I would like to start off with ADSL sucks and Cable is the way to go. It is retarded to authenticate and use a telephone line to start a connection as that is so 56K era. ADSL connection disconnect you more than cable. ADSL modem has full of settings that requires you to set in order for it to work normally, with cable, just plug the cable into your modem and you are ready to use the Internet. How easy can that get?

Yesterday, I went to the my mom office to solve a very peculiar Internet problem. My mom is using Singnet Business Internet which is like S$100 per month for a 512K downstream and a 256K upstream for more than a year before this problem occurs.

The problem happen like 2 weeks ago where my mom is unable to use the Internet before 2pm (roughly) but after 2pm, she can use it without any problem. This problem occurs every day for the past 2 weeks.

The Singnet people came at least 4 times to solve this but for the first 3 time, they are unable to find out why. The 4th time, the technician came and he suspect it is our router problem.

We are using the 2wire 2700HGV-2 (Singtel’s MioBox) and Linksys WRT54G. So as you can see there are 2 routers as the 2700HGV-2 itself is also a router. Previously I set up wrongly for my mom and this wrong setup works for more than a year and only start giving problems 2 weeks ago.

The thing I did wrong is creating 2 routings. My 2700HGV-2 will initiate a PPoE connection and connect to the Internet and my WRT54G will also initiate a PPoE connection using the 2700HGV-2 and connect to the Internet. And hence I got 2 external IPs for the 2 PPoE connections, 1 each for the router.

According to some Google searches I made, 2 routings will cause a major lag and slowdown to the network. This problem did not happen a year ago as my mom’s workplace is new and my mom is the first few tenants there and recently it seems that the whole building is fully occupied and morning seems to to be the peak period and hence a lot of people is using the Internet. There is no cable point installed, so the tenants can either be using Singtel’s Singnet or Starhub’s ADSL.

After figuring out this, I went to disable all the shit in 2700HGV-2 making it into a pure ADSL modem and bridge it using my WRT54G. I managed to bridge it using only just my WRT54G to initiate a PPoE connection. My WRT54G managed to get the external IP, gateway, DNS and MTU and it seems everything is working perfect, but it is not! I can’t surf the Internet or ping out at all. And I have no idea why this is happening. I asked FRRO’s Michael for help and he told me it is weird and recommend me in worst case scenario, get a ADSL modem plus a router. I know that the 2700HGV-2 has a inbuilt wireless and 4-port wired router function but it lacks A LOT of features that the WRT54G has like the DDNS service which my mom need the most.

I heed Michael’s advice and went down to Funan to get the Linksys WAG200G, for S$99, it is basically a WRT54G with ADSL modem inside.

Went back to replace both the 2700HGV-2 and WRT54G with only WAG200G and BINGO, everything is perfectly working alright (just got feedback from my mom this afternoon).

Why can’t just Singnet give us the bloody ADSL modem with no shit inside just like Starhub’s Cable modem and it would make the solution easier.

Last but not least, I would like to add that my WRT54G is version 7 and I can’t flash it to DD-WRT. How unlucky!