Home Network Setup

[xiaofan]

why do u have a WiFi router and mesh. I think u can simplify your setup by just using mesh WiFi.

The aging but still capable WRT1900AC router has good 5GHz WiFi performance so that I get higher WiFi speed at the living room and the big common room, up to 400Mbps. This can be handy when I update my Linux stuff (old laptop x 1, Raspberry Pi x 4 and other Linux boards x n).

 

[manyu882]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Moca will help the Master room and big common room to get near 1Gbps speed since they have SCV cable TV point (HDB is 1998). But not on the small common room which does not have the cable TV point.

One thing against the Moca is that they are not certified by IMDA. But it is probably because IMDA is behind the curve in this aspect or they prefer structure Ethernet wiring. So this is a moot point and not really a big concern for me.

The main problem is that the coaxial cable may not be well laid out and quanlity may not be good -- last time I got problems with over the air TV before I switched to SingTel TV in Feb 2011.

For now I am happy with the Power Line adapters. We do not really do any high bandwidth activities at home (at most 1080p streaming and NAS backup of phone photos to NAS). I am getting above 200Mbps wifi (up to 400Mbps) in my living room and big common room, above 100Mbps wifi speed in master room and small common room. These are more than enough for the family members.

But next year I may get WiFi 6 equipment, like AX3000 or higher spec router to replace the aging WRT1900AC router (early 2014 to now). Then I may want to get better Mesh as well.

Regards to MoCA, would need approval from IMDA to import and sell commercially and they can’t approve right now. The grey area comes is when you buy yourself from another country and for your own usage.

I have spoken to IMDA about MoCA and the main reason they are not allowing MoCA is because there is no guideline setup for MoCA usage in Singapore. They didn’t even look into it as there is very little interest and the market is small.

There are much work to do and coordination for setting up the guideline for MoCA usage... just have a look at this guideline which is for EOC(Google: IMDA TS CCHN (October 2016).). So many people are involved and is very detailed.

I may consider to work on this when I’m back from oversea.

 

[sesame246]

hi,
need advice.

I will be moving to a cluster house with 3 levels and one basement, those tall but narrrow type. The previous owner should hv set up the lan or data points. I saw the points with a telephone icon, are they the lan point?

I hope to just subscribe to a telco plan, pluck and go to save the hassle of engaging the telco to do site survey.

for Singtel, they suggested 2Gbps with WiFi Mesh plan, with a pair of AirTies WiFi Mesh. The old uncle that came to do the survey kept asking me to convert the points to data points which cost $80 each. And its $15 to check if the points are already data-enabled. Actually, I dont quite understand what he said.

i called M1, they advised not to use mesh wifi but to have a router for each level as the former may hv connectivity issue.

I am not familar with the internet setup thingy. What i need is to have wifi and to be able to connect to SMART TVs, at low cost.

Can anyone help?

Thanks for all the sharing.

I have moved in to the new home early this month. I chose linksys velop triband mesh, subscribed to M1 plan 1 GB plan. The main node is in the living room level 1, 2nd node in level 2 (serves level 2 and 3) and 3rd node at basement. No wired connection, just using mesh. No issue accessing wifi at all levels but of course not at full speed. Fine with us as we are not heavy users.

I have earlier converted almost all telephone points to data points...of no use for the time being. M1 plan comes with free fixed call but I am unable to use it with the current mesh setup.. I will look into this later as am still busy with settling down and unpacking.

 

[sesame246]

quarepipe wrote:
why do u have a WiFi router and mesh. I think u can simplify your setup by just using mesh WiFi.

The aging but still capable WRT1900AC router has good 5GHz WiFi performance so that I get higher WiFi speed at the living room and the big common room, up to 400Mbps. This can be handy when I update my Linux stuff (old laptop x 1, Raspberry Pi x 4 and other Linux boards x n).

The M1 technician also explained the same as quarepipe. it defeats the purpose of mesh technology if use router. The inconvenience for me now is that without the router connected to modem, i can't setup fixed voice line.

 

[xiaofan]

squarepipe wrote:
why do u have a WiFi router and mesh. I think u can simplify your setup by just using mesh WiFi.

The M1 technician also explained the same as squarepipe. it defeats the purpose of mesh technology if use router. The inconvenience for me now is that without the router connected to modem, i can't setup fixed voice line.

