- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
Fiber Internet - what else to address when switching from Cable to Fiber?
Posted on 1/21/25 at 2:28 pm
Posted on 1/21/25 at 2:28 pm
AT&T has finally (about 6-7 years after announcing Fiber in our area) made it available in my neighborhood. I've been sticking with Spectrum until now, so haven't given a ton of thought about WiFi. I've got an old TP Link router, and a couple of Ubiquiti access points. Is there anything different I would need to take advantage of the faster fiber speeds over WiFi? I'm still going to keep about a half dozen devices connected through Cat cables.
5
Posted on 1/21/25 at 3:50 pm to TU Rob
Not sure how old your router is. Since you already have UniFi APs, I'd buy a UniFi router and switch. Then put your ATT gateway into passthrough mode.
That way all of your network/wifi is under one pane of glass with the UniFi controller.
Which UniFI APs do u have? Do they support wifi 6? If not, then you may want to upgrade those if you really need the speed.
Fyi, I'm still using UniFI AC IWs (in-walls) that only support wifi 5. They've been running flawlessly for 7 years now. Wifi speed is still sufficient for me. Anything that needs gigabit I hard wire.
That way all of your network/wifi is under one pane of glass with the UniFi controller.
Which UniFI APs do u have? Do they support wifi 6? If not, then you may want to upgrade those if you really need the speed.
Fyi, I'm still using UniFI AC IWs (in-walls) that only support wifi 5. They've been running flawlessly for 7 years now. Wifi speed is still sufficient for me. Anything that needs gigabit I hard wire.
Posted on 1/21/25 at 9:38 pm to TU Rob
How much faster?
We had ax3000 with 600/30 cable and didn’t upgrade going to 1000/1000 fiber but we do have a mostly 2.5gbps LAN as local traffic is much higher than WAN. I did upgrade WiFi a couple months ago but only because it was basically free(long story).
For upgrades:
Wifi6 ax3000 2x2 is good for 600mbps on most devices made since 2019.
Wifi6 4x4 ax6000 or wifi6e axexxxx was never supported by hardly anything but may have some reverse compatibility working its way in.
Wifi7 if the future but it’ll be years before a decent chunk of active devices will take advantage of it. This year, only the highest end phones and computers do.
Also wifi7 comes in a lot of flavors already kind of like wifi6 did. The cheap stuff won’t even take full advantage of some wifi6 devices and the expensive, full specification stuff is literally thousands of dollars.
The trusty old Wifi6 ax3000 is kind of the clear winner at the moment still. If you want to get technical, from my experience, you’re almost always better off having more 80Mhz antennas/streams than half as many 160Mhz streams. IRL performance of the former may be up to double while the advertised speed will be equal.
We had ax3000 with 600/30 cable and didn’t upgrade going to 1000/1000 fiber but we do have a mostly 2.5gbps LAN as local traffic is much higher than WAN. I did upgrade WiFi a couple months ago but only because it was basically free(long story).
For upgrades:
Wifi6 ax3000 2x2 is good for 600mbps on most devices made since 2019.
Wifi6 4x4 ax6000 or wifi6e axexxxx was never supported by hardly anything but may have some reverse compatibility working its way in.
Wifi7 if the future but it’ll be years before a decent chunk of active devices will take advantage of it. This year, only the highest end phones and computers do.
Also wifi7 comes in a lot of flavors already kind of like wifi6 did. The cheap stuff won’t even take full advantage of some wifi6 devices and the expensive, full specification stuff is literally thousands of dollars.
The trusty old Wifi6 ax3000 is kind of the clear winner at the moment still. If you want to get technical, from my experience, you’re almost always better off having more 80Mhz antennas/streams than half as many 160Mhz streams. IRL performance of the former may be up to double while the advertised speed will be equal.
This post was edited on 1/22/25 at 6:21 am
Posted on 1/22/25 at 8:16 am to Dallaswho
quote:
How much faster?
quote:
Not sure how old your router is. Since you already have UniFi APs, I'd buy a UniFi router and switch. Then put your ATT gateway into passthrough mode.
So the current plan with Spectrum is 400 Mbps, and the Fiber would be a Gig. I have about a 10 year old TP Link dual band WiFi router, which I am going to replace, and the Ubiquiti AP which is about 4 years old. It is also a dual band, and specs are 802.11ac Gigabit Dual-Radio PoE. Amazon says it is 867 Mbps. Would I be good to just buy another one of these and put it at the other end of the house? I also have 3 Smart TVs that are connected with Ethernet, a Peloton bike with Ethernet, and another line to a desk that I plug my laptop into when I work from home. All of those plus the AP is currently connected to an 8 port switch after going through my existing router.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 10:35 am to TU Rob
your fricking upload speeds are gonna go through the roof!
you can run a plex *ahem* or gaming server and it will be smooth as butter
NO DATA CAP!!!
i hit 6TB last month
frick COMCAST
the att modem/router is shite. terrible WIFI signal. consider a MESH option; and for heaven's sake do NOT pay ATT $10/mo for their solution. Just buy something.
i have nothing but praise.
limb knocked my fiber off the pole and the ATT dude showed up, i gave him a hot cup of coffee and he had to walk THREE POLES DOWN and begin the repair there. Took him the entire day to get it working.
