Linksys EA7500 by starhub

[cscs3]

Starhub website has been updated.

Starhub TV+ box

https://www.starhub.com/personal/tvplus/box.html
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StarHub Broadband with a StarHub Smart WiFi (Nokia WiFi Beacon 1) or a wired connection to Linksys EA8100/EA7500 router are required to access Free-to-air channels on your StarHub TV+ box.
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So other router brand or model is not supported?

 

[xiaofan]

So other router brand or model is not supported?

Correct as of now, other brands or models are not supported for the MediaCorp FTA channels.

Starhub is saying to work with other router vendors to bring the support for more routers.

I am not so sure Starhub will bring the support to the older D-Link DIR-868L.

As for Asus, I doubt it will be any time soon.

 

[jimmy]

Correct as of now, other brands or models are not supported for the MediaCorp FTA channels.

Starhub is saying to work with other router vendors to bring the support for more routers.

I am not so sure Starhub will bring the support to the older D-Link DIR-868L.

As for Asus, I doubt it will be any time soon.

Didn’t work for me. I called Starhub and they say need to check their backend.

 

[cscs3]

Correct as of now, other brands or models are not supported for the MediaCorp FTA channels.

Starhub is saying to work with other router vendors to bring the support for more routers.

I am not so sure Starhub will bring the support to the older D-Link DIR-868L.

As for Asus, I doubt it will be any time soon.

Thanks for info. Seem SH is taking a risky move on this as is very hard to make sure those router available on market will issue special FW just to support this kind of setup.

 

[xiaofan]

https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/linksys_ea7500_v2

Just tried to flash the EA7500 V2 to use OpenWRT again. Previously I did not continue after it failed and revert back to factory stock FW. But this time I followed the above instruction to flash stock FW again and then flash OpenWRT FW. OpenWRT can boot up. However, wireless does not seem to work.

So I guess it is still not ready with the snapshot release.

 

[uncle_josh]

Tried the firmware, lan wise, it is as good as linksys
However, wireless wise, it is a night mare. The speed is verly much lower and performance is terrible.
5Ghz will just sudden stop functioning, but 2.4Ghz is good and stable.
Overall, feels like it is still under beta testing, not ripe for general purposeuse.

https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/linksys_ea7500_v2

Just tried to flash the EA7500 V2 to use OpenWRT again. Previously I did not continue after it failed and revert back to factory stock FW. But this time I followed the above instruction to flash stock FW again and then flash OpenWRT FW. OpenWRT can boot up. However, wireless does not seem to work.

So I guess it is still not ready with the snapshot release.

 

[xiaofan]

Tried the firmware, lan wise, it is as good as linksys
However, wireless wise, it is a night mare. The speed is verly much lower and performance is terrible.
5Ghz will just sudden stop functioning, but 2.4Ghz is good and stable.
Overall, feels like it is still under beta testing, not ripe for general purposeuse.

Yes LAN speed is okay once use HW NAT. Wireless may be worse compared to Linksys FW.

My OpenWRT Test results for EA7500 V2.
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/openwrt-router-firmware.5967482/page-4
Wired speed is the same as Linksys stock with HW NAT:

Wireless speed with 2x2 AC client is actually decent, it was stable during my test but I did not carry out extensive tests.

 

[uncle_josh]

reflash to OpenWRT again, now getting respectabe wireless results.

 

[a4973]

Hello just wondering are there any differences between the EA7500 v2 and EA8100 when just being used as a wired backhaul wireless AP? Thanks

 

[uncle_josh]

Performance wise, no difference.
Both support 4T4R, EA8100 4 External Antennas, EA7500 3 External +1 Internal Antennas

Features wise, EA8100 support DFS, EA7500v2 don't.

EA8100 have both USB2 & USB3 port
EA7500v2 only have USB3 port

 

[m3rcury747]

Hello, is anyone using EA7500v2 with firmware version 2.0.9.204298?
Can't seems to find any information on this firmware version on Linksys.
My router decided to factory reset itself and the next thing I noticed is this firmware version with IPv6 enabled.
Just worried that this version is not legit...
Thanks

 

[xiaofan]

Hello, is anyone using EA7500v2 with firmware version 2.0.9.204298?
Can't seems to find any information on this firmware version on Linksys.
My router decided to factory reset itself and the next thing I noticed is this firmware version with IPv6 enabled.
Just worried that this version is not legit...
Thanks

1) You can check with this one. It is only for Starhub users.
https://www.linksys.com/sg/support-article?articleNum=317712The new StarHub firmware will add the IPTV feature to the following routers:

Linksys EA7500 v2 and v2.1 with firmware version 2.0.8.203018 or higher
Linksys EA8100-AH v1 with firmware version 1.0.2.203018

NOTE: After the firmware upgrade, there is a new soft SKU change for EA7500 from EA7500-AH to EA7500-SH, the purpose of these changes is to know the difference between the retail SKU and the StarHub SKU.

