ATT fiber install soon, need some advice on hardware

[Fabian Gomez]

As the title says, the install date is May 2nd, it's the 1000Mbps unlimited plan for $70 and I just wanted to have a conversation about some of my existing hardware and some potential upgrades.

I'll begin by listing my hardware to give a better understanding of my setup.

Comcast 250Mbps Blast Pro package (used to get 300Mbps in Speedtest, left for vacation, now it's 150Mbps)
SB6183 Modem
Netgear R7000 router on V1.0.9.28_10.2.32 Firmware
Cat 7 cables

Desktop with Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2200 Series Gigabit Ethernet
Xbox One (currently on Wifi 5ghz band) but soon to be Gigabit Ethernet
HP Laserjet MFP M277DW Gigabit Ethernet
Samsung 60" 4k Smart TV 100Mbps Ethernet

Dell Latitude E7240 Laptop (currently on Wifi 5ghz band on AC 7260 Card) but a Intel Wireless-Ac 9260 is on the way and hopefully will work with it.

LG V20 Cell (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)
LG G4 Cell (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)
Google Chromecast (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)
Desktop with USB 3.0 AC adapter (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)
Apple Ipad 2 (currently on Wifi 2.4ghz band)

--------------------------------Everything above this line is used 90% compared to 10% below line

Sony 40" 1080p Smart TV (currently on Wifi 2.4ghz band)

Vizio 32" 720p Smart TV (currently on Wifi 2.4ghz band)

Amazon Fire Tablet 8 (currently on Wifi 2.4ghz band)

Streaming Box (currently on Wifi 2.4ghz band)

Denon AVR (currently not on Ethernet, but should be)

My desktop I use all day long (browsing, purchasing, selling goods, testing websites, shipping product, streaming movies, editing photos, uploading photos, gaming, emails, lot's of multitasking, multiple browsers open with multiple tabs.

Xbox one streams netflix all day, some gaming.

Printer used all day

4K tv streams netflix daily

Laptop uploads photos and is used to browse the web.


My main issue has always been bandwidth, when the 60" 4k TV streams Netflix, it slows down my 40" TV Netflix stream and affects my desktop gaming/Netflix stream. I tried to use the Enable QOS, Advanced Manual, and High, Medium, Low settings for that TV, but Netflix wouldn't work after trying each setting one at a time, I think only High did.

The other issue is that I'm out of available ports on the router and one day soon I'd like to have PoE cameras, but I suppose I could use WiFi if necessary, same with AP's to increase range to the 2nd desktop about 75 feet away which I'd like one day, which is the same distance the 4K TV is but it's on Cat 5e cable with 100Mbps link.

The other thing is I'd like to upgrade to the Netgear r7800 router and stay there for a bit because my nephew wants my r7000 and can really benefit from it, so I wouldn't be paying a lot out of pocket for it once I sold him this one.

One thing I'll admit I'm completely ignorant on is the NIC card situation with my desktop. I "wonder" if I get a NIC that uses ethernet and supports 2 or 10Gbps would it relieve some stress off my MB and put it on the card, and would I see some speed benefits? I suppose the answer might be it depends, like if I have a 10Gbps switch too, which I don't, so just getting one and using with the r7800 might not yield realistic results right? In my head I think, well since the NIC cap is 1000, why not get a higher cap and see if I get more speed like how with Comcast I pay for 250 but get 300Mbps. (I know, it sounds silly, novice remember)

I have a 2 TB drive that I'd like to share on the network so that my Xbox One could access those movies as well as my chromecast to the two TV's. Not sure the best way to do that, (ex: usb enclosure to router, share it in windows, NAS box)

also forgot to mention, I need to add voip to get my printer a phone line to use for faxing.

So I've shared a lot, and hopefully given a good idea of my gear and some thoughts on what I wonder about and would like to do given my upcoming situation. Thanks in advance for hearing me out and I hope to be able to discuss this with you all.

 

[Mokers]

I recently had ATT Gigabit installed. Took about two hours. They did a great job.

So a few things in general with your setup. 1st, I think you'll find the R7800 really good. I don't use one myself, but lots of people have said good things about it here and it has been reviewed well.

As for the rest of the setup, 2.4 Ghz channel is always going to cause problems for streaming, especially if the device is using and 802.11G chipset. The test would be to see if 4k streaming on the smart TV affects, say, streaming on your desktop. This article is old, but still has some relevant information:

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/basics/wireless-basics/30664-5-ways-to-fix-slow-80211n-speed

for the NIC. Onboard drivers are pretty good. Unless you are doing other things that tax the CPU, I think this is one of those nice to haves.

As for the switch. Just get one. Managed gigabit switches are cheap and can help you with some other benefits, especially if you are thinking of adding PoE devices.

instead of using a 2TB drive, get a NAS. Attaching USB drives to routers always results in poor performance.

