When I learned the term about multihoming, I revisited my interest again to have a VPS (Virtual Private Server) to setup as a VPN (Virtual Private Network) for my home network.

I wanted it to be hosted in the Philippines because of latency. Major hosting providers uses Singapore or Hong Kong to cater the PH market. But the latency is just too high at around 30ms.

I found one in LightNode. The cost is reasonable too for $7.7 USD/month.

The drawback is it looks to be limited to 100mbps only. Which is still reasonable.

Checking the hops, it looks like they are hosted within PLDT’s data center:

This is why the latency is at a very good range of 7ms. It does hop at one NAT which I think adds the 2ms. Overall this is good.

I’m going ahead and continue to use this and integrate it with my home network setup.

Next step is to understand multihoming.

One of the hobbies I picked up this year was to be an Internet Service Provider (ISP) wannabe using Fiber to the Home (FTTH).

I was just so fascinated with FTTH technology and how accessible acquiring the equipment needed to implement it. It’s expensive, but not out-of-reach expensive. Imagine the jump of technology from CAT6 (4 pairs of copper wires) limited to 100 meters, to a single strand of fiber than can support over 100 km length at faster speed! It’s super fascinating for me. 

I kept researching how it works. Knowing myself, I will only learn if I put skin in the game.

In the process, I learned a ton of new acronyms:

OLT: Optical Line Terminal

This is the most expensive part of this hobby. OLT is like the network switch for fiber. It allows transmission to multiple ONU (more on this later).

I chose the cheapest OLT I could find, specifically looking for a local supplier so I can quickly get a replacement if ever it malfunction.

I got a HiOSO HA7302CST. It’s an EPON OLT that has 2 PON ports that can connect up to 128 ONUs.

PON: Passive Optical Network

PON is what the technology is called. It’s passive, meaning it does not require electrical components to split or combine the signal. It literally uses light to transmit data.

There are 2 common types of implementation. EPON and GPON. EPON has symmetrical speed, GPON have faster downstream speed. GPON is what PLDT, Globe use as it has more capacity per fiber line. EPON is generally cheaper.

ODN: Optical Distribution Network

ODN is how the fiber are physically laid out.

We have a couple of properties in the same village. What I did is I installed a 1:8 NAP on each property to provide internet service to the house itself and it’s nearby neighbors.

NAP: Network Access Point

NAP are the boxes where the signal from PON is split. It can be split on different ratios with different signal loss depending on how large the split is.

Splitter Type	Insertion Loss (dB)
1:2	4.0
1:4	7.4
1:8	10.5
1:16	13.5

I opted to use 1:8, since I’m not seeing myself acquiring a lot of subscribers.

ONU: Optical Network Unit

ONU are the modem that converts the signal from fiber and make it available through Ethernet and WiFi.

I learned that Huawei EchoLife HG8145V5 is very popular modem in Facebook Marketplace because it’s what the major telecom uses. Unused modems from disconnected/terminated subscribers are being sold in the second-hand market.

It’s possible to reuse it outside the telecom’s network because there’s an exploit for Huawei modems that allows root access to the device and convert it from GPON to EPON ONU. This was fascinating too!

SC-UPC / SC-APC: Subscriber Connector

There are two types of subscriber connectors. SC-UPC (Blue) and SC-APC (Green). The difference is how their end is polished (angled vs not angled). It can be interchangeably used, but it will incur a notable signal loss.

I learned how to terminate it myself. So much easier than terminating a CAT6 cable.

Loss Budgeting

From the OLT, you start with the PON module signal which in my case is 7-9 dBm depending on the module. The loss must not to be more than -27 dBm when it reaches the ONU.

For every split and every termination, there will be signal loss incurred.

A computation is required to get an estimate of the final signal strength. I learned that it’s called loss budgeting — making sure that the signal does not go below the threshold from OLT to ONU.

-

I’m now an ISP for a couple of houses in village. It’s mostly family and friends. No plans on expanding, just wanted to scratch an itch and learn about the thing. Fun stuff!

I’ve been curious on getting my own ASN and IP address.

The process is to register and buy in your region’s internet registry. In my case, it’s APNIC. APNIC is more strict than other registries in terms of registration and fees.

At the very minimum, I need 500 AUD registration fee and 1180 annual fee to keep a /24 IPv4. Which is more than the money I want to spend. On top of the fees, it looks like only a business entity can register, which I don’t have.

