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A walk down the Yellow Brick Road of Malaysia's Corridor of the future
by Alan Tan, Malaysia
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I'm beta testing Maxis FTTH!
Nov 15, 2009 16:43I got very lucky to be one of the beta testers for Maxis Fibre's home broadband Internet. It was open to only about 50 users in Bangsar Baru. Lucky me! The company held some sort of interview for each of the beta testers, but apparently, it wasn't too stringent and a rather good mix of power users, average users and "hardly any use" users.
This bump in speed is definitely a big one for me as I was previously on the cheapest broadband package all this time--the 512kbps Streamyx Package.
Here's Maxis Fibre To The Home speed: 80+M/s Download 13+Mb/s upload!!
Considering it's a fiber-optic connection, it's not super duper-blazing fast, but it is much more than adequate for the home user. OMG. YouTube is where you see the biggest difference. It streams flawlessly on a full-HD screen.
Torrenting is up to 600kbps!+++ highes I got is 1.2 Mbps!
Installation of the FTTH was seriously very labor-intensive. These guys brought a snorkel to pull the cable to my home. And that was just the first team. They had to pull a cable from the main line to my home. These main cables were apparently gas-filled. Once the cable was up, they filled it with gas, and that would be the conduit. The cable from the junction box to my home would be the fibre-optic cable. The second team was resposible for laying the cable from the junction box of the mainline into my home. They installed the optical cable junction in my hall.
Then the third team came in to fuse the fiber-optic cable to a thinner manageable yellow wire to the modem. They really had to sort out the part about installation as it was very labor-intensive to install just one modem.
The engineers used a strange machine for connecting the two cables. Very geeky, indeed.
After verifying a good connection, with yet another device, they plugged it into the fiber-optic cable modem. No setup was necessary on the computer. This just plugged to the Ethernet jack behind the modem, and another to my computer. As simple as that. The home network hasn't been connected to the optical modem as of yet, but I'll do that later. (Err... my workstation is littered with networking stuff. Have to clean it up... later...)
The beta testing is supposed to go on for the next three months before Maxis Offers FTTH to the public. Right now, the testing phase involves only a small area, Bangsar Baru, in Kuala Lumpur.
Maxis will be asking for my feedback after some time. So nice of Maxis to provide me with three months of very high-speed broadband. Just hope it stays stable.
More to come, as Maxis will be providing an IP phone for testing calls. Astro and Maxis are going to do a tie-up to provide HDTV through the optical modem. Finally, justification to buy an HDTV!
As of now, with the light load of being in a testing phase, the speed is a "happy fast". Just hope it stays that way when the server gets loaded. I'm off to download stuff at my "happy fast" speed!!
Update for 16/11/09
***All pictures removed at Maxis' request***
Well Maxis called me up and politely urged me to remove all the pix as it was considered classified footage. I gladly complied as well, they were nice about it.
Anyway, here's the speedtest for this evening. 98Mb/s down, 13Mb/s up
There will be a need for a Gigabit network in my house soon. :) as pointed out.. LOL..
I finally got down to trying to integrate the Optical modem into a network.
Used a router,
I tried using Dynamic IP, and treating the optical modem as a cable modem-- didn't work. Don't know why.
Tried using Static IP, with identical Ip addresses, subnet mask and gateway as the current PC - Cannot work too.. don't know why.
Finally, back to the basics, old skool style.. Put two NIC cards into the PC, and did internet connection sharing, the router connecting to one of the NIC in the PC, and finally, got to connect all the computers in the house into the Optical modem network.
SO now, my network is Optical modem into 1st PC- Network card out- into wireless Router -- then to the rest of the computers. (either a router or switch can be used, but i wanted wireless access)
I got all the computers to have a part of the Optical modem speed but still have to work on the file sharing part. 1 problem at a time..
Here's the mess after digging out some old routers and switches.
- Talkback
-
Wow, that's a sweet setup you've got Alan. Great pictures showing the installation as well. I really dig looking at how the backbone of the internet is made.
With the speeds you posted, that's blows most of the speedtest.net figures I've seen waaay out of the water. Let's say that if one day you get over 100 Mbps, maybe you'd have to upgrade your whole network to Gigabit because it just couldn't handle the power!
The best thing that could happen for you is that now that you're hooked up they realize the program isn't feasible and discontinue. :P Then you'd have one of the few golden FTTH lines in the country. ha ha.
But seriously, once it rolls out to the mass market will Maxis guarantee a certain throughput (around 20-40 Mbps?) and how much are they telling you it would cost per month?
Nov 15, 2009 22:56
When our Bolehland's 100MB fiber line is ready for the mass market, other countries in Asia like Korea, Taiwan, China and Singapore are already migrated to 1GB line.
