Connecting Fibre Cable (SC) to ASUS RT N66U N900

[circassian92]

Hello there,

I have got a fiber connection at my home, but I want to use a custom router, not the one that is shipped from the local PTT (Huawei HG8245). My plan is to get the "ASUS RT-N66U Dual-band 2x2 N900" router, however, it doesn't take direct fiber (SC) cable. So, how can I connect my fiber cable that is SC (Please can you confirm with me that is it SC? Check the photos in the bottom) to the mentioned router?

I came across a "TP Link MC111CS" and "TP Link MC112CS", can I use them to convert the SC to normal LAN copper cable and then connect it to the router? Or is there any specific way?

Photos of router / cable:
https://ibb.co/bQUbcb
https://ibb.co/jO603G

 

[USAFRet]

Generally, for the modem, you need to use what they supply.
After that, you can generally use whatever router you choose.

2 different parts, modem and router.

 

[BFG-9000]

Huawei HG8245 is not technically a modem, it's an optical network terminal (ONT) for GPON with attached router. I suppose that's close enough to the definition of a modem/router.

What OP proposes is highly unlikely to work because of how GPON works. It's 2.488 Gbit downstream because the upstream optical network unit (ONU) actually broadcasts traffic for everybody in the neighborhood to every ONT, like a hub (because the fiber is simply split to every address). As this means everyone could see what everybody else was doing if it wasn't encrypted, it probably is. The ONT also needs to negotiate a scheduled timeslice for upstream traffic, because the ONU obviously could not receive every ONT transmitting at the same time on the single fiber. Regular ethernet does none of these things.

And finally, there is no mechanism to negotiate a slower link down to the fast ethernet speeds those TP-Link adapters would require. If there was, it would slow everyone in the neighborhood to share fast ethernet.

So either use the RT-N66U as just an AP, or bridge the HG8245 which disables both its routing and its AP.

 

[circassian92]

So, you are suggesting to turn off WiFi / DHCP for the HG8245 modem/router and use the ASUS as AP? Isn't there any good (preferably gaming) modem/router to be used instead?

One more thing, my main goal is to enjoy a good gaming experience since I have a good internet, but they keep watching videos, streaming, downloading, etc.. So, if I use the mentioned technique (HG as modem / ASUS as AP), would I benefit all what I need from the ASUS router and apply QoS and have the full router benefits in order to have a good gaming experience?

Huawei HG8245 is not technically a modem, it's an optical network terminal (ONT) for GPON with attached router. I suppose that's close enough to the definition of a modem/router.

What OP proposes is highly unlikely to work because of how GPON works. It's 2.488 Gbit downstream because the upstream optical network unit (ONU) actually broadcasts traffic for everybody in the neighborhood to every ONT, like a hub (because the fiber is simply split to every address). As this means everyone could see what everybody else was doing if it wasn't encrypted, it probably is. The ONT also needs to negotiate a scheduled timeslice for upstream traffic, because the ONU obviously could not receive every ONT transmitting at the same time on the single fiber. Regular ethernet does none of these things.

And finally, there is no mechanism to negotiate a slower link down to the fast ethernet speeds those TP-Link adapters would require. If there was, it would slow everyone in the neighborhood to share fast ethernet.

So either use the RT-N66U as just an AP, or bridge the HG8245 which disables both its routing and its AP.

Generally, for the modem, you need to use what they supply.
After that, you can generally use whatever router you choose.

2 different parts, modem and router.

 

[bill001g]

You will need to run the asus as a router if you want to use the QoS. You either run the huawei as a bridge/modem only or you run router behind router with the wifi turned off on the huawei.

It is very strange that you would have any gaming issues on a connection like this. Almost all fiber based connections are extremely fast. A game needs almost no bandwidth so that would mean the other users in your house are using extreme amounts of bandwidth. Maybe ask them to use the download limiters on their machine. Watching even 4k video streams will generally have no impact on fast internet connection, they might use 20mbps.

The n66u is not a real fast router you may bottleneck your connection speed using the QoS options if you speed is more than 100mbps.

 

[circassian92]

My fiber speed is 20Mbps, and yes, they do extreme usage for the bandwidth.

For example, I usually play CS:GO, usually the ping ranges from 40-70 for normal cases. However, sometimes it reaches 300-700 due to heavy usage (e.g. streaming, downloading, etc..) since there is around 8 PCs / laptops, 2 IP TVs, 10 mobiles. It is really annoying when you decide to play and they decide to exhaust the bandwidth at the same time.

Do you have any suggestion?

You will need to run the asus as a router if you want to use the QoS. You either run the huawei as a bridge/modem only or you run router behind router with the wifi turned off on the huawei.

It is very strange that you would have any gaming issues on a connection like this. Almost all fiber based connections are extremely fast. A game needs almost no bandwidth so that would mean the other users in your house are using extreme amounts of bandwidth. Maybe ask them to use the download limiters on their machine. Watching even 4k video streams will generally have no impact on fast internet connection, they might use 20mbps.

The n66u is not a real fast router you may bottleneck your connection speed using the QoS options if you speed is more than 100mbps.

