Singtel mesh extender dramatically drops when setting up 2nd extender

[Musicize]

Hello guys,

I've tried setting up a pair of AC2600 Singtel wifi extender at my friends house for her, she originally bought just 1 of it as part of the plan.
I bought a 2nd one off carousell and tried to setup for her, but the moment i turn on the 2nd extender and it tries to connect to the first one, the wifi speed drops from 100Mbps down to 0.1Mbps! Basically broke the wifi anytime the 2nd one starts up..

She just has 1 Nokia *edit* ONR and 1 Singtel Mesh Extender setup now.

I end up giving up first and left it with just 1 extender as before because it's just ridiculous lol.

Anyone experienced this while trying to extend their extender with a 2nd mesh?

 

[xonix]

How far apart are the extenders placed ? If the 2nd unit cannot receive a decent signal from the 1st, then it won't work well.

Forget about the floor area, focus on the blue circles which indicates the wifi coverage of each mesh unit.

 

[Musicize]

How far apart are the extenders placed ? If the 2nd unit cannot receive a decent signal from the 1st, then it won't work well.

Forget about the floor area, focus on the blue circles which indicates the wifi coverage of each mesh unit.

Oh hey, actually i'm only just setting it up so its placed right beside each other

i was following their instructionsfrom https://www.singtel.com/content/dam/singtel/personal/support/broadband/broadband-troubleshooting/singtelmeshextender/Singtel Mesh Extender.pdf "MESH SET-UP 1"

So while it is side by side, once the 2nd one turns blue and connected, reconnecting to my wifi shows that my internet is practically broken. Had to unplug the 2nd device, restart the first one and back to the normal speeds as tested on google speed test

Repeated it a few times, even continue to move the 2nd device to another room around the middle of the house, it does turn blue after some time, but internet is broken again.

 

[xiaofan]

I will suggest giving up on the Singtel Mesh Extender based mesh solution. Go for a proper mesh solution like Asus AImesh, Netgear Orbi and TP-Link Deco.

All the Singtel proprietory mesh solution like Askey, Airties and the Singtel Mesh Extender are lousy mesh solution. Not worth using.

 

[Musicize]

Huh, 1 ont and 1 extender, no router?

You need 1 router, the rectangular shaped mesh router, then it will work. The round shape mesh extender will not work with another mesh extender without the mesh router.

sorry yea it comes with the Nokia G240 Optical Network Router (ONR)
The 1st extender is connected to it.

You mean i cannot extend from another Singtel Mesh extender alone? the Nokia ONR is not a mesh router, the documentation seem to suggest it will work

 

[Musicize]

I will suggest giving up on the Singtel Mesh Extender based mesh solution. Go for a proper mesh solution like Asus AImesh, Netgear Orbi and TP-Link Deco.

All the Singtel proprietory mesh solution like Askey, Airties and the Singtel Mesh Extender are lousy mesh solution. Not worth using.

Haha yea i was disappointed to hear they were using the singtel stuffs, but didn't want to suggest an overhaul of the devices at the moment because it really isn't my house, so i went to get 1 extended from carousell to see if it helps to situation for a low cost. Theorectically it should have worked, but the behaviour i'm seeing is a complete disappointment with singtel devices now..

 

[xiaofan]

sorry yea it comes with the Nokia G240 Optical Network Router (ONR)
The 1st extender is connected to it.

You mean i cannot extend from another Singtel Mesh extender alone? the Nokia ONR is not a mesh router, the documentation seem to suggest it will work

Yes by right it should work as per the Singtel documentation. So I am not so sure ehy it does not work. It could be that the newly bought unit is faulty. To check out you can connect the new unit to the ONR directly to see if that works.

 

[xiaofan]

The name of Singtel Mesh Router (square shape, AC1900) and Singtel Mesh Extender (round shape, AC2600) are kind of confusing.

1. Singtel Mesh Router -- works with either Singtel ONT (as the main router) or Singtel ONR (as an AP).
Installation guide:
https://www.singtel.com/content/dam...er/Singtel Mesh Router Installation Guide.pdf
2. Singtel Mesh Extender -- works with ONR directly, or works with Singtel Mesh Router to form a mesh.
Installation guide:
https://www.singtel.com/content/dam...singtelmeshextender/Singtel Mesh Extender.pdf
3. Mesh Solution mentioned by Singtel: they seem to indicate using wireless backhaul as per the installation guide. Hopefully someone can try Ethernet backhaul to see if that works as well or not.
1) Singtel ONT or ONR -- Singtel Mesh Router (main node) -- Singtel Mesh Extender (mesh node)
2) Singtel ONR -- Singtel Mesh Extender (main node) -- Singtel Mesh Extender (mesh node)

 

[Musicize]

has anyone tried using the nokia ONR as a access point, but bridging to an external router configured as bridge mode?

I'm thinking the new hdb has ethernet ports in the other rooms so i can just setup an old router that has bridge mode so the bedroom can just connect to the old router instead and not touch the extender in the living room

 

[xiaofan]

has anyone tried using the nokia ONR as a access point, but bridging to an external router configured as bridge mode?

I'm thinking the new hdb has ethernet ports in the other rooms so i can just setup an old router that has bridge mode so the bedroom can just connect to the old router instead and not touch the extender in the living room

You have to request Singtel to carry out the bridging if you are on 1Gbps plan. Once bridging, it will be configured in the following way.
1) 1 port bridged, no VLAN, no Singtel TV, you can connect non-Singtel issued router to it to use as the main router. Singtel issued router like Singtel Mesh router will not work when connected to the bridged port.
2) 3 ports only for Singtel TV, not for internet.