Nov 16, 2009 07:09
@spangaroo - Good point.. Practical use for a gigabit network, which didn't strike me initially.:)
@khoonk - err. I checked Singapore's providers, even they are in the testing phases of FTTH, sort of.. anyone can provide more info about that? But it is a good start for high speed broadband in Malaysia, since our broadband users are still a small community, and even people like yourself, who are quick to belittle efforts don't do complete research before confidently putting up unqualified statements. :)
Nov 16, 2009 09:15
bolehland...well guess I learned a new word today. But what Alan has got in his house will leave many countries in Asia (and other parts of the world) standing in the dust. Granted it's only in beta now, but i think it's a good sign for the future of broadband in Malaysia. With those kinds of speeds it opens the door for so many more services, especially streaming HDTV over the internet as mentioned above.
Nov 16, 2009 10:20
Ah dammit = just when i say I'm never writing about broadband again...No wonder i got no offer to test FTTH
Nov 16, 2009 14:11
Let's see which is faster out to market with commercial fiber-optic broadband - Malaysia or Singapore? Bernice, that could be your next post--why I'm getting no FTTH loving from Maxis. ;)
Nov 16, 2009 18:33
Prometheus..
If you claim you know about the broadband development, then you shall not asking me a silly question, did I research about the subject?. There are tons of free info in the website about this subject.
Malaysia is at 93 bottom ranking in a survey conducted by Cambridge University recently. This subject is a hot potato in the parliament,
Koreans are enjoying 100MB fiber line for over ten years, while China is testing Gigabyte netwotk for several years in the universities.
Do you know Singapore is laying gigabyte network now?
Nov 16, 2009 19:06
@khoonk
I don't know about broadband development and yes, thanks for the tip regarding the free info.
"I shall not asking you silly question - did you research about the subject"
Yes, Malaysia is at the 93 bottom ranked.
Great to know China and Korea is ahead.
I don't know about Singapore laying a gigabyte network.
Thanks for some free info. Much Obliged.
Nov 16, 2009 23:16
That is totally nonsense. In one hand, you behaved like IT expert in accusing other did not conduct "complete research.
Keep boasting Malaysia Boleh slogan and blame other to belittle Malaysia for telling the truth. You sound like our politicians.
Nov 17, 2009 03:39
So many beta testing, but no official launch date of any ftth in Malaysia is just boring. I would like to see the download speed test from HTTP, FTP and BT if you don't mind to try it out, to see whether it's that fast or not and streaming full HD 1080p youtube video takes how long.
ANother is Upload too, most people may not bother about upload, but it will be if the upload is real fast.
Nov 17, 2009 09:55
Give 3-6 months of projected testing.
BT as stated above, can't test for others.
Full HD You tube video, doesn't take long, its real time.
Buffering is faster than playing the video.
I agree that the upload is improtant, but as you can see, compared to download, upload is not that fast.
Nov 17, 2009 12:06
Hi Prometheus, congratulations! You are amongst the first in Malaysia to experience such speed. I was just wondering as to why Maxis is competing head-on with TM's HSBB by deploying in Bangsar?
According to TM's Zam, TM is "on track to commercially launch HSBB retail service in four initial areas Ă¢Â€Â“ Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Bangsar, Subang Jaya and Shah Alam Ă¢Â€Â“ by end first quarter 2010". Why not Maxis start with other areas and be the first to grab the subscribers in those areas (not covered by TM by the end of furst quarter of 2010)? Those areas can be KL Sentral, Golden Triangle Area, OUG, Puchong, SS2, USJ, etc.
Those staying in Bangsar, lucky you. BTW, thank you so much for sharing the information and pictures with us.
Edmund
Nov 18, 2009 12:40
The FTTH infrastructure was already done in august by TM in August, but somehow, I don't know why TM couldn't activate. Maxis laid infrastructure and started testing in 3 weeks. RESPECT to Maxis.
See: asia.cnet.com...
Nov 18, 2009 21:22
First of all I would like to give a big high five to you because I am one of the lucky ones in the test group. Just wondering why your speed test is below 100 mb/s. I just got mine yesterday and was clocking between 170-300 mb/s from the seri kembangan server. Just inquiring not meant as a flame. That being said I have only 3 letters to say about it. O M G ! I dunno if I can ever go back to regular broadband.
Nov 20, 2009 15:44
Wow thats fast. Do u have the speed test link? I don't have a gigabit LAN.Never saw the use till now.. I think diff location.
Nov 20, 2009 22:25
www.speedtest.net...
never linked speedtest link before hope u can see this
Nov 21, 2009 00:13
as you can see it's more now wayyyy more.
Nov 21, 2009 00:14
sorry for spamming but this is the test between KL and Los Angeles www.speedtest.net...
Nov 21, 2009 00:17
Hey mate, I registered of CNET Asia just to write this comment.
I was also selected from one of the 50 users to test Maxis FTTH.
My problem is, I've got 6 computer at home (5 PCs/1 Mac).
May I know how'd you set-up the "ICS" (Internet Connection Sharing)?
I've got Windows 7/Vista/XP (Triple-boot) on one of the computers, if that would help. The triple-booting computer has got 2X D-Link NIC Cards and I've got a spare router lying around. Will I be able to have share the internet?
Care to explain, your answer is most appreciated.
Btw, I also live at Bangsar!
