Tech – //> A L C A T R O N . N E T //>

NBN FTTP vs FTTB

Published November 20, 2018

The Australian National Broadband network, is being rolled out full steam ahead, here are some of the differences between FTTB vs FTTP rollout to a building.
FTTB is Fibre to the Basement, and FTTP is Fibre to the Premises, these two terms sound very similar, but are quite different in the way they operate, and may be confusing for you.

To summarize this, here it what it exactly means:

FTTB
Physical – Powered DSLAM device that sits in the basement of the building. This DSLAM works off VDSL2 to the end user.
Speed Residential – It has a maximum speed of UP TO TC4 100/40 – Depending on the copper length from DSLAM to end user as signal will attenuate on longer distance and provide less speed
Speed Business Grade – It has an estimated Traffic Class 2 – TC2 20/20 (Synchronous)

FTTP

Physical – Fibre direct to your premise with a Network Termination Device (NTD) that you connect up to 4 data connections and 2 analogue telephone ports. You can order battery backup on the NTD as well

Redundancy and Flexibility – 4 data ports – meaning up to 4 services from up to 4 carriers can be connected – this can allow for carrier redundancy and also if you wanted to separate your networks on each port using one for each – eg. corporate data/guest wifi/3^rd party businesses on each port.

Speed – It has a maximum Speed of TC2 100/100 – Business Grade Service – with high download and upload speeds for corporate application data/video conference/VOIP with guaranteed performance parameters around jitter and lag that many enterprise applications require to run efficiently and without delays, time outs and buffering.

Speed – It also has a range of residential grade (Traffic Class 4 – TC4) speed tiers you can order up to a maximum of TC4 1000/400.

Main benefits of FTTP over FTTB are:

Significantly faster speeds – Enterprise Class speeds of TC2 100/100 which ensures guaranteed performance for critical systems
Smoother connection experience with a fibre connection compared to copper based FTTB
Battery Backup on the nbn edge device is available in the event of a power outage

At the moment NBN is delivering FTTB in most places in large apartment buildings, hospitals, etc , but the business can choose for a FTTP delivery instead if they wish to, however this will come with an extra cost which NBN can provide a quote for.

Cisco VPN Client on Windows 10

Published February 18, 2018

Need to use the Cisco VPN Client in Windows 10? There is a way to get it working on Windows 10… but it just involves a few additional steps..

Run the installer vpnclient-winx64-msi-5.0.07.0440-k9.exe
Install dneupdate64.msi
Edit the registryWith Regedit open, locate the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and click the drop-down icon. Then do this again for System, CurrentControlSet, Services, and finally, CVirtA.
From there, double-click DisplayName and change the value data to “Cisco Systems VPN Adapter” (without quotes) if you’re using the x86 32-bit version of the software or “Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows” (again, without quotes) if you’re on the 64-bit version.

For reference, the original value data entry should look like this:
32-bit (x86): @oem8.ifn,%CVirtA_Desc%;Cisco Systems VPN Adapter
64-bit (x64): @oem8.ifn,%CVirtA_Desc%;Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows

Once you’ve made the appropriate changes to your registry, restart Windows and you’re done.

Hope this has helped you install it on Windows 10 🙂

NBN Fiber is Active

Published December 12, 2015

I finally managed to get NBN Fiber activated at my place. I have purchased a Cisco 5506-X to service the NBN Link to terminate 2 x 100/40mb services as this is the max available speed per carrier. I plan on using the Policy Based Routing function on the Cisco 5506-X to load balance the links a bit and setup traffic types and how it should flow. I will later document my config of the Cisco and the funky type PBR I have setup on it. The NBN box offers 2 voice ports and 4 ethernet ports. The 4 Ethernet Ports can provide up to 4 ISPs to service the traffic to your premise. Since I have dual links at present techincally I have a 200/80 link load balanced on the ASA which is quite nice 🙂

Here are some of the photos of my setup and how its functioning, in a later post I will go through the 5506-X configuration.