is astro iptv going to upgrade their Time packages to the new time speeds? We are paying a few % more as well.

Why are they so slow?
They need to hurry up. It's really not worth it otherwise.
Astro's taking people for a ride. They should have done a faster announcement.

This post has been edited by pigduck: Apr 5 2016, 01:19 PM

I'm ready to sign out if they aren't going to do any upgrade

I'm ready to sign out if they aren't going to do any upgrade

Grrr. It means the same thing. Astro should do it for their customers. This is unacceptable. And Time should understand that it is vital to maintain across the board services. It isn't like we are paying a combined price at all for Astro IPTV. The 10mbps (Time) subscription goes to Time. Hence WHY we have a Time account as well as an Astro one. Even the packages are communicated like so.

Has anyone done a price comparison? Astro IPTV 10mbps vs Time 100mbps + Astro PVR? Please share.

This post has been edited by pigduck: Apr 22 2016, 10:47 AM

Then it's Astro's fault. Either way, Time shouldn't have allowed this. It would be in their best interests to maintain services across the board. People will say bad things about Time AND Astro because of this very bad, lop-sided affair. That's a difference of 90mbps!!!! AND Astro IPTV customers pay MORE!

It is most definitely an unfair treatment case. It doesn't matter if they have signed 2 providers/partners. If one partner increases their bandwidth, Astro should follow suit regardless of the other partner.

It should be across the board.

If Astro is willing to lose Astro IPTV (Time) customers, then they are foolish. Who wants to lose customers? Especially considering a lot of people are already unsubscribing to Astro. Is this even ethical?

Its customers for sure. Astro is taking its customers for a ride and taking us for granted (as usual).

Dear Time,

Have you spoken to Astro regarding your internet service upgrade? May we know the outcome?

Is Astro and Time planning to continue to fleece their Astro IPTV customers?

Yes

Planning to get a Time 100mbps ... and i foresee the DIR-850L will not be able to cover enough -

I am using an Asus RT-N18U now with an extender... I suggested Aztech.

But now that I am getting 100mbps I want to fully utilise it and would like to know the best combination of ac router + access point ---

is tenda / tp link any good - i had their repeaters and they weren't the best. i had to use the repeater because i didn't have a cat-5e but now that i am cancelling astro iptv, i have one so an access point might be a better bet for stable and better coverage.

Are we certain the Time 100mbps comes with the Dlink DIr-850L?

OK going to find a dlink ac1200 ap

The DIR 850L that comes with the 100mbps line is awful. It is weak and slow!

Is the primary DNS from Time making the Internet slow or is it the router? When I sit in front of the router, it's 100mbps

It makes my access point slow too.

This post has been edited by pigduck: Mar 3 2017, 10:59 PM

I'll say no big difference so far. haha I certainly can't tell.

1. There's more headache because now you have to source for channels yourself online
2. Current hardware may not support 100mbps and above (unless you're using ac hardware)
3. Astro plays instantly, provides you things to watch without having to think unlike having to decide and intentionally choose things to watch - you will still need hardware to watch things - good thing is it may not be on repeat

So I see based on the last few posts that I should either invest in

Tenda AC15
TP Link Archer C9

I bought the D-Link DAP 1665 Access Point and it's horrible as a range extender. It only manages 6mbps and even then it is weak. I tried it as an Access Point but range was very short for both bands.

I need one with very good range. My current setup is the DIR-850L as the main router (terribly weak) and my Access Point is the RT-N18U which has excellent range but it means for one part of my house, I do not have 5ghz and that's a bummer so although I get ~40mbps on 2.4ghz, I would still like to get 5ghz throughout my house. I tried using an old dual band router I had but the range was weak too. Couldn't muster anything above 30mbps for 5ghz or reach the area where the RT-N18U 2.4ghz could reach powerfully.

So either I get 2 x Tenda AC15 (one as the main and the other as an access point) - or I buy 1 x TP Link Archer C9 and continue using my Asus RT-N18u as my access point -

Also I fiddled with the channels, fixing my access point SSID channel and that helped speed things up too - avoided congestion with other wireless networks nearby - so many near me so I think I would like, if possible, to have all my devices (most) on 5ghz if possible.

Advice please!

I used to use a Tenda range extender - thought it wasn't the greatest 'cos it would just slow down and give issues.

Are there other routers suggested in this thread that I should use?

This post has been edited by pigduck: Mar 6 2017, 01:17 AM

no i survived on repeaters for a few years and they were decent. i could get 7 to 8 mbps frlm my 10mbps line. the only doenside was the printer that was connected to it would often get lost. Aztech routers are better than Tenda and TP Link because they allow me to connect dual bands properly rather than taking one band and then breaking that into dual bands again. But Aztech I think is dying as a company. Products are scarce.

