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Ks Toh

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Everything posted by Ks Toh

  1. Ks Toh
    To determine what type of cable you are having, just look at the cable. The information is printed on the sides. It seems that many Cat 5 labelled cables manufactured in recent years also meet Cat 5e specifications but they have just not been tested or certified as such.
  2. Ks Toh
    Why Cat 6 for Network Cabling? Network cables are classified into categories (Cat) according to their performance levels. Cat 1 to 4 are obsolete by now. If your contractor supplies Cat 4 cables, I think you need to change contractor. Cat 5/5e is most common but these days, the default cable should be Cat 6. Most people in this field will tell you to install Cat 6, with some even suggesting Cat 7 cabling. There are now even Cat 8 cables. As you can see, Cat 5e is rated up to 1 Gbps, whereas Cat 6 is rated up to 10Gbps. The slight increase in Cat 6 pricing should be very worth it. Internet speeds in Singapore double roughly every two years. When fibre broadband was introduced, I think the minimum plan was 30 or 50Mbps. When I last subscribed, the minimum was 100Mbps. I renewed recently, it was 200Mbps minimum. Two years on, i am sure the minimum will hit 500Mbps and then 1Gbps and beyond. Some ISPs are already offering 2Gbps plans. I am sure you will be staying in your new place for some time. And you don't want to be in a situation where your fibre broadband plan is 5Gbps but your network cabling can only carry 100Mbps max so you are still getting only 100Mbps internet speed. 1Gbps = 1,000Mbps. Furthermore, many devices are connected in your network. You may be streaming movies from one PC to your Smart TV. Or your IP Cameras may be recording and saving data onto your network drive. Or you may be transferring and copying files from one device to another, within your network. Wouldn't you want a network that is many times faster? Finally, even if you do not need Cat 6 cabling, I am sure the future buyer of your house will be interested. Maybe he is a future buyer only because you had Cat 6 network cabling. Remember that your network speed is only as fast as your weakest link. There is no point subscribing to a 2Gbps fibre broadband plan, having the latest and most powerful 8 antenna Asus router, Gigabit switches and superfast PCs but you laid network cables capable of supporting only 100Mbps.
  3. Ks Toh
    Network Cabling Part 2 Recently, while testing my network speed for VPN, I discovered to my horror that there was something wrong with my network installation. Three tips I want to share: 1. You should lay network cabling. I have spoken on this topic to death here so I will not repeat them again. 2. Your network cables should be Cat 6 or above. I was surprised to read looprevil's contractor propose Cat 5e cabling. 3. After installation, you should test your network for connectivity and speed. I only tested for connectivity. I could connect to the internet and so I thought the network was fine.
  4. Ks Toh
    I saw your quotation before you removed it. I recall you specified Cat 5 or 5e for your cables. You might want to consider Cat 6. Cat 5e is rated up to 1Gbps while Cat 6 is rated up to 10Gbps. Singapore ISPs are already offering broadband speeds up to 2Gbps. It is a matter of time before 1GBps becomes the minimum speed.
  5. Ks Toh
    This viewpoint is counter-intuitive but I agree. My WC uses 6 litres for a full flush. I think it has 2 or less ticks, so not supposed to save water. But many of those WCs that have 3 or 4 ticks use only 3.5 to 4.5 litres of water per full flush. Unless the flushing mechanism is really good, you find yourself flushing twice, so end up use more water than my WC!
  6. Ks Toh
    Good attitude! Turning a problem into an opportunity! Imagine having to spend money to build a ledge for your cats
  7. Ks Toh
    Can't the horizontal trunking just below the window be installed nearer the floor?
  8. Ks Toh
    I don't want to dwell on this any further. I just felt annoyed for you. I will show you the trunking for my aircon compressors. It just so happened that all the trunking for 4 of my compressors are in the same trunking. Mine is all single split and on the outside wall but I think the trunking would be similar. Maybe it would be fairer to say that your box should be 1/2 the current height and 1/3 the current depth.
  9. Ks Toh
    It is not uncommon to have 4 or more fancoil units, but it is uncommon to see such a big box. For each aircon fancoil unit, there will be three pipes. The drainage pipe is a small copper or PVC pipe. It goes to the nearest drainage outlet. I don't see this pipe in this picture and this should not be an issue. The other two pipes are the large insulated pipes carrying the gas between the compressor and the fancoil units. These are the pipes in the picture. I agree that with 4 fancoil units, there will be many pipes and these need to be boxed up. But I feel that the box is simply too big. On the bottom right corner of the picture, you see 2 trunkings painted pink(?), presumably carrying the 4 pipes from two fancoil units. So, when 8 pipes converge, I would expect at most only 4 trunkings, or twice the size of the trunking at the bottom right corner of the picture. But what I see now is a box that is 4 times the height and about 3 to 4 times the depth. The other issue is that the installer will normally run the pipes hugging the edge of the wall, just like the pipes on the bottom right corner. This means as low as possible, and as near the corner as possible. I am not sure why in this case, the pipes are running some distance from the ground and the punch through is in the middle of the wall. Unless there are site constraints we are not aware of, I would think it should be possible to have a box that is 1/4 the height and 1/4 the depth. I would ask the installer to redo. This is my house I am going to stay for a long time. I do not want to be looking at the box every night and wondering if I should have done something about it.
  10. Ks Toh
    I think the painted trunking on the right of the picture is also aircon trunking. It should be possible to lower the pipes to the same height (i.e. just above the ground) so at most you end up with a much reduced __| box that hugs the edge?
