A New Kind of Mesh

I have a 500 MBit internet at my apartment but the modem and wifi transmitter that came with it was rather weak. The signals into my bedroom were at time and the repeater I had on one of the corridors did not transmit well, and the speed was much slower than I hoped.

Ready for the unboxing!Banking on the performance ...All neatly laid out ...I had been reading about making myself a mesh network at home but most of the setup were tricky. Then I came across the Orbi system. It came in two units - the main transmitter and the satellite which I placed in my bedroom.

It was not perfect but I was able to get consistent speed in access of 200 MBit in my room which was great. There were also less interference when I got my TV, PS4, hifi and the rest connected to the network. Setting up was also straight forward enough mostly through a web browser. Since I started using it, it had yet to crash.

Sorting out the placementThe main unit would be at the old office... and the satellite unit was in my bedroomUnfortunately the system was not exactly cheap. In the end, for the speed I was managing to get it was certainly worth it ...

Speedy Gonzalez

Finally the day came for the installation to be made. I was offered a new Internet connection to our apartment a couple of weeks back and I didn't think twice. A new 500 Mbs Internet cable were being installed and I was the first few to sign up.

The installation was quick. And at the end of the work, we got a top speed of 420 Mbs up and down. Unfortunately the internal cables couldn't cope with the speed, but I won't go around complaining. That sort of speed were something most people could only dream of.

I managed to download my Mac OS update in 39 seconds. The size of the update file? Just over 2 Gb. I was sure that the speed would hover around 250 Mbs as I got more devices connected to the network. But that would be more than enough for Netflix. In 4K.

Non-Connection

Maybe some people wished that they can stay as far away from civilisation when they go on holiday. But for me, it was the opposite. I wanted to be connected. In fact, it would be the only time which I can be connected without needing to worry about work. Where I could blog to my heart content and get connected!

Here at Smokehouse, there was hardly any good connection. I had all three telco connection with me - Celcom was down to just EDGE and crawling at that. Digi had 3G, but the speed was well below 1 Mbs, in town, with most no connection at Smokehouse. Maxis was possibly the most acceptable, registering HSPDA in places but still very poor speed. Again almost nothing at the hotel.

So, the best bet was wifi. The hotel actually had wifi but the speed was really, really poor. Pathetically poor in fact. Back in 2012, I could get 5 Mbs here, but now, forget it!

I had to listen to my boys complaining all day about the connection. Hopefully they would appreciate the 5Mbs connection they had at the apartment from now on. They couldn't wait to get back to base, and so was I. Hence, I was not able to blog - although sometime I got lucky! I still managed to get the occasional emails and WhatsApp connection. So, I you wanted to be connected all the time, Smokehouse was not the place for you .... But imagine if there was LTE there ......

That Was Quick!

Was at a Celcom branch yesterday to settle my bill - yes, I activated data roaming during my recent trips! - and i started to test the LTE speed in the branch!

Holy cow! This one was fast! It soon slow down the moment I stepped out of the store. It was not helped by the fact that there was a Maxis branch right opposite .....

Extra Coverage

We have been strugling with broadband coverage in the house lately since our main router is almost 4 years old. And then our wifi extender gave up on us last week. I tried dragging my old P1 router from Gombak but the signal inside the apartment was too weak. No joy!

Time for an upgrade.

I went for a new router first - a Linksys WRT1900AC - and should things worked out OK with the upgrade, I would decide on an extender later. So far, the signal in our bedroom from my study appeared to be steady but it could be more stable.

The new router also allowed for a 5GHz transmission, extending the signal further. But despite the upgrade, the signal at the dining room was still too weak. With the 5 GHz setup, I noticed that the upload speed was cut down.

Maybe I needed to do a bit of tweaking to get things really moving. Suffice to say, setting up a network was not my strong suit.