HELP with choosing/setting up a MODEM/ROUTER for slingshot fibre

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › HELP with choosing/setting up a MODEM/ROUTER for slingshot fibre

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#1269147 27-Mar-2015 17:21

richms: It will probably do it if the device also supports it. Its off by default on several laptops I have looked at because performance is typically a lot worse than 20MHz, and some devices will just not support it at all.

It may also only enable it if the extension channel is clear, which it almost never is. Thats part of some spec for wifi but its part that everyone ignores because what is important for end users is seeing a larger number in the connection statistics because that is like signal bars - all but useless other than to make people feel good.

there is no setting at all for it

Jase2985

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#1269162 27-Mar-2015 17:28

littleheaven: the ASUS RT-AC68U is about $150 outside his budget.

Kepster: try the Netcomm NF8AC, does ADSL/VDSL/Fibre, along with wireless N300 and AC1300 and is about $205. It should show significant improvements in speed if you devices support it.

kepster

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#1269278 27-Mar-2015 20:53

Jase2985: littleheaven: the ASUS RT-AC68U is about $150 outside his budget.

Kepster: try the Netcomm NF8AC, does ADSL/VDSL/Fibre, along with wireless N300 and AC1300 and is about $205. It should show significant improvements in speed if you devices support it.

Thanks so much for all your replies... Not a networking wizard but I get the gist of what you are all saying! So thanks!

Yeah I will research the gear you mentioned. Is it family easy to configure? Meaning make slingshot work with it and all? And yes most of my devices can use 5ghZ

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#1269281 27-Mar-2015 20:58

should be there are a few guides out there and having looked at the manual seems pretty straight forward to setup if you know the ISP's settings

webwat

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#1269345 27-Mar-2015 22:49

The signal is reduced in the next room because of the wall, not because of the router. Get a wifi access point as suggested that can handle 5GHz, and put closer to where you need to use it because 5GHz is even more sensitive to walls. The catch is that you need to get a LAN cable to wherever you put the wifi access point. You may also be able to check which wifi channels are the most busy and setup your router to use the other channel, theres plenty of apps that will do it.

I also turn on the RTS function in my router and set RTS to 1024 just in case theres any congestion, you could try that if all channels are just as congested.

Check whether you laptop has same performance on wireless. Check whether theres any settings in your router that need to be enabled because it sounds like its operating on 54Mbps wifi at the moment. Ensure that WPA2 is the encryption method.

Time to find a new industry!

kepster

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#1269435 28-Mar-2015 10:20

webwat: The signal is reduced in the next room because of the wall, not because of the router. Get a wifi access point as suggested that can handle 5GHz, and put closer to where you need to use it because 5GHz is even more sensitive to walls. The catch is that you need to get a LAN cable to wherever you put the wifi access point. You may also be able to check which wifi channels are the most busy and setup your router to use the other channel, theres plenty of apps that will do it.

I also turn on the RTS function in my router and set RTS to 1024 just in case theres any congestion, you could try that if all channels are just as congested.

Check whether you laptop has same performance on wireless. Check whether theres any settings in your router that need to be enabled because it sounds like its operating on 54Mbps wifi at the moment. Ensure that WPA2 is the encryption method.

Thanks for this. I'll try this one first before buying a new router. I have an ld Lynksis E3000 that i can use i think as an access point and im sure there are instructions on how to do this online.

ta!

phantasmNZ

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#1281075 11-Apr-2015 13:32

The problem, as discussed elsewhere on GZ, is that the TP150 is pretty awful in just about every way (as is the VDSL energy imports modem) - even SS techs agree. I had the same problem when I first switched - I was seeing about 20/20 on wireless, and about 90/20 wired.

Probably the easiest option is to add an access point wired ethernet to the router. This will certainly increase your bandwidth even with a modest AP (the wireless on the TP150 is quite awful). you still end up with the TP150 in control of your network,, limited to about 90mbit throughput due to it having only fast ethernet ports. less than ideal.

You can change the router though - you just need to make really sure that the router you buy to replace it will definitely support using VLAN 10 on the WAN port. I'm using an ASUS RT-AC66U (note that only the RT series actually natively supports VLAN 10 on the WAN, not the DSL series).

The second thing to consider is your phone line - this will be connected to the FXS ports on the TP150. Unfortunately, there's not all that much choice in non-ISP consumer routers which come with an analogue phone port. The actual phone connection over your internet is a pretty much as standard-as-they-come SIP extension - so you have a few options:

If you rarely use your phone, you can install a SIP client on your computer/device (there's the free (ad supported) X-lite which works well
you can buy an "ATA" (analogue telephone adapter) such as the linksys PAP2T (you can find them for about $50 on TradeMe)
you can actually use the TP150 as an ATA itself (which is what I'm doing). You just have to configure the WAN to use "standard" rather than "VMUX" (VLAN)

Make sure you make a backup of your TP150 config before you start - you'll need this if anything goes wrong..! you will also need this for options 1 and 2 to get your SIP registration password - it's stored in plaintext in the XML config file.

after doing this, I've found great improvements - I can often get a few Mb over 100- particularly at night - even over wireless

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Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

StructureDr

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#1281853 13-Apr-2015 10:02

kepster: Hi,

Haven't posted in here for a long time now please bear with me.

I am with Slingshot Fibre 100/30 and current very satisfied with the internet speed using my computer which is connected via LAN. But there is a huge drop in net speeds using WIFI. Now i know this is expected but i was thinking if the speed can be improved by changing the momem/router supplied by them?

If the answer is yes then can yuo suggest a reasonably priced gear please around $150 - $200 range. And also is it easy enough to configure?

Thanks in advance!!!