Whatever works will work. Whatever not working is not working. In my case the set up works for me. It is actually common to use a Mesh or AP to complement the main router.

In your case apparently your setup does not work yet with digital voice. Not so sure why M1 will need the router for digital voice though. In the case of Singtel, the ONT has the digital voice function so you can connect the phone to the ONT. I have used in this way since 2014. In the beginning the digital voice was on the SingTel issued 2-Wire or Pace router but I moved the Digital Voice to the ONT early 2014 in preparation to switch to my own router.

 

[sesame246]

Whatever works will work. Whatever not working is not working. In my case the set up works for me. It is actually common to use a Mesh or AP to complement the main router.

In your case apparently your setup does not work yet with digital voice. Not so sure why M1 will need the router for digital voice though. In the case of Singtel, the ONT has the digital voice function so you can connect the phone to the ONT. I have used in this way since 2014. In the beginning the digital voice was on the SingTel issued 2-Wire or Pace router but I moved the Digital Voice to the ONT early 2014 in preparation to switch to my own router.

ONT has the digital voice function so you can connect the phone to the ONT - great! i go figure out how.

 

[xiaofan]

ONT has the digital voice function so you can connect the phone to the ONT - great! i go figure out how.

You need to check if your M1 ONT is voice enabled or not. If yes you may also need to call M1 to move it. At least last time I needed to call SingTel to carry out some changes in their end.

Newer installation of SingTel Digital Voice is on the Singtel ONT/ONR and no longer linked to the wireless router.

 

[zzxxzzxx]

I think all Digital Voice are now routed to the ONT for all ISP.

There's 2 TEL point on the ONT. Just try the other if the first is not working.

 

[zzxxzzxx]

Thanks for all the sharing.

I have moved in to the new home early this month. I chose linksys velop triband mesh, subscribed to M1 plan 1 GB plan. The main node is in the living room level 1, 2nd node in level 2 (serves level 2 and 3) and 3rd node at basement. No wired connection, just using mesh. No issue accessing wifi at all levels but of course not at full speed. Fine with us as we are not heavy users.

I have earlier converted almost all telephone points to data points...of no use for the time being. M1 plan comes with free fixed call but I am unable to use it with the current mesh setup.. I will look into this later as am still busy with settling down and unpacking.

If you've wired up your home, using wired as backhaul should give you better speed.

But are you using any router for your current configuration?

M1 ONT -> Node 1 (Wired)

Or
M1 ONT -> Asus Router (Provided by M1?) -> Node 1

 

[sesame246]

If you've wired up your home, using wired as backhaul should give you better speed.

But are you using any router for your current configuration?

M1 ONT -> Node 1 (Wired)

Or
M1 ONT -> Asus Router (Provided by M1?) -> Node 1

its M1 ONT outside the house basement, connected to the datapoint via main velop node at level 1 living room. The other 2 nodes just plug to powerpoint, no need to insert into the datapoint.

 

[sesame246]

You need to check if your M1 ONT is voice enabled or not. If yes you may also need to call M1 to move it. At least last time I needed to call SingTel to carry out some changes in their end.

Newer installation of SingTel Digital Voice is on the Singtel ONT/ONR and no longer linked to the wireless router.

on the M1 ONT, there are 2 TEL ports, 4 LAN ports, of which one is connected to the datapoint at living room (main node).

So i just need to connect the tel cable to the tel port?

How to post the picture of the ONT here?

 

[zzxxzzxx]

on the M1 ONT, there are 2 TEL ports, 4 LAN ports, of which one is connected to the datapoint at living room (main node).

So i just need to connect the tel cable to the tel port?

How to post the picture of the ONT here?

Best is try to connect a phone to either of the TEL port to make sure it's working, and on the correct port.

Once it's clear and have dual tone, can connect to your Home Telephone Network...
The whole Telephone Network should be interconnected, plugging into one wall socket should activate any other Tel socket in the house (if it's wired up properly).

Also if your other Mesh Nodes are near the Ethernet socket, using wired will have better wifi speed instead.

Although Tri-band wifi mesh will already have a good backhaul from the 5GHz bandwidth, but if only 2.4GHz can reach from one node to the other, speed will drastically drop.