I have yet to buy a router as I am hesitant about the Tenda AC15 since I had that bad experience with their repeater.

The DIR850L is a pathetic router. Some of the nearby rooms couldn't get a decent connection to it at times. It is weak.

The DLink DAP-1665 Access Point is just as poor. It is slow and hard to connect to. I have tried several times tonight to connect to the WiFi after a reset and still it fails to get IP. Weak. Also, it is like the Tenda and TP link repeater in that it only takes one band and beams that into dual band. What idiotic software do they use. Obviously, if I buy a dual band repeater I want it to beam the 2.4 and the 5.0 ftom the router it is repeating from.

The Asus RT-N18U that I used as an Access Point was great. It uses to be my main router when I was on Astro IPTV 10mbps. It could beam the signal to the far reaches of my house and has a strong connection that it overlapped the DIR-850L's 2.4ghz signal. I have now configured it as the main router and it can get 100mbps! It is only a single band router!

I have now plugged the DIR850L as the access point and connection is weak and cannot reach the far reaches of my house. I hate D Link products.

I am now contemplating whether to get just another RT-N18U since I know it works so well and do away with 5ghz altogether.

I am worried the Tenda AC15 or the TP-Link Archer C9 may face the same fate as the DIR850L.

Side note: 100mbps does not beat habing Astro IPTV, I feel. So I get faster internet but the nightmares of setting up an Android box and trying to find decent channels to stream has been most painful.

This post has been edited by pigduck: Mar 21 2017, 10:59 PM

I thought I would give the DLink DAP-1665 another shot.

I have set it up like this:-

Asus RT-N18U as main router with a LAN to Dlink DIR-850L (access point)

side q 1: the huawei modem has a few LAN ports and I plugged in the PS4 to that. No issues with connectivity. Ideally it should be plugged to the main router's LAN?

side q 2: I was wondering can i plug in my DLink into the huawei to create a secondary router of sorts or it would be wisest to go through main router for the access point?

With the Dlink DIR-850L configured as the AP... it was relatively painless. it more or less detected the main router's settings. I turned off the 2.4ghz so it is "purely" 5.0ghz. This way, if need be, wherever the RT-N18U (2.4ghz) can be detected, I will leave it as so. Remember the RT-N18U is a single band and is strong. I tested the DIR850L 2.4ghz and it seemed quite weak even while close by.

Then I plugged the DAP1665 to my laptop to configure it as a repeater. Since I couldn't connect wirelessly I had to use the LAN cable 1st. The DAP1665 interface is so cheap. Anyway, I got it configured to repeat the DIR-850L and I kept the same SSID for the 5.0ghz but renamed the 2.4ghz on the repeater so that I could connect my printer to that. I reduced the 2.4ghz to just 20hz so it doesn't conflict with the 5.0ghz and it seems to hve repeated the DIR850L quite decently to the far reaches of my house! I am well pleased to say that I am getting 80mbps at the far ends now. I remember trying to use the DAP1665 as a repeater but with the DIR850L as the main router with no access point. The distance was too far perhaps. I tested the 2.4 repeater and my printer seems detectable. The bandwidth I get for the 2.4 repeater is around 30mbps. Not bad. It plays well with the DIR850L for now.

So it seems now my house is well covered. I am happy. What more 100mbps seems to be evenly spread througbout the house.

This post has been edited by pigduck: Mar 22 2017, 01:16 AM

Yeah, I thought everything had to go to the router. Strangely, it seems speeds became better on the PS4 after plugging in the LAN but maybe that is psychological.

We have 1 outstanding problem. Our cloud HDD is acting up and isn't detected on the network. But then again, I was trying to find it on the 5.0ghz yesterday. I should be able to see all the devices on my network regardless of band or SSID, right? I managed to detect the printer even though the SSID is the repeater's 2.4ghz...

And the repeater's 2.4ghz speed I can get is ~30mbps! DECENT! I tested streaming Netflix from the Android box.

Update: NOT GREAT. I can't detect the cloud HDD on the main router (Asus RT-N18U) from the 5.0ghz (DIR-850L) and can't see my printer from the repeater's 2.4ghz (DAP1665) from the main router's SSID.

Should I give all the router, access point and repeater the same SSID?

This post has been edited by pigduck: Mar 22 2017, 07:16 PM

^ I realised the problem was because the Asus router was not set to Access Point. Once it was, all was fine.

Update: I read some people wondering about Tenda routers vs Asus ones so I thought I'd give my two cents

Side note: Time speed and stability goes haywire when torrents are running - it's like all the other devices get affected in the house

The asus router as an access point was very stable but the DIR-850L was terrible as the main router. It was weak and not strong enough. Range was poor.

