Is my ISP screwing us?

[fastcar123]

hey,

 

We have AT&T uverse fiber optics for our internet. We pay for the fastest which is 1Gbps/1000Mbps.

Our home has fiber optic cable that run to each apartment and then gets converted from there.

 

Currently on my computer I get a tested speed of 300 download and 175 upload.

I know those speeds are fast but if I were to pay for those speeds, I'd be paying 59.99 per month; not 79.99.

 

So before I call up my isp I need to know. Could my motherboard be slowing it down? Or maybe the 25ft cat5e cable connected my router? Is there something wrong with my fiber optic converter box? Or am I simply overreacting to the whole thing?

 

what's everyone elses opinion?

[Arty]

2 minutes ago, fastcar123 said:

 

any other devices you can test from?

[Lurick]

Have you tried plugging directly into the AT&T box and testing that way to narrow down the cause? I know from experience you won't hit the gig speeds, you'll average around 900Mbps give or take.

[Rohime]

4 minutes ago, fastcar123 said:

hey,

 

We have AT&T uverse fiber optics for our internet. We pay for the fastest which is 1Gbps/1000Mbps.

Our home has fiber optic cable that run to each apartment and then gets converted from there.

 

Currently on my computer I get a tested speed of 300 download and 175 upload.

I know those speeds are fast but if I were to pay for those speeds, I'd be paying 59.99 per month; not 79.99.

 

So before I call up my isp I need to know. Could my motherboard be slowing it down? Or maybe the 25ft cat5e cable connected my router? Is there something wrong with my fiber optic converter box? Or am I simply overreacting to the whole thing?

 

what's everyone elses opinion?

Is your PC WIRED to the router at 1Gbps?

What model router is it?  (some dont cope with the speed).

[Mornincupofhate]

AT&T is known for giving out shitty hardware/reduced speeds. Call them up and complain, It's what I always do.

 

I dont have AT&T fiber so I wouldn't know - Is there a fiber cable being ran to your modem/router? You might be able to build your own hardware capable of handling packets better than anything you can get from AT&T.

[bcguru9384]

6 minutes ago, fastcar123 said:

cat5e

try good cat6 cable

[brwainer]

1. To address all the people saying stuff about your cable, including the suggestion to try a cat6 cable: Look at your NIC in the Network and Sharing Center - if it says 1Gbps then you are not being limited by your cable, computer, etc. if the cable is not capable of 1Gbps, then the computer will show 100Mbps, and will not be able to receive or send at faster than that. There is no level between 1Gb and 100Mb - it either works at gigabit or it doesn't. Since you get speeds greater than 100Mb, your computer and cable are fine
2. I assume that so far you have been testing with speedtest.net? Lots of the speedtest.net servers are not capable of 1Gbps speeds for each individual test - they may only have 1Gbps available in total, with lots of users testing at all times. Try a speedtest from dslreports.com, which uses up to 32 connections to multiple servers at the same time. Whatever speed you get here is representative of your total bandwidth, whereas other tests only show what a single connection is capable of
3. What model is your router? Does the fiber connect directly to it, or (more likely) is there an ONT? (ONT = Optical Network Terminator, which is the equivalent of a modem) If there is a seperate ONT, does the ethernet connect directly from it to your router, or is there anything else in between?
4. Is there a single fiber (and ONT) for the whole building, or a seperate fiber for each apartment, each with their own ONT?
5. Is the 1Gbps plan for the whole house, or just your apartment?

[BuckGup]

WHAT you only pay $79 a month? Jesus christ. I'm done. 

[bcguru9384]

1 hour ago, brwainer said:

1. To address all the people saying stuff about your cable, including the suggestion to try a cat6 cable: Look at your NIC in the Network and Sharing Center - if it says 1Gbps then you are not being limited by your cable, computer, etc. if the cable is not capable of 1Gbps, then the computer will show 100Mbps, and will not be able to receive or send at faster than that. There is no level between 1Gb and 100Mb - it either works at gigabit or it doesn't. Since you get speeds greater than 100Mb, your computer and cable are fine
2. I assume that so far you have been testing with speedtest.net? Lots of the speedtest.net servers are not capable of 1Gbps speeds for each individual test - they may only have 1Gbps available in total, with lots of users testing at all times. Try a speedtest from dslreports.com, which uses up to 32 connections to multiple servers at the same time. Whatever speed you get here is representative of your total bandwidth, whereas other tests only show what a single connection is capable of
3. What model is your router? Does the fiber connect directly to it, or (more likely) is there an ONT? (ONT = Optical Network Terminator, which is the equivalent of a modem) If there is a seperate ONT, does the ethernet connect directly from it to your router, or is there anything else in between?
4. Is there a single fiber (and ONT) for the whole building, or a seperate fiber for each apartment, each with their own ONT?
5. Is the 1Gbps plan for the whole house, or just your apartment?