Source: https://www.apnic.net/get-ip/get-ip-addresses-asn/

Is it possible for an individual to get his own ASN?

Browsing ASNs from the Philippines, I saw two curious ASN number that looks to be registered under an individuals name: AS200866 and AS200879.

Both are registered under RIPE which has a more lenient registration process and provides free IPv6 allocations.

I’ll go through the registration process and see how it turns out.

Maybe I could get my own ASN too.

When I learned the term about multihoming, I revisited my interest again to have a VPS to setup as a VPN for my network.

I wanted it to be hosted in the Philippines because of latency. Major hosting providers uses Singapore or Hong Kong to cater the PH market. But the latency is just too high at around 30ms.

I found one in LightNode. The cost is reasonable too for $7.7 USD/month.

The drawback is it looks to be limited to 100mbps only. Which is still reasonable.

Checking the hops, it looks like they are hosted within PLDT’s data center:

This is why the latency is at a very good range of 7ms. It does hop at one NAT which I think adds the 2ms. Overall this is good.

I’m going ahead and continue to use this and integrate it with my home network setup.

Next step is to understand multihoming.

I’ve been considering changing my router from Omada’s R605 to something more configurable.

Omada is great for managing switch and access points. Sobrang seemless mag-add ng bagong device. Routing-wise, it works naman pero biggest gripe ko yung detection ng WAN connection. It can only do it per minute.

Kaya I’ve been looking to switch to Mikrotik CHR.

I found this blog post with benchmarks. VyOS came on top. I was not even aware of VyOS before. Kaya bagong rabbit hole nanaman. I’ll give it a shot soon.

VyOS

It supports PPPoE which is the main reason why I’m looking to switch sa Mikrotik.

https://docs.vyos.io/en/stable/configuration/service/pppoe-server.html

I have quite a few mini-PC that has only a single gigabit port. I’ve been considering and researching how to expand those to have an extra port. One of those options was using a USB to Ethernet adaptor.

Now, I’ve looked at this option before. Ang nakuha ko lang puro discouragement na hindi siya stable.

Why it’s not recommended

• Doesn’t offload all processing from the CPU, causing high CPU usage.
• Additional USB abstraction compared to PCIe.

I found this thread, they discussed different chipsets and they benchmarked it too: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-air-usb-c-ethernet-unreliable.2287743/

CDC - Communication Device Class (USB)
NCM - Network Control Model
https://www.keil.com/pack/doc/mw/USB/html/group__usbd__cdc_functions__ncm.html

A CDC NCM compliant device exposes itself as a virtual NIC to the host operating system.

A CDC ECM is a predecessor of NCM that needs software implementation of other Ethernet standards, causing high CPU usage during transfer.

MacOS

AX88179A

AX88179A:
Bus: USB
Vendor Name: ASIX
Product Name: AX88179A
Vendor ID: 0x0b95
Product ID: 0x1790
USB Link Speed: Up to 5 Gb/s
Driver: com.apple.driver.usb.cdc.ncm
BSD Device Name: en4
MAC Address: 20:7b:d2:11:a4:e3
AVB Support: No
Maximum Link Speed: 2.5 Gb/s

• CPU heavy without driver on Mac. Driver: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-air-usb-c-ethernet-unreliable.2287743/post-31123118
• AX88179 is different to AX88179A. The A at the end indicates macOS support using CDC NCM driver.
• Does not support VLAN with native CDC NCM driver.

Another recommended chipset is Realtek RTL8156B: https://khronokernel.github.io/macos/2021/11/22/PCIE-ETHERNET.html

Proxmox

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/solved-the-problem-problem-with-2-usb-network-cards-asix-ax88179.101732/

Recommended chipset: RTL8153.

Issue with AX88179: starts not active. Solution is to create a bridge.

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/ax88179_178a-c-fixed-for-proxmox-e-g-use-with-freebsd-opnsense.60879/

When fiber internet was rolled out at my Mom’s home, I had this itch to provide internet for the whole compound. She have an ice cream business and she provides housing to ice cream vendors (sorbetero) together with their families. Around half the compound are sorbeteros. Most of which will benefit if they don’t have to add another expense for internet.

Fiber made bandwidth cheap (P2699 for 100mbps). I knew that a 100mbps plan is more than enough for everyone there. The bottleneck is the device the comes with the internet plan. The device PLDT provides is actually an all-in-one that combines a modem, router, switch, and an access point (WiFi).

