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FiOS + AEBS = download speed cut in half

QCassidy352

QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Original poster
Mar 20, 2003
12,229
6,436
Bay Area
I recently got FiOS and set up my AEBS (n) in bridge mode with the router the tech provided. But when I tested the download speeds, I was seeing about 6 Mbps (supposedly I have 25/15) on my iMac on wireless.

When I called verizon about it, they had me disconnect the AEBS and try connecting to just their router. Wireless, the DL speed got up to about 15 Mbps, and on ethernet, it got up to 25. At that point, they basically told me the service was working as it should and they couldn't help me with the AEBS if I chose to use it.

But I really want to keep using the AEBS. Anyone have thoughts on why this is happening? Thanks!
 
Hey there,

I hope that you get this message in time. I had a similar issue when I had FiOS installed at my house. Basically, the techs came out after I had done all the prep work of running CAT6 cabling, and plopped in their P.O.S. ActionTech router on top of my existing router, then a Linksys WRT54GS. I did not opt for the TV option, so I asked them to run CAT6 from the ONT outside into my network. They refused, mainly because they had never done it before, and ran COAX inside to the ActionTech. I had the ActionTech set up as my router and my Linksys as a wireless access point for a while. Finally, I got fed up their junky router with abysmal firmware, and ran a CAT6 cable inside my house from the ONT. I called up Verizon and asked them to switch from COAX to Ethernet on my ONT. In about 2 minutes, I had internet through my ethernet cable. After that, I released the DHCP lease on the ActionTech and hooked up my new AEBS, which has gigabit ports :). Everything works great now - super fast speeds (which are actually faster than what I pay for by a couple of MB/S.

The moral of the story is this: if you DO NOT have FiOS TV, you can use your own router. If you do, you can still use your own router but features such as the TV guide will NOT work. If you do run your own router, make sure that the signal is coming out of the Ethernet port on the ONT. You can call Verizon to do this for you. Then simply release the DHCP lease on your FiOS router, connect the new router (make sure you input all of your settings, if any, you customized on your previous setup) and connect!

Have fun - it feels good to stick it to Verizon and their crummy hardware!
 
The OP's problem stems to the hardware in the AEBS not being capable of actually supporting the supposed "gigabit" speeds.

I would highly recommend you buy a "real" router like something from Linksys. If you leave the wired routing to another router and use the AEBS as a wireless access point, the AEBS will be able to focus only on wireless connections and free up processing power.
 
Thank you both for your help. geoffreakis right in that the problem is that the AEBS is not attaining the speeds it should. It's not a gigabit issue though - the downstream is 25 Mbps, so even 802.11(g) is easily fast enough. Moreover, I don't currently have anything hardwired to the AEBS (except the cable from the ActionTec to the AEBS' WAN port).

I'll try to explain the issue more clearly:
- I want the three macs in the house on the wifi network created by the AEBS because I want them to be able to transfer files at (n) speeds.
- When I put the imac on the AEBS' network (the "n network") the downstream from verizon drops to about 6 Mbps.
- When I put the imac on the ActionTec router's wifi network (the "g network") they DL at about 15 Mbps.
- When I hardwire the imac to the ActionTec I get my expected 25 Mbps. (I've not yet tried hardwiring them to the AEBS.)

ALSO - the mac mini does far better on the n network than the imac does - it gets almost the same speeds as it does on the g network. So that just adds another variable.

If it comes to it, I could follow the steps trailrunner laid out for ditching the ActionTec entirely. But I don't see why I should need to. The AEBS is connected to the ActionTec with ethernet, so it should easily be able to access the full bandwidth coming in from Verizon. So the question is, why am I seeing such a ridiculous hit to DL speed on the n network?
 
It may come from interference from other nearby wireless devices. Try operating the N network at 5GHz and see if that fixes the speed problems.
 
2.4GHz. As do all wireless G networks, most wireless N networks, cordless house phones, bluetooth devices, and RF accessories.
 
QCassidy352 said:
Moreover, I don't currently have anything hardwired to the AEBS (except the cable from the ActionTec to the AEBS' WAN port).
Click to expand...
WAN port should be used from a DSL/cable (not a router - you might be able to turn the Actiontec into a brigde though). Connect the Actiontec to one of the LAN ports and turn on bridge-mode.
 
live4ever said:
WAN port should be used from a DSL/cable (not a router - you might be able to turn the Actiontec into a brigde though). Connect the Actiontec to one of the LAN ports and turn on bridge-mode.
Click to expand...

The actiontec is a cable modem/router combo. I tried connecting to a LAN port and the Airport Setup Assistant told me to connect to the WAN port.
 
geoffreak said:
Try connecting it to a LAN port instead and run in bridge mode.
Click to expand...