 

[xiaofan]

I think all Digital Voice are now routed to the ONT for all ISP.

Hope this is true. My Starhub ONT is still the old one in 2015 and not voice enabled. When I switched to Fibre 500Mbps plan from Cable Broadband in 2015, they gave me free Starhub Cable TV Lite and the digital voice was on the Cable TV box.

Later I discontinued my Digital Voice in 2018 when recontract so this is no longer a problem. In Sept 2019 they discontinued the Cable TV Lite services.

In the end I am still using the 2015 Starhub ONT which is not voice enabled. Not an issue for me as this flat is rented out and no need digital voice.

My SingTel ONT was voice enabled from the very beginning but initiallly the digital voice was provisioned on the SingTel issued 2-Wire router, back in Feb 2012.

 

[Legolaz37]

Hi,
Anyone using 2 gbps with Velop.
My setup as follows:
Viewqwest router - switch - lan network - mother and a few child velop nodes.

Velop is in bridge mode. IP controlled by viewqwest router. Wireless on viewqwest router disabled.

When I connect 2 cables from the ViewQwest router to the switch To utilise my 2 gbps plan, I notice that my devices will periodically hang for 30-60s and then start working again. This happens every 10-20 mins. When I use only 1 lan cable which would be equivalent to having a 1 gbps plan, everything is fine.

My suspicions are that this is caused by IP conflict or when a device is routing from 1 to the other lan cable. Just a pure guest.

Any solutions to make this work?

Thanks.

 

[giraffey]

Hi,
Anyone using 2 gbps with Velop.
My setup as follows:
Viewqwest router - switch - lan network - mother and a few child velop nodes.

Velop is in bridge mode. IP controlled by viewqwest router. Wireless on viewqwest router disabled.

When I connect 2 cables from the ViewQwest router to the switch To utilise my 2 gbps plan, I notice that my devices will periodically hang for 30-60s and then start working again. This happens every 10-20 mins. When I use only 1 lan cable which would be equivalent to having a 1 gbps plan, everything is fine.

My suspicions are that this is caused by IP conflict or when a device is routing from 1 to the other lan cable. Just a pure guest.

Any solutions to make this work?

Thanks.

- VQ has 2 modes for 2gbps plans. Most likely, you should be in option ()b) and you would have issued the Zhone ONR. (a) A full 2gbps speed on a single port. But this requires you to purchase your router. (b) An aggregated 2gbps speed, i.e. each port would only be max 1gbps. This would be similar to other 2gbps plans on other ISPs as well.

- If it is option B, yes, you would only get max 1gbps. Even if you get 10gbps network routers and switches, it would still be limited by the network card (which also needs to support 10gbps)

- Will suggest that you to set a static IP address to your Velop (and outside the DHCP range). You can check what is the DHCP range configured on your Zhone ONR. But, most likely, you can get the velop as 192.168.1.2, as .1 would likely be the Zhone ONR's static IP.

 

[Legolaz37]

Don’t seem to be able to find ViewQwest non aggregated 2 gbps plan? Where did u see it?

 

[giraffey]

Don’t seem to be able to find ViewQwest non aggregated 2 gbps plan? Where did u see it?

hmm.. not sure if it is still offered as it seems removed from the website. perhaps, can check with them directly.

 

[Legolaz37]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. Just called them and there’s no such plan.

 

[Legolaz37]

Anyone has any ideas on how to configure to fix this?

Hi,
Anyone using 2 gbps with Velop.
My setup as follows:
Viewqwest router - switch - lan network - mother and a few child velop nodes.

Velop is in bridge mode. IP controlled by viewqwest router. Wireless on viewqwest router disabled.

When I connect 2 cables from the ViewQwest router to the switch To utilise my 2 gbps plan, I notice that my devices will periodically hang for 30-60s and then start working again. This happens every 10-20 mins. When I use only 1 lan cable which would be equivalent to having a 1 gbps plan, everything is fine.

My suspicions are that this is caused by IP conflict or when a device is routing from 1 to the other lan cable. Just a pure guest.

Any solutions to make this work?

Thanks.

 

[giraffey]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. Just called them and there’s no such plan.

Hmm.. my bad.. read wrongly. But if you get the microtik router, there is an option for a 2gbps connectivity to a pc, google viewqwest 2gbps to pc,