So we returned the Asus RT-N18U as the main router and that stabilised that part of the house. We could get speeds of 100mbps even though it is just a 2.4ghz router. Normally with 2.4ghz, one should expect around 75mbps max.

We used the DIR-850L as an access point and plugged in the DAP-1665 range extender. Basically, I turned off the DIR-850L's 2.4ghz and only ran the 5ghz. From there, I repeated it using the DAP-1665 but the DAP-1665 beamed both 2.4ghz and 5.0 because the printer and the android box is furthest away and can only detect 2.4ghz. I could get up to 85mbps so I was very happy with it. What I don't understand is why repeaters cannot beam both 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz simultaneously. As in connect to the router's 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz separately and repeat both separately. Why must the repeater only pick either the 2.4ghz or the 5.0ghz to extend. It makes no sense. Are there better repeaters that can do that? I know the Aztech's can.

I didn't like the DIR-850L and DAP-1665 set up because I thought having one device would make more sense. Also, connecting to one device and switching to another when moving to another part of the house was troublesome and bad user experience, imo. So I thought one device would make more sense. So I went hunting. It seemed that the printer was always giving problems because it was hard to detect at times. Not sure how to deal with the offline printer problem.

Anyway, I looked at the Asus RT-N18U, Asus AC1200g+ and the Tenda AC18.

Now the tenda AC18 was the most attractive option. First of all, it is big, powerful and looked like it had relatively strong antennas. It has turboQAM for the 2.4ghz which meant that speeds, stability and range should match RT-N18U. It was also advertised as a device for large homes. My house is wide so that was relatively necessary.

I know the RT-N18U could do the job but I thought I would try the Tenda AC18. The AC1200g+ although had more antennas was advertised as a device for medium sized homes as compared to the RT-N18U.

I decided with confidence to try the Tenda AC18. First of all, the admin page is bad before a firmware update. So do a firmware update first then there will be more options for Access Point (which is what I needed) and other settings. I was so glad that the firmware update provided an option for easier set up. I selected Access point and everything seemed quite OK. I selected optimum wifi for 5.0 and 2.4ghz.

Although the range was decent, it still could not match the stability of the RT-N18U. It would drop and be like a yo-yo at times so the speed was not steady. At the furthest end of the home with the most interference, the RT-N18U would cut through it like a knife but I felt the Tenda AC18 faltered in that respect. I noticed at well, that the RT-N18U could still reach these sections of the house even though it was at a different part of the house. If only, I could put the RT-N18U in a middle ground part of my house, I wouldn't need to keep trying patchwork solutions to solve dead zones around my house.

I was disappointed with the Tenda AC18 because with the android box at a far end of the house, this android box only runs on 2.4ghz, it was very pixelated when used with the Tenda and this meant the speed provided by the router was not good enough. With the RT-N18U sitting where the Tenda AC18 sat, I would get a very stable and good connection and watching Netflix was sharp. The Tenda AC18 video quality was mediocre. Even though it reflected decent speeds when tested with a speedtest. Even with my DIR-850L+DAP1665 setup, Netflix is sharp. Not only that but the speed would significantly decrease for the 5.0ghz when I was in the bathroom and this was just not good enough for me. I don't recall testing the 2.4ghz but knowing me, I probably would have and it probably didn't do a very good job.

The range on the Tenda AC18 was also not as great as the Asus RT-N18U even though they both had TurboQAM for 2.4ghz. There was a difference. I could have turned off the 5.0ghz and maybe lived off the Tenda AC18 2.4ghz band only but that would defeat the purpose of buying the router in the first place. I just felt although it was powerful, the speed and range was unsteady and would vary. It could be the processor. It was supposed to match the Asus AC68U or something but somehow, I felt it fell short. But one can't expect top notch if the price is half of that of its competitors. It's definitely cheap and good for most houses I suspect. But if your house is a little spread out or if your router will be placed at one corner of the house as opposed to in the middle, then the part of the house furthest from the router may struggle but this is likely for most situations. Although, now that I think of it, I was

I have no doubt with the Asus RT-N18U and although I did think of giving the Asus AC1200G+ a try, I know it might be wasteful considering the extent of interference my house has and how it is labeled for 'medium sized' houses. It also does not have TurboQAM which I feel is the game changer for range which is what I need. The Tenda AC18 although has TurboQAM, I just don't feel it's great especially when I have Netflix video quality to make a comparison with. I attached an image to make my point. It's not the greatest representation mind you. Imagine there are walls, rooms, doors and objects around.

Too bad the RT-N18U is out of production. The Asus AC1200g+ is supposed to replace it. I'm not sure it can. But maybe someone can beg to differ.

This post has been edited by pigduck: Jun 9 2017, 11:40 AM


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the internet has been pretty crap lately. what's up time?

time is so slow today... why....