Why is my new FAST internet connection SO slow to connect?

[Midpack]

We were excited to move from a 25mbps Comcast connection to a 300mbps AT&T fiber connection - but if anything it seems slower, at least initially. Streaming TV seems to be fine. And once a webpage comes up, it seems fine. But it seems like it takes forever (relatively vs our much “slower” Comcast) for webpages to come up, and maybe 5% of the time they fail to open at all. I’ve checked and we’re getting over 300mbps download speeds. I checked latency and it was 13-14ms, not the best but not bad?

How do we know if it’s our old iPad CPUs that are slow, or the internet connection itself?

 

[erkevin]

The bottleneck could be several things; the wi-fi adapter on your IPADS is unlikely to be of the newest 801.11 standards- that will certainly limit the achievable speeds. You received a new modem, but did you receive a new router. Standards there have also changed.

 

[Freedom56]

It could be your DNS server. Set your router DNS server to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (Google DNS).

 

[Midpack]

The bottleneck could be several things; the wi-fi adapter on your IPADS is unlikely to be of the newest 801.11 standards- that will certainly limit the achievable speeds. You received a new modem, but did you receive a new router. Standards there have also changed.

I had a great router (my own) with Comcast, still have it but I don’t see how I can use it with AT&T.

AT&T “gave” me the AT&T (Arris?) BGW210-700, I gather it’s a modem and router? It’s supposedly an 802.11b/g/n/ac dual channel with auto switching between 5.0 and 2.4 GHz.

I don’t get why it takes so long to load webpages, and even fails to load occasionally...

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I am not knowledgeable about Ipads, but with my devices, the browser tends to get extensions, add-ons, large cache, slow anti-virus. And new programs tend to add routines that check for updates every time you turn the machine on. Among the worst are Quicken and iTunes. Every so often I have to hunt for all of these issues.

 

[easysurfer]

I had a great router (my own) with Comcast, still have it but I don’t see how I can use it with AT&T.

AT&T “gave” me the AT&T (Arris?) BGW210-700, I gather it’s a modem and router? It’s supposedly an 802.11b/g/n/ac dual channel with auto switching between 5.0 and 2.4 GHz.

I don’t get why it takes so long to load webpages, and even fails to load occasionally...

Have you tried using a different browser to see if the bottleneck is browser related?

There were times in the past, for me Firefox would get real slow (not sure why) and I had to do a browser reset. Haven't had to do that for some time.

Also, is it possible as a test to bypass the router just to see what speeds you get for comparison?

When I had ATT for internet (this was back with DSL), I had a lot of issues with lost connections and slow speeds. Switch to Comcast and am a lot happier.

 

[Spock]

It sounds like the problem isn't the transfer speed but locating the servers.
Since you changed providers from comcast to att, have you pointed all the IP gateways, DNS servers, etc to ATT?

 

[ponyboy]

I had an odd issue like this when I purchased a new gig switch. Things would fail to load...and when I would download something simple like adobe reader or flash...the download would constantly fail.

I did a hard reset on the wireless router, reset everything to factory...and that fixed the issue.

There's probably a reset button on the modem/router itself. Hold that thing in. There shouldnt be any special settings that need to remain. I would reset it. If it doesnt work, just call customer care and they can walk you through getting into the modem and entering whatever they need.

 

[ERD50]

It could be your DNS server. Set your router DNS server to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (Google DNS).

It sounds like the problem isn't the transfer speed but locating the servers.
Since you changed providers from comcast to att, have you pointed all the IP gateways, DNS servers, etc to ATT?

Agree on above. From your OP "I’ve checked and we’re getting over 300mbps download speeds. I checked latency and it was 13-14ms, not the best but not bad?"

Those ping rates sound pretty good. so yes, look into the DNS.

Find out what your DNS is and try pinging it. Then compare that to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or other open-source or available DNS.

I have heard of issues with the IP providers default DNS.

This internet 'speed' is another case where people get focused on a single number, and may not be aware that there is a lot more to it. Mega-pixels for cameras went thorough that phase, high pixel count, but maybe poor sensitivity, high noise, cheap lens, etc.

Curious, so I did a quick search said comcast dns is 75.75.75.75 (yours may be different though), when I pinged it, it seemed to be about the same as my 8.8.8.8.8 dns, ~ 18 msec on my 10 Mbps service (fixed-wireless), but that was with stuff running in the background.

-ERD50

 

[Kwirk]

You can check your DNS performance here: https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

GRC is an excellent resource.