No charge.
you can run a plex *ahem* or gaming server and it will be smooth as butter
NO DATA CAP!!!
i hit 6TB last month
frick COMCAST the att modem/router is shite. terrible WIFI signal. consider a MESH option; and for heaven's sake do NOT pay ATT $10/mo for their solution. Just buy something.
i have nothing but praise.
limb knocked my fiber off the pole and the ATT dude showed up, i gave him a hot cup of coffee and he had to walk THREE POLES DOWN and begin the repair there. Took him the entire day to get it working.
No charge.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 10:47 am to CAD703X
quote:
the att modem/router is shite. terrible WIFI signal. consider a MESH option; and for heaven's sake do NOT pay ATT $10/mo for their solution. Just buy something.
Currently have a BGW320 of theirs for our fiber service. I don’t see an equipment rental charge on the account. Just pay $60/month for their 300 fiber service with auto pay from bank account.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 11:10 am to CAD703X
quote:
the att modem/router is shite. terrible WIFI signal. consider a MESH option; and for heaven's sake do NOT pay ATT $10/mo for their solution. Just buy something.
I know this is probably different, but that was one reason I never liked UVerse when we had them before. The modem/router combo was horrible. I just want to run it through my own devices.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 11:10 am to TU Rob
I would go to wifi6 instead of wifi5 or AX instead of AC at least in your main usage area. The more streams, the better with several devices running.
You may need a controller for those APs to work correctly. Not sure if unify lets you do that from generic home server like most or if you need to buy more unify products.
Advertised speeds are only theoretical. A good ac link is <400 mbps while a good ax link is >600 with most off the shelf devices.
With all the new tech coming out, I wouldn’t personally spend much right now. As before wifi7 is either stripped down junk or way too expensive right now.
My personal fav for simple home use and single gig is the tp link deco x55(bigger channels) or x60(more channels) on wired backhaul. Refurb on amazon is like $100 per 3 pack. Even my retired ones make great little remote VPN clients. So versatile.
You may need a controller for those APs to work correctly. Not sure if unify lets you do that from generic home server like most or if you need to buy more unify products.
Advertised speeds are only theoretical. A good ac link is <400 mbps while a good ax link is >600 with most off the shelf devices.
With all the new tech coming out, I wouldn’t personally spend much right now. As before wifi7 is either stripped down junk or way too expensive right now.
My personal fav for simple home use and single gig is the tp link deco x55(bigger channels) or x60(more channels) on wired backhaul. Refurb on amazon is like $100 per 3 pack. Even my retired ones make great little remote VPN clients. So versatile.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 11:16 am to TU Rob
quote:
I have about a 10 year old TP Link dual band WiFi router, which I am going to replace, and the Ubiquiti AP which is about 4 years old. It is also a dual band, and specs are 802.11ac Gigabit Dual-Radio PoE. Amazon says it is 867 Mbps. Would I be good to just buy another one of these and put it at the other end of the house?
Yeah with a router that old, there's a chance it can't even route at gigabit speeds.
I have an AC Lite as well. If you're going to buy new, I'd say go ahead and get something that is wifi 6. It would be hard to find a new AC Lite anyway unless you were going to buy a used one off ebay.
There used to be a U6 Lite AP but think it have been replaced with the U6+.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 11:48 am to s14suspense
quote:
Currently have a BGW320 of theirs for our fiber service. I don’t see an equipment rental charge on the account. Just pay $60/month for their 300 fiber service with auto pay from bank account.
sorry i wasn't clear. you're stuck with their fiber/wifi modem box and there's no charge for that; but you can put it into pass-through mode and buy your own MESH system to get decent WiFi throughout your house.
ATT offers a 'mesh-like option' you can buy that will link into your existing modem for an additional monthly fee.
i have to reboot my wifi about once a week; since most everything is wired it hasn't reached critical mass for me, but when i have a minute i'm going to research MESH systems and move all my crap
to the new system. the only thing that is cool, is when i moved from one house w/ att fiber...to a new house with att fiber...everything... and i mean EVERYTHING..reconnected just by powering them on. It remember all my devices and WiFi network name, pwds, etc. that was a pleasant surprise in the midst of 1,000 other things going on w/ the move.
