My Home Network Updates

Date:  Mar 10, 2012

This is my finalized design of my home network.  It has been running for the past 7 months with ultimate performance.  :)

This is my washing area/kitchen.  Behind the wall on the right hand side is where OpenNet put their TP (Termination Point).  You can see I placed my ONT (Optical Network Termination) boxes there.  The main reason is I do not allow SingTel, or OpenNet to drill holes, and placed those ugly cable run from the front entrance.  So, I asked them to come in via the back door.  And the backdoor is the washing area / kitchen.  My network cabinet/cupboard is at the main entrance there.  It is there where all my entire apartment CAT6 cable runs are centralised.  And, I do not have a cable between this two location.  So, what did I do?

So, in order to connect from the kitchen, I make used of two technologies.  Homeplug via the powerline and AirWire via the 5.8Ghz wifi space.  From the ONT location, there is no wired / CAT6 cable going to the network cabinet which is just left side of the kitchen (viewing from here).

That is my network cabinet.  All the CAT6 network point in the house, except the kitchen, all come back to here.

By the way, in my place, I have both ViewQwest and SingTel Fiber Broadband network.  The SingTel fiber broadband is notorious of throttle your traffic if they detect a slight abnomal traffic.  Once they throttle your traffic, all traffic will be slow.  So, I gave this network to my wife to use.  As she will always use it for her WebEx, Video Conferencing, etc.  As for me, I use it for my day to day web surfing and so on, I used ViewQwest Fiber Broadband that does not throttle my traffic at the moment.

1.)  So, for Singtel, I bought a pair of Airwave from X Concept.  They are the distributor of Airwave.  Now, they are located at #07-04, Burlington Square.

I have used it for almost 7 months.  And it is still working fine.  I got this from X Concept.  This is a product from Ubiquiti Networks.  http://www.ubnt.com/.  A pair of this will connect at 5.8Ghz Wifi frequencies, without line of sight.  So, from the kitchen to my network cabinet.  It is brainless, simply connect and plug and play.  It is like a real cable like that.  except that they uses Wireless to connect the two points.

OK.  I know, I know, I am a techical guy, I can set up a switch and create a VLAN and pump it thru the power line using homeplug.  Those are the good old days, when you have 2 kids, your time seems to vanish pretty fast.  ahhaha so brainless thing will always catch my attention.

2)  So far, this is the most reliable homeplug that I have tested.  It has not been down, and does not need to reset it all the time as in the 1Gbps version.  It also have a noise filter, where you plug almost other things in there.  This one, I place it just opposite my dryer and washing machine.  My domestic helper wash cloths during day time, where all of us are working.  So, I did not get a chance to test weather the noise level is high during the washing and drying.  So far, I am happy with it.

In my network cabinet, I plugged a plug extender on the noise filter of the homeplug.  That means every single electronics, i.e. switches, routers, etc are plugged in and pass thru the Aztech homeplug.  Except the NAS, I plug it separately.

3)  SSID Mouse9 inside the network cabinet.  This is ASUS Black Diamond, the best WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN router in the market.

4)  SSID Mouse5, running SingTel network, resides in my study room for my lovely wife to use.  Of course, the switch below is running ViewQwest network.

6)  As I threw away the SingTel's 2wire router.  I need this managed switch Cisco SLM2008 to untag the VLANS for me from Singtel Fiber Broadband.  I do this is to increase the performance of WAN to LAN network.  Singtel's 2wire is really crappy!

7)  SSID Mouse3, sitting at the TV Console area, provides internet and Wifi exclusively to Apple TV, Wii and XBox, and my Internet Radio.  Apple Airport Extreme does the work here.  When you Airplay the movie on your IOS devices, it is fast!

8)  The Internet Radio.

9)  SSID Mouse6 in my bed room.  I can received 2-3 bars Wifi Signal from Mouse9, but that is not enough.  so, I put my Apple Airport Express here.

Related Posts:

From here you can explore more related topics at the botom of this post.

http://miniliew.blogspot.com/2011/05/bye-bye-singtel-2wire-5012nv.html

Malaysia Boleh! - Buy This Toy...

Date: Aug 25, 2011

Usually I don't remember what is the exchange rate of SGD to MYR (Ringgit).

I Am surprise to see that it is S$1 to RM2.46. That is high! That means buying power!

Usually this is selling around $5.50 in Singapore, but I picked this up from the Airport at the price of RM10.90 which is S$4.43, that is more than S$1 savings! BUY!!

Do you remember the ASUS Black Diamond that I am very proud of? I bought it at S$220 from Sim Lim, and found that a small small in IMM selling S$209. But yesterday at Loyat IT mall, I got it at RM459, which is S$189. Wow! This is more than S$30 savings we are taking about!

