NBN Discussion

[jb747]

Then I can ditch the dodgy telco provided modem and directly connect my NBN service to a real router via VDSL interface. The telco modem is only in the path to provide the land-line phone, with my real router providing all my home LAN connectivity (3 separate VLANs, multiple PoE WiFi APs with multiple SSIDs etc.).

That sounds something like a Ubiquiti system. At the moment, all of my system except for the router modem is Unifi. I tried to install a USG a while back, but gave up. Now that I have more time, I've been looking at it again over the last few days, and fingers crossed, I'll migrate to it later today. I have a spare modem/router already set up to work with Aussie just in case it all falls over.

So there is hope for some improvement sometime in the future.

I'm not too sure I'd hold out all that much hope. I'm 700 m from the node. When first connected we had a sync at about 47 m/sec. That has since fallen to about 42 m/sec. From my reading of Whirlpool, I might see a couple of m/sec...but just as likely nothing.

 

[Quickstatus]

I

That sounds something like a Ubiquiti system. At the moment, all of my system except for the router modem is Unifi. I tried to install a USG a while back, but gave up. Now that I have more time, I've been looking at it again over the last few days, and fingers crossed, I'll migrate to it later today. I have a spare modem/router already set up to work with Aussie just in case it all falls over

I have a USG between the NBN fibre and the Cisco Switch at the Wagga place. It worked well from the start - followed instructions no probs. The only issue was the laptop did not have an Ethernet port so I had to get an adaptor so I could connect the laptop to Cisco with Ethernet during the setup

 

[NM]

That sounds something like a Ubiquiti system. At the moment, all of my system except for the router modem is Unifi. I tried to install a USG a while back, but gave up. Now that I have more time, I've been looking at it again over the last few days, and fingers crossed, I'll migrate to it later today. I have a spare modem/router already set up to work with Aussie just in case it all falls over.

My "real" router is a Cisco 1941. I was using a 2921 but it was too noisy in my office so dropped back to the 1941. The 2921 is back in my test lab where I only power it up when needed. I like being able to configure it exactly as I want it to operate - the same way as I would configure for one of our enterprise customers. With teenagers in the house, being able to control their access on one VLAN/SSID while providing open access to the important devices (Netflix, work IP phone, etc., is important to me. I guess I am old-school when it comes to configuring such routers - all from the command line interface. 22 years as a CCIE is hard to shake.

I have a EHWIC VA-DSL-A module for the router, so can remove the telco's junk box modem as soon as I can convince the other residents in my house that we don't need a home phone line any more. If the telco would share the VoIP config details, I could easily run the home phone from the Cisco router, but they refuse to provide those details because they don't believe their customers could possibly know how to configure their own device properly.

I'm not too sure I'd hold out all that much hope. I'm 700 m from the node. When first connected we had a sync at about 47 m/sec. That has since fallen to about 42 m/sec. From my reading of Whirlpool, I might see a couple of m/sec...but just as likely nothing.

I am a similar distance from the node. While around 50Mbps is more than I need, I was willing to pay for 100Mbps if I could get it. I am sure I won't notice +/- 5Mbps performance with the current usage patterns.[/QUOTE]

 

[Quickstatus]

My friends place in Jindabyne is about 500m from node but his line is consistently 100/40. In spite of this He only has a 25/5 plan

 

[moa999]

If the telco would share the VoIP config details, I could easily run the home phone from the Cisco router, but they refuse to provide those details

I am a similar distance from the node. While around 50Mbps is more than I need.

[/QUOTE]

Shift to an RSP who will provide details (not Telstra, Optus or TPG). Aussie BB will, or go with third party VOIP.

On my FTTB plan I sync at 99/38 (not higher because I still have a 4-way split on my line in),
But currently on a 25/5 plan - lets me stream anything I want and no issues with webpage loading that I notice.

 

[Quickstatus]

Thanks @moa999 didn’t know ABB will provide VoIP settings

 

[jb747]

I’ll add my vote to comments about ABB. They are generally very helpful...in exactly the same way that Telstra are not.

 

[Hvr]

I'm also with ABB and my first and only call was to configure my router upon initial connection.

It was a 40 minute call and the person spoke clearly and talked me through the process in a way that was easy to understand but not talked down to.

Since then all good so far.

 

[amaroo]

2 years NBN experience with Telstra, already posted actually speeds and service. Perfect is the word.

 

[Quickstatus]

The Wagga place is with ABB.
Only had to online chat them once - to change invoice and Service start date to 01 of the Month. Telstra would never allow that.

Easy to deal with and never had to call them again.

 

[RooFlyer]

2 years NBN experience with Telstra, already posted actually speeds and service. Perfect is the word.

Have to agree; in spite of all my misgivings, have delivered promised speeds, all the time, no drop-outs or interruptions,. Weird.

And I have no idea about what the conversations above are about - ABB, HWIC VA-DSL-A module, Ubiquiti ... mine just works. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[33kft]

And I have no idea about what the conversations above are about - ABB, HWIC VA-DSL-A module, Ubiquiti ... mine just works. Am I doing something wrong?

