Troubleshooting Slow Upload on IPBB FX1

[jackieroth]

We have IPBB FX1, 50Mbps down and up fiber connection. Thing is our up only measures 5-6Mbps.

A ticket was issued today to double check what AT&T have said which is that everything check out on their end. We have the Pace 5268 with ATA attached for our phone - which they have not proposed checking to date. I understand that Sonic does not control the speeds and I also understand the Pace is a likely suspect. Is that true? Does that sound likely?

I am hearing that it is a challenge to get AT&T to swap those out. Even though I am delighted with Sonic and the Tech support I am receiving, I am curious to learn more from the technical folks on this forum about what issues could be causing this behavior.

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you

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[tony.b]

Hi there Jackie,
I wanted to reach out and thank you for posting these ongoing issues you are experiencing so that we can help get to the bottom of what is causing them. I have taken a look and confirmed that we have a dispatch setup from At&t for 10/27 between 10-2 pm, and that we have noted it that we need the technician to bring a replacement modem/router combo for the service.

I know how frustrating these ongoing speed issues can be, and I apologize for the back and forth that has occurred between At&t and Sonic, but I do believe based on the notes from your calls with us and the hours of troubleshooting you guys graciously did with our techs, that this is an issue with the Pace 52658ac itself and that once we get that equipment replaced you will be seeing symmetrical speeds again over your service.

I am setting up a callback from one of our techs so that they will be reaching out to you after the 10-2 pm window tomorrow to the number we have on file, that way we can check-in and make sure that the dispatch went well and that the service is working properly again, if that doesn't work with your schedule please let me know.

Thank you again for your post, and if you have any further questions always feel free to reach out.
Tony Sonic Supervisor

[jackieroth]

Thank you Tony. I appreciate your reply.

We have similar appreciation for you and your Sonic colleagues. As a longtime Sonic ambassador who shares likeminded values with Dane and Sonic, we carry-on. I called to speak with you this afternoon and since you could not be found, ended up having another friendly and productive conversation with a tech support staff person.

I had to cancel tomorrow's appointment (Sorry) and called to give other times more compatible with our work schedules. 15 minutes later, ILEC called to confirm one of those, a 8:30a-11:30p slot on Sat Oct 31.

Lastly, I do look forward to getting this resolved and agree that the router needs to be replaced to learn more. Like you, I do hope, that'll resolve this issue.

What opinions do you have about the replacement model? What do you expect At&T do do? Should I have a choice, am I better off with another Pace 5268AC or (as mentioned by a tech support person) an Arris BGW210 - which I understand is another possible replacement AT&T might have on the truck.

Also in your experience , will us getting ~50mbps Up improve our VOIP performance?

I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks again
Neil & Jackie

[syntaxsid1]

Hello sorry for the late response.

When using our service for Zoom or other video conference software the "bottle neck" is typically on the upload side usually because upstream is lower bandwidth than the download. It's this way because most every one does on the internet is mainly download which is why it's always the bigger number. Zoom released minimum system requirements a few months back and they are recommending at least 2Mbps upload in order to have good calls with few interruptions. Going to the higher upload capacity will definitely be an improvement for video conference calls and VOIP calls alike.
For the router that AT&T would provide you, this would be what they have on the truck and typically just use one without conferring with the customer. More recently they have been installing the BGW210 as the standard lately. I hope this information helps. Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

[jackieroth]

Thanks Jim

Good to hear from you. Thank you for clarifying what we have speculated for months that getting the 50/50 we were meant to get right from the start will likely improve virtual conference and voip performance. It has at times been very challenging for us - who invested in fiber - and for Sonic to get the to bottom of this issue. We hope that the router swap scheduled for Saturday morning will give the 50/50. Fingers crossed. Otherwise, we will have to escalate again and keep AT&T accountable until this issue is resolved.

I have heard that about the likelihood of the BGW210 replacing the Pace 5268AC. What is the same and what is different about them? I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for your support
Neil and Jackie

[klui]

OP, are you sure you have FX1? Log in to your modem and look at the Broadband configuration to confirm. The Internet Connection Type in Settings > Broadband should show Broadband Llink Ethernet.

I have 5268ac and BGW210 and both give me 50/50. I'm currently using the 5268ac because I don't want to have the BGW210's passthrough going through the modem's NAT table.

[jackieroth]

Thank you klui.

I appreciate your support. Are you a Sonic employee?

I have been told over the phone by Sonic staff and can see on our account that we are on record as having FX1. I was not aware that I could login to our Pace, nor have I ever been asked by any Sonic techs to do so. I have been told that it belongs to At&T, so not sure I would have the credentials to do so anyway.

I do not understand what you are saying when "passthrough going through the modem's NAT table." I do not understand what that all means to a regular user like us. Sorry! If you'd like to explain in less technical language, I would be happy to hear and learn. Thanks again.

[klui]

I'm just a customer.

If you can't login to your residential gateway, how would you change the password of your WiFI or disable it if you have your own?

Because residential internet services provides one IP address to a subscriber, a modem uses NAT to multiplex a bunch of devices within a residence to use that single IP. A modem's NAT table limits how many concurrent network connections you can have at any given time. For example, if you go to YouTube and watch a video that is one connection. What you may not see is there could be other connections that are required to render that web page. Things like loading dynamic scripts, accessing ads, as well as thumbnails and other videos' previews which might be stored on other servers within YouTube. At any given time your household can have hundreds if not thousands of outstanding connections. If you go over this limit--based on memory capacity of the modem--your modem will display a message indicating the limit has been reached. Until an existing connection is closed, this new connection won't be allowed. A lot of people get around this limitation by using their own router that has a higher limit and they do it using bridge mode. Bridge mode places the modem into modem-only mode and disables its router and WiFi functionalities. Pace modems from Sonic have such a mode but ATT resold services' modems do not. The closest is either IP passthrough or DMZPlus. The former is available on the BGW210 while the latter exists on the 5268ac. Sonic's modems also have these modes.

The BGW210's pseudo-bridge mode goes through the device's NAT table. When you use IP passthrough or DMZPlus your personal router's WAN port will get your allocated IP address. If you issue a traceroute (tracert under Windows) 1.1.1.1, your first hop should show your gateway's IP: typically 192.168.1.254. Your next hop should then be your ISP's gateway. On the BGW210 your first hop would be your personal router's gateway IP: for example, 192.168.0.254, but your second hop is actually the BGW210's gateway, which is 192.168.1.254. The 3rd hop is the ISP's gateway. The 5268ac does not have this behavior and the second hop is the ISP's gateway.

For typical consumers the BGW210's NAT table is adequate at 8192. Maybe 10 years ago, NAT tables were anemic and I personally experienced running out when I was using a Motorola DSL router that had a table with a 1024 limit. The 5268ac's NAT table is actually twice as large as the BGW210's.