not getting Giagbit speeds on Fiber service

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
13 posts Page 1 of 2
by maranha » Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:44 pm
I have been using my devices over WiFi for some months. But recently did several speed tests at various times directly connected to the ONT with a known good Cat 5e cable because I want to now use a wired line to get the full gigabit speeds. Most of the time I'm seeing 150-250Mbps download. I tried with a desktop and a laptop which are both set for 1000baseT.

Sonic Tech Support sent me an EERO router which recorded what appears to be a peak download speed of 806Mbps in a 24-hour period; that would be acceptable if it was fairly sustained but the vast majority of time I'm seeing just 150-250Mbps.

So sonic is blaming it on my computers rather than their service only because they saw the peak speed of 806Mbps at one particular time on one particular day. I tried to argue that's only a peak speed and it it is ~200Mbps most of the time and they should send someone out to check the line at the pole but to no avail.

I later learned how to use the EERO app to record speeds many times a day and it was consistently above 800Mbps. I was still getting ~200Mbps with on my computer connected directly to the ONT using various speed tests with various browsers. But then I downloaded the Ookla speedtest app to my computer and that consistently gives me over 800Mbps.

So I still have faith in Sonic!
by dane » Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:13 pm
I think the challenge in this for support is that the network is gigabit - so it can't really be an issue with the circuit, it is either up at gigabit, or it's down. And they've got visibility to see that it's up, so that's an easy part.

This makes it really hard to troubleshoot, particularly if the customer only has one wired computer.

But it sounds like you've got at least two devices. Are you connecting them directly to the Eero or the Sonic ONT? Do they have any antivirus or anti-malware software running? What browser are you using, and are there any browser plugins?

Please don't give up - as you can see from the testing the Eero itself is doing, the connection is gigabit. The challenge is just getting that full speed actually delivered to your devices.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by ngufra » Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:25 pm
What is your methodology to determine the download speed?

If I run go to speedtest.net on chrome from a windows computer wired to my router, i usually get good results but right now i get 252Mbps down and 364 up (3ms ping).

If i run the speedtest directly on the router, (using SpeedTest-CLI on a pfsense router) i get
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from Sonic.net (157.131.x.x)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Unwired (San Francisco, CA) [18.32 km]: 5.34 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 689.22 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 692.31 Mbit/s
It may be that sonic is getting too many customers, but I also believe even if the 200 Mbps speed were accurate I would not notice any difference as a residential user as the speed is to sonic. Netflix will never serve you a Gbps stream.
by maranha » Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:34 pm
Hi Dane, Good to hear from you. As I said I'm testing directly wired to the ONT. Of course I also tested plugged into the EERO router, my Apple gigabit router and also plugged into a gigabit switch downstream from the router. All give approx the same 150-250Mbps.
by maranha » Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:35 pm
I forget to mention I tried with firefox and chrome and several different speed tests including sonic.com/speedtest. My computers are in good shape too.
by ngufra » Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:39 pm
Try to run the speed test at different time of the day/night.
Do you have neighbors with sonic? could you ask them to try too?
by virtualmike » Mon Sep 28, 2020 6:45 pm
And consider trying multiple speed tests.

Besides speedtest.net, try speedtest.sonic.net and fast.com..
by maranha » Wed Sep 30, 2020 1:57 pm
So I experimented some more today and here are my findings ...

- Speedtest at the EERO router using the iPhone EERO app is consistently above 800Mbps download. That's good enough for me! Earlier I wasn't aware that I could test at will myself using the app but the Sonic Tech Support supervisor pointed this out.

- Speedtest on my desktop mac connected directly either to the ONT or the EERO router is consistently in the 150-250Mbps trying repeatedly with various speedtests (sonic, ookla) and browsers (chrome/firefox/safari).

- BUT when I tried with the Ookla App dowloaded to my computers the speed is consistently above 800Mbps either connected directly to the ONT or to the EERO router. So this is something I didn't think of doing earlier.

- BUT when I tried with the Ookla App with my computer going through the EERO router and then thru' a gigabit switch the seed is consistently ~300Mbps. Not too bad but not sure if this is to be expected or there's something amiss in my network? Does anyone else have experience with this?

I will test some more over a week or so. It seems testing on a computer via a browser may be invalid!?
by virtualmike » Wed Sep 30, 2020 6:56 pm
maranha wrote: - Speedtest on my desktop mac connected directly either to the ONT or the EERO router is consistently in the 150-250Mbps trying repeatedly with various speedtests (sonic, ookla) and browsers (chrome/firefox/safari).
Yes, it looks like the Mac browsers are not capable of processing gigabit speeds
maranha wrote: - BUT when I tried with the Ookla App with my computer going through the EERO router and then thru' a gigabit switch the seed is consistently ~300Mbps. Not too bad but not sure if this is to be expected or there's something amiss in my network? Does anyone else have experience with this?
In that case, you're on Wi-Fi, for maxes out for most people in the 300-350 Mbps range.
by maranha » Fri Oct 09, 2020 1:05 am
Success! After tweaking the RJ45 plug at the switch end I'm now consistently getting over 800Mbps on my cat5e wired connection: ~50' of wire from the router to a gigabit switch + another ~25' of wire from the switch to a wall jack + ~6' of patch cord from wall jack to computer.
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