Singtel TV compatible Wi-Fi mesh

rohitntu

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Hi,

I am using Singtel's provided router to connect to my Singtel TV since it's need the VLAN functionality. Currently I'm using 4 x Apple 802.11ac routers across my house with ethernet backhaul, and all the Apple Wi-Fi routers are in bridge mode.

What are the good Wi-fi routers I should consider? I'll need to run it in bridge mode, since the main Singtel router is going to do the NAT etc. I'm looking for best performance in each room where the 4 Wi-Fi devices are.

Thanks!
 

xiaofan

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Hi,
I am using Singtel's provided router to connect to my Singtel TV since it's need the VLAN functionality. Currently I'm using 4 x Apple 802.11ac routers across my house with ethernet backhaul, and all the Apple Wi-Fi routers are in bridge mode.
What are the good Wi-fi routers I should consider? I'll need to run it in bridge mode, since the main Singtel router is going to do the NAT etc. I'm looking for best performance in each room where the 4 Wi-Fi devices are.
Thanks!

Are you using SingTel ONT or ONR? If you got the Singtel ONT, it is possible to use better 3rd party router to support the SingTel VLAN. If ONR, then you can not replace the ONR as it is the main router. Take note ZTE brand is configured as an ONR

If you are using ONR, or you are using ONT but no plan to change the SingTel issued router, then you just need a dual band wifi mesh solution supporting Mesh in AP mode, you have many choices.

What are the budget? You can consider things like Netgear Orbi RBK354, Asus Zenwfi XD6/XD4, TP-Link Deco X20/X60, or just 4* Asus RT-AX55, or maybe one RT-AX82U plus three RT-AX55.

If you need to connect SingTel TV box after the mesh node and not directly to the SingTel issued router, then the only decent option is Netgear Orbi. You can not do that with Asus or TP-Link.

Reference: Netgear Orbi support of Singtel TV box even with SIngtel ONR.
https://netgearstore.sg/blogs/knowledge-base/orbi-singtel-tv-vlan-tag
 
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xiaofan

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Just have a regular ONT connected to a Singtel issued router.

What is your SingTel issued router? Is it in the DB box or in the TV console area? Can you post your floor plan and indicate the locations of the ONT and LAN ports and the Apple AC wireless APs? How many TV boxes do you have?
 

rohitntu

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Router is Gigabit Router AC Elite. It’s in the DB box next to main door which is at one corner of the house. The patch panel to connect all 4 rooms and living room is also there. So essentially ONT goes to Singtel router and it is feeding 4 LAN points, 3 bedroom and 1 in living room.

Just one TV box in the living room. I use an old Singtel router as a hub in the living room to feed both the TV box and one of my Apple routers. Needed to use the old router to pass VLAN to Singtel TV box.
 

xiaofan

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Router is Gigabit Router AC Elite. It’s in the DB box next to main door which is at one corner of the house. The patch panel to connect all 4 rooms and living room is also there. So essentially ONT goes to Singtel router and it is feeding 4 LAN points, 3 bedroom and 1 in living room.
Just one TV box in the living room. I use an old Singtel router as a hub in the living room to feed both the TV box and one of my Apple routers. Needed to use the old router to pass VLAN to Singtel TV box.

I see. In this case you may have to keep the two SingTel routers as your SingTel TV box is not directly to the first SingTel router. In that case, I believe even the Orbi will not work.

ONT -- Singtel AC Elite main router -- Singtel older router in AP mode -- Singtel TV box --> this will work
ONT -- Singtel AC Eliter main router -- other router in AP mode -- Singtel TV box --> this may not work
ONT -- Non SIngtel main Router -- other router in AP mode -- Singtel TV box --> this will not work

If you feel uour Singtel AC Elite is aging, you can buy SIngtel Mesh Router for around S$20 to S$30 from Carousell, it is a plug and play replacement with the Singtel AC Elite. Then you can replace your old Singtel router with the AC Elite.

ONT -- Singtel Mesh Router -- Singtel AC Eliter automatically runs in AP mode -- Singtel TV box --> this will work

Then you can consider any of the dual band mesh option I mentioned depending on your budget. What is your budget for 4 nodes? Take note you may not really need 4 nodes depending on your floor plan. You may still want to post the floor plan if you intend to reduce the number of nodes.
 
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rohitntu

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Thanks for your help. Given I have Ethernet back haul can’t I just use a good 802.11ax router in the rooms? I can start with 2 or 3 and see if I need more. No budget per se, if it’s worth it I’ll spend since I’ll use it for many years. What do you recommend for best performance. If I can get full gigabit speed in each room that’s ideal.
 

xiaofan

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Thanks for your help. Given I have Ethernet back haul can’t I just use a good 802.11ax router in the rooms? I can start with 2 or 3 and see if I need more. No budget per se, if it’s worth it I’ll spend since I’ll use it for many years. What do you recommend for best performance. If I can get full gigabit speed in each room that’s ideal.