yes cat5 will allow netcard activate or say 1gbps but signal noise transfered over a cable of greater 3meters will cause signal loss

repeated packets

why better shielding in a cat6 cable is great start

guy stated he is on 25 foot cable run

please remember to take distance into to equation

linus has a video about cables

[bcguru9384]

just to prove point

electricians have a pen lights up by being near a wire that has electrons flowing thru it

that pen works because noise generated by electron collisions in the wire which results in a rf wave being created

[brwainer]

7 minutes ago, bcguru9384 said:

yes cat5 will allow netcard activate or say 1gbps but signal noise transfered over a cable of greater 3meters will cause signal loss

repeated packets

why better shielding in a cat6 cable is great start

guy stated he is on 25 foot cable run

please remember to take distance into to equation

linus has a video about cables

Cat5e is rated for 100 meters (330 feet) at 1Gb, and I have personally seen cat5e wires run over 500 feet that have no packet loss. The main situation where you have issues is if the ethernet cable is running parallel with power cables, and that won't happen for runs under about 50 feet. When you aren't running in parallel with a power cable, then distance effects don't come in until you get to at least 50m - 150ft.

 

Cat5e and Cat6 are both UTP standards - meaning Unshielded Twisted Pair. If a cable has shieleding it is STP - but almost all Cat6 cables are UTP. 

[brwainer]

6 minutes ago, bcguru9384 said:

just to prove point

electricians have a pen lights up by being near a wire that has electrons flowing thru it

that pen works because noise generated by electron collisions in the wire which results in a rf wave being created

What you are talking about happens with AC power cables. That does not happen with ethernet because each wire pair is twisted together. That's what "Twisted Pair" means. The twisting means that one wire in the pair perfectly cancels out the RF of the other wire in the pair. And the 4 pairs in the wire are tsisted by different amounts (measured in twists per foot or twists per meter) so that any residual energy from one pair can't affect the others. Any energy transfered from one pair to another is called crosstalk, and UTP has essentially none.

 

The energy that escapes from normal AC power cables is what causes the interference I mentioned in my prior note when you have ethernet parallel to a power cable.

[bcguru9384]

how many bends in those runs?

straight yes good speeds @ 500 to 750mhz signals

but we are using 2 to 5 ghz signals

so new rules apply

as cable bends you get signal noise points

regardless i bet since apartment building it will behaive like cable node

more clients less bandwidth

so cable would not even matter anymore

 

[brwainer]

Just now, bcguru9384 said:

how many bends in those runs?

straight yes good speeds @ 500 to 750mhz signals

but we are using 2 to 5 ghz signals

so new rules apply

as cable bends you get signal noise points

regardless i bet since apartment building it will behaive like cable node

more clients less bandwidth

so cable would not even matter anymore

 

EXCUSE ME?! 2 to 5GHz? This isn't wireless. Gigabit ethernet uses 100MHz, 10Gb uses 250MHz. Cat5e is rated at 100MHz, Cat6 at 250MHz, and Cat6A at 500MHz. 

 

I can't even make sense of the rest of your message.

[bcguru9384]

look up your cat5 cat5e

states speeds upto 1000mbps

it performs below standard during high data transfer scenarios

end of my comments here

[bcguru9384]

1 minute ago, brwainer said:

EXCUSE ME?! 2 to 5GHz? This isn't wireless. Gigabit ethernet uses 100MHz, 10Gb uses 250MHz. Cat5e is rated at 100MHz, Cat6 at 250MHz, and Cat6A at 500MHz. 

 

I can't even make sense of the rest of your message.

good you do know some math and just proved my point for cat6 cable

thank you

[Donut417]

Um when is your ISP not screwing you? AT&T has shit customer service from what I read and a shit network. They might offer you fiber but they dont want to offer fiber. Google went a pissed in their swimming pool so now they have to offer fiber. Id call and complain. Keep in mind most ISPs in small print have it sate that speeds are "UP TO". So they can pull that shit. 

[Mornincupofhate]

2 hours ago, SamStrecker said:

WHAT you only pay $79 a month? Jesus christ. I'm done. 

Yeah, AT&T is trying their hardest to compete with google fiber, but they're a shit provider overall.