 

[Fabian Gomez]

Glad to hear your install went well. That's inspiring, hopefully mine is the same.

Yes, I agree, the r7800 seems to have excellent hardware and received many great reviews. It's high on the list of gear to get.

The issue like I mentioned isn't on the 2.4ghz band, I only stream on the gigabit ethernet desktop, 100mbps 4k tv, 5ghz 1080p tv. I don't have many N devices really, and I surely don't stream with them. But I appreciate the article and will check it out.

So are you saying you think the idea of getting a dedicated NIC that is 2-10gbps might be a good idea?

I like your suggestion about the switch, now I can integrate that to the r7800 which will connect to the att gateway with WiFi disabled by just plugging my devices to the switch instead of the r7800 right?

When you say NAS, you mean a device that stores drives, however it's connected to the switch in this case correct?

 

[Mokers]

I usually don't think a dedicated nic is necessary, but it depends on the work.completely saturating a gigabit network to the point where you would need 2, 5 or 10 gigabit is a lot of work. If you don't need 10Gb now, to with a simple managed switch. In a few years the 10Gb pricing I'll go down. you already have the wiring which is the most difficult portion.

With a switch in place the r7800 acts only as a gateway and for wifi. All the wire wired traffic will stay on the switch. If you are streaming on the pan it's the best way to go and you will be ready for your cameras when they come

A Nas can put an array of drives in the network. It is convenient but can also make for greater performance.

 

[Fabian Gomez]

Well, small update on things so far.

the Terminal for ATT service is right outside the house under a covered porch.

The tech said it's a service terminal. From there it continues fiber to the ONT which is right under my computer desk and goes Ethernet to the ATT NVG599.

From there I have IP passthrough turned on, DHCPS-fixed, MAC address of my R7000 and changed my lease to 2 days because it was set to every 10 minutes.

My only issues are that if I plug my desktop directly to the ATT NVG599 I get 940Mbps in speedtest, but if I try that same speedtest while plugged up to the router, it drops to 250, 400, 600 tops.

My only thoughts as to why is that perhaps the R7000 can't handle the load. As it currently stands I have the following connected:

Desktop with Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2200 Series Gigabit Ethernet
Xbox One (currently on Wifi 5ghz band) but soon to be Gigabit Ethernet
HP Laserjet MFP M277DW Gigabit Ethernet
Samsung 60" 4k Smart TV (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)

Dell Latitude E7240 Laptop (currently on Wifi 5ghz band on AC 7260 Card) but a Intel Wireless-Ac 9260 is on the way and hopefully will work with it.

LG V20 Cell (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)
LG G4 Cell (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)
Google Chromecast (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)
Desktop with USB 3.0 AC adapter (currently on Wifi 5ghz band)
Apple Ipad 2 (currently on Wifi 2.4ghz band)
Sony 40" 1080p Smart TV (currently on Wifi 2.4ghz band)
Vizio 32" 720p Smart TV (currently on Wifi 2.4ghz band)

The ATT NVG599 has 3/4 ports occupied (R7000, ATT wired AP which connects to a ATT TV box connected to the Samsung 60" for TV, but uses wifi for netflix, and another ATT wired TV box

The R7000 has 3/4 ports occupied (desktop, printer, obi202, and the xbox one soon)

So my plan if possible would be to get the r7800 if it will help and a switch to get more ports for poe stuff later on, but for now, do y'all think the R7000 is having issues keeping up which is leading to loss of speed when compared to directly connected to the ATT NVG599?

I'm just not sure if I'm able to remove the stuff plugged into the ATT box and move it to a switch along with my devices or if they have to be plugged up there.

If i really have to i guess i could connect my desktop to the ATT box and just use the usb printer cable for my printer and turn on wifi on it. Then everything else can go on the r7000/r7800 to load balance.

 

[coxhaus]

Just a thought, When you connect and test your R7000 is everything else disconnected one way or another? If not you need to subtract the internet load they are putting on your connection while running the speedtest software.

I wish I could get ATT gig internet. Maybe some day.

 

[Fabian Gomez]

Just a thought, When you connect and test your R7000 is everything else disconnected one way or another? If not you need to subtract the internet load they are putting on your connection while running the speedtest software.

no, when I swap over the ethernet cable from the R7000 over to the ATT box, everything stays the same, nothing else moved, unplugged or touched. So everything that's connected to the ATT box is still there and same for r7000.

I guess the only way to know for sure what could be slowing it down is to unplug/disconnect all wifi devices from the r7000 and see what the speedtest shows, then add 1 device at a time to see what has the greatest impact. Thanks for the suggestion and i'll for sure try that out right now.