To increase coverage, I need to split out the access point and use a separate device.

Project goal

• Share internet that covers the whole compound
• Performance should be adequate for remote learning or work-from-home (Zoom, Google Meet)
• Have the same experience as having their own WiFi
• Roaming-capable (when people move, their device will automatically switch to the next nearest access point)
• Minimal restrictions

Implementation

I opted to go with a business-grade solution. Big factor is a single dashboard to manage all access points. I was initially considering Ubiquity, but then found out about TP-Link Omada which is half the price.

• I get notified through Omada app if the internet is down or if any of the access point stops working
• There are only 2 SSIDs (WiFi name) for 7 access points. One personal and another for the free WiFi. Each has it’s own subnet.
• Free WiFi’s subnet is limited to 50mbps to guarantee that the personal network always have bandwidth available
• Each device is further limited to 20mbps (initially this was 10mbps but utilization rate was low, I bumped it up to 20mbps)
• I had to block Mobile Legends because kids from other compound started coming to our compound to have a tournament until late night. Blocking is just another ACL rule to block port 30000 to 31000. ML stopped loading after this has been applied.

Interesting metrics

• 7 access points covered more than 20 households
• Average internet utilization is only around 20%
• Average traffic is around 180GB download and 15GB upload daily
• Max connected clients so far was 90+ devices
• It’s been running since May 2021. Things has been relatively stable. Downtime was only when there’s no electricity.

Cost

Next step: better cable management

Item	Unit Price	Qty	Total
TP Link Router R509	₱2,180.00	1	₱2,180.00
TP Link 5-port PoE Switch	₱1,440.00	1	₱1,440.00
TP Link EAP110-Outdoor	₱1,400.00	2	₱2,800.00
TP Link EAP225-Outdoor	₱2,900.00	4	₱11,600.00
TP Link EAP235-Wall	₱2,900.00	1	₱2,900.00
Thinkcentre m73p	₱2,500.00	1	₱2,500.00
Omni plugs	₱442.77	1	₱442.77
Waterproof Junction	₱580.23	1	₱580.23
305m CAT6 outdoor cable	₱2,250.00	1	₱2,250.00
Total			₱24,443.00

I could have implement the whole thing 50% cheaper but it’ll be a pain to maintain and less fun to do. Since I’m doing this for free, I might as well enjoy haha.

Why

I see this as a hobby. I’ve always been fascinated with computer networking for as long as I can remember.

The 25k I spent could’ve easily been another gadget where only I would benefit (and add another stuff to my life). Spending it on this instead accomplishes two things: 1) I had fun planning, figuring things out, and setting it up 2) It has good net effect because a lot of people are getting value from it. And that makes me happy.

I also learned a lot. I finally understood how VLAN works. It’s nice that I can map an SSID to a VLAN to have it’s own network. Power-over-Ethernet was also nice because there’s only one cable for power and data (CAT6).

Overall it was worthwhile.

My role at work is partly DevOps. This means that there are rare instances that even if I’m not at home (where internet is reliably available), I might get an alert where a server is not working as it should.

I have mobile data plan from Globe for that. Globe is usually good within cities. The more remote I get though, the less reliable it becomes. My initial solution was to get another phone and line from Smart (competitor).

However, I have minimalist tendency. Paying for two plans monthly feels wasteful. Especially during this pandemic where I barely use both.

I also didn’t like having two phones with me all the time.

Solution: Globe eSim + Smart Magic Sim

My primary network is Globe. I don’t mind paying monthly for this because it’s the same number I used for years. Good thing that they offer eSim which is supported by my phone.

The process was easy. Go to Globe store, ask for conversion from physical sim to eSim. They will then provide a QR code a phone can scan to register the number. That’s it. The eSim solution eliminated my need to carry two phones all the time because I can put in another sim to my phone.

For Smart, I recently found out that they are offering a new product called Magic Sim. It has non-expiring data at P399 for 24GB. Non-expiring! I only need to pay for it when I use it. I dropped the Smart plan I used to have which I was paying for P3500/monthly (easy to justify pre-pandemic) and replaced it with this one.

End result is I have a single phone with two sims from different network. I’m only paying monthly for my primary network. My phone auto-switches network depending on availability of internet.

#

I know this is borderline penny-pinching (which I try not to do). But I like keeping my personal lifestyle low-cost. I also enjoyed eliminating the waste I feel every time I do my budgeting.