Tried that - no signal at all. Airport setup told me to use the WAN.

mkrishnan said:
Also you ought to try the wired-to-AEBS configuration too. It's easy to try and informative too (since if you don't get your expected speed that way, then you're not going to get it by changing WiFi channels and frequencies and so on).
Click to expand...

Good point; I'll do that first.
 
I'm having a similar issue with my AEBS. I have Fios 15meg up 5 meg down. Same setup - Actiontech with AEBS bridged to it. I also have an Airport Express to extend my network.

This whole time I have been blaming the firmware version of the AEBS and I kind of gave up on the whole thing so instead of bridging the AEBS I've now bridged the Express and then use the AEBS to extend my network. All of this is on N 5ghz btw. That seems to have resolved the issue but I'm far from satisfied with it and I still get throughput issues every now and again.

Similar to the OP I have disconnected from my N network and used the bog-standard G connection to the Actiontech and seen my speeds rocket back to what I expected.

One of the things that I have read during this whole odyssey is that the Actiontech has a very small routing table. I am using it for DHCP - and there are 3 tv's, 4 computers, 2 iPhones and 2 routers (the AE and AEBS) on the subnet. Would the limited routing table have anything to do with it?

The 2nd post is probably what I'm going to end up doing as it should be fairly straightforward for me to do. I hope it really does resolve the issue...
 
geoffreak said:
2.4GHz. As do all wireless G networks, most wireless N networks, cordless house phones, bluetooth devices, and RF accessories.
Click to expand...

All of this guy's info is either partially wrong or completely wrong. 802.11N networks by default operate on the 5Ghz frequency, not 2.4GHz. G networks operate on the 2.4Ghz. And Linksys routers are awful. Aside from Apple's Airport routers, Netgear is the second best. Linksys quality went down when Cisco bought them.
 
srexy said:
I'm having a similar issue with my AEBS. I have Fios 15meg up 5 meg down. Same setup - Actiontech with AEBS bridged to it. I also have an Airport Express to extend my network.

This whole time I have been blaming the firmware version of the AEBS and I kind of gave up on the whole thing so instead of bridging the AEBS I've now bridged the Express and then use the AEBS to extend my network. All of this is on N 5ghz btw. That seems to have resolved the issue but I'm far from satisfied with it and I still get throughput issues every now and again.
Click to expand...

Hmm. So it's not just my AEBS. I wonder what about an Express would make it work better than an Extreme in bridge mode in this setup.

SnowLeopard2008 said:
All of this guy's info is either partially wrong or completely wrong. 802.11N networks by default operate on the 5Ghz frequency, not 2.4GHz. G networks operate on the 2.4Ghz. And Linksys routers are awful. Aside from Apple's Airport routers, Netgear is the second best. Linksys quality went down when Cisco bought them.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Guess I won't be trying to switch to 5GHz then. ;)
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
And Linksys routers are awful.
...
Linksys quality went down when Cisco bought them.
Click to expand...

What planet are you from? Linksys's offerings are superb and have gone up greatly from the Cisco acquisition. (though their wireless N solutions are a bit flaky)
 
Update

I hit my full 25 Mbps download with the ethernet cable connected to the AEBS (which is in bridge mode). So:

- ethernet = ~25 Mbps (full speed), connected to either the AEBS or the Actiontec
- wifi from the Actiontec = ~15 Mbps
- wifi from the AEBS = ~6-7 Mbps

Color me confused. :confused:
 
Can't be *ONLY* the AEBS

I have and AEBS and I have 50Mbps comcast.

speed testing on my MacBook with 802.11 n I regularly see 56Mbps/10-12Mbps up.
 
geoffreak said:
What planet are you from? Linksys's offerings are superb and have gone up greatly from the Cisco acquisition. (though their wireless N solutions are a bit flaky)
Click to expand...

They didn't have N solutions before Cisco bought them. Now that Cisco owns them, they have flaky N solutions. Catch my drift? It's similar to Maxtor being bought by Seagate. Used to be pretty good but now the host comapny uses that brand for cheaper product lines.
 
I now feel sheepish. Very very sheepish.

I had previously changed the channel to 8 - I don't remember why now. I set it to auto. I now get full speed both up and down on wifi through the AEBS. :eek::eek::eek: Thanks very much to you all for your help. Problem solved. :)
 
QCassidy352 said:
I had previously changed the channel to 8 - I don't remember why now. I set it to auto. I now get full speed both up and down on wifi through the AEBS. :eek::eek::eek: Thanks very much to you all for your help. Problem solved. :)
Click to expand...


I was going to suggest turn off NAT on the AEBS, if NAT or UPnP is turned on on the Actiontec or vice versa...

But I see it was all solved by the channel
 
Damn - I was hoping there was a pattern to my suffering.

Glad you got it sorted out.
 
FYI - I ran some cat5e from the ONT box to my AEBS and then called Verizon to re-provision the ONT box from coax to Ethernet. My browsing is definitely a lot snappier.

I found a ton of info on dslreports.com.
 
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