This post was edited on 1/22/25 at 11:50 am
Posted on 1/22/25 at 12:34 pm to CAD703X
quote:
but when i have a minute i'm going to research MESH systems and move all my crap to the new system.
Dont spend too much time on it. Just get a mesh system that has the WiFi6/6e/7 standard that you want and install them in AP mode. There isn't much to it with that scenario.
If you go the route of trying to use the mesh system as your router and disable the routing in the BGW320, then you gotta be careful which MESH system you get as some are complete crap when it comes to being a router.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 12:59 pm to notsince98
quote:
Dont spend too much time on it. Just get a mesh system that has the WiFi6/6e/7 standard that you want and install them in AP mode. There isn't much to it with that scenario.
If you go the route of trying to use the mesh system as your router and disable the routing in the BGW320, then you gotta be careful which MESH system you get as some are complete crap when it comes to being a router.
thanks for that. so i keep the existing router and its assignments and just 'add' the new device to the network to function as an AP? no need to re-connect all the wifi devices?
Posted on 1/22/25 at 1:45 pm to CAD703X
quote:
thanks for that. so i keep the existing router and its assignments and just 'add' the new device to the network to function as an AP? no need to re-connect all the wifi devices?
Yeah, if you want to keep it simple just give the mesh the same SSID/password as your current one. You can disable the BGW320 wifi if you want. All your current devices should just work with no hiccups.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 2:14 pm to TU Rob
We had 1G symmetrical here for the last 7 years... so far never had an outage that wasn't power related (my power) even during hurricane recovery periods.
Say what you want about all other AT&T services that were nothing but trouble, their fiber service has been fantastic.
Say what you want about all other AT&T services that were nothing but trouble, their fiber service has been fantastic.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 2:17 pm to notsince98
quote:
Yeah, if you want to keep it simple just give the mesh the same SSID/password as your current one. You can disable the BGW320 wifi if you want. All your current devices should just work with no hiccups.
gonna try that. any recs as to what to go with? i wont ever do eero again.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 2:23 pm to CAD703X
quote:
gonna try that. any recs as to what to go with? i wont ever do eero again.
I do not, sorry. Hopefully someone will chime in. I like my Deco X20 setup OK (AX1800 speeds) but I'm moving away from mesh and doing standalone individual APs to have more control. I have some devices that just dont play well with multiple APs sharing SSIDs. I have separated my 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz SSIDs and also separated them by AP. I want more control over my wifi channels and power settings.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 3:13 pm to notsince98
quote:
I have some devices that just dont play well with multiple APs sharing SSIDs. I have separated my 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz SSIDs and also separated them by AP. I want more control over my wifi channels and power settings.
That is sort of my current set up now. My TP Link is dual band, as well as my Ubiquiti AP. I have the kids tablets connected to the TP Link 2.4g band since it reaches a little further, and I switch my phone back and forth between the 5G bands depending on which part of the house I'm in. They all have separate passwords. Stuff like Alexa and Ring cams I have on one of the 2.4G bands, and that is pretty much all that is on those. It might be nice to have a mesh type system and not have to deal with it, but I do like having some redundancy and getting to pick and choose what network a device is connected to.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 4:22 pm to CAD703X
quote:
gonna try that. any recs as to what to go with? i wont ever do eero again.
While I don't use mesh as I have hard wired APs, if I did I'd go with Amplifi as they are owned by Ubiquiti. From reports I've seen, they last a long time like Ubiquiti UniFi/Edgerouter products.
Posted on 1/22/25 at 4:46 pm to TU Rob
If you stream like purchasing a mac address etc, get ready for at&t to throttle tf out of your channels those mfers. There is a fix. I load my channels on fire tv with tivimate and load a vpn as you cant load a vpn onto their router. They can't freeze/throttle/frame rate me anymore. 
you AT&T. When it start freezings, it means my vpn needs an update and surely enough when I open it , it needs an update. Once updated fine again(this happens seldom). Your welcome.
you AT&T. When it start freezings, it means my vpn needs an update and surely enough when I open it , it needs an update. Once updated fine again(this happens seldom). Your welcome.This post was edited on 1/22/25 at 4:49 pm
Posted on 1/22/25 at 4:52 pm to gpburdell
thanks.
i used Asus for YEARS and their wired backhaul 'firmware flash' to the legendary 56 and 88 routers but it was just a constant headache and things breaking; trying tomato firmware yada yada.
did eero for mesh later on and it was 'ok' but way too hamstrung to do anything techie.
looking for a balance in my next solution.
i used Asus for YEARS and their wired backhaul 'firmware flash' to the legendary 56 and 88 routers but it was just a constant headache and things breaking; trying tomato firmware yada yada.
did eero for mesh later on and it was 'ok' but way too hamstrung to do anything techie.
looking for a balance in my next solution.
Page 1 of 2
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News