 

[bill001g]

First load the merlin firmware onto that router it has much better QoS.

To start with just run router behind router and turn the wifi off on the main router. All traffic must pass through the asus.

It tends to be tricky to limit download bandwidth but what you should be able to do put your machine in a different group and then limit the defualt group to something like 15mpbs. This will leave 5mbps for your machine. That is actually more than any game needs but because QoS uses average rates you have to limit the other machine much lower to avoid a very short spike.

You can try the options that guarantee your pc a certain download bandwidth but it did not work real well the last time I tried it but that was years ago.

I am surprised that the connection is that slow on fiber. Many fiber to the house solution offer close to gigabit speeds.

 

[USAFRet]

You have 2 issues:

"My fiber speed is 20Mbps"
and
" 8 PCs / laptops, 2 IP TVs, 10 mobiles"

That's a lot of devices in a 20mbps line, and that's a lot of WiFi traffic.

Another router won't help with the first issue, and only with the second if you are really careful how everything is set up.


And agreed that 20mbps is quite low for an actual fiber connection. My provider, Verizon, currently starts at 100/100mbps. And up to just short of 1gbps.

 

[circassian92]

So I have to change the firmware once I get it?

And as far as I understand, there will be a "default group" that will contain everyone but me, and will have 15Mbps, and I will create another group that will contain only me, and will have 5Mbps?

Also, what are the sought differences to use Merlin instead of the shipped firmware?

Regarding the fiber speed, fiber is totally new here in Jordan, it has been for almost 1-2 years only. There are new higher options of speed recently for about 500Mbps, but that is way expensive. When I subscribed, the max was 100Mbps and it was just the start of fiber connections in Jordan.

First load the merlin firmware onto that router it has much better QoS.

To start with just run router behind router and turn the wifi off on the main router. All traffic must pass through the asus.

It tends to be tricky to limit download bandwidth but what you should be able to do put your machine in a different group and then limit the defualt group to something like 15mpbs. This will leave 5mbps for your machine. That is actually more than any game needs but because QoS uses average rates you have to limit the other machine much lower to avoid a very short spike.

You can try the options that guarantee your pc a certain download bandwidth but it did not work real well the last time I tried it but that was years ago.

I am surprised that the connection is that slow on fiber. Many fiber to the house solution offer close to gigabit speeds.

 

[circassian92]

Regarding the fiber speed, fiber is totally new here in Jordan, it has been for almost 1-2 years only. There are new higher options of speed recently for about 500Mbps, but that is way expensive. When I subscribed, the max was 100Mbps and it was just the start of fiber connections in Jordan.

Do you have any suggestion for how to maximize the efficiency of the usage of the ASUS router in order to reach the highest that it can achieve?

You have 2 issues:

"My fiber speed is 20Mbps"
and
" 8 PCs / laptops, 2 IP TVs, 10 mobiles"

That's a lot of devices in a 20mbps line, and that's a lot of WiFi traffic.

Another router won't help with the first issue, and only with the second if you are really careful how everything is set up.


And agreed that 20mbps is quite low for an actual fiber connection. My provider, Verizon, currently starts at 100/100mbps. And up to just short of 1gbps.

 

[BFG-9000]

There is no bottleneck from the ASUS at such low ISP speeds--even entirely in software with QoS enabled for downloads it can rout ~85Mbps at the stock 600MHz. The QoS scheme of fq_codel should really help reduce ping when things are heavily loaded, and that's only available with the ASUS, not the Huawei. Also the large recent vulnerabilities found in Samba, DNSmasq and KRACK are only patched in the ASUS, not the Huawei.

Putting a router behind a router in double-NAT works surprisingly in just about everything but games, VPN and consoles where you will have to manually open ports. It is preferable to instead bridge the Huawei (may need assistance from your ISP if you can't reach the settings on your own) and use only one LAN port on it (the others, and the Wifi, won't work because it will no longer be able to hand out addresses via DHCP) to connect the ASUS.

You can test how bad latency gets when under load by going to DSLreports' bufferbloat test, and fq_codel can usually get that below 50ms ping all of the time.

 

[circassian92]

I have a good background in networks and I can access the Huawei settings page.

I have got the idea, I will find a suitable tutorial once I receive the router and try the bridge approach.

There is no bottleneck from the ASUS at such low ISP speeds--even entirely in software with QoS enabled for downloads it can rout ~85Mbps at the stock 600MHz. The QoS scheme of fq_codel should really help reduce ping when things are heavily loaded, and that's only available with the ASUS, not the Huawei. Also the large recent vulnerabilities found in Samba, DNSmasq and KRACK are only patched in the ASUS, not the Huawei.

Putting a router behind a router in double-NAT works surprisingly in just about everything but games, VPN and consoles where you will have to manually open ports. It is preferable to instead bridge the Huawei (may need assistance from your ISP if you can't reach the settings on your own) and use only one LAN port on it (the others, and the Wifi, won't work because it will no longer be able to hand out addresses via DHCP) to connect the ASUS.

You can test how bad latency gets when under load by going to DSLreports' bufferbloat test, and fq_codel can usually get that below 50ms ping all of the time.