Yes you can use AX routers in all the rooms. I will recommend RT-AX82U in the living room plus one RT-AX58U in one bedroom first, then you can add more RT-AX58U units later. You can also use Asus Zenwifi XD6 in the bedrooms if you prefer the form factor in the bedrooms. You should be able to get full gigabit using wired in each room, and above 800Mbps (or even 900Mbps) using good wireless AX clients (say laptop with Intel AX200/201 adapter) in all the rooms.

As you are using Singtel router as the main router and that is the main bottleneck of your home network. It makes no sense to go with higher end options like RT-AX86U since the higher end CPU will be wasted since you need to run it in AP mode. It is also a bit wasted to use Zenwifi XT8 (triband) as you can use Ethernet backhaul.
 

xiaofan

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If possible, I will suggest you to get another LAN port in the living room TV console area to connect the Singtel TV Box to the DB box main router. In that case, you can use a better router in the DB box and get rid of the two Singtel routers.

For example.
Singtel ONT -- RT-AX86U WAN Port with VLAN profile
RT-AX86U LAN Port 4 -- Living room LAN ports 1 -- Singtel TV box
RT-AX86U LAN Port 1 -- Living room LAN ports 2 -- RT-AX82U mesh node
RT-AX86U LAN Port 2 -- master room LAN port -- RT-AX58U mesh node (or Zenwifi XD6)
RT-AX86U LAN Port 3 -- bedroom LAN port -- RT-AX58U mesh node if needed (or Zenwifi XD6)
RT-AX86U 2.5G LAN Port -- study room LAN port -- NAS with 2.5G port or Gaming PC with 2.5G adapter (if you have things like that).
 

rohitntu

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If possible, I will suggest you to get another LAN port in the living room TV console area to connect the Singtel TV Box to the DB box main router. In that case, you can use a better router in the DB box and get rid of the two Singtel routers.

For example.
Singtel ONT -- RT-AX86U WAN Port with VLAN profile
RT-AX86U LAN Port 4 -- Living room LAN ports 1 -- Singtel TV box
RT-AX86U LAN Port 1 -- Living room LAN ports 2 -- RT-AX82U mesh node
RT-AX86U LAN Port 2 -- master room LAN port -- RT-AX58U mesh node (or Zenwifi XD6)
RT-AX86U LAN Port 3 -- bedroom LAN port -- RT-AX58U mesh node if needed (or Zenwifi XD6)
RT-AX86U 2.5G LAN Port -- study room LAN port -- NAS with 2.5G port or Gaming PC with 2.5G adapter (if you have things like that).
Thanks so much. I'll consider this, but all the wiring is inside the walls, so might be hard to do this. Is there a way to use a cheap 4-port managed VLAN switch to do this for the living room?

Don't know why Singtel made it so painful with their VLAN requirement. Networks are good enough these days so not need this, especially with the crap quality they stream at.
 

xiaofan

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Thanks so much. I'll consider this, but all the wiring is inside the walls, so might be hard to do this. Is there a way to use a cheap 4-port managed VLAN switch to do this for the living room?
Don't know why Singtel made it so painful with their VLAN requirement. Networks are good enough these days so not need this, especially with the crap quality they stream at.

Yes indeed it should be possible with two VLAN capable switches like the inexpensive TP-Link TL-SG105E or TL-SG108E.

I am not an expert in VLAN but I think the following might be possible. Hopefully the experts here can chime in to help.

1) ONT -- TL-SG105E LAN port 1 (trunk port) in the DB box

2) TL-SG105E Port 2 (VLAN 10) -- RT-AX86U in DB box (main router)

3) TL-SG105E Port 3 ( trunk port) -- Second TL-SG105E Port 1 in the living room (trunk port)

4) Second TL-SG105E Port 3 (trunk port) -- SingTel AC Elite -- SingTel TV box (this one should work)

4) Second TL-SG105E Port 2 ( VLAN 10 ) -- RT-AX82U mesh node (not so sure about this one will work or not)

5) RT-AX86U (in DB box) LAN ports to other room LAN ports

6) Room LAN ports -- AImesh nodes using Zenwifi XD6 or others (no problems here)
 
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BradenHeat

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lol actually its not only VLAN thats the problem

if you read the few newer posts/ questions on newer EC/ HDB / Condo layout

the LAN ports for each room all link back to one single route, which is your commonly DB / fiber outlet in the house ,

and this is a problem for many folks, who live in larger spaces [ more than 3rm or wider hallways "between the dinning table to masterbedroom "]

the moment one needs to add another AP/ mesh, the need for a smart hub/ router/switch right after the ISP given fiber router is a must to correctly get the IP address


and thus why, the tri-band mesh systems are more recommended these days for those not too technically inclined


p.s found this brilliant site, old but gold https://www.patnotebook.com/bto-networking-singapore/
 

xiaofan

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the moment one needs to add another AP/ mesh, the need for a smart hub/ router/switch right after the ISP given fiber router is a must to correctly get the IP address

Actually it is not bad to add a router (wireless or wired) in the DB box for other ISPs. Even cheap ones like Linksys EA7500 v2 (S$10 to S$20) or Linksys EA8100 can do the job for many users. RT-AX55 can be put in the DB box as well even though I prefer to recomend RT-AX56U.

