Advice needed - WiFi Modem

Tubbsy

Packin' a small bird
Staff member
Alright, an update.

Had the tech come for a visit and it turns out others in the street have had issues too. Something near the node was failing, and now I'm connected to a node that's much closer.

They have installed a mini DSLAM (whatever the fuck that is, a new node?) in the street out the front of my house.

Now I have 75mbps down, 30mbps up over wifi.

Winning.
 

dancaseyimages

Mountain bike pornographer
Alright, an update.

Had the tech come for a visit and it turns out others in the street have had issues too. Something near the node was failing, and now I'm connected to a node that's much closer.

They have installed a mini DSLAM (whatever the fuck that is, a new node?) in the street out the front of my house.

Now I have 75mbps down, 30mbps up over wifi.

Winning.
If you talked to customer service, depending on your provider, since its their fault they can usually help you out with a discount off your bill.
I got throttled last year through faulty wiring to our house (while Uni was in the exam period) and we got half price bills for 3 months through TPG.
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
They have installed a mini DSLAM (whatever the fuck that is, a new node?) in the street out the front of my house.

Now I have 75mbps down, 30mbps up over wifi.

Winning.
DSLAM is a DSL Access Mux used to group together the copper xDSL phone lines from your local area and pop them on a faster medium - usually fibre - upsteam backhaul to your RSP.

75Mbps is great and the short distance you are from it should keep your speed high. Don't mess with anything, leave it all alone now :)
 

stirk

Burner
I have no idea what you just said, but it sounds good!
A DSLAM is like a big modem normally installed in the local telephone exchange connecting to the next layer in the network and so on until you get to the porn site you are surfing. The closer you are with a copper line connection to the DSLAM the faster your speed will be.
 

wesdadude

ウェスド アドゥーデ
Apologies to some of you in advance, this is going to get technical fast.

So I came home tonight to find out that Mum has plugged in the nbn box (a Sagemcom F@ST 5355). The interface is a little janky and it doesn't support custom DNS so I'm now considering rolling my own (seems like a better option than trying to flash it with something like OpenWRT). I'd like to run a Pi-Hole (ideally on the router but I'm also comfortable using a standalone Pi as DNS). I'd like to get my hands dirty, I'm not entirely sure where to start. I'm a software engineer by trade so as long as it's not like installing Arch I'll be fine.
 

gippyz

Likes Dirt
Apologies to some of you in advance, this is going to get technical fast.

So I came home tonight to find out that Mum has plugged in the nbn box (a Sagemcom F@ST 5355). The interface is a little janky and it doesn't support custom DNS so I'm now considering rolling my own (seems like a better option than trying to flash it with something like OpenWRT). I'd like to run a Pi-Hole (ideally on the router but I'm also comfortable using a standalone Pi as DNS). I'd like to get my hands dirty, I'm not entirely sure where to start. I'm a software engineer by trade so as long as it's not like installing Arch I'll be fine.
As in this Pi-hole? https://pi-hole.net/
Might want to start here: https://blog.cryptoaustralia.org.au/2018/08/06/instructions-for-setting-up-pi-hole/

I have never done it before, but now that i see what Pi-hole is, i'll try to install it myself - hate those ads and trackers.
For those who don't know, Pi-hole is an add and tracker blocker.
 
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link1896

Mr Greenfield
Previously I was running zental as a router/firewall/DNS server as a VM on a dell r210

About to jump to pfsense, probably on one of pfsenses partners dedicated hardware platforms to minimise energy usage, and either pfsenses dns ad blocker PFblockingNG or Pi-hole.

New to me is the requirement of blocking content for kids. It’s a weird turn of events that a deviate has to become the content police.
 

wesdadude

ウェスド アドゥーデ
I have set up Pi-Hole before so I know how it works. Thing is it works as a DNS server (tells devices on your network where to find websites) which requires your router to use it as the DNS server itself. The Telstra firmware doesn't easily support custom DNS (so that they can use theirs to block piracy websites) and the software is shit.

I did a bit more reading seems I will need a dsl modem to convert vdsl to Ethernet that I can then feed into a pc running the router software.
 

Tubbsy

Packin' a small bird
Staff member
Having two people working at home, plus kids means that our ISP-supplied modem isn't going to cut it. Also it doesn't send the signal far enough around the house.

Seems like the mesh wi-fi might be a good idea. But which one? Current modem covers most of the house, so assume I'll only need a two station setup not three?

We also have a couple of things that run on the 2.4g wi-fi, but with most stuff on 5g. Do the mesh units create both frequencies, or can I leave the existing wi-fi running at the same time just for those?
 

creaky

XMAS Plumper
Having two people working at home, plus kids means that our ISP-supplied modem isn't going to cut it. Also it doesn't send the signal far enough around the house.

Seems like the mesh wi-fi might be a good idea. But which one? Current modem covers most of the house, so assume I'll only need a two station setup not three?

We also have a couple of things that run on the 2.4g wi-fi, but with most stuff on 5g. Do the mesh units create both frequencies, or can I leave the existing wi-fi running at the same time just for those?
Have you tried using the 2.4 instead of 5ghz? My understanding is that the signal distance is better with 2.4.
 

Tubbsy

Packin' a small bird
Staff member
Have you tried using the 2.4 instead of 5ghz? My understanding is that the signal distance is better with 2.4.
Not really to be honest, I wasn’t bothered by no wi-fi in the bedrooms before. I think I read that for good speed you want 5g so I never tested it. Worth a try though, cheers.
 

MasterOfReality

After forever
I went through something similar, single level house and home office pretty much located the farthest point from modem. The wifi didn't reach the office and most of that side of the house. Was thinking about getting someone in to cable the whole house. We are with Telstra, NBN 50, which states 44 Mbps typical evening speeds.

My temporary ghetto solution was to get a Ethernet over power adaptor, one for where the modem is near the kitchen and one for the office. I had a spare Telstra nbn modem from when we moved house so I plugged that into the ethernet adaptor in the office, and turned it into a wifi station (or access point?) with my desktop and laptop hooked up with ethernet cables.

So now we get wifi coverage over the entire house, and using the Ookla speedtest in the office I get 47/19 Mbps via ethernet. It has been pretty stable so happy to keep this for now.
 

hifiandmtb

Sphincter beanie
I use EoP to get between the two buildings, works pretty well. Should really move to a wifi mesh like the Google product though...
 

leitch

Feelin' a bit rrranty
Similar issue here, narrow long house with classic NBN box at the front corner farthest from the lounge room. Tried a couple of options including a separate router running off the modem via ethernet, and then a new more powerful modem, neither of which was a reliable solution. Ended up getting one of these which has solved the issue. It's a mesh-type solution so the network doesn't change whether you're in the front room connected to the modem router or in the back room connected via the Netgear extender. Seamless transition and typically get around 40-45mbps when at the back of the house connected via the extender.
 

downunderdallas

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Having two people working at home, plus kids means that our ISP-supplied modem isn't going to cut it. Also it doesn't send the signal far enough around the house.

Seems like the mesh wi-fi might be a good idea. But which one? Current modem covers most of the house, so assume I'll only need a two station setup not three?

We also have a couple of things that run on the 2.4g wi-fi, but with most stuff on 5g. Do the mesh units create both frequencies, or can I leave the existing wi-fi running at the same time just for those?
I added Netgear Orbi mesh works on both 2.4 and 5g (well the one I have does) and it's pretty much fixed all the dead spot issues and device number issues I had. Yeah I just have one main one and a satellite https://www.amazon.com.au/NetGear-AC2200-Tri-Band-Satellite-RBK330-100AUS/dp/B07CKFKV5S
 
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