So I have been using an old Netgear router that has no chance of keeping up with my 1Gbps Fiber connection, most of my house is wired to the key devices and I would like to setup a stronger router setup. I have looked into the Ubiq line and have looked at the ER-4. What else would I need here? A separate switch for the dozen ethernet lines I have?
Any suggestions would be awesome! Thanks guys
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Ubiquiti?
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This really sucks my phone is faster than this
This is terrible
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[Qwest] GPON Congestion?
Connected to my router via Cat 5e and speeds are fine all day until 8pm till around 11pm. I am on Centurylinks 100mbps Fiber to the home and yes I am certain its FTTH I use a ONT. On the download end it drops to around 10mbps and upload stays at around the normal 50mbps. I also notice a increase in jitter and ping times. What could be causing this? I've tried different cables as well as different router/testing device.
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Awful YouTube Connection - Fiber 1 Gigabit
As the title says, I am getting a terrible connection to YouTube with my new as of 5 days ago FTTH 1Gbps connection. It is constant buffering right now. Is anyone else also getting terrible connection to YouTube, at least right now?
Am in Portland, OR.
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CenturyLink not available to me
I have several neighbors who have Centurylink internet service. One next door neighbor has it. It is apparently available to the next door neighbor on my other side. I was told by CenturyLink representatives that my address is not in their system and therefore it's not available to me. The neighborhood was built in 2015-2016 and all the houses by the same builder. One representative told me there weren't enough ports. Another told me they sometimes just don't run a dedicated line to a single house and it's not uncommon for all the houses on a street but one to have availability. My question is, is any of this accurate or could it be as simple as our address somehow just wasn't entered into their system?
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[Qwest] Centurylink upgrading Des Moines market
Centurylink is upgrading parts of the Des Moines market with GPON fiber to the home. They are running fiber on power poles in neighborhoods with ariel lines.
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Denver market VDSL2 100/10 cap enforcement?
So I currently have Comcast 150/5 and they have officially pissed me off so I’m looking at CenturyLink. They’re offering $55 price for life on 100/10 in my neighborhood in Littleton but my understanding is that they have a 1TB cap with no option for unlimited unless you have gigabit which we don’t have available here. We never manage to stay under 1TB on Comcast, we seem to average 1.2-1.3TB a month so I’m paying Comcast an extra $50 a month for no cap.
My question is - how tightly does CenturyLink police caps in Colorado? They must have literally just upgraded the DSLAM in the last 6 months because previously it was a max of 12 for my address. I’m tempted because Comcast has finally pushed me over the edge but if we switch, my roommates will be getting DirecTV Now which means added on top of their teenager who’s a Steam addict and me with my Kodi streaming, the bandwidth usage would go up even more so I’m curious what experience people have in my market.
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DSLAM Ports & Trying To Get Bonded
Hey guys. I've made a couple of attempts at trying to look into getting bonded service (I have two lines coming into our demarc), however I'm not exactly sure how the "ports" on dslams work, exactly. The CL website says the max they offer in our area currently is 3mbps, and I'm subscribed to 20/5. I've asked a couple of reps to look into the port situation out here, but they just tell me that if the website says 3mbps, that's all they can do.
So I guess my question is, are there just X amounts of 40/20, 40/10, 20/5 ports on a DSLAM, and it's just first come first serve?
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[Qwest] Denver GPON: is it the crummy router or just GPON in general?
I recently had GPON installed at my house. They installed a Calix ONU inside, fiber thru the wall, and out to the overhead plant a few houses down. That part seems to work fine.
Now, I am rather bothered by lag, after the whole Puma6 shenanigans many have experienced in DOCSIS-land for a few years now, and I found some disturbing latency that nearly mimicks this in-action on my GPON.
They provided me with their low-end router, because apparently there is a shortage of newer dual-band routers in the market. I am running presently with an Actiontec C1900A ...
Disclaimer: I'm on Wifi, with both the 802.11n 2.4ghz Centurylink Router SSID, as well as with an EnGenius EAP1750H https://www.engeniustech.com/engenius-products/indoor-wireless-ceiling-ap-eap1750h/ and the results are the same; this leads me to rule out one or the other AP doing it. There is also the possibility my laptop is being strange, but at my last residence wifi never had these problems.
