Setting Up A Mesh Network In Your Home - tips and links

If you buy an older place, you need to check if the fibre cable is still working, and you also need to brush up on certain terms:

FTP (first termination point)

ONT (Optical Network Terminal - also called the modem) connects to the First Termination Point (TP)

https://support.myrepublic.com.sg/hc/en-us/articles/115003469974-Basic-ONT-Modem-Information-and-Troubleshooting



OpenNet is the local company assigned to install the FTP, now they are called Netlink Trust. Intially they have gotten a bad rep simply because they were overwhelmed. Everyone was going into fibre a few years bad. 

You need to call them to do the FTP setup. But first, find out if your home has already been reached by optical fibre. Then check if the line still works. Eg, if your builder has cut the line, then you might be in trouble.

Now those chaps will charge you $160 for apartments or $288 for landed properties. You need to give them 2 weeks notice and select from a menu of dates. Then they will survey and tell you if they need to lay a line. 

http://www.netlinktrust.com/our-business/our-business/residential-fibre.html

Do note, your best laid plans can go to waste - I had laid a conduit but they refused to use it, and luckily for me, my electrician had found the existing fibre, tested it and it works. So we reused it. They even gave me the option of laying another but we decided against that since the cable doesn't really break down. 

So they put an FTP point in my storeroom, where my future electricals will be. 

So here's what you need to get set up :

http://www.starhub.com/personal/for-your-home/home-broadband/getting-ready.html

Devices you need to get connected

Termination Point

The Termination Point is where you can get connected to the fibre broadband network. This will be installed in your home by OpenNet, the Network company in charge of designing, building and operating the fibre connection.

Optical Network Terminal

The Optical Network Terminal connects to the Termination Point, and is provided by our partner, Nucleus Connect.

Just get opennet to install the fibre connection to your preferred area. I buried the cable under my living room and it leads into the storeroom which is neat. That will be the place where the all my LAN points, phone lines etc will end up. 


Here's a link to some schematics:
https://www.imda.gov.sg/community/consumer-education/fibre-broadband/fibre-connection-to-homes




So the OpenNet chaps came - 

Like I said, forget your best laid plans, they may just lay it their way. Trunking and all. Luckily my old cable works.

When choosing a spot, remember to decide early on if you are going to have Mesh or just a regular wifi setup.

But wherever you can, use LAN and get at least cat 6. 

Now what about Mesh?

First a link to a simple explanation: 
https://www.howtogeek.com/290418/what-are-mesh-wi-fi-systems-and-how-do-they-work/

Essentially, Mesh gives a nice coverage of wifi in your home. It's especially useful in homes with lots of dead zones, walls, or landed homes with many floors.

There are a few solutions, each with their own pro and cons, and you can check on the wide variety online...

Some important suggestions:

Make sure your vendor supports it. Eg, Singtel Fibre uses a different VLAN so, no joy for that. 

For the primary access point, make sure it's quite central and the signal can reach the second wifi point easily.

Using LAN to connect is better and prevents slowdowns.

Now if you have a dedicated area or room for your switches, routers and the FTP, you may want to send a signal via LAN to the first access point from the ONT, then route it back to your switch located in your storeroom / server area. 

This allows the Mesh Wifi to reach the other points more easily as the signal will be stronger. 


If your staircase area / landing is in the centre of your multi-story home, it makes it a logical area to put the Mesh wifi device. Make sure there is a LAN point, a power point as well. You may even want to site your phone line there.

Some of these positions for the Mesh device are only finalised after some trial and error, so feel free to experiment!



Make sure your vendor supports it. Eg, Singtel Fibre uses a different VLAN so, no joy for that. 

https://peteswrite.blogspot.com/2019/01/setting-up-mesh-network-in-your-home.
html]https://peteswrite.blogspot.com/2019/01/setting-up-mesh-network-in-your-home.html

For the primary access point, make sure it's quite central and the signal can reach the second wifi point easily.



Using LAN to connect is better and prevents slowdowns.



Now if you have a dedicated area or room for your switches, routers and the FTP, you may want to send a signal via LAN to the first access point from the ONT, then route it back to your switch located in your storeroom / server area. 



This allows the Mesh Wifi to reach the other points more easily as the signal will be stronger. 

You can get Google wifi devices from US, but don't expect Starhub to install them.

So some personal tips:
- get LAN points all around. That way you won't slow down your wifi / Mesh. 
- If your ONT is in a storeroom, pull out a LAN line to the living room and another back into the storeroom. 
- make sure each room has a LAN point or more
- get a TP link switch, US sells them cheap - around 70USD.

So the Starhub man came, it was a little worrisome when his first words were - "you are using a US Google" - thankfully he was kind enough to give enough pointers and Google Mesh was really simple to setup.
First thing one should do: Download the app before your Internet Provider Comes!
So from the storeroom, a single Lan line goes out to the LAN port, and from that, another LAN point adjacent to it, is attached to the LAN out from the Mesh device. Now you have your first Access Point. 
The app will try to locate this first AP and once that's done, then use LAN to beam it across the room, then Google app will do the needful update of your devices - takes about 5 mins.. and the app takes you through the process in a very simple fashion ala Mac.
Then plug the second Mesh into another LAN point, get the app to add this and any more Mesh devices and in about 30 mins, I was up and running. The app has it's own speed test function and I'm getting around 800 mps for up and downloading.  Sweet.