Internet setup Progress Report 1/4
Thought I’d give everyone an update on my internet situation/setup in Model Town, Lahore.
I have been using StormFiber for over a year and a half now and I am very happy with them. Zero downtime (at least not while I’m using it) and their HD cable is amazing!
I decided to get the FiberLink 50mbps connection even though its down for almost 20 days out of the year. This downtime analysis is based on information I’ve read on different online forums. My want of getting FL was based on their low monthly rates along with super high speeds of course.
- - - Updated - - -
Internet setup Progress Report 2/4
One-year payment for FiberLink was made on March 2, 2019. Team was deployed and connection was installed on March 14, 2019. Currently I’m running a 50mbps (FiberLink) and 30mbps (StormFiber) connection at my house. I will be downgrading my current SF connection to 10mbps and use it as backup for whenever FL goes down.
I bought a TL-ER5120 (Gigabit Load Balance Broadband Router). See link for details:
https://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-4910_TL-ER5120.html
This helps me integrate both my ISP connections into a single one, but there is a catch 22. It only boosts your browsing and P2P (torrent) speeds. If you want to download a single file off the web or something then it won’t use both connections to download it, just the one will be utilized. But that being said having an integrated 50mbps + 30mbps = 80+mbps connection speed is amazing.
Best thing about the Load Balancer is that it becomes the sole DHCP provider and you don’t have to worry about the other two routers interfering with IPs or subnets with the load balancer. It was very easy and fast to setup as well!
- - - Updated - - -
Internet setup Progress Report 3/4
The Dual Wan router will automatically switch to a single connection if any one of them goes down which is very convenient aka a fail-safe. This way I can ensure I am fully utilizing both my connections to the max without worrying about wasting any money. Also, there is always a plus of having two connections as your reliability of staying online goes up.
Here is a screenshot of a random file I put for downloading using Vuze P2P:
https://i.imgur.com/SLumq37.png
Here are the online speed test results from early morning and evening today:
- Between 2:30am to 9:00am you get double the speed hence the super high speed.
https://www.speedtest.net/result/8120395251.png
- This is the regular day speed I get.
https://www.speedtest.net/result/8122021162.png
I am using multiple wired TP-LINK Archer C1200 gigabit routers around my house as Access Points for wireless connectivity. The APs have the same SSID and password but different channels so there is no interference and it does a decent job of seamlessly roaming. I have zero complains honestly. See router link for details:
https://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-9_Archer-C1200.html
- - - Updated - - -
Internet setup Progress Report 4/4
I have an all gigabit setup as I have multiple devices, a network attached storage (NAS) and IP cameras that even when idle use over 50mbps of my internal network bandwidth. Hence the need for 1000mbps devices as the 10/100mbps would choke all the time. And with such an internet speed I’d never be able to achieve it on a conventional router. One needs to use a 5Ghz Wi-Fi to get such speeds.
I hope this was as informative and fun to read as it was for me to write! Though my FL days have just begun, I am optimistic that it won’t bother me too much given I have a dual wan setup. Fingers crossed.