 

And the later I soon find out all Apple products are seems to be cheaper... Most of the IT products are cheaper!

 

Buy buy buy!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone4

Location:Jalan Klia S3,Klia,Malaysia

 

Network Performance (1) - Wireless Comparing

Date:  Aug 21, 2011

I found a good benchmark tool from the Synology web admin pages.  Let's learn about our WiFi signal using this tool.

It is called "Resource Monitor".

The resource monitor basically runs the monitoring to monitor the Synology Harddisk.  It monitors CPU, Memory usage and Network Flow.

So, with the Synology connecting to my Cisco SLM2000 managed switch at 1000Mbps port speed.  The Synology will always be "constant" or "fixed".

Today, the matter subject is two of my Access Point.

1) ASUS Black Diamond who is connecting directly to the SLM2000 switch.

2) Apple AirPort Extreme who is connecting to the same switch but it is located in my study room, which is connecting by a cat6 internal wiring.  Bear in mind, the cat6 internal cable should give greater throughput then wireless itself and it may have some distant losses there.

Here is the result.  I am transferring a 939.4MB movie file, i.e. "2012.480p.mkv" to and from the Synology onto my Macbook Air with SSD harddisk.

Test A.  The file is downloaded onto the laptop at the speed close to 8000KB/s.  This is equivalent to about 62.5Mbps.  (8000KB/s / 1024K/M x 8b/B = 62.5Mb/s)  I am connecting to Apple Extreme which is 0.5 Meter away from my laptop.

Observations:

Here you notice that the file transfer rate is high at first, about 14000KB/s (about 109.375Mbps) but then, it actually drop back to 8000KB/s.  This is WiFi characteristics.  The signal strange can change even during a stationary position.  It all depends on how the signal amplifies and bounced back from walls, as well as any other people using the WiFi device.

Also, this Apple Airport Extreme supported 802.11N.  So, on the paper it says 300Mbps.  And you will never get that speed.  See, the top speed we got is 109.375Mbps.  (I have done a couple of times, result is similar).

Test B.  Then, at the same location, I switch my WiFi to ASUS Black Diamond which is located beside the switch, and it is far at the other end of the study room.  Which is about 15 Meter away.

Observations:

Again, ASUS Black Diamond is a 802.11N, and with a distant of 15 Meter away, the connection actually stable at around 6000KB/s (about 48.875Mbps).  Both upload and download seems to be consistent.

Test 3.  I move my laptop to 0.5 Meter away from ASUS Black Diamond.

Observations:

As you can see, the transfer rate is about 58.59Mbps (7500MB/s).  ASUS Black Diamond, has similar or slightly lower performance then Apple Airport Extreme in terms of WiFi-to-LAN or LAN-to-WiFi performance.  If you recall, the ASUS Black Diamond is superior in LAN-to-WAN and WAN-to-LAN performance.

Test 4.  Now, At 0.5 Meter away from the ASUS Black Diamond, I switched the WiFi back to Apple Airport Extreme which is about 15 Meter away.  And then, about half way, I walked back to the Study room with the laptop and sit down eventually beside the Apple Airport Extreme.

Observations:  As you can see, when I move, the signal strength got stronger, and managed to increased from 4000KB/s to 7500KB/s.  But do notice that, when you move further away, Apple Airport Extreme tends to drop to quite low.  (i.e. 4000KB/s to 7500KB/s).  But for Black Diamond, it fluctuated from 6000KB/s to 7500KB/s).

So, with this simple test, as a conclusion,

1)  To determine a good AP (Access Point), the Signal has to be consistent as possible, while you are on the move.  Some AP is very good when you are near.  Some, is fluctuate at higher differences.

2)  You have to choose the best location for your Wifi.  To do so, click on "About the Mac"

then, click More Info

Then, click "System Report", then select "Wi-Fi" under "Network" you will find your signal strength.  As you can see, the signal strength for Mouse9=ASUS Black Diamond which is 15 meter away is -73dBm / -91 dBm (noise)

Scroll down, and you should be able to see all your others WiFi Access point at home…  Such as Mouse3 = Apple Airport Extreme which is 0.5 meter away.  Has -30dBm / -85dBm Signal and Noise.

Just look at another AP I have, which is the Apple Airport Express which is located inside my bedroom, with a door and wall blocking where I am now.  The signal is even worst.

What is dBm?

All numbers are given in decibels (dB) and are expressed as negative numbers.

Smaller numbers i.e. 10dB, is more strength than -90dB.

Signal -> Low is good.  i.e. -10dB is better than -85dB.

