What you need to know about 10GBe home broadband

More ISPs are offering 10 Gbps fiber home broadband at pretty affordable prices ($189-$199) but before you sign up, the following are what you need to take note of

1. Most networking products like routers, desktops and notebooks currently support only up to 1 Gbps therefore if you do not upgrade them, 1 Gbps will the maximum speed you will be getting.

2. While you can upgrade your desktop by buying a 10Gbe NIC like the Intel X540 series, you can't do so with your notebook or routers

3. There are very limited number of routers that do support 10Gbe WAN port and they are very very expensive.

So until most end user products make 10 Gbps mainstream, it is not really advisable to sign up now. Price will also be much lower later as compared to what is available now.

Latest fiber broadband promotion by Singapore ISPs

StarHub's current 1Gbps fiber broadband promotion at $49.90 per month for 24 months comes with

- Free Wireless AC Dual-band Router DIR-850L (Upgrade to DIR-868L at $120.)

- Free Fibre Termination Point installation

- Free Service installation

- Free Unlimited streaming entertainment with StarHub Go Basic and Go Premium Packs

- Free $150 Shopping Voucher.

Home phone line at $2.10 per month.

http://www.starhub.com/personal/promotions/broadband/unbeatable-home-broadband-deals.html

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M1's current 1Gbps fiber broadband promotion at $39.90 per month for 24 months comes with

- FREE 24 mths 300Mbps Mobile Broadband (1GB)

- FREE Home Fixed Voice Service

- FREE ONT Activation

- FREE Sentosa Islander Family Membership (worth $50. Valid for up to five (5) immediate family members)

There will be, however, a one-time registration charge of $48.15 (inclusive of GST).
Top up $5/month for a Asus RT-AC56S

https://www.m1.com.sg/Personal/BUNDLES%20AND%20PROMOTIONS/Promotions/Bundle%20Promotion/PKG100391

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SingTel's 1Gbps fiber broadband promotion is currently at $50 per month for 24 months and comes with

- Free Fibre Termination Point installation

- Free Optical Network Terminal installation

- Home Digital Line with free unlimited local calls

- 10% off Mobile subscription
- Online Exclusive waiver of registration fee worth $53.50

https://www.singtelshop.com/shop/fibre-broadband/plan-details.jsf

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MyRepublic current fiber broadband promotion is currently at $49.90 per month for 24 months and comes with

- Free ASUS N56 Router or ASUS AC56U (or ASUS AC87U with $99 Top-Up)

- FREE Home Voice with Unlimited Local Calls

There will be. however. a $58 Service Installation Fee

https://myrepublic.com.sg/pricing/#300-discount

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ViewQuest current 1Gbps fiber broadband promo is currently at $65 per month with free

- ViewQuest TV

Residential Voice is at $3.95 per month

Setup Fee is $79.25.

http://www.viewqwest.com/vqlp/cny2016/index.html

Let me terminate my Mio TV, please

If you look through SingTel FAQ, you'll find this.

How do I terminate my mio TV service?
For termination of mio TV service, please call our mio Hotline 1688. Hotline operating hours:    Daily, 8am - 10pm

However, don't waste your time calling their Hotline.

There is no phone option for termination in the first place. You will instead be put through their phone options maze where you'll probably get hold of the customer service in the end. If not, try your luck by calling again. And after wasting your time asking for details, the CSO will transfer you to instead to the termination department.

You will be serviced by another CSO who will try to persuade you to not terminate their service. They practically hard sell not just to get you to keep your Mio TV service, but everything under the red umbrella.

The best part is when in the end they will tell you that the actual termination will only take place when you return their set top box to one of the four SingPost branch. In other words, you do not need to waste your time calling their Hotline.

I do not know who came out with this brilliant idea to piss customers off because it works very well indeed.

Anyway the four SingPost branch, correct at the time I posted this, are

1. Paya Lebar
2. Killiney Road
3. Woodlands
4. Jurong Point

Update: As mentioned in one of the comments, it is advisable to make a call to the branch first to check if they are able to process your termination request. Also, the items to return are the mio box, the power supply and the remote controller. Do make sure that your contract is over, else there will be termination fee. To find out if you are still under contract, call 1688.

