Looking at getting Optus 5g home internet as they have the best speeds in my area (500+mbps).
My question is, does anyone know if an Asus Mesh system would work with it? I see that some other 5G home internets (i.e TPG) don't work with the Mesh systems.
I believe Optus use this modem: https://ztemobiles.com.au/optus-ultra-wifi-5g-modem/
Any info or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Any info or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
That webpage does say
Supports Mesh expansion units (sold separately by Optus)
So you'll have to have a chat to Optus and find out the costs.
Otherwise turn off the wifi in the 5G router, get a TP-Link deco setup and under advanced, operation mode, change it from wifi router to Access Point mode.
This way you're not double NATing etc.
Unfortunately Optus have absolutely no idea. They’re hopeless to deal with
Script monkeys
No escalation process, unless you put in a formal complaint and then they just want to get is resolved without fixing the root cause. Free upgrades if you know some new hardware will fix the issue.
No idea what the hardware they sell actually does. 4G broadband help did not know what at mobile band was and let alone what the band numbers meant.
No calls back even though the support says someone will call back within 24 or 48 hours. Call back in 4 days and there is no outstanding issue, so you have to give them the incident # or what optus call it.
Sales people will tell you porkies, so make sure you have id documented in an email that you can return everything within 7 days of delivery (not shipping) and get a full refund even if it has been used.
Then go the access point mode route on a mesh setup like the Deco.
The pro of this is you can move it to a different router, unlike the mesh expansion units linked to the router.
Bridge Mode isn’t strictly necessary. If you’re just a regular user just disable all wireless functions on the Optus modem and connect the lan into the WAN of whatever router you want to use. I did this for about 3 years before moving into a home with gigabit.
Doing that, LAN -> WAN is classed as double NAT, and isn't the best as it causes issues for some apps/VPNs etc.
It's definitely not ideal but in 3 years I never had a single issue doing this on any device across both mine and my parent's households, including with VPNs. If you know of any specific cases or apps which would run into problems, I'm actually quite curious to know.
It’s generally only a problem for programs that need to accept incoming connection. Servers and p2p for instance.
So what I gather is I should just be able to plug the mesh system into the Optus modem via the LAN/WAN.
Currently I have an Ethernet cable running from an Ethernet port on my Telstra 5G modem to the LAN/WAN port on the mesh and have no issues. Would this just be the same for Optus?
Does anyone know how difficult it is to put these Optus modems into bridge mode as an alternative?
If you're looking to bridge your 5G modem-router to a mesh router of your choice, you will have to manually configure the Optus device to put it into bridge mode.
In case you don't know what bridge mode is, its a special router mode that disables the router functionality so you can use your ISP's combination router-modem unit solely as a modem paired with your own (mesh) router.
You might have to ask in the forums to help / instructions on how to do that, since the steps are different for different devices.
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/97xq48k3
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/3ww4lzx3?p=-1#bottom