Teacher
•
20 Messages
ATT uverse download speed across entire home network drops drastically when uploading.
This problem just started happening around this past Sunday. Was watching Netflix on a PS4 hard wired connected to the network. My girlfriend using a notebook connected over wireless started to upload a bunch of photos to Dropbox. At that moment the Netflix quality dropped. The PS4's internet connection test was very sluggish and showed connection speeds in the Kb/s similar to dial up. I rebooted the PS4, rebooted the Uverse gateway and my router and same thing occurred. I tried troubleshooting with the ATT app on my smartphone but connected over wireless it couldn't start any tests. Switching to LTE on the phone allowed the app to load and the tests to run. The tests indicated that it was getting normal ~40-50Mbs down and ~5Mbs up supposedly from the AT&T network to gateway and no other issues.
Using another desktop connected via a wire to the network and trying to run a speedtest from speedtest.net was slow to load and when it did indicated speeds comparable to dial up for download.
Thinking this was a fluke didn't think much of it. Later that evening the download speeds went back to normal.
Forward to Tuesday and I'm trying to get some large video files uploaded to a file share site and the download speeds crater again. This is when I noticed that this decrease in download speed correlates to uploading. Doesn't matter the device, browser, app, etc... if anything on the network is uploading data it has a severe impact on the download speed for the entire network.
Thinking it might have been an issue with my router, I connected directly to the AT&T gateway with a wire, bypassing the router altogether. Same thing occurs if any thing on the network is uploading, the download speed drops drastically. Stop the upload and the download speed returns to normal. I took the router completely out of the loop and tried uploading a file directly from the system connected directly to the AT&T gateway and the same thing occurs...drastic drop in download speed for the duration of the upload. Interestingly enough when this is happening when connected and uploading directly to the gateway, the its own speedtest utility still indicates ~40-50Mbs speeds and just shows a smaller drop in upload speed (2Mbs down from ~5mbs which is expected) .
This would seem to indicate to be that some issue with the modem.
I seem to remember that earlier on Sunday, prior to when I noticed this issue, that things were normal. I uploaded a few large video files to YouTube and not remember anything remarkable about the download speed. That seemed to be the last time it was acting as it should.
I talked with AT&T support over chat. Explained the issue several times. He ran a line test and supposedly did some other things, and nothing made a difference. After some time of run this speedtest and run that speedtest and those pages had difficulty even loading if I had a file uploading in the background... he punted my chat session to his "supervisor". I had the issue reversed thinking that I had slow upload speeds when downloading. I had to correct and explain to him again. He again ran a few tests to no avail. Then told me that I had to reset the gateway (hold down the red button for 20 seconds) because of some supposed software changes he made. This dumped my chat session since the gateway was reset. Once it did come back up the issue was still the same. I had to go through connecting to chat again, getting yet another agent and having to explain the same thing for the 3rd time. He ran some tests, asked me to run some speedtests again..supposedly fiddled with a few things. Then he asked me to reset the gateway again...which I wasn't about to fall for again and sit through explaining this issue to a 4th agent all over again.
He finally gave up and set up a service call.
What I'm worried about now is whether this issue may be related to a recent firmware update pushed down by AT&T. I currently have the Arris bgw210-700 and it indicates it has firmware 1.6.7 installed. I've seen other posts from people with other issues (such as port forwarding being disabled) with this model of gateway that this firmware may have been recently pushed down by AT&T. Don't know if this issue might a side effect from the firmware upgrade. I just don't want a AT&T service guy to come to my house, swap the gateway out with a new one which will work perfectly fine until a few days down the road when it gets its firmware updated to this latest version, starting this whole cycle over again.
So I'm looking for any guidance and trying to see if anyone else has experienced this odd problem with uploading drastically reducing download speed performance across the network. Is this a known issue? Or is it a hardware failure with the gateway? Is it something at the street that can be addressed only by AT&T service?
gr8sho
ACE - Professor
•
5.4K Messages
6 years ago
@epontius
Hello, as end users, we have no control over which firmware runs on the RG. I'm sure you've noticed even a factory reset has no bearing on the version. Server will push latest.
I do not recommend getting an older box if offered.
You can post table in broadband tab from 192.168.1.254 someone might be able to spot something.
Lastly, AT&T smart home manager app run on your smartphone has a good speed test you can run specifically to measure bandwidth to the RG itself. This is a good diagnostic to tell you if your service is working correctly.