  11. Ks Toh
    I do not understand at all why you need this huge box. At most, you just need to box up the trunking, but the trunking is not that big. what is inside??? Do you have a picture showing the contents of the box? Can you take a bigger picture of the wall showing the aircon blower and the trunking?
  12. Ks Toh
    [back to Table of Contents] Hi my HMA is working fine. I have not been torrenting but I read up, asked people and the following are the information I gathered the past few days, verified partially by my various speed checks in the previous post. When you are torrenting, you are downloading not from a particular country or location, but from various users' computers throughout the world. The speed is primarily determined by the number of seeds in the swarm. You are right in that often the speed (as shown on my torrenting software) is much less than 10 MB/s. In fact, I find it is usually not even 1 MB/s. This is the case even with or without VPN. However, even at 1 MB/s, a 600 MB file will download in 10 mins. Sidetrack a bit, 1 B (byte) is equal to 8 b (bits). So, if you see a download speed of 10 MB/s, that is already very fast as it means 80 mbps. We are quite used to very fast internet speeds and therefore kind of spoilt. Various surveys have confirmed that Singapore has overtaken Hong Kong and South Korea. One recent survey by Ookla ranked us at No. 1 at 118.8 Mbps. The world average is only 23.4 Mbps. So, getting 20 Mbps or 2.5 MB/s download speeds when torrenting should be expected. We can only be as fast as the slowest connection. When you turn on VPN, the data will travel one more hop to the VPN server. Whether there will be a speed drop depends on the locations of your VPN server and your destination server. When I tested the download speed from a US web server, the speed with and without a US VPN seems about the same. In fact, on one occasion, the download speed via the US VPN server was faster. However, when I choose some other country VPN to access the US destination server, the speed would drop. This probably because the data needs to travel to that other country first before going to the US. I have not tried all the VPN servers yet, but I find the Hong Kong VPN server quite fast.
  13. Ks Toh
    Maybe you can try adjusting the water level inside the cistern to allow more water per flush?
  14. Ks Toh
    wow, you really incorporated the Eubiq into your kitchen. Luxexplorer mentioned getting it too. I think it is very elegant. My main worry is whether the rated 40A maximum per track is sufficient. Maybe you can only have 3 appliances switched on each time? I see the track also runs behind your tap. Will the water backsplash into the track?
  15. Ks Toh
    I am not familiar with brick wall. Not sure how it is built. The MRT tunnels needs to be almost the size of an aircon trunking. Otherwise, I find it difficult to pull through additional equipment wires.
  16. Ks Toh
    Wow... this is complicated. But I don't understand this part: Do you mean to say: Corporal Tan Ah Kow, NRIC No. Sxxxxxxxx?
  17. Ks Toh
    707 is an established single point instant heater brand while Bennington is a relatively new brand of multi-point heaters. I myself do not use it but I know a number of people here using it. Search for the posts.
  18. Ks Toh
    Love your Exit sign. Is it placed at the main entrance and lighted when you want to signal to your friends that it is time for them to go off?
  19. Ks Toh
    This morning, I carried out some simple tests to see how VPN affects the internet speed. I am subscribed to StarHub's 200 Mbps fibre plan. My StarHub supplied D-Link router is in the store. I have a network cable from there to my room, where I have an AirPort Time Capsule working as an access point. I am using Ookla's SpeedTest on my iPhone 6. I carried out 3 tests for each configuration. iPhone 6 --> Singapore --> SpeedTest server (Singapore) iPhone 6 --> Singapore --> SpeedTest server (Portland, Oregon, USA) iPhone 6 --> VPN (USA, unknown location) --> SpeedTest server (Portland, Oregon, USA) iPhone 6 --> VPN (Hong Kong) --> SpeedTest server (Portland, Oregon, USA) [back to Table of Contents]
  20. Ks Toh
    You can follow my guide here.
  21. Ks Toh
    Yes, you just use your PC or mobile normally. VPN simply directs your web traffic through your chosen VPN server (anywhere in the world) so that the website (or whoever is tracking you) thinks you are accessing from that server at that location. Your actual location and IP address is not disclosed.On your PC, you run the VPN application. On your mobile, you just switch on VPN. But subscribe to VPN only if you need it.
  22. Ks Toh
    Not sure if this is the problem: https://support.hidemyass.com/hc/en-us/articles/202723806-Mac-OS-X-Troubleshooting
  23. Ks Toh
    Yes, I am posting this while connected to HMA - Hong Kong, Wan Chai server. My MacBook Air is on OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.5. I just took the default HMA settings. Did not change anything. Maybe you can let me know the website and I try?
  24. Ks Toh
    Oh dear, I don't use a Mac Mini so I have no idea. Can you try accessing without VPN some other known website which is working? Or restart the computer, turn on VPN first before you attempt to use your browser? Or have you exceeded the two simultaneous logins?
  25. Ks Toh
    Actually, the digging of the trench for the concealed wiring is normally done by the electrician during electrical works (often after the walls are completed), and not by the worker during the hacking. So, you may still be in time, provided of course they are allowed. There are also a number of disadvantages to concealed wiring. First, whenever you want to drill into the wall (e.g. to hang a painting), you always have to check whether there is concealed wiring underneath. Otherwise, if you drill into the wires, serious trouble. Secondly, if there is a problem with the circuit, it is difficult to troubleshoot with concealed wiring. With exposed wiring (in conduits), you can see where they are, and you can easily rip them off and replace them. Another method of concealing the wires is to run them behind cornices, cabinets etc. In some cases (for example, the store is next to your hall), you may be able to drill a hole in the wall, run the wire along the wall of the store and then run the wire out again at the appropriate location in the hall. I used to do this for my room aircon. I ran the trunking into the toilet and along the toilet wall, instead of the room wall.
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