So far I cannot rule out the router itself as none of my devices currently have an Ethernet port (soon will, so I will test more in the upcoming days.)
Has anyone seen such cyclic jitter with GPON before?
This can also be probed with PingPlotter, as has been discussed in the Puma6 threads at length.
To get this graph yourself, with any of OSX, Linux, or Ubuntu in Windows/Cygwin, use MTR as follows:
mtr --curses somewhere;
Press 'd' twice to toggle the view once its pinging.
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My experience upgrading internet with CenturyLink 4Q 2017
This is a very long post, but I am a novice at this stuff and this website helped me out once when I was in a jam so I've come back to maybe help other newbies who can benefit from any part of my story.
I am in Seattle and have had 7mbps DSL with CenturyLink since about 2009 on a Price For Life campaign (PFL) that they had back then, where you could bundle the PFL with your home phone line. The 7 mbps was $59.95 per month but when bundled with home phone the final price with all taxes etc. was $39 and some change. (Although the bill added each month the Internet Cost Recovery Fee, on the same bill it also credited back that same amount. I had read somewhere that CenturyLink was told (by the FCC?) that Price For Life meant exactly that, so that is why the credit for it showed up every month.) I've had no trouble with the service, maybe a time or to in all of these years where I lost the connection and a reboot of my modem fixed it. I thought 7 mbps would suffice me forever, yeah right! My brother lives an hour away in Frontier Communications territory where all he can get is 3 mbps and he is envious of my 7 mbps! Yet, now I want to stream without the chronic buffering thing, but I also did not want to lose my PFL convenience and be subject to future price increases.
Well, along comes CenturyLink's resurrected PFL campaign (beginning last September?) where it states you do not even need a home phone to get their PFL prices. Because they had previously strung an aerial fiber cable along my arterial street, the new speeds available to me were 20, 40, 100, and 1 gig. I called them up, wanting to upgrade, but they stated I did not qualify for the PFL prices because I had a home phone with them! Hey, I thought my home phone didn't matter to them! Hmm... I decided they figured they already had me in the bag and only sought customers who switch from their competitors. Not cool. I could have sworn their website text stated "for new and existing customers" but I could no longer find that text. I called back a week or so later to try again, the rep said the only way I could qualify as a "new" customer for the PFL was to disconnect my current DSL *and* my home phone line, then place an order for new home phone service with the PFL High Speed Internet (HSI, no longer referred to as DSL, apparently). I thought disconnecting my home phone line was completely unnecessary and a lot of hoop-jumping for me, the customer, just to get around their apparent marketing restrictions. I didn't do it.
This drove me nuts. I want to pay CL more money but they won't let me! Why won't CL take my money? I've never heard anything like this before. I mean, who doesn't want to make a better profit from their customers? I then finally noticed on their ubiquitous PFL TV commercials the small print that appears for only one second, and it said "for new and existing customers"! Why not me? I'm an existing customer!
After some thought, I decided that perhaps it was the way I opened the discussion with their reps when I would ask them for exactly what was advertised in their PFL TV commercials. If they had to tell me 'no', why wouldn't they say, "But here is what we CAN offer you!". So, a month or more later, I called them up a third time and said, "I currently enjoy bundled service with home phone and 7 mbps internet. I've been thinking about upgrading my internet. What can you offer me to bundle my home phone with a higher internet speed?" I did not even mention the PFL TV commercials.
The rep replied that she could do this: disconnect from my existing billing account the DSL portion, leaving on that account just my home landline, then create a second account (separate billing number) for my new PFL higher internet speed. Smokin'! Gee, did CL just give their reps the ok to be this creative or did I happen to reach a spunky service rep? Who cares! I dig it! I ordered 100 mbps service and chose to buy their $100 modem (er, router) rather than rent it, and because I don't want any future trouble-shooting to be pinned on a third-party router; I want to be able to say, "Hey, I bought it from YOU!" LOL. She said the earliest the guy could come out would be three days later. I asked would my modem arrive so quickly? She said yes.
Two days later, a contractor came out and ran optical fiber from the pole and along my house to near where the copper phone line entered my house, leaving a coil of optical fiber hanging. This is normal and expected. He told me that the regular installer may or may not remove the copper drop.