Nov 24, 2009 14:12
@adrian
Enable internet connection shring.
In the server pc.
1 nic connect to optical modem
1 nic for ICS. Connect your router there.
On the router, I used fixed IP setup.
Make sure another PC can link to your ICS NIC.
Use those same configuration, IP address, Subnet mask and Gateway settings when you use the router to connect to the ICS NIC.
Make sure the gateway on the router and NIC are different.
It should work, as that's what i'm doing now and it works.
If anyone else has a better idea, please point me there.
Reason for doing this basic old skool setup is because I cannot get the router to directly connect to the Optical Modem. Don't know why.
Setbacks: Your resulting network, will only have all the computers in the router to file share.
The main server won't be able to file share as there is a hardware firewall.
Pros: all the computers will be able to use the maxis broadband without noticable lack in speed.
Nov 25, 2009 00:02
Thank you so much, Mr. Alan! You're a life saver.
However, I haven't tried that yet. Will try it later in the morning...
I'll post a reply on whether it works. Thank you again. .
@Mr. Alan:
My PC has got 2X NIC.
On which NIC, do I enable "ICS" (Internet Connection Sharing).
Do I enable ICS on the NIC that's connected to the optical modem or to the router?
When you say, "fixed IP". Do you mean "Static IP" in the router configuration page?
Thank you for your time, your reply is most appreciated.
Nov 25, 2009 04:23
ICS for the one connected to router.
Yes. Means fixed i[ means static ip
Nov 25, 2009 09:24
In order to share the Internet access, please try configure your router as a transparent hub. Each device's IP setting should be set to "Obtain an IP address automatically".
Nov 25, 2009 09:37
@Mr. Alan:
Thank you for your reply.
I will try it later.
Nov 25, 2009 21:40
But there's no "Brigde Mode" in the router configuration page (192.168.1.1)?
Nov 26, 2009 03:10
disable DHCP in your router. Your PC should be getting the IP address from the optical modem.
Nov 26, 2009 06:54
Hi Alan,
Sorry to disturb you on this but my residential area is equipped with fiber lines and am very keen to find out what ONU is Maxis using. I'm not sure if you can divulge this information, but the engineer in me is curious what brand of optical network unit (a.k.a. optical modem) Maxis will be using.
Also, I just wanted to be clear, the Optical junction box is located inside your house? Meaning the setup is this? :-
MAINLINE---OPTICAL JUNCTION BOX---MODEM?
Sorry to bother you, but the reason why I'm asking is to prepare my house for ftth installation when the time comes. Already have a server rack in place, just need to get some details to make the installation on behalf of the contractors easier. Also lets me plan my cable routing.
@adrian
If you could too as well enlighten me on what brand your optical modem is and your installation setup as well, that would be great.
Thanks in advance!
Nov 26, 2009 12:21
Again, apologies in advance
@Alan and Adrian,
Sorry to ask out of the normal questions, but how thick are the optical lines coming into your house? Need to know as to plan cable routing in my house (plan to use PVC piping for this).
Thanks again guys~!
Nov 26, 2009 12:23
@netguy.
OK I'll try diabling the DHCP on the router.
@analyzer.
Its about astro thickness to the junction box.
cable cannot be bent as the glass will break, I you better have very large tubes if you're plannng concealed cabling.
Nov 26, 2009 16:06
Thanks Alan,
Sorry to ask again though, what brand (even better, what model?) is the ONU or optical modem?
Also, just to let you know if you're interested, that a friend of mine who works in TM, described how the ONU TM is testing. Apparently, the ONU has 3 RJ-45 ports, 1 for data, 1 for voice and another for video. Which means the video thru FTTH is via set-top box. I must say though, this was related to me. No confirmation on it.
Nov 27, 2009 03:00
@Dr. Alan:
I managed to do it:
1. I plugged in the ethernet cable from the optical model into my Apple MacBook.
2. In my Mac's "System Preferences", I clicked on "Sharing" under the "Internet and Wireless" tab.
3. I turned on "Internet Sharing" and chose, "Share your connection from" = Ethernet port.
4. I chose "To computers using" = Airport.
5. Under "Airport Options".
6. I chose a SSID (Network Name).
7. I setup a WEP (128-bit) password and connected all the computers to my Mac's Aiport card via Wi-Fi!
Nov 29, 2009 00:30
@Dr. Alan:
The Maxis staff just called my house and told us to directly plug the optical modem into the router (conventional method of sharing internet). They said to set it to "Dynamic IP" and set everything to be "detected automatically". After that it works!
Dec 01, 2009 14:08
About Alan Tan
I'm a medical doctor by profession, but as with all inquiring minds,technology has become an addiction. I'm also constantly in awe of all kinds of tech, from a piece of Velcro to the latest diving computer. Constantly adapting new tech to my lifestyle is a priority. Being a faithful follower of the "MacGyver concept", any tech is useful tech if you use it the right way. I use tech to plug my deficiencies, enhance my capabilities and explore all possibilities. What tech would you like to use today?
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