Noise -> High is good.  i.e. -85dB is better than -10dB.  (lower noise)

For example, if you have

Signal = -30dBm

Noise = -85dBm

SNR = Signal - Noise = -30dBm - (-85dBm) = 55dBm (SNR is Signal Noise Ratio)

Signal Quality = Signal/Noise X SNR = -30dBm/-85dBm x 55dBm = 19.4% Signal Quality

The higher signal quality the better.

Here are some Myths about Wi-Fi Interference.

It is a nice reading from Cisco, to understand more about Wi-Fi interference.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps9391/ps9393/ps9394/prod_white_paper0900aecd807395a9_ns736_Networking_Solutions_White_Paper.html

 

Wow, Microsoft also have good documents to teach people how to improve their WiFi at home.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/wirelesstips.aspx

 

Some Wiki about WiFi.  You will find out from 802.11, there is only 3 REAL Channels.  Although they always claims that there are 11 channels.  Out of the 11 channels, only channel 1, 6 and 11 are REAL channels, and the rest are somewhat overlapped.  And thus, more interference will occurred.  But bear in mind, all the AP vendors knows that too, and they will tends and try to use 1, 6, 11 too.  So, there is no real solutions to get around this but to trust your AP intelligence to provide you the best channel.

http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi

 

Home Network Improvement Plan - Asus Black Diamond

Date:  July 29, 2011

I just got a new router.  I bought it in Sim Lim for S$220.  But later, when I shop at IMM, one of the computer store beside Challenger is selling at S$209.

Before that, I replaced my home Internet network router and throw away Singtel useless 2Wire 5012NV Fiber Broadband router (now it is only used for deliverying MIO TV).  I was using a D-link DIR-655.  The Wireless AP served me well for the pass two years.  It's time to change.

My friend Larry introduced me to a website that has router comparisons.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31436-asus-rt-n56u-black-diamond-dual-band-gigabit-wireless-n-router-reviewed

Go to this website, and start selecting your next router...  For me, I choose "Total Simultaneous Throughput" and you get ASUS Black Diamond Dual-Band Gigabit Wireless-N Router (RT-56U) as the top runner.

And If I compare with the D-Link DIR-655, which is ranked 20th from the top.

My Apple Extreme (ranked 14th) at home is much faster than the DIR-655 ...

And in my office, I think they recently bought a Netgear WNR3500L which is ranked 18th ...

But all these routers I have seen is no where compared with Asus Black Diamond!!!  It is three times faster than my Apple Extreme.  And the router is stylist too.  One thin piece of devise standing vertically.

Now, how good is this router and its AP (Wireless) function... Here are some of the test I have done in the office and at home...

In Office We have two Wireless Access Point Router, where one ofthem is the newly bought Netplus WNR3500L... So, I run the speed test on it... As you can see I can achieve 5.7Mbps download and 7.8Mbps upload.  And I am doing the test ping to the Jakarta speed test server.

Then, I disconnect the netplus, and log on to the 2nd wireless router.  I don't know what router is that, but I suspect is a cheap router too.  I will not use this AP router as a reference, as it goes to another broadband link that connects to NewMedia Test server.  I provided it here to give a reference.

Then, when I plug in my new ASUS Black Diamond.... WOW... I am speechless.  I managed to get 9.1Mbps download and 14Mbps upload.  I am impressed.

So, I re-run another round of testing... just to make sure I don't get some isolated results... and the results came back almost similar...

So, next thing I do, is to go back home immediately, and re-run the test at home.  So, at home, before replacing the router, this is what I get... 13.35Mbps DOWN and 16.71Mbps UP.

And after I plug that ASUS Black Diamond in, replacing the DIR-655...  The speed becomes 26.77Mbps DOWN and 23.85Mbps UP.  That is what I am talking about.  I had an OpenNet fiber, with Singtel Fiber Internet service of 50Mbps.  My speed should at least closer to 50Mbps, right.

So, I am speechless after I see all the result and I am very happy!

So, I go do more research.... For WAN to LAN Thruput, this is to let the Internet come into your home, handled by your router.

For LAN to WAN Thruput, where your Internet going out...

For Maximum Simultaneous Connections.... this is for P2P download... how mcuh you can handle when you download torrents... ASUS Black Diamond is #6 not too far behind..

The 2.4Ghz Wireless Downlink thruput, Black Diamond scored #3...

I think I made a right choice for the router... and I am damn happy about it.  The performance I get is much better than before... and I can feel the speed is very stable too.

GET IT NOW!

I am still keeping my Apple Airport Extreme and Apple Airport for home Wifi access.  :)