Update: As mentioned by garfeel, you can also have it sent to SingTel Shop at Bugis and AMK

Update: SingTel customer service did say that certain Hello Shop are able to provide termination service. I guess it is best to call the outlet you plan to go first.

Huawei E1762 on Linux

You'll need two packages and a configuration file

usb-modeswitch version => 1.07
usb-modeswitch-data file dated => 10 Jan 2010
usb_modeswitch.conf => 2010-03-09

Note: The above package links are for Debian based distribution like Ubuntu. If you are using 10.04 Lucid, use the Ubuntu Software Center to install both usb-modeswitch and usb-modeswitch-data.

Install the packages at the same time

Place the configuration file in /etc directory. To check if you have place the configuration file at the right place just type

# usb_modeswitch

and it should not give you a 'file not found error'.

To check if your stick is correctly detected as a modem, give the command

# lsusb

you should see something like this

Bus 002 Device 009: ID 12d1:1003 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E220 HSDPA Modem / E270 HSDPA/HSUPA Modem
usb

If you see something like this

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 12d1:1446 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd

edit the configuration file by giving the command

# sudo gedit /etc/usb-modeswitch.conf

and find the lines that says 'E7162' and uncomment the 5 lines that follows. There are two instances of 'E1762'. Either one will work. Save the edited file, and give the command

# sudo usb_modeswitch -H -v 12d1 -p 1446 -c /etc/usb-modeswitch.conf

Now check if the dongle is detected correctly by giving the 'lsusb' command again and you should the stick is now detected as a modem.

If you are using on a 64-bit architecture, you can download them here

If you are not using a Debian based distribution, you can download the files below

usb-modeswitch-1.1.0.tar.bz2
usb-modeswitch-data-20100203.tar.bz2

Configuring Cisco for SingNet Bizlink

Situation

You switched to SingNet Bizlink static IP plan and were given a Cisco 877. You have your own router and/or firewall in your current setup and all you need is an ADSL modem to replace your current CPE. This way, you can keep everything else in place and simply do an IP change.

Problem

You have searched for configuration samples for the Cisco and tried in vain to get it to work as a transparent bridge but failed. You need to use the Cisco because that is the only device you have that can connect you to the ADSL service.

Resolution

Go the routing way by creating another routing subnet between the Cisco and your existing router.

So the topology will look like this



Configurations

1. Set Cisco ATM interface as required with your public WAN IP eg 1.1.1.0/30

interface ATM0
no ip address
no atm ilmi-keepalive
dsl operating-mode auto
!
interface ATM0.1 point-to-point
ip address 1.1.1.2 255.255.255.252
ip nat outside
pvc 8/35
encapsulation aal5snap
!

2. Set the VLAN interface with a small subnet private ip that is not part of your own private IP eg 10.255.255.252/30

interface VLAN1
ip address 10.255.255.253 255.255.255.252
ip nat inside

3. Set your own router WAN interface within the same range as the Cisco VLAN interface, in this case 10.255.255.254 255.255.255.252

4. Set your own router LAN interface with the public LAN IP assigned by SingTel eg 2.2.2.0/28

5. Add a route on the Cisco for all traffic to point to SingTel side and another route to your public LAN network behind your own router/firewall.

ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 1.1.1.1
ip route 2.2.2.0 255.255.255.240 10.255.255.254

6. Do a static NAT for your own router/firewall using the public WAN IP. This way traffic from the Internet will see the public WAN IP as your current router/firewall, as if the Cisco does no exist.

ip nat inside source static 10.255.255.254 1.1.1.2

Conclusions

Advantages
- You keep everything as it is and only need to change IP address.
- As good as configuring the Cisco as a bridge.

Disadvantages
- You MAY run into IP routing problem if you have private networks using the same range as the private IP assigned to the VLAN1 interface. However, by using the smallest network you can, this is quite unlikely.
- You have additional route when you do a traceroute from the inside.