Still better than comcast, though.

[BuckGup]

23 minutes ago, Mornincupofhate said:

Yeah, AT&T is trying their hardest to compete with google fiber, but they're a shit provider overall.

Still better than comcast, though.

Better then Centurylink for sure. $129 for 700Kb/s

[Mornincupofhate]

Just now, SamStrecker said:

Better then Centurylink for sure. $129 for 700Kb/s

Honestly they legally shouldn't be allowed to provide as a company. All they're doing is slowing down the internet and ripping people off.

[fisch1l]

Just to jump into the fray, I too have AT&T Fiber. On my PC, (hardwired with Cat5e into router), I get about 950 down and 930 up. I have an Intel Gigabit ethernet card (built into mobo). Never had any issues.

With that said....

 

Without getting into interference (not really a big deal with digital signals), make sure your router is hooked up with Cat5e or higher cable. Make sure all updates are installed on your pc.

If you're using WiFi, you'll need to turn on 5GHZ networking (it's disabled by default). Connect to the network, go to 192.168.1.254

Then, follow these steps (written by me):

1. You'll be greeted with a page that says AT&T U-Verse (honestly don't know why).
2. Near the top, click Wifi, under 'Key Things to Do'
3. Scroll down to where it says '5GHZ radio configuration'
4. Make sure Wifi Interface, SSID broadcast, and Wifi Security are all enabled.
5. Change your wifi SSIDs. In Network name do something like mynetwork_5ghz so you know what it is
6. Scroll up, do the same for 2.4 ghz configuration. (except in the ssid, do mynetwork_2.4ghz)
7. Don't mess with guest networks and don't mess with passwords!
8. Scroll all the way down, hit Save
9. For access code, it's on side of router.
10. Done! Connect to 5ghz network, and hopefully you'll have way faster speeds (not as fast as wired, though)

 

[fastcar123]

4 hours ago, Rohime said:

Is your PC WIRED to the router at 1Gbps?

What model router is it?  (some dont cope with the speed).

 

4 hours ago, brwainer said:

1. To address all the people saying stuff about your cable, including the suggestion to try a cat6 cable: Look at your NIC in the Network and Sharing Center - if it says 1Gbps then you are not being limited by your cable, computer, etc. if the cable is not capable of 1Gbps, then the computer will show 100Mbps, and will not be able to receive or send at faster than that. There is no level between 1Gb and 100Mb - it either works at gigabit or it doesn't. Since you get speeds greater than 100Mb, your computer and cable are fine
2. I assume that so far you have been testing with speedtest.net? Lots of the speedtest.net servers are not capable of 1Gbps speeds for each individual test - they may only have 1Gbps available in total, with lots of users testing at all times. Try a speedtest from dslreports.com, which uses up to 32 connections to multiple servers at the same time. Whatever speed you get here is representative of your total bandwidth, whereas other tests only show what a single connection is capable of
3. What model is your router? Does the fiber connect directly to it, or (more likely) is there an ONT? (ONT = Optical Network Terminator, which is the equivalent of a modem) If there is a seperate ONT, does the ethernet connect directly from it to your router, or is there anything else in between?
4. Is there a single fiber (and ONT) for the whole building, or a seperate fiber for each apartment, each with their own ONT?
5. Is the 1Gbps plan for the whole house, or just your apartment?

1. Thank you for clearing up the information about the cabling. it made my tired eyes very eased to see this easy explanation. No the cable is not limiting as you said. I confirmed this in the exact way you said to do.

2. This is by far the most helpful information on this topic. My results are attached will also include my results from my default search engine, which are drastically lower.

3. 5268ACFXN is the model. its the one they gave us. Here's how its wired up

fiber cable ---> converter box---> unknown type of cable in the walls----> router ----> cat5e cable ---->my PC

4.There is one individual fiber cable that runs from a main system somewhere on the property to each individual apartment.

5. the plan cover my dwelling, but not the whole building.

 

Based upon this result id say it is good. But I also ran the tests in the off hours. I'll run the test again tomorrow midday. I would think sunday afternoon is a good time for internet usage.

 

Either way I am still confused. This all started when I visited a friends house who had the same service. There was no buffering or latency of any kind. But here there is.

[fastcar123]

14 minutes ago, fisch1l said:

Just to jump into the fray, I too have AT&T Fiber. On my PC, (hardwired with Cat5e into router), I get about 950 down and 930 up. I have an Intel Gigabit ethernet card (built into mobo). Never had any issues.

