Setup advice

[KDem43]

looking for advice on how to setup my equipment. Right now I have service with Xfinity and a second local fiber company. The xfinity is their 2 gig service. The secondary is a fiber 1 gig up & down service. The equipment is currently Xfinity XB8, Asus AX11000 & AXE16000.

I’m finding my current setup isn’t working out as Xfinity is throttling my connection when I get home from work. Right now I’m using the XB8 in bridge mode but it’s not exactly reliable. I’ve noticed when I watch apps the connection horrible. Not sure if it’s how bad it handles bridge mode or the service itself. Then I use the AXE16000 as the primary with 11000 as mesh. I really only have a couple connections on the mesh. I’d love to switch to the fiber isp (fidium) but they have drops at the worst time.

Any recommendations on a 3 story home setup?

 

[coxhaus]

Bridging at layer 2 works better than bridging at layer 3. When I am complaining about bridging I am complaining about bridging at layer 3 vs switching at layer 3.

 

[drinkingbird]

Bridging at layer 2 works better than bridging at layer 3. When I am complaining about bridging I am complaining about bridging at layer 3 vs switching at layer 3.

There is no bridging at layer 3.

 

[drinkingbird]

looking for advice on how to setup my equipment. Right now I have service with Xfinity and a second local fiber company. The xfinity is their 2 gig service. The secondary is a fiber 1 gig up & down service. The equipment is currently Xfinity XB8, Asus AX11000 & AXE16000.

I’m finding my current setup isn’t working out as Xfinity is throttling my connection when I get home from work. Right now I’m using the XB8 in bridge mode but it’s not exactly reliable. I’ve noticed when I watch apps the connection horrible. Not sure if it’s how bad it handles bridge mode or the service itself. Then I use the AXE16000 as the primary with 11000 as mesh. I really only have a couple connections on the mesh. I’d love to switch to the fiber isp (fidium) but they have drops at the worst time.

Any recommendations on a 3 story home setup?

Unless you have phone service you don't need their router at all, you can get an arris S33 modem and plug your Asus right into it. If their modem is free or getting you unlimited usage (I've heard that's the case in some areas) and you want to keep it, it should work fine in bridge mode (others have said so) or even in router mode with double NAT. If your speed is low at peak times it sounds like a capacity issue and only Xfinity can resolve that, no router is going to fix that. Check the signal levels in their modem, may be some wiring you can move around to improve them if they are low, but if they're in spec, they need to add capacity to your area.

When you see the issue next I'd plug a wired device into their router to see if the issue persists, just to rule out your network.

 

[KDem43]

Unless you have phone service you don't need their router at all, you can get an arris S33 modem and plug your Asus right into it. If their modem is free or getting you unlimited usage (I've heard that's the case in some areas) and you want to keep it, it should work fine in bridge mode (others have said so) or even in router mode with double NAT. If your speed is low at peak times it sounds like a capacity issue and only Xfinity can resolve that, no router is going to fix that. Check the signal levels in their modem, may be some wiring you can move around to improve them if they are low, but if they're in spec, they need to add capacity to your area.

When you see the issue next I'd plug a wired device into their router to see if the issue persists, just to rule out your network.

X2 cable service requires that you use their equipment. I’ve recently run speed test off a laptop using the 2.5 port. I see the speeds match what I’m getting on the router. I’ve noticed when I reset the modem my speeds slowly improve over the next hour. I’ll rest the modem overnight as to not interfere with everyone’s usage. By morning I’m getting full speed. By the time I get home it’s less than half.

What I’m considering is flipping the XB8 into full router/modem. Then throwing the asus routers on the fidium connection. Maybe turn off the 2.5 & 5 radios on the XB8. Then just split everything up

 

[drinkingbird]

X2 cable service requires that you use their equipment. I’ve recently run speed test off a laptop using the 2.5 port. I see the speeds match what I’m getting on the router. I’ve noticed when I reset the modem my speeds slowly improve over the next hour. I’ll rest the modem overnight as to not interfere with everyone’s usage. By morning I’m getting full speed. By the time I get home it’s less than half.

What I’m considering is flipping the XB8 into full router/modem. Then throwing the asus routers on the fidium connection. Maybe turn off the 2.5 & 5 radios on the XB8. Then just split everything up

Check the signal levels on the XB8, if they are in normal range, then Xfinity needs to add capacity to your area, they've obviously oversold what is available.

 

[KDem43]

So last night I decided to turn the xfinity XB8 back into a router. The results so far are significantly improved but that’s during non peak hours. The results were still so much better than non peak before. I noticed the XB8 turns off almost all of their monitoring features when in bridge mode. It’ll be interesting to see if the service dips significantly after 5pm or over the weekend

 

[drinkingbird]

So last night I decided to turn the xfinity XB8 back into a router. The results so far are significantly improved but that’s during non peak hours. The results were still so much better than non peak before. I noticed the XB8 turns off almost all of their monitoring features when in bridge mode. It’ll be interesting to see if the service dips significantly after 5pm or over the weekend

Bridge mode is just a modem so yes a lot of bells and whistles will go away. But you've said before when you reboot (which you did) your speeds would increase and then go down. There's no reason that router mode should be any faster (if anything, the opposite).

Have you checked the modem signal levels in the XB8?

 

[KDem43]

Bridge mode is just a modem so yes a lot of bells and whistles will go away. But you've said before when you reboot (which you did) your speeds would increase and then go down. There's no reason that router mode should be any faster (if anything, the opposite).

Have you checked the modem signal levels in the XB8?

What I also stated was it was significantly improved during non peak hours than I saw “before”. When it was in bridge mode the speed increased like a train, slow over time. Like it needed to warm up. This was not only instant but was also hitting 2200/125 with far last fluctuations. When in bridge mode the speeds would fluctuate no matter when I tested. Guess only time will tell

 

[KDem43]

I had Xfinity technician out today and he admitted a few situations that clarified why I’m getting such a bad connection. Xfinity is hiring contractors (standard practice) to run new lines on the polls. The upgrade isn’t going that well as the contractor work keeps coming back with issues they need to fix. He watched my service go from 1100 to 20 Mbps. It never got close to 2Gigs.

I called the retention department to ask for compensation since I wasn’t getting close to the speeds I’m paying for and it’s a known issue that can’t be fixed immediately. Turns out the issue is so bad Xfinity has been on my small street fixing the lines 3x with overnight crews. 12 hours of work logged in the past 2 weeks on the street lines. I got credit for 2 1/2 months of the equipment rental fees through retention. Hopefully other people having issues will see this post.

 

[Tech Junky]

2 1/2 months of the equipment rental fees

So $40? I would be on them for at least 50% of the monthly fees for hsi since you're not getting the speed of the package. Unless you're getting pro fiber service there's no sense in renting a modem. Buy one and pocket the savings instead. The price you pay for a modem is paid in savings less than a year.

If you don't get the discount then hit their forums and complain and a retention rep will reach out and offer more comp.