an invalid value. While manually fixing it worked for some, it didn't always. Doing a factory default reset would take care of it.

The highlight of this new release:

• Added full support for the newly released RT-AC87. I'd like to thank Asus for providing me with an advance development sample to allow me to work on implementing support ahead of product launch. Some of the new features Asus added to this router have forced me however to drop support for L7 Filters and IPsec (kernel conflict with the new DPI engine from Asus). The Ethernet Port state on the Sysinfo page will also not be as accurate, as one of the ports isn't on the Broadcom switch, so I can't retrieve the last seen MAC like I could with the Broadcom switch. Otherwise, everything else is there: IPtraffic, Stealth Mode, etc...
  
• Merge with Asus 3.0.0.4.376_2044 (from the RT-AC87 GPL release). This first step toward Asuswrt 2.0 includes a new filesystem driver for ARM devices, a new configurable Networkmap, and a new DPI engine used for QoS and traffic control/filtering (AC87U only at this point).
  
• ARM-based routers (AC56, AC68, AC87) are now using an HFS+ and NTFS driver developped by Tuxera. This replaces the previous driver developed by Paragon. The Tuxera driver brings improved USB performance and reliability. A benchmark test I did on my RT-AC87 showed a good 10% performance gain from the Tuxera driver - and more improvements are expected in the near future.
• miniupnpd was updated. This new build should resolve log floods caused by Plex servers amongst other things
• Asus updated minidlna to the latest 1.1.3 version. On top of this I also applied a fix to resolve streaming issues with Philips smart TVs.
• Miscellaneous fixes were applied, such as mt-daapd support on MIPS-based routers

As usual, the complete detail can be found in the Changelog.

Changelog is here.
Downloads are here.
More details can be found in the complete changelog.

MD5 checksums:

5de51b7eaf6e8409ed8da1980089135d  RT-AC56U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
e8b5561f4ba2ca644c9d4a030f93fd78  RT-AC66U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
e79abd1a37c3c46e991628cf3b94b544  RT-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
c65e1a074cb28ef6f733e066e6494355  RT-AC87U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
fba8d8dfaad36ff843c9b176dfe46182  RT-N16_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx
843188022b77479e4217e259db4e078e  RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_376.44_0.trx

What's coming next?
Things will have to slow down the next couple of weeks as post-vacation projects for some customers will occupy a lot of my time. Also make sure to read the "project recentering" post I will be making later tonight (I will link it here once it's finalized).

 

[sp0rky]

Hi. Something is very wrong with my computer or something..



Im on wired connection. Even my ipad gives better speed test result. Ipad is 130down and 120up Any idea why???



My wireless connection on asus rtn66u 5ghz



This speed is closely similar to when i was on wireless.... nv encounter this problem b4

 

[andr3wyong]

Thanks for the reply! hmmm. Here's a traceroute to the servers I'm connected to:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

tracert 124.150.157.32

Tracing route to 124.150.157.32 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
3 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms fnet1-f104-access.vqbn.com.sg [202.83.104.1]
4 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms V-TR-EQX-01.vqbn.com [202.73.37.232]
5 27 ms 27 ms 28 ms switch.equinix.vqbn.com [202.73.47.6]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 220 ms 221 ms 220 ms 116.51.26.165
8 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms as-3.r21.sngpsi02.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.5
7]
9 185 ms 218 ms 184 ms as-6.r23.tokyjp01.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.1
50]
10 185 ms 195 ms * ae-9.r24.tokyjp05.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.1
59]
11 185 ms 185 ms 209 ms ae-4.a20.tokyjp01.jp.ra.gin.ntt.net [61.213.162.
162]
12 184 ms 184 ms 184 ms ge-2-2-1.a20.tokyjp01.jp.ra.gin.ntt.net [61.120.
146.94]
13 185 ms 184 ms 186 ms 219.117.144.66
14 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms 219.117.144.53
15 185 ms 183 ms 183 ms 219.117.144.41
16 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms 219.117.147.194
17 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms 124.150.157.32

Trace complete.

Another:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Elvynd>tracert 124.150.157.32

Tracing route to 124.150.157.32 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
3 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms fnet1-f104-access.vqbn.com.sg [202.83.104.1]
4 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms V-TR-EQX-01.vqbn.com [202.73.37.232]
5 27 ms 27 ms 28 ms switch.equinix.vqbn.com [202.73.47.6]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 220 ms 221 ms 220 ms 116.51.26.165
8 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms as-3.r21.sngpsi02.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.5
7]
9 185 ms 218 ms 184 ms as-6.r23.tokyjp01.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.1
50]
10 185 ms 195 ms * ae-9.r24.tokyjp05.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.1
59]
11 185 ms 185 ms 209 ms ae-4.a20.tokyjp01.jp.ra.gin.ntt.net [61.213.162.
162]
12 184 ms 184 ms 184 ms ge-2-2-1.a20.tokyjp01.jp.ra.gin.ntt.net [61.120.
146.94]
13 185 ms 184 ms 186 ms 219.117.144.66
14 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms 219.117.144.53
15 185 ms 183 ms 183 ms 219.117.144.41
16 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms 219.117.147.194
17 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms 124.150.157.32

