Hi everyone! I’ve been a long-time lurker on the Singapore Expats forums, but I’ve finally hit a bit of a technical snag that I figured some of you might have navigated already.
We recently moved into a beautiful older condo near the East Coast. While we love the character of the place and the extra space, the "smart" features are definitely from a different era. My biggest headache right now is the home network. The Fiber Termination Point (FTP) is located in the most inconvenient spot imaginable—inside a tiny utility cupboard right by the front door, buried behind the electrical board.
I’m currently setting up my home office in the far back bedroom to get some peace and quiet for Zoom calls, but the Wi-Fi signal is struggling to punch through these thick concrete walls. I really want to avoid those ugly plastic trunking strips running across my ceiling if I can help it; my landlord was quite clear about not wanting new holes drilled or permanent fixtures added to the walls.
I’ve been exploring some more "creative" solutions to get a stable connection back there. One thing I’ve been looking into is using a pair of media converters https://serverorbit.com/network-devices/media-converter. My thought was that if I could find a way to use some of the existing internal wiring—or even just a very thin fiber patch lead tucked under the baseboards—I could use a media converter to switch the signal from fiber to copper (Ethernet) once it's closer to my desk. It seems like a more elegant way to maintain those gigabit speeds without the latency issues I’ve had with cheap range extenders in the past.
I’m a bit of a stickler for a clean desk setup (it helps me focus!), so I’m trying to keep the hardware footprint as small as possible. I’ve noticed that some of these network devices can get quite warm if they’re tucked away in cabinets, which is a bit of a concern given the humidity here.
Has anyone else here tried using media converters to extend their reach in a large HDB or an older condo? I’m particularly curious if anyone has had issues with their ISP’s ONT (Optical Network Terminal) when introducing extra hardware into the chain.
Do you think it’s worth the effort to go the hardwired route with converters, or have the newer Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems finally become strong enough to handle Singaporean "concrete bunker" architecture?