LESSON NUMBER 1: Although my outcome was beautiful (explained in a moment), if ordering HSI that will result in a brand new fiber drop, one should realize in advance just where they expect to drill through the wall of your home in order to mount on your inside wall their Optical Network Terminal (ONT) so that it isn't a shockeroo when the regular CL installer shows up, with short notice to approve of the drilling. They will want it near an inside power outlet. While their regular installer may have flexibilities available to him to move the drilling location assumed by the contractor, maybe you can get ahead of this by identifying as early as possible what your options are as far as where on the outside of your house they can drill (what room of your house, that is, and near a power outlet). In my case, where they planned to drill and mount turned out to be the best outcome for my situation, even after discussing their options with the actual installer who came out the very next day (the third day).
On the morning of this third day, the actual CL installer had called me early 0830am to verify that I would be home for my afternoon window. I said yes but the promised new modem had not arrived in the mail. He said no problem, they would loan me one to get me up and running and when mine arrives I could swap it out and return theirs to them with pre-paid postage. Cool. He came out and I pointed where on the inside wall I was looking for the ONT to be mounted, he measured relative to the nearby window, went outside and drilled the hole. Over the hole on the outside of the house he mounted a sturdy plastic box that he said contained the extra optical fiber length, coiled up. Over the hole on the inside of my house he mounted the ONT upside-down, probably to put the connection jacks at the bottom side where dust wouldn't fall into them. I like that he did that, placed it upside down, and this black box is so devoid of style and printing that you do not notice its orientation on the wall unless you get your face up close to read the small print labeling the LEDs. All connections attach along the bottom. Perfect.
He had assumed my home phone line would also be served by the fiber drop so he proceeded to make me realize that the copper wiring to all of my existing wall jacks would be made inoperative. I asked how can I have my existing phone extensions in the other rooms if he cut dead the copper drop? This was a surprise. I had not anticipated this. To run a phone cord from the nearest wall jack to the ONT phone jack in order to still utilize my other wall jacks would be too far to run it. He said what folks do is to buy a phone system with many wireless handsets, plugging in the base station at/to the ONT and to the nearby wall outlet, then plugging in the remote handset bases wherever else in the house they wanted extension phones. As I settled into this unsettling consequence (another expense, and will eat up more wall outlets), and as he went back and forth inside and outside my house, upon his next trip indoors he said he looked closer at my order and they were keeping my home phone on the copper. Hooray! That means my wall jacks will stay operative. I will have both a copper drop for my home phone and a fiber drop for my HSI. No need to buy a new phone system. I love it!
LESSON NUMBER 2: if you currently have a working landline plugged into any of the wall jacks that were installed when your home was new, and if you do not want to abandon that copper line and all of your extension jacks when you install a new optical drop, to have to buy a new wireless phone system to hog all of your wall power outlets, you should find out in advance from CL if you can keep your landline on the copper and have only your HSI go in on the new fiber drop. That is definitely the way I would go. I make note that the contractor was not there to pull down the copper. I am very happy that they kept my landline on the copper. Maybe I lucked out because the service rep had created a separate billing account for only my HSI which logically left my landline untouched. Incidentally, with my HSI removed from the phone line, I was now able to remove from each wall jack the little filtering dongle that CL gave me back in 2009 to use at each wall jack where I had a phone plugged in.
With the installer done with his installation, I accessed my modem wirelessly from my desktop, seven feet away, tables, books, and a huge printer in the air path. He said a wireless connection would be less than the 100 mbps speed. A speedtest came in at 79mbps download which seemed too much of a degradation over wireless but it is his loaner modem and maybe my modem will be better? After he departed, I replaced my wireless connection with a 14-foot CAT6 cable and the speedtest came in at 103 mbps. Smokin'! What a drop in download speed for wireless, though, huh?
A week later, my first bill on this new billing account was rendered and it showed the $100 charge for the modem which had still not arrived. I called the billing department to explain I was not excited to pay for something that may never arrive. He said the notations in my account showed that they considered the loaned modem as mine. I told him the installer said it was not new and I'd rather have a new one for the price I am paying for a new one. No problem at all, they ordered a new one and as I write this, the UPS tracking states it is expected to arrive Monday, two days from now. The rep said there was no additional charge of course but he was wise enough to say that if somehow a second $100 charge shows up on the next bill, to call them and they would write it off because of his copious notes from our call.
