4 Years In The Making (Punggol Emerald)

[alfredt 27]

They offer a VPN service which allows users to access content restricted to IP addresses native to a particular country only.

https://secure.myrepublic.com.sg/add-ons/teleport.php

Myrepublic recently announced 1 Gbps (woohoo) at $49.99 per month. check it out

P.S now gotta find some use for all that bandwidth

[Ks Toh 74]

In our case, AL was just curious why did I insist on using wired connections and planned to use this many points in our home. Anyway, to save costs, I am just paying a token labour fee for the electrician to lay the 16 to 18 cables. I will be providing the reel of cable as well as performing the end termination and faceplate installation on my own.

Noted. From the fact that you are supplying the cable plus doing the termination yourself, it is clear that you are far more knowledgeable in this area! I myself tried to replace several broken RJ45 plugs and it was a disaster.

At the distribution point where all the cables terminate, may I now whether you are installing a patch panel (is this what it is called?) or leaving the wires dangling? All my wires are just dangling there.

[mavicaste 58]

Noted. From the fact that you are supplying the cable plus doing the termination yourself, it is clear that you are far more knowledgeable in this area! I myself tried to replace several broken RJ45 plugs and it was a disaster.

At the distribution point where all the cables terminate, may I now whether you are installing a patch panel (is this what it is called?) or leaving the wires dangling? All my wires are just dangling there.

Yes, I will be using a 24-port patch panel so as to reduce the clutter and we are still exploring around on how best to house the patch panel and switch in the study. For the other rooms with just a couple of points, they will be terminated with faceplates. As for the TV console, I may be using a 6 or 8-port patch panel (if I can find one) instead of the faceplates and have it integrated into the console.

I am no networking guru by any standards but I am taking this as a learning opportunity to pick up a skill.

Edited January 14, 2014 by mavicaste

[Ks Toh 74]

Yes, I will be using a 24-port patch panel so as to reduce the clutter and we are still exploring around on how best to house the patch panel and switch in the study. For the other rooms with just a couple of points, they will be terminated with faceplates. As for the TV console, I may be using a 6 or 8-port patch panel (if I can find one) instead of the faceplates and have it integrated into the console.

I am no networking guru by any standards but I am taking this as a learning opportunity to pick up a skill.

May I know why you are laying 6 or 8 cables to the TV console area? Instead of say 2 cables plus switch if needed?

[mavicaste 58]

May I know why you are laying 6 or 8 cables to the TV console area? Instead of say 2 cables plus switch if needed?

My ONT will likely be placed at the TV console and I am allocating 2 cables (1 for redundancy) for the main link to the study and up to 4 more for TV, media devices and game consoles.

The reason I am not expanding the number of ports in each room with a switch is that the one I am using is a managed switch which allows me to perform plenty of additional configurations on the ports, which a basic switch does not allow, and I will want all the ports to be directly hooked up on it. It helps when I managed to get this switch at no cost to me.

Again, this is new to me and I am taking it as a learning opportunity to pick up some networking knowledge.

[Ks Toh 74]

Sorry to ask so many questions as I am curious and also interested. Also, new to me!

So, your distribution point is at the TV console area where the TP and ONT will be located? And from there, you have 2 cables to study, and 1 cable to each of the other rooms?

During lunch today, I also heard of the term "managed switch" for the first time. My colleague told me that Mio TV must have direct connection to the RG, and cannot pass through normal switch (if you want to connect more devices to the same network port) due to some VLAN tagging!? But you can overcome this problem by using a managed switch but configuration needed. You heard about this?

[ahhboi 15]

I think the more i read, the more confused I'm getting. lol

[dandelion1976 5]

Sorry to hijack this thread guys, since we are on this topic I just wanna share one site that has more info about dealing with Singtel Mio & Managed Switch Tagging (I have no idea about networking, and am currently exploring as well). This may help to explain some stuffs

http://miniliew.blogspot.sg/2011/05/bye-bye-singtel-2wire-5012nv.html

Warning: Very technical, I read liaoz also bengz tho I am a trained engineer...

[mavicaste 58]

Sorry to ask so many questions as I am curious and also interested. Also, new to me!

So, your distribution point is at the TV console area where the TP and ONT will be located? And from there, you have 2 cables to study, and 1 cable to each of the other rooms?

During lunch today, I also heard of the term "managed switch" for the first time. My colleague told me that Mio TV must have direct connection to the RG, and cannot pass through normal switch (if you want to connect more devices to the same network port) due to some VLAN tagging!? But you can overcome this problem by using a managed switch but configuration needed. You heard about this?

No, its perfectly fine. Forums are meant for sharing of information anyway and hopefully our discussions will spur more homeowners to include structured cabling as part of their renovation plans in the future.

My distribution is still in the study where the RG for my ISP (more on this later), switch, router, NAS and the bulk of our home's tech devices will be.

MY TP is already preinstalled in the distribution box just next to the main door and HDB has also provided a concealed LAN point in there linking the distribution to the TV console area, should I choose to use it.

As of now, my plan is to lay my own fibre cable from the TP to the TV console area so that the ONT is housed in my TV console. From there, the ONT will be hooked up to the ISP's RG in the study which in turn will be linked to the switch. The reason for this arrangement is that in case of whatsoever reason, I choose to subscribe to internet service from ISP A and pay-TV from ISP B, I have the flexibility of placing the ISP's RG in the study while having the pay-TV set-top box in my TV console.

