Helderkruin + Wilropark + Roodekrans FTTH via Vumatel

[Azimuth]

Good job on taking the initiative!
Just note that if someone trenches the street again there is a good chance they will hit your conduit. Obviously the wayleaves process is to note services in the ground and for future contractors to avoid.

And what's the conduit for to your neighbor?

Regards future trenching and my fibre cable getting damaged, not too much I can do about that. This aerial drop method is massively flawed because it only suits less than half of the houses out there, in my opinion. When the drop method fails, Britelink throw their hands in the air...

The conduit on my neighbour’s side goes directly to the street light pole hosting my designated dome joint. I assume that Britelink will use steel conduit to run up the street light pole to the dome joint but I’m not entirely sure what their plan is.

 

[Azimuth]

Yesterday I completed trenching and conduit on my property to expedite things with Britelink.

From here the fibre will hop to my driveway conduit

Tomorrow Britelink are back so here’s hoping that everything runs according to plan.

Today was a massive fail and the job could not be completed.

Britelink trenched on my neighbour’s lawn and then alerted me to the fact that my driveway conduit didn’t appear to be usable.

Driveway conduit that didn’t have an endpoint

On further examination, it appeared that the security contractor, who installed the spare conduit last year, screwed up. The endpoint which I assumed linked the top of my driveway to the bottom, didn’t link up.

Plan B, I suggested that they use the HT conduit (electric fence hasn’t been completed but HT cables are already laid) and I’d make another plan for HT cable...the cables wouldn’t budge.

Due to the fact that a route now existed from my designated dome joint to the top of my driveway, it made sense to trench again and install a new conduit linking the top of my driveway to the bottom. This involves lifting some paving which shouldn’t have been necessary. /deep sigh

I’ve got someone lifting the paving on Saturday and pulling the 100m fibre cable. Thereafter Britelink will return and hopefully complete the job...third time lucky?

 

[Orbiter]

Today was a massive fail and the job could not be completed.

Britelink trenched on my neighbour’s lawn and then alerted me to the fact that my driveway conduit didn’t appear to be usable.

Driveway conduit that didn’t have an endpoint

On further examination, it appeared that the security contractor, who installed the spare conduit last year, screwed up. The endpoint which I assumed linked the top of my driveway to the bottom, didn’t link up.

Plan B, I suggested that they use the HT conduit (electric fence hasn’t been completed but HT cables are already laid) and I’d make another plan for HT cable...the cables wouldn’t budge.

Due to the fact that a route now existed from my designated dome joint to the top of my driveway, it made sense to trench again and install a new conduit linking the top of my driveway to the bottom. This involves lifting some paving which shouldn’t have been necessary. /deep sigh

I’ve got someone lifting the paving on Saturday and pulling the 100m fibre cable. Thereafter Britelink will return and hopefully complete the job...third time lucky?

Oi. That sounds like my luck usually. Murphy and all.

 

[Orbiter]

Well, it seems that yesterday morning's fix that Vumatel did for our area definitely made a big difference. I did a bit of a stress test last night and it passed, not one slowdown from what I could see. The speedtest even seems a bit better in off peak time:

Where did you hear about it?

I also saw some fluctuation in my download speed. Thought it was my internal network, was still investigating.

From last evening running full speed again.

 

[bHOLDher]

Where did you hear about it?

I also saw some fluctuation in my download speed. Thought it was my internal network, was still investigating.

From last evening running full speed again.

From Cool Ideas https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/793061-Cool-Ideas-Fiber-ISP-Feedback?p=20514793&viewfull=1#post20514793

 

[Orbiter]

From Cool Ideas https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/793061-Cool-Ideas-Fiber-ISP-Feedback?p=20514793&viewfull=1#post20514793

Thanks

 

[Azimuth]

By hook or by crook, my installation has been completed. It is finally done!

I got another slot before the expected Saturday one. Trenching and the new conduit route (which included lifting and replacing a fair amount of paving) took most of the day. Pulling the 100m fibre cable and endpoint connection took about 2 hours.

I had to spend a few hundred Rand for a labourer today and as well as get more conduit, joins, elbows, draw wire, etc.

All in all my custom installation has cost me ~R1,500 and that’s my own personal expense outside of the Vumatel installation fee (own labourers, own materials).

This should never have been necessary!

Another 20m run on top of the 30m outside

Digging up my conduit to join onto the new route

Moar trenching!

100m of fibre cable

Everyone loves specs, right?

This is what I wanted to avoid - thanks Sure Security for screwing up the conduit I paid you to do!

The street fibre connector is smaller than the one that goes to the ONT - a screw up if the wrong side is pulled!

 

[Azimuth]

5mm OD cable close-up

The cable is very stiff and great for pulling through conduit

New conduit in the ground

Garage entry point

Fibre connectors get wrapped before pulling

Fibre cable pulled from the garage up to the gate

Pulling cable to the street light pole hosting my designated dome joint

Some of the cable slack goes into the slack drum, the rest of the slack is left in my roof

 

[Azimuth]

Cable being pulled through the garage roof

That’s the amount of slack in my roof

Paving replaced and cemented in again

Cable test with an unfavourable reading

Initially there was a PON and LOS issue (green and red) which was fixed when the dome joint connection was unplugged and plugged back in again.