Cheers,
Leo

We're in a similar situation (Slingshot 100/30 plan) and added a D-Link DIR 868L to resolve the poor wifi issue and also to improve routing - the D-Link has a gigabit switch built in so internal network works better. The price is below $200, and sometimes drops a bit lower - we got a $50 cashback from memory.

Ideally would have totally removed the Tripleplay, but couldn't be bothered sorting out the alternatives for the phone. Ideally Slingshot would just put the phone through the ONT points that are sitting there unused...

kdn

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#1316672 3-Jun-2015 10:46

I am also wondering, went to sign up for a new slingshot fibre plan and they seem to indicate you have to use their fritzbox router. I have no need at all for the voip line, just want the internet.

I assume Chorus will leave a media converter on my premise and I can attach my own router to ethernet port? Do I just need a device that can tag vlan 10 and support dhcp? is PPPoE required on my router or is that done by the chorus media converter?

I am thinking a Cisco 3550 would make a decent UFB router but it does not support PPPoE

phantasmNZ

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#1316681 3-Jun-2015 10:54

hmm... a fritzbox would be highly desirable compared to what you really get (unless they have now changed which I know they were looking at)

All you need to connect your own router is

Ethernet WAN port (copper - Chorus installs an "ONT" - actually a router but you don't get to play with it - you will plug in here with a Cat5e/cat6 patch cable)
VLAN (10) Support
PPPoE (sorry!)

if you want to use the voice line then you can, with a bit of config, set up the slingshot modem to think your LAN is the WAN and the phone will work (essentially using it as an ATA)

S

kdn

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#1316702 3-Jun-2015 11:30

Thanks for that info good to know.

They charge $275 for the fritz if you sign up for 12 months, or free for 24 months.

I have some old Juniper ssg firewalls lying around I could use, would rather not have them i production though!

NonprayingMantis

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#1316757 3-Jun-2015 12:35

kdn: I am also wondering, went to sign up for a new slingshot fibre plan and they seem to indicate you have to use their fritzbox router. I have no need at all for the voip line, just want the internet.

I assume Chorus will leave a media converter on my premise and I can attach my own router to ethernet port? Do I just need a device that can tag vlan 10 and support dhcp? is PPPoE required on my router or is that done by the chorus media converter?

I am thinking a Cisco 3550 would make a decent UFB router but it does not support PPPoE

are you sure you aren't looking at Snap, not Slingshot?

Snap do the Fritzbox. Pretty sure Slingshot don't.

Chorus install the ONT on your premise (essentially the equivalent of the 'modem' when it comes to DSL) then you can just plug a router into it.

With UFB, most providers (Spark, VF, Snap, Slingshot, Orcon) requires your router is capable of VLAN tagging, which generally means an increase in cost, but some providers (Bigpipe, MyRepublic) do not require that, and so pretty much any router will work.
(of course, you don't want some piece of junk that cant handle the speeds, so don't get the cheapest one ever but it does mean if you already have a decent router with Gb ethernet you can just use that)

kdn

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#1316765 3-Jun-2015 13:13

Sorry my bad yes meant snap.

Agree on not getting a junky router too. thats why a Cisco switch would have been ideal. Actually one of my customers got UFB installed through Chorus and all we had to do was tag vlan 10, pickup an address on the SVI via DHCP, set the default route via DHCP and that was all go. No need for PPPoE at all, no need to send username or password at all or dialer interface. Was hoping it might be the same case for snap!

shk292

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#1316817 3-Jun-2015 13:53

phantasmNZ: hmm... a fritzbox would be highly desirable compared to what you really get (unless they have now changed which I know they were looking at)

All you need to connect your own router is

Ethernet WAN port (copper - Chorus installs an "ONT" - actually a router but you don't get to play with it - you will plug in here with a Cat5e/cat6 patch cable)
VLAN (10) Support
PPPoE (sorry!)

if you want to use the voice line then you can, with a bit of config, set up the slingshot modem to think your LAN is the WAN and the phone will work (essentially using it as an ATA)

S

Is it possible to configure an alternative router to do voice as well? I have a HG659 from VF that I'd like to use on Slingshot UFB due to its Gbe ports and dual-band WiFi. I suppose one solution would be to use this just as a switch and AP, behind the Slingshot tripleplay, but I'd like to get down to a single device if possible

phantasmNZ

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#1316854 3-Jun-2015 15:22

shk292:

Is it possible to configure an alternative router to do voice as well? I have a HG659 from VF that I'd like to use on Slingshot UFB due to its Gbe ports and dual-band WiFi. I suppose one solution would be to use this just as a switch and AP, behind the Slingshot tripleplay, but I'd like to get down to a single device if possible

Yes, but you have to have the SIP capability and analogue phone ports in your router. This pushes the price way up there (looking at one of the higher end Draytek models for example). The voice is simply a SIP endpoint, nothing fancy tbh - but most consumer routers don't include the ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter) functionality.

IFAIK, the HG659 certainly has the "technical" capability to act as your single router - but you may struggle to make it work that way, as the firmware for this (and other similar devices) is controlled by the ISP and you can't get "generic" ones - so you may find the box is hard coded (so to speak) to only connect to Vodafone SIP servers (disclaimer I've not worked directly with this device so don't know)

That said, stick a decent router directly on to the ONT, and have the old tripleplay cabled to it and next to your phone (or bridged into your house jackpoints) and it's not too major a problem. The tripleplay does OK at the phone job.

You could also consider ditching the analogue phone altogether and get a SIP phone as your primary "fixed" line. Remember your phone doesn't work in a powercut any more anyway - so make sure you have a good reason to stick with the traditional technology

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