 

[Kwirk]

I know almost nothing about AT&T offerings. One thing I would consider in your situation is that an ISP may cache (save copies) of popular web sites. If the cache is performing poorly you may have problems despite excellent bandwidth, ping times, DNS response, etc. I don’t know how to bypass the ISP cache but there may be a way.

If you think that the wireless on your new router/access point is somehow not up to snuff you can possibly plug your old router into a port on the new router and just use the old wifi. (Without changing the setup of your old router this will just cause double routing, a minor slow down. If you see an improvement you might consider accessing the setup to convert your old router into a simple access point.)

 

[Kwirk]

As I think more about it, a commercial VPN would probably bypass any ISP cache. You may be able to find a free trial.

 

[aja8888]

Clear the existing cache and let the new sites establish new cookies.

 

[Jerry1]

If you have a laptop, I would try that and see if it’s either the iPad or the browser on the iPad. If the laptop has the same issues using wireless, then I would see if I could get different results by plugging it directly into the modem. These things are basically a process of elimination. I would begin but turning everything off, unplugging them and starting them back up. With the iPad, I’d reset it using the main putt on/close screen combination.

If you’re still having problems, I would call ATT.

 

[target2019]

I had a great router (my own) with Comcast, still have it but I don’t see how I can use it with AT&T.

AT&T “gave” me the AT&T (Arris?) BGW210-700, I gather it’s a modem and router? It’s supposedly an 802.11b/g/n/ac dual channel with auto switching between 5.0 and 2.4 GHz.

I don’t get why it takes so long to load webpages, and even fails to load occasionally...

Could be bad cache of DNS. Here's how to clear on a computer:
https://www.wikihow.com/Flush-DNS

On an ipad, just rebooting should clear the cache. Something else to check is your network settings in ipad. It's possible a previous setting did not change as it should when you attached to the new ATT router. So you would drop the network, then re-attach with your wifi credentials.

And, mixing old Apple stuff (802.11b only) with newer devices was a problem in our network.

 

[Cobra9777]

Since you're getting full bandwidth on speedtests and no issues streaming, but websites are slow to load initially, that sounds like a classic DNS issue. I haven't dealt with this in a long time. But IIRC, you can ping one or more of the offending websites in command prompt and see the IP address. Then ping the IP address directly and see if it's faster. If yes, then your ISP's DNS servers are slowing things down. Try changing to Google Public DNS or OpenDNS.

If that does not resolve the issue, I would try different devices, different browsers, different routers, hardwire vs WiFi, reboot everything, clear browser cache, disable all extensions, etc. You can also run tracert to one of the offending websites to see where the bottleneck is. If all else fails, call AT&T. But they are unlikely to be much help if speedtests show that you're getting bandwidth as advertised.

BTW, latency of 13-14ms sounds high for true FTTH. Our FiOS consistently gets 3-5ms pings. High latency can cause delays such as you described, but 13-14ms should be fine. It might be worth collecting more data points to make sure.

 

[Kwirk]

Have you enabled any content filtering (to screen out objectionable websites)? Just a thought.

 

[imoldernu]

Checked speed with taskmaster? CTRL, ALT, DEL?
What's goin' on?

 

[Midpack]

All of you who suggested another DNS were absolutely right, 8.8.8.8 was much quicker to load. Trouble is I don’t want to rely on Google servers and I don’t see why AT&T should be off the hook, they’re collecting my monthly fees. So I’ll needle AT&T about it, and see where that leads, even if likely no where.

 

[ERD50]

All of you who suggested another DNS were absolutely right, 8.8.8.8 was much quicker to load. Trouble is I don’t want to rely on Google servers and I don’t see why AT&T should be off the hook, they’re collecting my monthly fees. So I’ll needle AT&T about it, and see where that leads, even if likely no where.

I figured you would not be interested in a Google DNS long term, but glad it was useful for testing. And this is why, in my earlier post, I mentioned:

Find out what your DNS is and try pinging it. Then compare that to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or other open-source or available DNS.

In the mean time, while you try to slay the AT&T giant, enter "open source DNS" into your favorite search engine, you should get plenty of options to try.

I'm also curious - what DNS address does AT&T send you to? When I try the 75.75.75.75 I found in a search, it seemed to ping as fast as most others. But maybe that is not what they direct you to.

-ERD50

 

[target2019]

If it's any consolation, I recall having to do same with Comcrap internet a few years back. Eventually their problems subsided, and I went back to their DNS.

This page is somewhat helpful, I think. It does not directly map DNS problems, but no matter the day, there are outages for every ISP, I think.

https://downdetector.com/status/att

In your case there could be a bad route stored somewhere out there, and you know the rest.