What are the meanings of the PON and LOS indicators on an ONT?

Currently I have a green flashing PON light and waiting for manual configuration. My status on the Fibrehoods portal is “Pending ONT Discovery”.

Princess sent a request for configuration to Reflex which should be complete by the morning.

Edit: new status is “Auto Configuration Failed”.

Edit 2: Some useful info on the configuration process below.

So they will deploy the fibre network and plug the ONTs in, from there they can discover the ONTs from the OLTs, from there the configuration is dependent on the provider, do they have a management vlan and IP for remote monitoring? Is the ONT wireless capable do they set that up etc.

But for the most part configure the vlan for the ISP to all available copper ports, and set the policer on the line as per the application.

 

[bHOLDher]

Edit: new status is “Auto Configuration Failed”.

Ahhhh no, you are just not getting a smooth install on any part of this! Well, not long now.

 

[Azimuth]

Yes, the fibre gods want me to wait one more night...curse them!!

 

[Pyro]

Yes, the fibre gods want me to wait one more night...curse them!!

Looks like you could do a troubleshooting guide for pretty much every step of the process!

 

[dee1712]

Yes, the fibre gods want me to wait one more night...curse them!!

Azimuth you deserve good internet. You have worked for This, I really hope what remains come into place without further hassles. Anyway, congrats on what's done so far!

 

[dee1712]

I would like to extend my WiFi range by connecting Ubiquiti UniFi Dual Band AC Long Range AP to the Netgear D6300 router. Please can some advise how to do this. And how good is this AP.

 

[Gallderhen]

I would like to extend my WiFi range by connecting Ubiquiti UniFi Dual Band AC Long Range AP to the Netgear D6300 router. Please can some advise how to do this. And how good is this AP.

If the Netgear is set to DHCP, you just plug the AP into its PoE injector, then plug from the injector into the router.
Then you install the Unifi software you got with, launch it (its like webservice that runs), login and create a new network + security key in the settings menu. Then on devices menu, Discover and take ownership of the APs.

NOTE: The password for the Unifi webserver is VERY finicky, dunno if its standard, but I had to end up making a password with a space in it.
Also, each AP will be protected, so if you do loose your Unifi password and have to resort to uninstall and reinstall, you'll have to reset each AP by inserting a sharp utensil into the reset hole on the actual AP, while the power is connected.

As far as range goes, the Long range is very good. I get 2-3 of 4 bars on my phone, standing 20m at the edge of the yard. BUT, steel-reinforcements in walls completely nullifies the wifi and it struggles to pickup the wifi in e.g. the farthest corner of the bedroom with 3 walls between the AP and me (ended up putting a dual band lite AP in both the tv room and bedroom).

-G-

 

[dee1712]

If the Netgear is set to DHCP, you just plug the AP into its PoE injector, then plug from the injector into the router.
Then you install the Unifi software you got with, launch it (its like webservice that runs), login and create a new network + security key in the settings menu. Then on devices menu, Discover and take ownership of the APs.

NOTE: The password for the Unifi webserver is VERY finicky, dunno if its standard, but I had to end up making a password with a space in it.
Also, each AP will be protected, so if you do loose your Unifi password and have to resort to uninstall and reinstall, you'll have to reset each AP by inserting a sharp utensil into the reset hole on the actual AP, while the power is connected.

As far as range goes, the Long range is very good. I get 2-3 of 4 bars on my phone, standing 20m at the edge of the yard. BUT, steel-reinforcements in walls completely nullifies the wifi and it struggles to pickup the wifi in e.g. the farthest corner of the bedroom with 3 walls between the AP and me (ended up putting a dual band lite AP in both the tv room and bedroom).

-G-

Thank you, I will buy it and try and install over the weekend.

 

[Orbiter]

Azimuth you deserve good internet. You have worked for This, I really hope what remains come into place without further hassles. Anyway, congrats on what's done so far!

+1 really hope you get sorted tomorrow.

 

[Azimuth]

Thanks, guys. I’ll update once I’m ready to set the internet on fire.

Edit: my line was configured around 10am. I connected the ONT to my network around 12pm and did my first Speedtest via Ethernet.

Thanks to RocketNet for the final update and to Princess at Vumatel for pushing my manual configuration.

 

[bHOLDher]

Thanks, guys. I’ll update once I’m ready to set the internet on fire.

Edit: my line was configured around 10am. I connected the ONT to my network around 12pm and did my first Speedtest via Ethernet.

Thanks to RocketNet for the final update and to Princess at Vumatel for pushing my manual configuration.

Congrats!!! You must be relieved that the install is over and done at last!

 

[Azimuth]

Thanks, it was well worth the wait. I’m juggling my to-do / test list but first thing’s first: Netflix.

Edit: some more tests over LAN...