 

[Trip]

Since you're running your own router (which I'd recommend, regardless of ISP), triple-check to make sure all services which may somehow impede pass-through are turned off on the NVG599: DHCP, DNS, firewall, etc. and definitely wifi, which you don't want interfering with your R7000 or any other wireless setup.

Regarding the slow-down when wired through the R7000, there could be something amiss with the IP pass-through per my suggestion above. I'd check the NVG599 running config just to make sure all looks good. Moving on to the R7k, it may be that hardware-accelerated NAT via CTF (cut-through forwarding) is disabled due to something like QoS being enabled on. If that's the case, then you probably won't see much above 450-550 Mb/s (as you observed). To get back to near full line-rate you'll have to turn off the feature(s) that are disabling HW acceleration. Or keep them on, and live with the reduced throughput.

Depending on how intent you are on achieving whatever level of throughput for certain services (VPN, QoS turned on, etc.) you may have to substitute your routing/switching/wifi gear. Would be happy to offer suggestions if this thread ends up going that way, but I bet your reply will help clarify/correct some of what I've assumed first.

Congrats on the 1Gb internet line nonetheless!

 

[Fabian Gomez]

Since you're running your own router (which I'd recommend, regardless of ISP), triple-check to make sure all services which may somehow impede pass-through are turned off on the NVG599: DHCP, DNS, firewall, etc. and definitely wifi, which you don't want interfering with your R7000 or any other wireless setup.

Regarding the slow-down when wired through the R7000, there could be something amiss with the IP pass-through per my suggestion above. I'd check the NVG599 running config just to make sure all looks good. Moving on to the R7k, it may be that hardware-accelerated NAT via CTF (cut-through forwarding) is disabled due to something like QoS being enabled on. If that's the case, then you probably won't see much above 450-550 Mb/s (as you observed). To get back to near full line-rate you'll have to turn off the feature(s) that are disabling HW acceleration. Or keep them on, and live with the reduced throughput.

Depending on how intent you are on achieving whatever level of throughput for certain services (VPN, QoS turned on, etc.) you may have to substitute your routing/switching/wifi gear. Would be happy to offer suggestions if this thread ends up going that way, but I bet your reply will help clarify/correct some of what I've assumed first.

Congrats on the 1Gb internet line nonetheless!

I'm glad you brought up DHCP, DNS and Firewall. Now the wifi is for sure turned off, unfortunately the r7000 has to be right next to it, not sure if that's an issue, good thing the R7800 is on the way, should be here in a few days. Ok, so it's my understanding that passthrough gives my r7000 "the internet" in basic terms and then anything that's connected to it gets assigned an ip by the r7000 (ex: xbox, desktop, printer). Now DNS I set manually on desktop, laptop and router to use the google dns, just personal preference i suppose, and firewall, not much to set in the r7000 as i couldn't find a "firewall" section in it.

As for the ATT NVG599, I still have DHCP server on, because I didn't know if turning it off would make my ATT Devices connected to it stop working including the r7000 and (ex:ATT TV boxes, AP). Nor do I think i can change DNS as I didn't find a tab for it, and Firewall in the NVG599 only has packet filter on, ip passthrough on, NAT Default server off, and everything else in it left to default.

From the many forum posts I've read and videos watched, these are the basic settings and or configurations i have set because it's what most people suggested. I'm certain there is a better way to optimize this and yield better results, so I'm up for direction as to how to better achieve it. But for sure to my knowledge i don't think i have anything else on that should be off, unless we could ipv6, but those are activated on the desktop, laptop, NVG and r7000. it only hits 17/20 in that ipv6 test online because i read that's how ATT rolls.

So atm there are no VPN, QoS, traffic meters, guest networks, access control, scheduling, port forwarding, static ip's, UPnP settings turned on.

I had my eye on this little guy for later, Netgear

 

[EngChi]

"As for the ATT NVG599, I still have DHCP server on"

That is something that caught my eye - it does not make sense. At any time you ever want only one DHCP server on your network to avoid screw up involved in doublet NAT (google it for more details). Double NAT would also impact your speed...

make it simple - if you want NGVB599 to be a passthrough gateway, then use it as such and do not try to use it as router (have it run DHCP server, issue IP addresses ,etc). if you want for that to be your router, then you do not need R7000 and it should not run.

 

[Fatawan]

Keep your eye out for one of these bad boys http://www.arris.com/products/nvg578-gpon-gateways/ There have been reports of them being out there in the wild for ATT fiber users.

 

[Easy Rhino]

Thoughts specifically on the two TVs.

The 60" only has 100mbps Ethernet and not gigabit? Weird!
Does the 40" support 5ghz?

Netflix should be able to stream on two TV's at the same time, even with just 150mbps internet, assuming no other traffic. I would wonder if something like QoS on the R7000 was slowing things down.

But hey, it's been a month, how are things working out with the new 7800?