(Sorry for the double post, I was not logged in on the above - and did not notice until I had submitted it)
The administrator is free to delete the above post if they wish.
Hi, New Sonic customer here..
I just had AT&T Internet 1000 installed last week. I was horrified at the experience. The tech came out on time and the installation itself was fine. The performance on the other hand was awful. It can barely manage 20mbps DL and 3mbps UL on average speedtests. One speedtest server has occasionally surpassed 100mbps and once in the last week I have seen it hit 300mbps (All of these numbers are from a wired, dual gigabit enabled supermicro dual xeon motherboard with cat 6 and cat 5e cable - running Linux). Of course those are speedtest numbers. Real world performance, it averages 20mbps - thats downloading from http, scp, iperf3, git, etc... I had to wonder if the line was damaged - though the fact that it peaked at 300mbps and the asymmetry of it leads me to believe that its just being shaped into mediocrity.
I then proceeded to engage customer support. It became obvious at that point AT&TCares(tm) really does not. Lots of research later (Which I probably should had done prior to getting AT&T) and I came into awareness of Sonic being available in my area. Based on the impressions of the customer support alone and seeing that the CEO actively participates in the forums, and that the company seems generally progressive, I went ahead and ordered the Sonic+AT&T gigabit fiber and am cancelling the Stock AT&T service. I am disappointed that AT&T is still technically running the new line, but hopeful that the customer support difference will be worth it.
I do have a few technical questions to which the answers are still unclear after a fair amount of research:
1. Can we connect directly to the ONT? I would prefer to not use the Pace RG and use my own infrastructure. I am aware of the HW and SW requirements needed in a gigabit system (I manage 10G and Infiniband networks @ my day job). I have seen posts on the AT&T forums about people doing this with custom connection scripts feeding authentication bytes to the ONT - So I know its technically possible even with stock AT&T. The question is - is omitting the Pace RG permitted with Sonic+AT&T? I am even OK renting the Pace RG and keeping it around for Sonic's remote diagnostic needs. But day to day I want to use equipment I can tweak to my specifications. As far as support goes, if Sonic can manage the "ONT to Internets" side of things, I can handle my own network.
2. I have read elsewhere that Sonic+AT&T DSL is rebranded Enterprise UVerse. Is the Enterprise part also true of AT&T+Sonic Gigabit Fiber ? Or put another way - Given that AT&T is still still in the path, how exactly will the traffic shaping differ from stock AT&T? - I get that there will be no data quantity cap (which was also true with Internet 1000). Am I going to be stuck with the same 20mbps DL and 3mbps UL? Beyond Family Comms, and media consumption, I do a fair amount of network related software development, both professionally and for fun @ home. The throttling pretty much makes it useless for that. I just want my ISP to keep their hands off the bits I had paid for. Even the 600mbps symmetric (60%) AT&T supposedly guarantees would be a far cry from the 20mbps (2%) I am getting.
3. Stock AT&T offers a 5 Static IP option for $15/mo. Just curious why Sonic does not. I can of course fake it through various means - but It would be nice to have at least 1 static IP built in...
Thanks,
mtm
The administrator is free to delete the above post if they wish.
Hi, New Sonic customer here..
I just had AT&T Internet 1000 installed last week. I was horrified at the experience. The tech came out on time and the installation itself was fine. The performance on the other hand was awful. It can barely manage 20mbps DL and 3mbps UL on average speedtests. One speedtest server has occasionally surpassed 100mbps and once in the last week I have seen it hit 300mbps (All of these numbers are from a wired, dual gigabit enabled supermicro dual xeon motherboard with cat 6 and cat 5e cable - running Linux). Of course those are speedtest numbers. Real world performance, it averages 20mbps - thats downloading from http, scp, iperf3, git, etc... I had to wonder if the line was damaged - though the fact that it peaked at 300mbps and the asymmetry of it leads me to believe that its just being shaped into mediocrity.
I then proceeded to engage customer support. It became obvious at that point AT&TCares(tm) really does not. Lots of research later (Which I probably should had done prior to getting AT&T) and I came into awareness of Sonic being available in my area. Based on the impressions of the customer support alone and seeing that the CEO actively participates in the forums, and that the company seems generally progressive, I went ahead and ordered the Sonic+AT&T gigabit fiber and am cancelling the Stock AT&T service. I am disappointed that AT&T is still technically running the new line, but hopeful that the customer support difference will be worth it.
I do have a few technical questions to which the answers are still unclear after a fair amount of research:
1. Can we connect directly to the ONT? I would prefer to not use the Pace RG and use my own infrastructure. I am aware of the HW and SW requirements needed in a gigabit system (I manage 10G and Infiniband networks @ my day job). I have seen posts on the AT&T forums about people doing this with custom connection scripts feeding authentication bytes to the ONT - So I know its technically possible even with stock AT&T. The question is - is omitting the Pace RG permitted with Sonic+AT&T? I am even OK renting the Pace RG and keeping it around for Sonic's remote diagnostic needs. But day to day I want to use equipment I can tweak to my specifications. As far as support goes, if Sonic can manage the "ONT to Internets" side of things, I can handle my own network.
2. I have read elsewhere that Sonic+AT&T DSL is rebranded Enterprise UVerse. Is the Enterprise part also true of AT&T+Sonic Gigabit Fiber ? Or put another way - Given that AT&T is still still in the path, how exactly will the traffic shaping differ from stock AT&T? - I get that there will be no data quantity cap (which was also true with Internet 1000). Am I going to be stuck with the same 20mbps DL and 3mbps UL? Beyond Family Comms, and media consumption, I do a fair amount of network related software development, both professionally and for fun @ home. The throttling pretty much makes it useless for that. I just want my ISP to keep their hands off the bits I had paid for. Even the 600mbps symmetric (60%) AT&T supposedly guarantees would be a far cry from the 20mbps (2%) I am getting.
3. Stock AT&T offers a 5 Static IP option for $15/mo. Just curious why Sonic does not. I can of course fake it through various means - but It would be nice to have at least 1 static IP built in...
Thanks,
mtm