Home Wifi Issues, Considering Alternatives to Try and Fix the Problems

[TechRookie123]

Hello all, 

 

I live in an apartment, and our building supports fiber internet from ATT. I currently have 1000mbps wifi on their fiber network. They set us up with a white box, which I believe is the "ONT" box, and that connects to our black router/modem combination box. The black box is a BGW210-700. The main issue we've been having is our devices will have a perfectly fine connection, all ranging from 100-300mbps depending on the day, but often, the speeds will drop to 20-50mbps. The problem is usually solved when I reset the router, but I need to do that almost once a week. I have contacted ATT support multiple times, and they always just suggest restarting or they will "reconfigure" some things. That will usually help in the short term, but the problems always persist. Additionally, there are some major connection stability issues in videoconferences, whether it is Zoom, teams, Google Meet, etc. I will always have people complain to me that my picture gets very blurry and "stuttery," and my audio goes in and out. 

 

At this point, I am convinced the router is just very dated and not up to the task anymore (ATT has sent me a replacement unit, and it has had the same problems). 

 

I am considering purchasing a couple of Eero pro 6Es, but when doing some research on them, it seems like there may be compatibility issues with my modem/router, or I need to put the modem/router in passthrough mode and adjust some settings which I am not too sure about doing. I would purchase the Best Buy wifi installation package, where they send someone to hook everything up and ensure everything is optimized, but that is $150, and I am not sure the Eero solution will even solve anything. My main question is, does this Eero solution provide better speeds and provide a more stable internet connection for my devices or will putting the BGW210 in passthrough mode cause some sort of bottleneck on the Eero device and cause the same problems? Or does anyone have any other suggestions? Any input would be greatly appreciated as, at this point, I am out of ideas on what to do. Thanks!

 

[Donut417]

12 minutes ago, TechRookie123 said:

ny input would be greatly appreciated

The easy solution would be Ethernet. You basically live in the worst environment for WiFI. You probably have elventy billion WiFi networks around you. Your airwaves are probably full. Depending on out densely packs with apartments the building is 5Ghz might do better. You can use a WiFi analyzer app to see what the spectrum looks like. Maybe configure your WiFi network to use channels that are less utilized by other networks. If any of your devices support 6Ghz that might be an option due to it not being as crowed, But it does have less range and penetration power, so likely wont cover the whole space. If the walls are thick that range will be even less.

 

20 minutes ago, TechRookie123 said:

At this point, I am convinced the router is just very dated and not up to the task anymore (ATT has sent me a replacement unit, and it has had the same problems). 

Its probably under powered. Im surprised you have an external ONT because AT&T's combo should have an ONT built in. But they use the same combo box for ADSL, VDSL and Fiber I believe.

[TechRookie123]

Yes, I would definitely use ethernet, but our apartment is not wired with ethernet plugs, so I would have to run 20+ foot cables throughout the apartment from the modem/router box. 

 

What do you think about enabling passthrough on the modem/router and connecting a third-party router? Would that create some bottlenecks and reduce speeds and network stability even more on the third-party router?

[Donut417]

11 hours ago, TechRookie123 said:

What do you think about enabling passthrough on the modem/router and connecting a third-party router? Would that create some bottlenecks and reduce speeds and network stability even more on the third-party router?

That works. But if your wireless spectrum is full, there is not much you can do. In an apartment 2.4 Ghz is probably next to useless and 5Ghz might even be full as well. Plus many routers dont support the DFS channels because that requires special certifications from the FCC. You have to understand that there are limits to what WiFi can do.

 

In my opinion the first step is evaluating the airwaves with a WiFi analyzer app and see how bad the situation is first.

[Bdavis]

I would put the ont in passthrough mode and get a wifi 6e or wifi 7 access point/router. Ubiquiti gear would be my first choice. It has been rock solid for me, and scans to automatically use less saturated frequencies. It is also really easy to set up and configure.