0
0
epontius
Teacher
•
20 Messages
6 years ago
Yep. Did that. Came up clean and the speedtest showed normal speeds that would be expected even though the performance on my network for downloading was so poor I had to turn the wireless off on my smartphone and connect to the LTE network to even get the app to start to run the test.
The box's has a similar speedtest and it also shows normal speeds when I'm performing an upload and the download performance is poor.
I did an experiment last night with a system connected directly to the box via a wire. Started the Speedtest.net test, and once it reached around 20Mb/s, started uploading a large file to Google Drive, then watched the needle in Speedtest drop to the bottom of the dial.
This is actually what I'm afraid of. I have a service call on Friday. If the tech comes he's most likely just going to grab another box from his truck. Even though it may be the latest model, it may have been sitting in its box for 6 months and have an earlier firmware version installed. He swaps my box with the current firmware which has this problem with the replacement box with an older version of firmware that doesn't. Everything will work. He leaves. Two days later the servers at AT&T push down the latest firmware to this new replacement box and I end up with the same problem again.
I'm going to have to make sure he doesn't leave until I can see that the firmware version installed is what I have now or more recent. I'm not going to be satisfied otherwise.
However, from research I've done so far, my issue seems rather isolated at least I haven't been able to find any other complaints of this specific speed issue.
So it could be still be related to some sort of hardware failure either the box itself or something from my house to the street that conventional tests aren't catching.
0
0
gr8sho
ACE - Professor
•
5.4K Messages
6 years ago
Please reread what I wrote. Even if you’re given another BGW210 that’s six months old, the firmware will immediately update once it comes online to the network.
Frankly I've never experienced the issue you posed, but I’m not much of an uploader. Still, I’ll see if I can duplicate the conditions of your issue by doing simultaneous upload and download.
Can you please state what tier of internet service you have. 45/10?
0
0
epontius
Teacher
•
20 Messages
6 years ago
That's not what you said. And the impression was that the network pushes down the update when it feels like it. ie. No control, server pushes the latest.
So it wasn't clear to me when the server pushes the update. But doesn't matter, like I said, I'm not letting them leave until I can see that the firmware is current or newer and this issue is resolved.
Internet 45 according to my plan. Just says "up to 45Mbs download". I'm not seeing anywhere the promised upload speed is mention. From tests it looks like I get around 5 to 6Mbs.
To test I was taking a large file of several gigs, and just uploading it to Google Drive. Problem is browser agnostic...does the same thing in Chrome and in Firefox. And the file can either be uploaded on the system you are also trying to browse the internet with or on a different system on the network. Happens whether devices are connected to a separate router that is connected to the gateway or connected directly to the gateway. Wireless or wired, same problem exists.
0
0
gr8sho
ACE - Professor
•
5.4K Messages
6 years ago
Can you try posting the table from broadband tab?
http://192.168.1.254/cgi-bin/broadbandstatistics.ha
0
0
epontius
Teacher
•
20 Messages
6 years ago
Yes. Two shots. The one on the left was taken without uploading anything in the background. Speedtest shows good speeds.
The one on the right was taken when uploading. Speedtest failed to even load when while the file was uploading.
2 Attachments
NotUploading.jpg
Uploading.jpg
0
0
gr8sho
ACE - Professor
•
5.4K Messages
6 years ago
Your upstream sync rate looks wrong. Go to att.com and login to check your services. Internet 50 is what it looks like you have but upstream should be set to 12M typically, not 6. Tech support should be able to fix that.
0
0
gr8sho
ACE - Professor
•
5.4K Messages
6 years ago
I’d like someone else to comment on line attenuation and power output. The values don’t seem quite right.
The technician that comes out there should check the line as part of the visit.
0
0
epontius
Teacher
•
20 Messages
6 years ago
Where am I looking specifically? I don't see anywhere on the account where upload speed is mentioned. It specifically says "AT&T Internet 45" as my plan.
1 Attachment
PlanDetails.jpg
0
0
epontius
Teacher
•
20 Messages
6 years ago
I did find this: https://www.att.net/speedtiers
Which states Internet 45 has 45Mbs download and 6Mbs up.
Which seems to be inline with what speedtest reports...when I'm not uploading anything. Download is actually higher than 45Mbs.
1 Attachment
Speedtest.jpg
0
0