Slow AT&T Fiber Internet Speeds Outside of BGW210 Gateway

Hello @YOALLEN78,

Thank you for reaching out to us! I can definitely understand where you’re coming from and the concerns regarding the differences in fluctuation seen between tests. I would be happy to share my knowledge regarding your concerns.

Please keep in mind tests from AT&T are always done locally to your nearest Node or support center, while outside tests through sites and apps such as Ookla travel much further (sometimes to different states) to reach the nearest server for that site. This will result in fluctuating information depending on how the response to those particular servers takes. Some other steps I can recommend to insure your speeds stay up is to make sure the connected devices are kept to a minimum as when more devices connect, the more the connection is shared and the slower it can appear.

If you believe there is an issue with the connection, you can also check out our Troubleshoot & Resolve Tool to check the connection. By logging in with your myAT&T account, you can get a personalized experience. Just click the Internet Tab and select the appropriate issue from the list. For example, this issue would fall under the “Slow Browse” option

I hope this helps to take care of your issue. Should you have any additional concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us and we'll be more than happy to take care of you. I hope you have yourself a wonderful rest of your day!

John, AT&T Community Specialist

Hi. I have nearly an identical setup as you (except my router is an ASUS RT86U and my switch is a gigabit 3Com) and I am experiencing the exact same issue that you describe. I know this thread is 6 months old, but did you ever resolve this? I've tried a lot of things but am still experiencing this issue. Help would be appreciated

Unfortunately not 😂 😂 😂!  My best guess and doing some additional research on the snb forums (given my limited technical experience with all things Networking related) is that my router just isn't up to snuff to handle the increase in bandwidth.

I am probably wrong in my assessment given that your router is much newer than mine, but that is the only conclusion that I can come up with 😁

Unfortunately I do not have a newer router to test my theory out with (my backup router is a Linksys WRT1900ACS that is no newer than my ASUS) and given my network set up (I have a NAS server running through my netgear switch which is a pain to shut down and get back up and running), it is a pain to switch out the router for testing purposes.

My plan is to get a router that has at least 1GB of RAM (apparently the more RAM that a router has, the better it can handle bandwith, processes, etc.). I will keep you posted to see what I come up with. I may go ahead and have a testing/sandbox day and test with my linksys router after all) 😁

Thanks for the response! After playing around with this for several more hours today, I seem to finally have it under control. For me, I:

• replaced the ethernet cables with new ones
• flashed the latest alpha version of the ASUSWRT Merlin firmware from the SNB forums
• reset both the BGW210 and my router to the factory settings (clearing out months worth of accumulated misconfigurations, I'm sure)
• reconfigured only the settings that were needed on the router
• disabled all of the "Advanced Firewall" features on the BGW210 and let my router -- in passthrough mode -- handle the firewall portion

Almost everything seems to be stable with the exception of IPV6 -- with various tests failing or passing depending on the computer I use -- and the speeds are finally in the 900s for both up and down on most reputable speed test sites. I'm really not sure which of the above procedures fixed it, but I'll take it and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully you will be able to sort out your issues as well.

My ASUS router is running a Merlin firmware too! 😁 (Mine is a stable build since there are no alpha builds for my router) I have not yet reset my gateway since the speeds seemed consistent on the gateway itself.

Thanks for the tip regarding disabling all of the firewall options on the gateway itself (there may be a conflict with the firewall on my router).  Due to other technical issues being faced on my network, had to factory reset both the router and netgear switch and configure the DNS on my router to use Google's public DNS server instead of AT&T's (which was causing issues with Outlook syncing and various wired/wireless clients not being able to fully connect to the internet).

I bought brand new CAT6 cables when I first got the service (I wanted no bottlenecks where cabling was concerned), so I think I am good there as well.

Good to see that things worked out for you 😀 and hopefully I can have the same success as you did once I tinker with the firewall settings on the gateway itself.