You wouldn't want to know, it results in a lot of lost weekends

In my opinion the only true qualification I think everyone should have is that they didn't refer to their NBN connection as "the wifi". That said for most people who didn't wire their house with Cat6 and who do most of their stuff via phone or tablet the distinction is probably fairly blurred.

 

[Hillbilly64]

What is the NBN you speak of? It's still no where near me and not planned anytime soon

Work:. They did an install last year..website said changeover by end of March. March comes...date moves to August 2020. Work is in the middle of the Gold coast

home: get the "commited to completion by end of 2020" .... They still need to put towers in so we can get line of sight as they aren't cabling where we are . (which we will never get in our location" so will eventually need a satalite I guess. (Cell service patchy, tv via vast satalite or Foxtel only. No phone line to house..road 300maway)

Anyone on NBN with line of sight?

 

[jb747]

And I have no idea about what the conversations above are about - ABB, HWIC VA-DSL-A module, Ubiquiti ... mine just works. Am I doing something wrong?

Like everything I guess. Each fraternity has it’s own language. Doctors, pilots, IT people....

As for doing something wrong, I guess not. But, my house requires a minimum of four wifi access points just to get sufficient coverage....so straight away I need switch(es). My neighbour simply uses the Telstra supplied router/switch....but his house is full of black spots. And once you start looking at access points, there’s a lot more to choose from than the simple gear that you’ll find in Harvey Norman.

Once I finish this update, my next project will be to set up a 10gb subnet....

 

[RooFlyer]

As for doing something wrong, I guess not. But, my house requires a minimum of four wifi access points just to get sufficient coverage.

I dare say you are miles in front of this, but would power line wi fi extenders be an option? At a place I stayed for a few weeks, they had these in a long house and it took the wifi to the back rooms pretty well.

 

[Quickstatus]

The problem with multiple powerline wifi extenders or really any wifi extenders is that the SSID (the name of the wifi you are logging into) cannot be the same for each wifi extender whereas Mesh wifi can have the same SSID for the multiple access points. Access point is the device which broadcasts wifi to and receives wifi from the wifi devices like tablets, laptios and phones.

With different SSID, it is likely that the devices will lock on to the strongest one until it no longer receives that signal but if there are 2 or more wifi signals it will only lock on to the first one even though after roaming through the house the first one is no longer the strongest. A Mesh (as its name implies) is more or less seamless.

SSID = service set identifier = the name of the wifi network.

 

[33kft]

I've got 2 APs at home connected via Cat6 throughout the house. I've rolled my own solution (using OpenWRT/LEDE on TP-Link Archer c7s) rather than using an out of the box solution. I use WPA2-Enterprise which means single SSID for all users with Radius deciding which VLAN to put a user in. I also have a lot of wifi devices (for example, every bulb in the house is either a Lifx downlight or a wifi bulb) which makes things interesting.

I see differing behaviour depending on circumstance. If I lost power to the house completely, the clients would often distribute pretty evenly. If I reboot an AP, it will take a long time before any clients re-register with that AP. That said, back before I did all this I did quite a bit of reading and the short and long of it is that some technologies use part of the spectrum to relay traffic back and forward and this means a reduction in overall speed. For me, multiple APs in the same SSID have worked very well and provide decent throughput, and the most important thing being that I have quarantined all of the smart home devices (Google Home, Lights, Cameras, Hubs and whatnot) in a vlan behind a firewall so I can keep filter and keep an eye on them before they start doing anything too dodgy.

Right now a quick count shows 81 clients connected to the North AP and 27 to the south AP so I would say less than balanced, but it is only recently that I put in the downlights and they are biased more towards the north (living/dining/kitchen and main bedroom) than the south, so it's about time I got a new AP and stuck it dead centre to even things out.

 

[Quickstatus]

@33kft
Whats the floor area of your house and single or double storey?

I had deployed 2 out of the box Linksys Velops in the Wagga place which has an internal floor area of 250m2 single storey.

The only issue with the LsV is that the data backhaul for each LsV runs in a daisy chain unless I run one of the LsV between the Unifi Security Gateway and the Cisco switch. (A daisy chain backhaul means the data backhauls between switch to LsV to LsV and so on.

Currently the backhaul is via a reserved 5Ghz channel rather than Ethernet. Eventually will change out the LsV for a Ubiquiti Wifi access point with an Ethernet backhaul to the switch.

Ive always been an Ethernet rather than Wifi person - I prefer less microwave radiation than more...so minimising the total number of
wifi clients is an ongoing project for me.

The current challenge is the Sonos network. Sonos uses the house SSID but each sonos device communicates with each other via a private 2.4Ghz network. Im trying to get a reliable Ethernet solution for the Sonos devices.

 

[33kft]

Floor area is around 220sqm, single storey. The APs are at effectively absolute ends of the house, the way my Cat6 is run it is to small panels in 3 different parts of the house, so I have direct connectivity to both the north and south APs from the centre so adding another would be trivial if I needed to.

 

[Quickstatus]

Will a 3rd AP cause adjacent channel interference (co-channel interference) from too much power?