[E-waste]

While possible more crowded with a very limiting THREE non-overlapping non-interfering channels of 1, 6, 11, if you are able to be far enough away from overlapping channels, use one of those three in the 2.4 Ghz mode, you will get a stronger, longer range signal.

 

Do a speed test online, and check your upload speed, and latency.  Then, switch your router to use 2.4 Ghz instead of 5 Ghz, and test.  Compare upload speed and latency.  If the speeds are similar, then try using 2.4 Ghz as the radio waves travel through walls and obstructions better than 5 Ghz.

 

Your issue is network upload, which is used to send data packets of your digitized audio and camera output.  If an option, limit the audio bit rate to 96 or 128 kbps.  If framerate limitation is an option, I see no reason why 12 frames per second is not acceptable.  Also, 480p (640x480 or 720x400 or similar) should be more than acceptable.

 

1280x720 is enough to display an entire computer desktop, so I think even half as much is good enough to transmit your face.

 

My suggestion is to scan your pc network activity with: https://wireshark.org

 

In wireshark, click view, name resolution and network name.  Without this step, you'll only see IP (numerical) addresses.  Unless you study which companies have which IP address blocks, then you will have no idea which ip address represents which websites.

 

You will have to run this on all desktop and laptop devices, and for android, there is not a wireshark app but there are programs that capture wifi packets from the device.  No idea what is available for iOS.

 

If you had a real custom router, you could use that, but a majority of wifi routers do not provide packet-level or even dns level logging.  Because of this software limitation on your router, you'll have to use wireshark per computer, and look for excessive network use, focusing on network upload, which is a non-local destination IP address or domain name.  So the source would be 192.168. and the destination would go to the Internet, a non-local network address.

 

If you don't already, disconnect all other network devices besides what you intend to use.

 

Another way to help is to use pi-hole / adguard, or NextDNS.  The idea here is to block all updates, telemetry uploads, advertisements, tracking domains, and other unwanted connections, until you are done with network upload like video.  Pi-hole and adguard require a Linux system, so unless you are well-versed in Virtualbox's bridged-networking adapter setting, installing Ubuntu, setting the IP address there, installing pi-hole in Ubuntu, and then setting your wifi router to use the virtual machine's IP address as the router's DNS ip address, then look into NextDNS.

 

You can switch between NextDNS address for your router's dns, and another provider such as Cloudflare or Quad9 dns.  This way, when you need to cut back on network activity, set your router to use your account of nextdns (free and paid options available, I recommend a paid account as the free plan is WAY too generous, I don't see how they stay in business) and when you are done with upload heavy programs, just switch back the dns address to what is usually is.

 

A new router could in theory help, bet the real way to fix this is to limit what traffic leaves your network, so you don't have to buy new hardware.  Simple as that.  Windows is fairly heavy on the network when it first connects, hitting Microsoft's dns service (they use their own for their services like telemetry and updates, probably for security and authenticity reasons) and Edge, Windows updates and a few other services hit the router very quickly.  Once all of that settles, it is usually not as much, but it will do this on EVERY re-connection.  Even plugging in / disconnecting an ethernet cable that goes from one pc to another to share wi-fi will cause these connections to restart.

 

So, you'll see all of this from wireshark on a single pc, and it is enough to slow down upload for a while.  Until you are sure that there isn't excess upload activity, a stronger router is a band-aid, although a really effective one.

 

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Regarding wireless congestion around you, reduce your wi-fi router transmitter power.  If everyone around you did this as well, you won't see 20+ wifi networks.  Because the default of basically all routers is maximum (0.5 watts or sometimes more, up to 1watt but usually not that high) you are blasting your wifi signal far enough for others to use, and interfere with.  Although wifi-5 or wireless-AC which has 5 Ghz, allows for far more channels, if any nearby wifi routers are on your same channel, they will compete for air time.  With reduced transmitter power, you won't reach as many other routers, and less routers will be able to reach yours, vastly reducing channel interference.  Wifi 7 is designed to help with this, but I think reducing transmitter power is far more effective and increases network privacy, as less people will see your network, unless in much closer range.