That is my experience. I will say the contractor and the CL installer were both nice, courteous, and available to answer my questions. Even though this long story might seem to contain several minor issues, I am very happy with how this whole thing went down. I have worked for a large company and have dealt with plenty of large companies and I know how things go, so you will not find me blaming for certain unknowns in this story. I later read that CL initially allowed PFL for only new customers but later allowed it for existing customers so maybe that explains why I was initially refused. I don't hold ill will. My new 100 mbps HSI from CenturyLink absolutely rocks. And, it's Price For Life which took the scare out of future budgeting on my income. Their website says PFL is still exempt from the Internet Cost Recovery Fee. I am very happy with this service and wanted to explain the whole upgrade experience, the great, the good, and the not so good. I would recommend this service to others but I would make any novices like me sit through my story so they would be better equipped. I understand CL personnel also read this forum. Thank you.
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Modem/router purchase recommendation to replace rented PK5001z
I've been renting a Zyxel PK5001z for a few years and want to buy the best all-around modem router for the money.
We live in a rural area and have Centurylink 6 Mbps ADSL, but there is a petition going around for them to upgrade the system out here just to get better DSL, and also because we have been having problems for years with a hum on the phone line and simultaneous internet problems that all come and go - especially when it rains. They came out and worked on the system again last week and got it better (for now). They've been out many times in the past few years and everyone out this way has been having the same problems coming and going. We still have a very slight hum on the line but they said that's about as good as it will get.
I used to get about 5.5 down and now am getting only 3.2 to 3.8 down.
Also, the PK5001z likes to be reset a lot or it gets out of wack and slows downs and hangs intermittently. I'm not happy with this modem. I just checked the firmware and it's up to date.
Question #1: I've read through several threads here and it seems like the C1100z modem is a often recommended one. It can be bought for $99 in the local Centurylink store. Is that probably my best bet or is there a better selection for good reliability/stability, speed, and router range - whether it be a Centurylink branded one or another in that general price range?
Question #2: I've also been using a Netgear WNR2000v2 N300 router with the PK5001z because it works a little better throughout the house. When I buy a new modem, I'll try the internal router on it vs the Netgear router to see which works better. I may also consider a new router if there is one that will do better than either the Netgear or the one on the modem I buy, so is there a router in the ~$100 price range that will beat them noticeably on performance? I was looking at this one - https://goo.gl/C1KT1U [TP-Link Archer AC1900 Smart WiFi Router - Dual-Band Gigabit (C9)] Will that or another router in that price range give me much improved performance over the Netgear router I have or the one that will come in the modem you recommend?
Thanks in advance,
Kelvin
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why can't i get higher speeds?
i know i'm short of 15k from the CO.
SNR Downstream : 9 dB
SNR Upstream : 20 dB
Attenuation Downstream : 37 dB
Attenuation Upstream : 21 dB
Power Downstream 0 dBm
Power Upstream 12.1 dBm
Downstream Speed: 12124 Kbps
Upstream Speed: 892 Kbps
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Upload Speed Great on Gig Fiber, Download Speed Not so much
Hi Folks,
Looking for some help on this one, I just had Gig installed yesterday, the tech failed to a speedtest before he left but after he did, I went ahead and did one. Well download is around 300, upload is around 900. Everything is hard line connected to the C2100T and a macbook pro that has handled gig connections before. I have power cycled everything.
Long story short, I called the tech and was told they are pushing gig to the modem, so what I see is what is expected with fiber and gig service. I have to say, especially given the numbers I have seen here this is garbage, and something is amiss.
FYI the tech said my light levels were -19.
Any ideas?
How can I 'prove' this to them?
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Looking for bonded service cable and router recommendation
I recently was informed that the new DSLAM installed 1 km from my house was turned on. I am now eligible for bonded service, I believe VDSL. I currently have old telephone wire run from my NID to my current router. I was wondering if I should run new cat 5 cable in preparation for the bonded service? Should I run 1 cable or 2? I assume I would only need to run 1 cable as it would only use 2 out of the 4 pairs but I wanted to make sure. Any suggestions on a good bonded router from Centurylink? Can anyone also provide an estimate on what my up and down speeds would be with bonded service considering the distance I am from the DSLAM?
