Unable to obtain XB8 for 1.5 Gbps Internet Tier

[TKDGene]

So I have been on the worst experience with rogers for the last 3 days. All this started with getting new Macs in the house for a 6E wireless connection as working on laptops is dead slow on Wifi6. For the main station, it's fine as I have a full 10 gig in the house to the NAS and to the desktop. But working wirelessly has been brutal with both local and online as speeds next to the modem are about 400 at most. 

Was told by tech over the phone that in order to get XB8 I need to get a 1.5 Gig upgrade so I did. The guy at the local store, Eglinton and Hurontario told me that in order to get the modem from them I needed a ticket number that they can refer to. 

Fine, called rogers back, tech department forwarded me to customer care for that, then they forwarded me back to the tech department again. On hold in total for just over two hours to get this done to get transferred. After getting this ticket number, called the store the next day, next guy said they have no system for this and the ticket number is useless as they don't swap modems in the store anymore I need to call back and they will be able to mail one out to me. 

Okay, so I call back, again on hold for a while, the guy I spoke to essentially yelled at me about how they never do this and that they need a tech to come out to the house to do this and test wifi speeds. I explained to him that I tested this with one device connected and there are no other devices eating up the WIFI. So I said fine let the tech come out. He told me that if the tech doesn't find any issues with the service I will be charged for a service call... At this point, I just asked to please be transferred to cancellations as I am not interested at this point anymore in keeping my service. The guy literally started yelling at me as I asked him again to transfer me to cancellation, then he said fine we won't charge you let the tech come out and look at this. He will have a modem with him to upgrade. Eff it maybe he had a bad day, fine ill just has a tech come out and do this and ill forget about this whole thing and move on. 

Tech arrives, nice dude did the tests on wifi with just me and him in the house and his hone auto connected to the network and speeds were even worse at about 350 down. He went to swap the modem... it doesn't allow him. HE called support and he had to do something about downgrading XB7 in order to get XB8 switched over after he spoke to this service person. Still didn't work. He called back and now I needed a Work Order number for this to do the upgrade, he and his manager was not able to get it done and asked me to call back about it. 
I call back again, and this tech guy says he can't create a work order for this because xb7 is fine, I explained to him wifi issues and that I have 6E devices and can't get the speed I need. He tells me he will talk to his tech or something... Comes back and tells me that XB7 has both 6 and 6E and it's fine so there are no issues here. I verified that that's what he said. I called him out on this lie and that not only the technicolour doesn't have it, but it was also released way before 6E was a thing... He said he doesn't know and that's what his tech told him... What a clown show, now he said I will hear back in 24-48 hours about this issue. 
I was with rogers from 2002 and service was going downhill, but this is insane. Literally, lie after lie, no one knows the process and says a different thing every time I talk to someone else. At this point, I'm not even sure if I can figure out how to cancel all my phones and other services as I feel like I'm going to be screamed at again and my request for transfers to that department, I just get told no. At this point, I rather switch to literally two cans and string service than stay with them. My old plan for gigabit is gone as when I switched to 1.5 the rep read to me that that plan will be permanently gone and can't be brought back. 

***Edited Labels***

[-G-]

@TKDGene  Would love to try to help you but I'm pretty confused as to where things currently stand.  If I am following correctly, you have been upgraded to the 1.5 Gig service, you had an XB7, and currently either have or are trying to get an XB8 gateway; I am not sure which.

I am a Mac and Windows user but my Mac only has Wi-Fi 6, not Wi-Fi 6E.  My Wi-Fi performance is fine with the Technicolor XB7 gateway.  However, if your Wi-Fi network is not performing well (e.g. due to having many active Wi-Fi clients with poor quality connections), then that will kill performance, even for those devices that are only a few feet away from the gateway.

I also know that some Macs can have very erratic Wi-Fi performance when connected to either a Technical XB7 or XB8 gateway; Windows systems are affected as well, especially Intel chipsets with older drivers.  It seems to be an interoperability issue with the Broadcom WiFi chipset/driver that those gateways are using.  (I never had any such issues when connected to an AP with an Atheros chipset.)

If you are experiencing Wi-Fi performance problems with a Technicolor XB7, upgrading to an XB8 may not help... and may be even worse with some systems given that the XB8 has a newer Wi-Fi chipset that has stability issues of its own.

To improve the Wi-Fi performance on your Macs, try disabling AirDrop... or disable AWDL altogether.

Another option would be to switch to using your own Wi-Fi router, Wi-Fi mesh, or a business-grade external Wi-Fi AP, one that is known to work well with your Macs.

[TKDGene]

So currently I still have xb7. We upgraded to M2 pro Mac’s that just released with 6E.
Did a few tests with no other devices activity using anything and still has bad connection speeds.

It’s a 3 bedroom condo and I sometimes need to do work in the room next to the router if the GF is in her meetings on her desktop. Range for the most part isn’t the problem as much as the wifi speed. I’m trying to avoid getting a dedicated AP as the router should be able to handle fine 1-2 laptops on the third 6ghz band for work within the house and offsite server for wedding photo work as well as my day job.

[-G-]

@TKDGene  Which version of the XB7 do you have?  The Technicolor XB7 (model number CGM4331ROG or CGM4331COM) or the Arris XB7 (model number TG4482A)?