2) If you are not Starhub users, you will still use the older version (no automatic update to Starhub version).
https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=183933FIRMWARE
Ver. 2.0.8.194281
Latest Date: 8/15/2019
Download 33.0 MB

Release Notes

 

[m3rcury747]

1) You can check with this one. It is only for Starhub users.
https://www.linksys.com/sg/support-article?articleNum=317712The new StarHub firmware will add the IPTV feature to the following routers:

Linksys EA7500 v2 and v2.1 with firmware version 2.0.8.203018 or higher
Linksys EA8100-AH v1 with firmware version 1.0.2.203018

NOTE: After the firmware upgrade, there is a new soft SKU change for EA7500 from EA7500-AH to EA7500-SH, the purpose of these changes is to know the difference between the retail SKU and the StarHub SKU.

2) If you are not Starhub users, you will still use the older version (no automatic update to Starhub version).
https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=183933FIRMWARE
Ver. 2.0.8.194281
Latest Date: 8/15/2019
Download 33.0 MB

Release Notes

Okay thanks. So I guess its legit... Funny that they doing custom FW on router instead of their ONT...

 

[xiaofan]

Okay thanks. So I guess its legit... Funny that they doing custom FW on router instead of their ONT...

ONT is not a router and you can not do much on the ONT.

Singtel did customization on their ONR by adding some features for SingTel TV but then disabling some basic router features (like DNS server settings), and it is much worse than normal ONT, unless you bridge one of the ports so that the paticular bridged port will behave like an ONT.

 

[xiaofan]

Read here about how Starhub TV+ Mediacorp FTA channels work with EA7500 v2, EA8100 and Nokia Beacon 1.
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/network-dilemma-on-starhub-tv.6380041/page-7

I done some wireshark, looks like not so simple to replace the nokia beacon with other routers.

Right now, other channels (like 855) are using multicast as well (over VLAN 1091) therefore it won't be using your regular internet bandwidth for those tv streaming. (Make sense)

The source IP from nokia is bearing a 10.110.32.x source IP while the vlan 1091 static ip i have is 169.159.X.X/8 subnet .

There are more tricks done behind this.

 

[xiaofan]

Got pretty good wireless results with EA7500v2 and OpenWRT 22.03.

Tested with iPhone 14 non-Pro 512GB version (2x2 AX/AC 80MHz on the 5GHz band) at close range (1m). The download speed is normal but the upload speed is pretty fast.

Singtel 1Gbps plan, Singtel SpeedTest server.

Tested with an Acer laptop with Intel AX201 adapgter, 3m away.

 

[Henry Ng]

Got pretty good wireless results with EA7500v2 and OpenWRT 22.03.

Tested with iPhone 14 non-Pro 512GB version (2x2 AX/AC 80MHz on the 5GHz band) at close range (1m). The download speed is normal but the upload speed is pretty fast.

Singtel 1Gbps plan, Singtel SpeedTest server.

Tested with an Acer laptop with Intel AX201 adapgter, 3m away.

This Linksys EA7500 router is quite old so may not have firmware update. For Singtel user, you can always get flagship router, ASUS RT-AX86U from Singtel which is a much better wifi router.

 

[ABuNeNe]

just got my hand on 2 x ea7500s and managed to install openwrt successfully

going to try the fast roaming with ethernet backhaul, wish me luck

 

[xiaofan]

However, for Starhub users, indeed there is a new FW update to support IPTV.
https://www.linksys.com/sg/support-article?articleNum=317712

If you are not on Starhub Fibre, DO NOT UPGRADE!

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The new StarHub firmware for Linksys EA7500 v2 and v2.1 will add IPTV to its features. After the firmware upgrade, there will be a soft SKU change on the model number from EA7500-AH to EA7500-SH. This is to know the difference between the retail SKU and the StarHub SKU.

NOTE: The IPTV feature will only be supported when your router has firmware version 2.0.8.203018 or higher.

Below are the changes to expect:

1. The default IP address of the router will change. The new LAN IP address will now be 192.168.10.1. Aside from this, you should no longer see any other feature or configuration changes.

2. After the firmware upgrade, the router should be able to support Dual WAN. The IPTV multicast service will only be available when you subscribe.

3. If you decide to switch to a different internet service provider (ISP), the router (with firmware version 2.0.8.203018 or higher) can still be used if:

The firmware is downgraded to the latest RTM firmware available on the website
Factory reset is performed

4. The StarHub scope of support for subscribers will have no changes.
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Interesting that this page is no longer available.

Similar info from Starhub (but no firmware download).
https://www.starhub.com/personal/support/article.html?id=2Oz3xWyX0385krT4l5k3x7
A new firmware was deployed to Linksys EA7500 and Linksys EA8100 to support viewing of free-to-air channels on the TV+ set-top box. This was completed in 2020.

You can check the version of the firmware from the Linksys app:

• For EA8100: 1.0.2.203018

• For EA7500: 2.0.8.203018

After logging into the Linksys app, tap on the menu icon at the left top corner of the dashboard. Tap on "Network Administration", then select the name of the router. The firmware version will be displayed within this screen (at the bottom).

Alternatively, if you can go to the web GUI with IP 192.168.10.1, it also means that the firmware has already been upgraded.