Trace complete.

tracert 124.150.157.33

Tracing route to 124.150.157.33 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
3 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms fnet1-f104-access.vqbn.com.sg [202.83.104.1]
4 9 ms 21 ms 12 ms V-TR-EQX-01.vqbn.com [202.73.37.232]
5 83 ms 2 ms 2 ms switch.equinix.vqbn.com [202.73.47.6]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 203 ms 183 ms 183 ms 116.51.26.165
8 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms as-3.r21.sngpsi02.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.5
7]
9 185 ms 185 ms 185 ms as-6.r23.tokyjp01.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.1
50]
10 185 ms 185 ms 205 ms ae-9.r24.tokyjp05.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.1
59]
11 185 ms 184 ms 184 ms ae-4.a20.tokyjp01.jp.ra.gin.ntt.net [61.213.162.
162]
12 184 ms 184 ms 183 ms ge-2-2-1.a20.tokyjp01.jp.ra.gin.ntt.net [61.120.
146.94]
13 183 ms 183 ms 186 ms 219.117.144.66
14 183 ms 186 ms 183 ms 219.117.144.53
15 188 ms 183 ms 183 ms 219.117.144.41
16 183 ms 183 ms 184 ms 219.117.147.190
17 183 ms 183 ms 183 ms 124.150.157.33

Trace complete.

To be honest, I don't know what are 'good'/'benchmark' values per se but if I recall right, past values when I had no lag was sub-100ms (sorry don't have tracert logs for those). Had some friends who had no problems do a tracert for me as well, most of them were experiencing 80-100ms pings/tracert. I'm pretty sure this is not 'psychological' in the sense that the reduction in responsiveness is pretty noticeable, where there's significant drop in connection quality. On my own end, I haven't changed any settings or hardware whatsoever, neither has the game gone through any significant change that I know of (FFXIV).

Thanks in advance for any help rendered!

Guys, unfortunately, the forward route is going direct by NTT however, the return route is messed up.

Could you open a ticket with the game company, they can communicate directly to NTT and get the return route optimized.

So sorry for the delay.

 

[andr3wyong]

Hi. Something is very wrong with my computer or something..



Im on wired connection. Even my ipad gives better speed test result. Ipad is 130down and 120up Any idea why???



My wireless connection on asus rtn66u 5ghz



This speed is closely similar to when i was on wireless.... nv encounter this problem b4

Update your NIC drivers to the latest from the vendor website, e.g. for recent 1Gbps Realtek NICs:
Realtek

If not, you probably should get your hardware replaced if you are certain it isn't a software issue

 

[andr3wyong]

LOL... Can I crowd-source too when my turn comes?

Fingers still aching after an afternoon of punchdown jack work, now just tempted to have a garage sale rather than pack everything…

New place has internet, that's all I need… haha

 

[sp0rky]

Update your NIC drivers to the latest from the vendor website, e.g. for recent 1Gbps Realtek NICs:
Realtek

If not, you probably should get your hardware replaced if you are certain it isn't a software issue

I have no idea which part of the hardware is faulty... lol. since im getting same result on both wireless and wired.

im not on realtek. im on intel I217-V

 

[andr3wyong]

I have no idea which part of the hardware is faulty... lol. since im getting same result on both wireless and wired.

im not on realtek. im on intel I217-V

It's very rare that Intel cards die, especially since that's a very new model so I'm assuming your motherboard is pretty new.

You can get the latest Intel driver from the website (just google Intel i217 driver) and see if that fixes it.

If you have a spare Cat5E or Cat6/better cable, try that too. The one provided upon ViewQwest installation is a factory-molded cable so is less likely to become faulty as quickly.

If you can wait 10-20min for re-provisioning, i.e. you are going out for lunch or taking a break, just call NOC and get them to re-provision the speed on your Zhone, just in case that somehow became buggy.

Hope that helps!

 

[maylyn]

Incoming change in the Asuswrt-merlin development pace

Re-post for info.

I'd like to take this time to explain a couple of changes that will be happening to this project starting with the 376.44 release.

The recent merge with GPL 376_xxxx from Asus proved to be quite difficult. As Asuswrt and Asuswrt-Merlin keep evolving, their codebase are drifting further apart, making each new GPL release harder to merge in that the previous one. Asus are being very aggressive in their firmware development, constantly adding new major features, and making numerous tweaks here and there. The last merge forced me to revert various IPv6-related fixes that had been applied to Asuswrt-Merlin over the past few months so I could merge the revamped IPv6 code from Asus. Two years ago, merging a new GPL was roughly 3-4 hours of work (one evening). With GPL 376_xxxx, the merges took me between two and three evenings, and that's not taking into account the RT-AC87 support development...

So, I won't be making new releases anymore every time Asus is pushing out a new GPL anymore. The increasing amount of work involved in GPL merges make that too taxing. I simply cannot keep up (as a one-man project) with Asus's entire dedicated team of developers rate of development.

