Fiber Speed is Way Below Advertised

Hello @demichev,

 To fully assist with this issue further, we will need to look over your account in more detail.

I am sending you a private message (PM) to help in this matter. Please check your forums private messages by clicking the Forums Inbox. Locate the PM from ATTCares and reply to my message with your specific account details.

I look forward to your response and the opportunity to help you!

Charles, AT&T Community Specialist

@demichev 

Go into your AT&T Gateway's UI and head to Diagnostics.  In that section there's a Speed Test section.  Run that and see what you get.  You should see something north of 900Mbps down and up.

Just curious, which gateway to you have and what is the firmware version installed on it? 

Also, do you have just Internet or do you also have Voice and/of Uverse TV coming through that gateway?

Thanks for your answer.

This came as a surprise, but the router shows pretty normal speeds:

Test Completion Time Direction Throughput(Mbps) Overhead Average Latency(ms)

I don't understand though what type of service is used to measure the speed and between what points speed is measured.

Did traffic exit internal ATT net for that?

However, the devices connected to the router cannot get above 500 even when connected via an ethernet cable (my NAS has Gb network cards).

ManufacturerModel Number

Software Version

 Hardware Version

Hey, @demichev!

Thanks for reaching out! We'd be glad to help you get your internet speeds working properly!

Has your internet always been behaving like this? If you haven't already we'd recommend rebooting your Wi-Fi Gateway or Modem. You can also read up on Optimizing Your Internet Speeds.

Let us know if this helps!

Ramses, AT&T Community Specialist

The internal speed test for the BGW goes directly from the gateway to an AT&T server so it's not affected by the many things that can give slow readings.  That's why it's always good to use that test as a baseline, because it shows what your fiber line is actually capable of.  Everything else can introduce network overhead, poorly written speed test code, faulty network drivers, local network bottlenecks, bad cables, overly aggressive security software and on and on.

That's why it's so difficult to find the source(s) of your speed loss.  Usually I suggest making sure IPv6 is disabled and using a high quality cable for wired tests. Then you need to look at the actual hardware involved.  Some computer's Ethernet chips just don't do well at these sorts of speed (and Apple stuff tends to lead the pack in this type of incompatibility) and there's not a whole lot you can do about it.  Looks like you have some sort of Linux server so I won't be of much help with that hardware/driver situation.

And if you think there are lots of issues affecting the results for wired connections, add in a whole other layer of issues for wifi connections!

Thanks for your response.

I don't have any firewalls in place except for the standard one on the router and I don't use WIFI for measuring the speed.

My test box is Synology Ds414 which supports Gb connections.

Apple's notebook showed the same speed level as my NAS on the official ATT website, so my results seem in line.

Just curious what type of protocol is used for Speed Test from the router itself.

If they use some lower-level network protocols or UDP (don't know) then the result is not equivalent of the normal TCP/IP that my boxes are using.

I sent a response with details

"

Thanks for reaching out! We'd be glad to help you get your internet speeds working properly!

Has your internet always been behaving like this? If you haven't already we'd recommend rebooting your Wi-Fi Gateway or Modem. You can also read up on Optimizing Your Internet Speeds.

" /q

Thanks, that type of response means you did not read the original question and you're just posting a template.

Just curious what type of protocol is used for Speed Test from the router itself.

If they use some lower-level network protocols or UDP (don't know) then the result is not equivalent of the normal TCP/IP that my boxes are using.

     I'm sorry, I don't know what they use.  However, I will say that on setups that aren't having issues, an online browser or speed test app  will give numbers that generally mimic the gateway's "internal" speed test results. 

"I'm sorry, I don't know what they use. However, I will say that on setups that aren't having issues, an online browser or speed test app will give numbers that generally mimic the gateway's "internal" speed test results. "

That would be my hope.

Will be calling ATT again.

I'd probably push for a truck roll so they could replace the BGW (the only way to get one).  In the past that has often solved low speed situations that aren't related to hardware incompatibility issues, although most of those instances are people who get really low speeds.  You're sort of in the middle, not close to max speeds but not horrible either.

I wish you luck!

What is "Push Back for Truck roll"

I too am having the exact issues with my BGW210-700 running firmware 1.10.9  

When i first got the 1000Mbps i would get 800Mbps+ down/Up for months....... but past months its been in the low 500Mbps to High 400Mbps. (thats HALF what is advertised) 

I called a tech out today, August 27th 2019) and he said nothing is wrong because he based the test off of the router Diagnostic test which isn't REAL WORLD test to me. imo

When i test my speed with an ethernet cat 6e from BGW modem to my apple MacBook I get

In New Orleans AT&T Fiber server 

   DL 351Mbps

   UL  863Mbps

When i switch server to local AT&T Houston 

  DL 822Mbps

  UL  850Mbps

Logging into the Router i go to Diagnostic / Speedtest which is what the tech based his number from....its shows great but doest translate to real world speeds and all the other 8 web tests I've tried.

Test Completion Time

Direction

Throughput(Mbps)

Overhead

Average Latency(ms)

08/27/2019 16:43:36

downstream

969.966

70

4.851

08/27/2019 16:43:31

upstream

945.421

70

4.045

Finally,and when i use At&T technical support suggested test site

https://www.att.com/support/speedtest/

DL  619Mbps

UL  671Mpbs

Demichev, Would you please follow up on what has happened with your case?  I want to know if you replaced the modem with success.

It seems that the speed test with AT&T servers always show "GOOD" but outside that its terrible since im paying for 1000Mbps price for half speed.

I assume it's either my modem needs replacing or the buried line is damaged like it has been before.

Well, I said "push for truck roll", meaning that when he talked to AT&T support he needed to insist that they send a technician to his house with the understanding that he wanted a new BGW gateway.  That's the only way to get another BGW, from the technician's truck inventory.

While you may dismiss the gateway's internal speed test as not "real world", I always use that as a baseline to show if there's something wrong with the actual fiber connection.  If the gateway can get 900+ up and down, you know the problem is not with the fiber connection.  With that said, it's foolhardy to pin any diagnostic conclusions on web-based speed test sites that are run from a browser or an app.  There are a lot of variables with those tests and as you can see from your speedtest.net results, just a change in server can give a result more than twice as fast.

And speaking of that result, what's wrong with 822/850?

I have the same issue. You can see below the down and up speeds on my phone that is roughly 5 feet from the router in an open room.

Two minutes later I tried running ATT's test, but it didn't work. You can see previous runs though.

I don't expect to see 1Gb/s on wifi, thats pretty much impossible, but I do expect to see more than 5Mb/s when I pay for 1Gb/s. This is fairly regular at that. I pay money for a service, I should be getting that service, and yet, I don't.

What's crazy to me, is that when I was stationed in Germany, I paid for 16Mb/s down and typically got 24Mb/s during "peak" hours in a crowded, concrete house. Wonder why they can give what they advertise but you guys can't!

@pschulze 

What's the firmware version number on that BGW210?  That internal speed test was broken by an earlier FW but you should be past that now.

On your Android phone, is it connected to the 2.4GHz or 5Ghz band?

What about devices other than your phone, do you still get these horrible speeds?