Thanks,
Joe
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C2100T SSID Issue
Hello,
After rebooting my C2100T the 2.4 Ghz SSID (SSID2) that I have setup for guest access becomes inaccessible. It still shows up in the list of available networks but no devices are able to connect to it. When I disable and re-enable the SSID it begins working correctly again. The 5 Ghz SSID (SSID2) does not have this issue. Has anyone else had this issue? I figured I would check here before attempting to contact CenturyLink.
Thank you!
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Phone Filters Required With No Phone Service
Buddy of mine has CL service, but his SNR margins are like 6db for both up and downstream. Going to run to his house next week to have a look at it, but he said that he never received any line filters with his modem. Do you still need those if you have no phone service? He also has the C1100Z.
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[CenturyTel] Router
I was running a Zyxel PK5001z and it kept locking up and the Range was not good. I was talking to CenturyTel tech I was telling them, that I was running 2 wireless cameras’, a Laptop, two Tablets, and my Cell phone she told me that I was overloading it.
So after looking around, I bought an Actiontec C1900A
It has a lot better range. I noticed that was running hot and after running it all day it was slowing down and required resetting
So, I built a small stand with a small computer cooling fan to cool it. What a difference but some time internet is slow
My question is can I get another router & plug it into the CenturyTel Actiontec C1900A and use it to run the cameras’
And to take the load off of the CenturyTel C1900A???
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How to almost use any router with CenturyLink's 1 Gig Internet!
So I have CenturyLink's 1 gigabit Internet. One of the biggest complaints I've seen around the Internet over the last year or so is that it's really difficult to use the router of your choice with their service.
CenturyLink provides some pretty awful equipment with their gigabit Internet service. Wireless-N router. Seriously?
The 2 biggest problems I see are the VLAN 201 issue where CL requires you to put a VLAN 201 on the Internet/WAN port of our router. A lot of consumer routers don't support this, or you have to flash custom firmware, etc. And the 2nd biggest problem is consumer routers not being able to download up to the full gigabit speed. Some routers cap out at 300Mbps - 500Mbps.
I FINALLY HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION! Between the 2 problems mentioned above, my steps below completely solve th VLAN 201 issue.
Now I'm not a networking person, so maybe this seems pretty obvious to some of you. However, over my last year of research, I have not seen this mentioned anywhere on the Internet. I finally found this info on DD-WRT forum website by someone who goes by the username "JAMESMTL." He suggested to a user "why don't you just buy a managed switch and create a VLAN 201 on it."
I seriously thought to myself, "is that all it takes to finally fix this VLAN 201 issue once and for all?" Absolutely!
So here's the switch I bought off of Amazon "NETGEAR ProSAFE GS105Ev2 5-Port Gigabit Web Managed (Plus) Switch (GS105Ev2)" I got it for roughly $40.
Once I got the switch in the mail, it was pretty much just configuring the switch with VLANs 201 on ports 1 and 2. This way the managed switch handles the VLAN 201 issue and then you can almost use any router you want with your CenturyLink service!
Keep in mind, I think you will still have to have a pretty new and kick-butt router, because the router needs to have decent hardware so it can download almost gigabit speeds. I think it's called "NAT acceleration?" From what I've leared online over the last year or so, some routers write their firmware to take advance of this. It's a mixture of hardware/software. If you're going to try and use an old router from a couple years ago, you may run into the 2nd biggest problem I've mentioned above. Your router may cap out download speeds of 300Mbps - 500Mbps.
2 routers I have tested behind my managed switch, are Asus AC3100 and the Netgear Orbi that just came out last month. Both routers performed excellent in speed tests! I was able to achieve 900+Mbps.
Now on to the good stuff! Configuring the Netgear ProSafe GS105Ev2!
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In a nutshell, this is essentially how your network is going to setup with the managed switch:
switch port 1 -> The ethernet cord going from your ONT box is to be plugged into port 1 on the managed switch.
switch port 2 -> The ethernet cord going from port 2 of the managed switch will plug into the WAN (or Internet) port on the back of your router.
switch port 3 -> The ethernet cord going from port 3 should plug into your computer's Ethernet port so you can access the switch's admin panel to configure it.