Also because of this codebase drift, I am currently putting a stop on any new feature addition to Asuswrt-Merlin for the time being. I need to either find a way to reduce the amount of work involved in merging two increasingly drifting codebases, or limit the frequency of those painful merges. For now the latter is the only solution I could find. If Asus's development pace ever slows down I might go back to my previous development pace, but that will be something to evaluate once we get there. So for the coming months the focus will be strictly on keeping up with Asus's own changes, and bugfixing (where they don't require radical changes in the codebase - the IPv6 bugfixes were a killer there).

Another issue is how different the Asus routers are becoming with each new generation. We currently have the following generations:

- Old SDK5 device (RT-N16)
- First gen SDK6 (RT-N66, RT-AC66
- First gen ARM devices (RT-AC56, RT-AC68
- Quantenna device (RT-AC87)

All four require their own, separate copy of the closed-source components used by Asus. On top of that you can expect a fifth one to appear in the coming months, with the implantation of Broadcom's SDK7 (used for the RT-AC3200). This means that whenever Asus releases a new GPL for one of these four generations, I only get the updated closed source component of that specific generation. So if for example Asus were to release FW 376_5000 for the RT-AC87 with a whole new AiCloud, it would be impossible for me to implement it on the other generations until Asus also released the GPL for these other generations, with their corresponding closed source bits.

Because of this, there will be some change in my current (informal) release schedule. In the past I generally released new updates every time Asus pushed out a new GPL release, and I did it simultaneously for all supported routers. As this will become increasing difficult to do (sometimes even impossible), I will no longer guarantee that each new release I make will be simultaneously for all supported routers. I will have to go with what proprietary bits I get out of the GPL on which I will be basing this new release. This shouldn't be a major problem, as Asus has shown by now they are still committed into supporting their older routers.

So the bottom-line is, keeping up with Asus's current pace of development has outgrown my capacity as a one-man team of keeping up with them, so expect less frequent releases from me, and these won't always be for all supported routers at the same time. And the emphasis will be strictly on merging new code and fixes, with a temporary stop on any new feature development from myself.

 

[chaicka]

Fingers still aching after an afternoon of punchdown jack work, now just tempted to have a garage sale rather than pack everything…

New place has internet, that's all I need… haha

Tell me about punchdown. I am half-done and more to do.

 

[darkmatt]

ASUSWRT-MERLIN 376.44 Final is out

still no ipv6 resolution?

 

[maylyn]

still no ipv6 resolution?

Technically VQ IPv6 is already working on ASUS routers but more testing are required + ASUS are in the mist of revamping the whole IPv6 (removal of radvd and adapting odhcpv6)

So there isn't any official announcement as yet until i have received more information from ASUS TW and test results are concurred by VQ to make any official announcement.

 

[andr3wyong]

still no ipv6 resolution?

> telnet 192.168.1.1
# ip -f inet6 neigh flush dev eth0 <= flush ND cache
# ping6 -c 2 -I eth0 ff02::1 <= do neighbor discovery
# ping6 -c 2 2001:d98:38::1 <= ping IPv6 gateway (substitute for your assigned gateway)

 

[asphyxiation]

Guys, unfortunately, the forward route is going direct by NTT however, the return route is messed up.

Could you open a ticket with the game company, they can communicate directly to NTT and get the return route optimized.

So sorry for the delay.

No worries, thanks for the response. So does that mean there's nothing VQ can do about this?

 

[grynove]

is vq normally comes with free ONT install during ITShow ?? going to try VQ at my new house. but opennet only outside telecom riser prev owner never install ONT during free install offer..

 

[kitsura]

Monkey where are you?

Can you help check this connection? Why packet loss so high and latency can it be below 150?

 

[andr3wyong]

No worries, thanks for the response. So does that mean there's nothing VQ can do about this?

Tried re-routing several times as I looked at past tickets. But all of them still show the same return route via a further provider.

Hence it's outside of our control.

 

[asphyxiation]

I see. Thanks for the prompt response. Oh, I have spoken with your colleagues over at tech support and they mentioned something about adding more peers (sorry, not very good with networking terms, not sure if this is right). Will that help with anything?

 

[NicBlais]

I see. Thanks for the prompt response. Oh, I have spoken with your colleagues over at tech support and they mentioned something about adding more peers (sorry, not very good with networking terms, not sure if this is right). Will that help with anything?

Peering is awesome! Helps lower latency and boost bandwidth to whatever servers we peer with.

Peering is basically linking two networks together directly (by actually just plugging a cable from our equipment to theirs). If you're not peering with them, you need to connect via the internet (so the connection may have to bounce between several other providers before it gets to the one you want to connect to).

So basically it provides a direct path between your service provider (us!) and the content provider you're trying to access (Amazon, for example). That means the time it takes for your computer to get data from the provider (this time period is called latency) is reduced, and since it's a direct link that we install, we don't need to pay anyone for bandwidth and we can put in the biggest pipe we can so you can transfer huge amounts of data at once (and thats more bandwidth).

The more providers peer with each other, the better the internet is for everybody!

Wiki article if you're interested