Slow Internet Browsing and Video Streaming?

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KapsZ28

2[H]4U
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May 29, 2009
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This has been driving me nuts. Where I used to live, I had Opt Online and didn't have any issues. I moved last December and my only choice was Comcast or Verizon DSL. So I went with a Comcast business plan as I use static IPs. I am using the same SonicWALL firewall that I have been using for almost two years and never had any issues. There are no firewall rules blocking my connection out to the Internet. The only thing that has changed is I now have Comcast and they provided me with a Netgear CG3000DCR router.

Anyone with Comcast probably knows that they have their own firmware on these routers and there is no official "bridge mode". According to Comcast they tell you to just disable DHCP and that is the equivalent of bridge mode. As far as I can tell, it does work properly when doing this. I was able to put the public static IP in the WAN interface on my SonicWALL without any issues.

Internally I have two Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controllers with DNS and DHCP. To rule out and DNS issues, I have tried going directly through Google and Level 3 DNS servers and also Comcast's DNS server.

I am having two issues. For one, it is very slow to load web pages. Almost feels like I am on DSL. Second, video streaming is horrible. It constantly has to buffer the video and I am talking about a 360p youtube video, or even CNN videos. This is on all devices in the house. Doesn't matter if they are wireless, or hard wired. Every time I do a speed test, it comes back good. I am getting 50/10 Mbps.

Now this is also strange. I have a bunch of site to site IPsec tunnels setup with the company I work for. I only use this connection with my laptop and have it configured to a single port on my SonicWALL with the SonicWALL acting as the DHCP server. I also have it use my company's internal DNS servers so I can easily resolve host names while working from home. When I use this connection, it is so much better. No clue why. This was one of the reason why I though it might be DNS since I was using different DNS servers. Also when I copy data from a server at my company to my laptop over the IPsec tunnel, it usually transfers at about 6 MBps which is basically my entire download speed. So the throughput is great, but Internet is just horrible.

Any ideas what it could be? I've checked the Netgear to make sure the firewall is disabled, there are no port rules or anything in place on it.
 
Oh, and another weird thing is Windows Updates frequently just sit at checking for updates when using my Internet connection. I literally just rebuilt a server and it was just sitting there for 30 minutes looking for updates. I plugged it into my other port that tunnels back to my company, rebooted, and the updates went through without a problem.
 
@OP

!. Get your own modem and router. Make sure the modem and router are separate devices. This is how you can ensure a quality modem and a quality router.

2. The slowdown you are experiencing is due to stupidly greedy ISPs. It's called peering and ISPs want to be paid twice (once by you for the connection and once by the content providers). Read up on peering agreements between ISPs and get informed. Then, contact your politician and complain. If that bastard won't do anything then don't vote for him/her.
 
You can't use your own modem with the business plan due to static IPs. The netgear has a built in docsis 3.0 modem anyway.

Also the nergear does support bridge mode, but the custom firmware Comcast puts on them does not have anything called bridge mode in the setup. I've seen SMC routers before and they have the same exact firmware and interface and have never seen bridge mode listed before. So I don't think switching will help unless this router is just a POS. The tech mentioned something about the SMC router but a can't remember watch it was.

I don't know if bridge mode is even the issue or if the service just sucks. It is just odd.
 
KapsZ28 said:
You can't use your own modem with the business plan due to static IPs. The netgear has a built in docsis 3.0 modem anyway.
Click to expand...


A quick Google search says otherwise. When you activate a new modem you simply give them all the details so they can add it to their network and they do all the configuring themselves. The static IP part doesn't even enter the equation since that would go on the WAN interface anyways. If you bought two static IP's or it would be your choice how to configure it manually over the automatic DHCP. What he's saying is these "converged" Wireless/Router/Switch/Modem's are generally problematic and make troubleshooting incredibly more difficult, especially on gear that you don't control or are extremely limited when dealing with them.

Comcast Business Class Internet is simply uncapped, static IP accessible, better technical support, consumer grade Internet. There is literally nothing they do other than add you to the Business Class billing sheet. Don't let the Business part confuse you. Metro Ethernet for the tiers above 100Mbps from Comcast on the other hand are something different.
 
Liger88 said:
A quick Google search says otherwise. When you activate a new modem you simply give them all the details so they can add it to their network and they do all the configuring themselves. The static IP part doesn't even enter the equation since that would go on the WAN interface anyways. If you bought two static IP's or it would be your choice how to configure it manually over the automatic DHCP. What he's saying is these "converged" Wireless/Router/Switch/Modem's are generally problematic and make troubleshooting incredibly more difficult, especially on gear that you don't control or are extremely limited when dealing with them.

Comcast Business Class Internet is simply uncapped, static IP accessible, better technical support, consumer grade Internet. There is literally nothing they do other than add you to the Business Class billing sheet. Don't let the Business part confuse you. Metro Ethernet for the tiers above 100Mbps from Comcast on the other hand are something different.
Click to expand...

I've done quite a bit of googling and so far I have read all the same stuff about having to use their SMC or Netgear router if you have static IPs. Yes, you can purchase your own approved modem for dynamic IPs, but they will not allow you to use static IPs without their gear. If you can point me to a valid website that says otherwise, I would appreciate it.
 
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