But I have no idea whether Singtel Mesh Extender can work in this case.

Since you have LAN port in the rooms, I will suggest you try to connect both Singtel Mesh Extender units to the ONR through the LAN port to see if that works.

BTW, it is not possible to bridge the ONR if you are on 2Gbps plan. But it seems that you are not, as 2Gbps plan users will get two Singtel Mesh Extender units.

 

[Musicize]

You have to request Singtel to carry out the bridging if you are on 1Gbps plan. Once bridging, it will be configured in the following way.
1) 1 port bridged, no VLAN, no Singtel TV, you can connect non-Singtel issued router to it to use as the main router. Singtel issued router like Singtel Mesh router will not work when connected to the bridged port.
2) 3 ports only for Singtel TV, not for internet.

But I have no idea whether Singtel Mesh Extender can work in this case.

Since you have LAN port in the rooms, I will suggest you try to connect both Singtel Mesh Extender units to the ONR through the LAN port to see if that works.

BTW, it is not possible to bridge the ONR if you are on 2Gbps plan. But it seems that you are not, as 2Gbps plan users will get two Singtel Mesh Extender units.

Wow thanks so much for the answers so far, has been useful seeing that i can't really advise them to very some of these details as they're not technical.

> You have to request Singtel to carry out the bridging if you are on 1Gbps plan.

Do you know if this is going to be a paid request?

> Since you have LAN port in the rooms, I will suggest you try to connect both Singtel Mesh Extender units to the ONR through the LAN port to see if that works.

Do you mean u without asking singtel to configure the existing ONR i can connect the 2nd extender to one of the ports and it'll function?

> But it seems that you are not, as 2Gbps plan users will get two Singtel Mesh Extender units
Yea its the 1Gbps plan haha.

 

[xiaofan]

Wow thanks so much for the answers so far, has been useful seeing that i can't really advise them to very some of these details as they're not technical.

> You have to request Singtel to carry out the bridging if you are on 1Gbps plan.

Do you know if this is going to be a paid request?

> Since you have LAN port in the rooms, I will suggest you try to connect both Singtel Mesh Extender units to the ONR through the LAN port to see if that works.

Do you mean u without asking singtel to configure the existing ONR i can connect the 2nd extender to one of the ports and it'll function?

> But it seems that you are not, as 2Gbps plan users will get two Singtel Mesh Extender units
Yea its the 1Gbps plan haha.

1) Requesting to bridge the ONR can be a hassle but it is free. Sometimes the support staff may not know well about this so you may encounter ding-dong.

2) Yes that is what I mean, I am not so sure if it will function or not, But you can try it.

 

[Musicize]

Thanks man!

DIdn't know the Singtel ONR is so troublesome. If only we could just enter the administrator page and configure the ports ourselves...

 

[xiaofan]

Thanks man!
DIdn't know the Singtel ONR is so troublesome. If only we could just enter the administrator page and configure the ports ourselves...

You can search the posts here and there are people who are doing that. However the risk is that SingTel may reset the configuration and then you will lose your Internet connection. So it is better to do it using the official way.

I do not recommend new users to sign up for SingTel because of the hassle with ONR. I recommend either M1 or Starhub for new users.

 

[Musicize]

Thanks, personally i also avoid singtel because of the ONR.

Hopefully the service staff is kind to me when i make the request...

 

[Musicize]

Since yours is nokia onr, most likely the original mesh extender is now connecting to the carousell mesh extender (and not the nokia onr), hence both can not be used when both on. If the main is mesh router then no such problem.

Since you do not want to touch the original sets, you can try to get those cheap $5 routers and set it up as repeaters and your problem is solved (different ssid though)

Ah i see..

I thought i can Nokia ONR -> original mesh extender -> carousel mesh extender...

 

[xiaofan]

Ah i see..

I thought i can Nokia ONR -> original mesh extender -> carousel mesh extender...

By right this should work.

As per the installation guide, the following should work. If it does not work, it could be that your Carousell unit is faulty.
Nokia ONR -> original mesh extender (wired) --> Carousell mesh extender (wireless)

I will suggest you try the following to check the Carousell unit is working or not.
Nokia ONR -> Carousell mesh extender

If that works, then I do not have the idea why it does not work. But I will suggest you try the following to see if it helps or not. Documentation for the Singtel Mesh Extender is very poor.
Nokia ONR -> original mesh extender (wired)
Nokia ONR -> Carousell mesh extender (wired)

 

[xiaofan]

Another potential workaround is to get the Singtel Mesh Router from Carousell, it is quite cheap. You can sell the Carousell unit and then get the Singtel Mesh Router and still got a bit of money left.
Nokia ONR -> Singtel Mesh Extender (wired) --> mesh extender (wireless)

However, I will suggest you to give up totally on the Singtel Mesh Extender and get proper mesh solution instead.

 

[Desaturated]

Hi guys, sorry to highjack this thread. I am thinking of using the same solution to buy a Carousell extender for my Singtel Mesh Extender. My ONR is Singtel Huawei, will it have this issue as well?

@Musicize can share what is the update of ur current mesh situation?

 

[nelnelnelnel]

I will suggest giving up on the Singtel Mesh Extender based mesh solution. Go for a proper mesh solution like Asus AImesh, Netgear Orbi and TP-Link Deco.

All the Singtel proprietory mesh solution like Askey, Airties and the Singtel Mesh Extender are lousy mesh solution. Not worth using.

hello hello, pretty new here wondering if swapping out of singtel mesh with the deco x20 by tplink will be better in terms of performance?