STEPS TO CONFIGURE THE SWITCH WITH VLAN 201:
So what you're going to do is open the Netgear Utility program to manage this switch.
1. Disable DHCP on the switch, as your router will be handling DHCP. You'll do this by clicking on 'IP Settings' after the utility program discovers your switch.
2. Make sure the switch is on the same subnet as your router. My default router's gateway is 192.168.1.1, therefore, after I disabled DHCP on the switch, the Netgear utility program assigned the switch an IP address of 192.168.1.15. Perfect! Now the Netgear switch is on the same IP subnet as my router. Apply the settings! Now it's time to go into the switch and configure it!
3. Click the VLAN tab in the Netgear configuration utility program.
4. Click on 802.1Q
5. Click on 'Advanced'
6. Enable Advanced 802.1Q
7. Create a VLAN ID with the value '201'
8. Now click on the 'VLAN Membership' link on the left-hand side.
9. In the 'VLAN Identifier' drop-down list, select 201
10. Click on the white box right below 01 port until the letter 'T' is displayed. (T stands for 'tagged.' Port 1 is going to be 201 Tagged.)
11. Click on the white box right below 02 port until the letter 'U' is displayed. (U stands for 'untagged.' Port 2 is going to be 201 Untagged.)
12. Click on the white boxes below the rest of the ports (ports 3, 4, and 5) until there is nothing displayed in the boxes.
13. Click 'Apply' to save your changes.
14. Finally, click 'port PVID' on the left-hand side.
15. Put a check-mark next to Port 01 and Port 02. Assign them both a PVID of 201. Click 'Apply' to save your changes.
16. Configure your home router with your CenturyLink's PPPoE credentials. You can get this info by calling CenturyLink if needed. However, most of us should have received this info from our technician when they installed our Internet. Once you do this, your Internet light on your router should turn green (or whatever color it turns to indicate it's receiving a good Internet connection!)
17. Now disconnect the ethernet cord going from port 3 of the switch to your computer. You now need to plug an ethernet cord into your desktop's LAN port and plug the other end into a port on the back of your router (your desktop needs Internet access after all!)
18. (Optional Step) If you want to be able to access the Netgear's admin panel later on in case you ever need to make changes, then plug an Ethernet cord into port 3 on the back of your managed switch, and plug the other end of ethernet cord into a free port on the back of your router.
REMINDER!: If you are using a router that does by chance allow you to set a VLAN 201 on the WAN/Internet port (like a lot of Asus routers) don't forget to go and remove that now! Your managed switch will be handling the VLAN 201 tagging from now on :-)
YOU'RE DONE! Your $30-40 managed switch is now configured with VLAN 201 so you can now use ANY router with your CenturyLink gigabit Internet (as long as the router supports PPPoE, which most do.)
I know this seems like a lengthy process, but it's actually not. I want to say I spent anywhere from 45 minutes - 1 hour tops! I'm not an expert, but I'm also not a novice.
If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer!
So to wrap it up. What does this work-around provide? It will allow you to use the router of your choice with your CenturyLink gigabit Internet service. You don't have to worry about flashing custom firmwares to routers. You don't have to worry about finding a router that allows you to creat VLANs on the Internet/WAN port, etc. The Netgear managed switch takes care of this!
Hope this helps!
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Awful YouTube Connection - Fiber 1 Gigabit
As the title says, I am getting a terrible connection to YouTube with my new as of 5 days ago FTTH 1Gbps connection. It is constant buffering right now. Is anyone else also getting terrible connection to YouTube, at least right now?
Am in Portland, OR.
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Centurylink Fiber Blue Grass, IA
So we "lucked out" at our new home and we were able to get 1.5 DSL from Centurylink. It was the only option in our new neighborhood besides satellite.
When the tech was out running the line, he mentioned we should be seeing a new fiber upgrade in our neck of the woods mid 2018 due to a federal grant.
My question is how can I find out the timing of this? I've tried calling a couple times without much luck.
Mediacom is planning to bring high speed and cable TV to our neighborhood, also "mid 2018". I would jump on that, but if CL is planning fiber at about the same time we might want to wait.
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