And if flashing the OpenWRT OS on the Linksys EA7500 v2 or EA8100, then it even has many advanced features.

Even if you put an RT-AX58U or RT-AX82U in the DB box, it may be better than using triband AX mesh routers (eg: Asus Zenwifi XT8) which tend to be quite expensive.

TS' issue is quite special case as a Singtel ONT customer with Singtel TV box and single lAN port in the TV console area (seems to be typical setup that two LAN ports are quite far away).

It is the same for Starhub Fibre TV users (not Starhub TV+) who has only one LAN port in the TV console area where the user wants to have both the Firbre set-top box and the main wireless router. The solution is to use VLAN switch as well. Triband AX does not really sort out the issue here.
Ref: https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/starhub-iptv-in-switched-network-help.5143406/page-6
 

rohitntu

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Looking at Asus routers, is it worth getting the AX11000 for a little extra for the main router (in DB box), maybe it will have more range?

AX11000 - 569$ (Amazon SG)
AX88U - 500$
AX82U - 350$
AX58U - 200$

So perhaps get the AX11000 in the DB box, and then AX58Us in all the bedrooms?
 

xiaofan

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Looking at Asus routers, is it worth getting the AX11000 for a little extra for the main router (in DB box), maybe it will have more range?

AX11000 - 569$ (Amazon SG)
AX88U - 500$
AX82U - 350$
AX58U - 200$

So perhaps get the AX11000 in the DB box, and then AX58Us in all the bedrooms?

If your DB box sealed or it is kind of open? Wireless signal does not penetrate walls well. And since the weak Singtel AC Elite is the main router, I feel it is wasted to buy GT-AX11000 or RT-AX88U or RT-AX86U as AP, since the strong CPU is kind of wasterd.

But it is okay to buy GT-AX11000 if your DB box is not that sealed. As mentioned a few times, please post your floor plan.

FYI Courts has promotion from time to time for the RT-AX88U (around S$400+), RT-AX86U (around S$320) and RT-AX82U (around S$240).
 

xiaofan

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Thanks. I think for your floor plan, bedroom 2 and 3 can share one wireless AP, master room need one AP, living room need one AP. Most likely three AImesh nodes will do.

1) Singtel ONT -- Singtel AC Elite main router (disable wifi) WAN port. You can change it to Singtel Mesh Router later if you run into issues

2) Singtel AC Elite -- Room LAN ports

3) Living room LAN port -- Singtel older router in AP mode (disable wifi) -- Singtel TV box in the living room

4) Singtel older router in AP mode (disable wifi) --RT-AX82U in AP mode (AIMesh main node)

5) Master room LAN port -- RT-AX82U or Zenwifi XD6 as AIMesh mesh node, you can use RT-AX58U as well.

6) Bed room 2 or 3 LAN port -- RT-AX82U or Zenwifi XD6 as AIMesh mesh node, you can use RT-AX58U as well.
 

rohitntu

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Thanks, that’s what I was thinking as well.

Whats the main difference between RT-AX82U and Zenwifi XD6? The Zenwifi looks nicer but with the hidden antenna is it slower or less capable? I am using Ethernet backhaul.
 

xiaofan

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Thanks, that’s what I was thinking as well.

Whats the main difference between RT-AX82U and Zenwifi XD6? The Zenwifi looks nicer but with the hidden antenna is it slower or less capable? I am using Ethernet backhaul.

Yes you will only want to go for Zenwifi XD6 if you like the form factor. If not just go with RT-AX82U. Both have similar HW specifications and AX5400 rating, but RT-AX82U wil have better coverage and it has one more LAN port and a USB 3.0 port.
 

Keanan

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Hi, currently I am using ASUS XT8. My current connection is :-

Fibre point wired connection (yellow optic cable) to Singtel ONR;
ONR wired connection (Lan cable , using Lan port 2 of ONR) to ASUS XT8 (placed at foyer);
ONR wired connection (using a super long Lan cable, using Lan port 1) to Singtel MIO TV box (placed at Living room about 5 meters away from foyer);

This works ok with no probs except that the running of long Lan cable is super ugly

My question is whether I can do this:-
Fibre point wired connection (yellow optic cable) to Singtel ONR;
ONR wired connection (Lan cable) to ASUS XT8 (placed at foyer);
Using the SingTel MIO tv box to connect to ANOTHER Asus XT8 node via a short Lan cable in the living room and that the Asus XT8 node and the Asus XT8 which is placed by at the foyer are connected wirelessly? This would remove the ugly sight of the long Lan cable which I had ran from the ONR to the set up box

Would the Singtel Tv box be workable? I.e connect to a node via Lan cable instead of set up box connect to the ONR
 
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