I just looked at my draft network plan on the first page and realized I left out the RG, shall go amend it soon.

As I have no intention of subscribing to mio TV and so have not researched on the service yet, I can't help with your question of "bypassing" the SingTel's RG.

Edited January 14, 2014 by mavicaste

[mavicaste 58]

Sorry to hijack this thread guys, since we are on this topic I just wanna share one site that has more info about dealing with Singtel Mio & Managed Switch Tagging (I have no idea about networking, and am currently exploring as well). This may help to explain some stuffs

http://miniliew.blogspot.sg/2011/05/bye-bye-singtel-2wire-5012nv.html

Warning: Very technical, I read liaoz also bengz tho I am a trained engineer...

I can understand the concept of VLAN but Ingress Filters and Tx Force Untag are probably like advanced features of VLAN, definitely not something one would enjoy reading or researching at this hour.

[geekapoo 3]

Hi! I'm one half of this home, thought I'd contribute with my side of this home planning. Here's a quick review of some of the furniture places we've visited.

Personally I like one-off furniture a lot, things that have a little bit of story in them. I'm always on the look out for such shops especially if they come at reasonable prices!

Noden Collective
They’ve got beautiful vintage furniture. A coffee table caught my eye but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be, it was sold when we went there. The pieces are mostly one off, and we were told that they source their furniture from Europe.
The staff are very friendly and unobtrusive, they let us roam around and will come to tell us a bit about the furniture when we asked.
Their prices varies, I think it depends on how rare or which designer the furniture are from.
Will continue stalking their website to see if they’ve got stuff we’d like.

Like That One
I’ve been stalking their flickr account for like the longest time! Was really excited to finally make the trip down to check out the place (it’s at Bukit Batok, for us staying at Sengkang it’s really far). And of cos very proud owner of a shelving unit. Will continue stalking their site, will purchase more stuff when we move in since we don’t have much storage space. Do check out their flickr account or website for what they’re all about.

Galanga Living
Was pleasantly surprised my office is just right across from this shop and got the chance to check it out a couple of times during my lunch hours. They have a lot of industrial furnishings and we fell in love with a bench. Hopefully it’ll still be there by February! Foresee we’d be making more purchases here.

Things Your Mother Throw
Checked this place out but didn’t stay for long. I think they have mostly local vintage furniture, the place was really small and cramped so it wasn’t really comfortable. But I think they’re expanding or something, check out their Facebook page. If you’re looking to get some vintage furniture, this could be one good place to start.

Scanteak
We bought a bed, chest of drawers and a laundry storage box just so that we could make it to $2,500 for free delivery! They also allowed us to put off the delivery dates. So far we’ve had really good experience shopping here, the staff are very attentive and friendly. For me I think we have enough of Scanteak furniture, I don’t want my home to turn into a showroom for the brand.

We also went to Tan Boon Liat Building, thanks to a blogger who did an unofficial furniture listing for the building

Journey East #03-02
They’ve got a huge and nice showroom, quite good selection of industrial furniture. But their prices were out of our budget and we didn’t really like anything we saw. I think I only liked the artwork they carry.

Mountain Teak #07-02
They have really nice furniture with simple and clean finish. But the price is so out of our budget, besides we got most if not all of our teak furniture from Scanteak.

The Shophouse #07-03
It was the first shop we stepped into. I’m not quite sure how to describe their style, I think like a bit mid-century, a bit modern, a bit ‘60s-ish and a bit retro. But we did liked a bedside table they had and their staff was really friendly. Most of their stuff like their sofas, coffee tables are out of our budget but it’s not that overly expensive. Will probably check out their accessories they have at their Tanglin Mall branch.

More to come as we check out more places!

[mavicaste 58]

Myrepublic recently announced 1 Gbps (woohoo) at $49.99 per month. check it out

P.S now gotta find some use for all that bandwidth

Just saw the offer, all the more reason homeowners should be laying cables in their homes.

Meanwhile, for new homeowners who have yet to sign up and still have a bit of time, sit back, relax and enjoy a price war soon.

Edited January 14, 2014 by mavicaste

[g0mug0mu 8]

Hi,

Thanks for the techie info. Its difficult even for me! Anyway, looks like this is THE place to ask for tech and wiring stuff for home reno.

Anyway, I saw that we have phone cables to almost every room. Any chance to convert the phone points to cat4 cables(about 10mbps) or cat5 cables or you have experience in homePNA?

Phonelines should be technically useless now(due to free voice) and intent to conceal all WIFI, modem router in the drawer

Good sharing!

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/phone-network.htm

[mavicaste 58]

Hi,

Thanks for the techie info. Its difficult even for me! Anyway, looks like this is THE place to ask for tech and wiring stuff for home reno.

Anyway, I saw that we have phone cables to almost every room. Any chance to convert the phone points to cat4 cables(about 10mbps) or cat5 cables or you have experience in homePNA?

Phonelines should be technically useless now(due to free voice) and intent to conceal all WIFI, modem router in the drawer

Good sharing!

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/phone-network.htm

Thanks for sharing this. However, given that it will require additional adapters as well as a theoretical maximum data rates of only 320Mbps, Ethernet is still the way to go for the near future.

[HanTu 0]

Mavi, a question for u..

Edit: Question answered.

Edited January 15, 2014 by eno