With that said....

 

Without getting into interference (not really a big deal with digital signals), make sure your router is hooked up with Cat5e or higher cable. Make sure all updates are installed on your pc.

If you're using WiFi, you'll need to turn on 5GHZ networking (it's disabled by default). Connect to the network, go to 192.168.1.254

Then, follow these steps (written by me):

1. You'll be greeted with a page that says AT&T U-Verse (honestly don't know why).
2. Near the top, click Wifi, under 'Key Things to Do'
3. Scroll down to where it says '5GHZ radio configuration'
4. Make sure Wifi Interface, SSID broadcast, and Wifi Security are all enabled.
5. Change your wifi SSIDs. In Network name do something like mynetwork_5ghz so you know what it is
6. Scroll up, do the same for 2.4 ghz configuration. (except in the ssid, do mynetwork_2.4ghz)
7. Don't mess with guest networks and don't mess with passwords!
8. Scroll all the way down, hit Save
9. For access code, it's on side of router.
10. Done! Connect to 5ghz network, and hopefully you'll have way faster speeds (not as fast as wired, though)

 

Taken care of

[brwainer]

49 minutes ago, fastcar123 said:

3. 5268ACFXN is the model. its the one they gave us. Here's how its wired up

fiber cable ---> converter box---> unknown type of cable in the walls----> router ----> cat5e cable ---->my PC

Is this your router? https://www.arris.com/globalassets/resources/data-sheets/5268ac.pdf If so I'd say it's fairly good, and probably not the cause of any bottlenecking. The main cause of a router bottlenecking a connection is a weak CPU, and while I don't know for sure, I don't suspect this router has that issue. It also seems to be a pretty good wifi device overall, but that's just based on the specs.

 

49 minutes ago, fastcar123 said:

3. 5268ACFXN is the model. its the one they gave us. Here's how its wired up

fiber cable ---> converter box---> unknown type of cable in the walls----> router ----> cat5e cable ---->my PC

4.There is one individual fiber cable that runs from a main system somewhere on the property to each individual apartment.

so just making sure.... the fiber enters your apartment, and the "converter box" is in your apartment? I'm confused by the statement that there are unknown cables in the wall. If the converter box is not in your apartment, then I honestly wouldn't be sure that you are the only apartment connected to that fiber - sure you might have you own ATT UVerse account and data plan, but in an apartment building there might not be fiber for each apartment - in which case there is going to be a per-building bottleneck, at whatever rate they are using on that fiber. I work for an ISP that only uses 1 fiber per building in apartment complexes, but we have a drastically different model than anything that ATT might be using here - for one, none of our residents make their own accounts with us, the internet access is included in their rent. So I'm not saying that what my company does is similar to what you have at your apartment, just that there isn't always 1 fiber per apartment.

 

EDIT: What type of cable is plugged into your router for the WAN connection?

[fastcar123]

2 minutes ago, brwainer said:

Is this your router? https://www.arris.com/globalassets/resources/data-sheets/5268ac.pdf If so I'd say it's fairly good, and probably not the cause of any bottlenecking. The main cause of a router bottlenecking a connection is a weak CPU, and while I don't know for sure, I don't suspect this router has that issue. It also seems to be a pretty good wifi device overall, but that's just based on the specs.

 

so just making sure.... the fiber enters your apartment, and the "converter box" is in your apartment? I'm confused by the statement that there are unknown cables in the wall. If the converter box is not in your apartment, then I honestly wouldn't be sure that you are the only apartment connected to that fiber - sure you might have you own ATT UVerse account and data plan, but in an apartment building there might not be fiber for each apartment - in which case there is going to be a per-building bottleneck, at whatever rate they are using on that fiber. I work for an ISP that only uses 1 fiber per building in apartment complexes, but we have a drastically different model than anything that ATT might be using here - for one, none of our residents make their own accounts with us, the internet access is included in their rent. So I'm not saying that what my company does is similar to what you have at your apartment, just that there isn't always 1 fiber per apartment.

Yep that's the one.

 

The converter that I am referring to was put there by a tech from AT&T. I have seen it and it does actually have a fiber cable connected to it. So I am assuming here a little. But it only makes sense to me that every other apartment would also have one of these converters as well. Furthermore I have seen the inside of the buildings here that are still under construction (its a very new complex). I have seen that there is a fiber cable running through the skeleton of the building and to each individual apartment. What I do not know is what type of cable that runs from the converter to the router. I also have no clue where those individual fiber cables start.

 

hope that helps clear things up a bit.