Also, check the Wi-Fi Performance stats on your Mac.  (Option-click on your Wi-Fi icon on the macOS menu bar and select Open Wireless Diagnostics.  When that opens, select Performance under the Window menu.)  What is your TxRate?  On Wi-Fi 6, you should see a TxRate of 1200 Mb/s.  I have also seen this fluctuate back and forth between 1200 Mb/s and 286 Mb/s.

If you have the Technicolor XB7, you might get better Wi-Fi performance by switching to the Arris XB7 (which, IIRC, has an Intel Wi-Fi chipset) rather than a Technicolor XB8.  I really can't say for sure since I only have an M1 Mac to test with.

[TKDGene]

Thank you for the help G. I’m using CGM4331COM rev2. Also confirmed and the tx rate was 1200 and for a split second dropped to 286 as you said.

Chanel 157 - 80 MHz
RSSI -42
Noise - 85
Phy mode 802.11ax

EDIT: 

ran a speed test and got 67 latency, 260.2 down, 35.66 up 

[-G-]

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@TKDGene wrote:

Thank you for the help G. I’m using CGM4331COM rev2. Also confirmed and the tx rate was 1200 and for a split second dropped to 286 as you said.

Chanel 157 - 80 MHz
RSSI -42
Noise - 85
Phy mode 802.11ax

EDIT: 

ran a speed test and got 67 latency, 260.2 down, 35.66 up 

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With those stats, you should have easily attained download speeds of at least 500 Mb/s.  Also, did you perform these tests while your network was quiet?  Even if your Wi-Fi performance was absolutely horrible, you should still have been able to attain upload speeds of at least 50 Mb/s.

Also, which speed test site gave you those results?  I typically use:

https://www.speedtest.net

https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat

https://speed.cloudflare.com

Also, Apple has a network quality utility on macOS that you can try running from Terminal:

• networkquality -sv

As I pointed out in my earlier post, a number of M1 and M2 Mac users have been reporting Wi-Fi performance issues, and I know from my own testing that performance can vary depending on the Wi-Fi AP that I test with.  The Technicolor XB7 and XB8 gateways both have Broadcom Wi-Fi chipsets.  (Internally, their hardware is similar enough that their firmware is probably built from the same source code.)  When I initially tested the XB8, its WiFi performance was worse than that of the XB7.  Things have gotten better since then but, if you are seeing poor Wi-Fi performance with the XB7, I am not confident that you will see an improvement the XB8.

Long term, if Apple, Comcast and Technicolor can work together and improve performance and interoperability, you will be better off with the XB8,  If you are looking for an immediate fix, you will probably be better off either trying an Arris XB7 (which is based on a completely different hardware platform), disabling Wi-Fi on your XB7 and using an external AP or Wi-Fi mesh for connectivity, or enabling Bridge Mode on your Ignite Gateway and using your own router.

[TKDGene]

Yeah, it is odd that I'm getting such bad speeds and latency. I retested it and was able to get 500 ish down and the same up speed today. No network changes and I was the only one in the house at that time as well as gf took the dog out. The network was quiet and I live in a 3-bedroom condo... The wired performance is fine, I can get easily 1.6g down and 50 up so the lines going to me are fine. I sue ookla speed test and cloud flare for testing as well, local server nearby here was used for the test. 

I currently use xb7 as a modem and router where the 2.5 gig port goes into 10 gig unmanaged switch. I would need a router with at least 2 2.5 gig ports, one from modem to router and one from router to switch. The problem is the only one that has that is the Asus router that is about a grand that supports 6e which is overkill for what I need it to do. The 10 gig is generally quiet for the most part unless I'm doing edits locally of the NAS, during the winter when weddings are far and few in between it kinda just sits dormant, so having (hopefully) better wifi 6e support and having the 2.5 port feed the switch would be perfectly fine 

[kevalshah_1]

I got mac and XB7 installed 12 days ago. the tier-2 technician told me that the speed you can get max. is 500mbps as you have opted for 1.5gbps. this is just what all the customers around here gets. tier-2 technical support from rogers, over the call confirmed that this is what he is getting at his home and I am getting everything fine by getting 500 (1/3)mbps as the download speed. I can't see how a customer facing executive can direct such a statement from company side and be so confident even when they are not providing any solution and asking the customer to be satisfied with one third of the committed services. threshold level of RF, power level and the location of the device has been checked thrice and asked up but no one is addressing the elephant in the room about the bandwidth being passed from the node to the customer end or utilization or any logical technical prospects. On rogers test website I am getting 370mbps download and 27mbps upload shown as the test result and still the CSM is telling me that everything is fine from his end.

[-G-]

@kevalshah_1 I think the Technicolor XB7 gateways are running older firmware that suffers from really bad Wi-Fi performance with some clients.  I just did a speed test over Wi-Fi on my parents' XB7 (running CGM4331COM_5.2p22s1_PROD_sey firmware) with an M1 Mac and saw the following:

Incidentally, I saw the same wonky results during testing back when my XB8 was also running 5.2 firmware.

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@kevalshah_1 wrote:

I got mac and XB7 installed 12 days ago. the tier-2 technician told me that the speed you can get max. is 500mbps as you have opted for 1.5gbps.

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If you have a fast-enough computer with a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet adapter, you should be able to attain speeds in excess of 1.8 Gb/s, assuming you have good network drivers.  However, your Wi-Fi performance can vary greatly due to a number of factors.

[TKDGene · Accepted solution]

Yeah I gave up on this. After numerous calls I got nowhere. Will be canceling after my promo is done and going to a competitor. Rogers offers great pricing of 125 for 2.5 Really sad to see the brand I used to like quite a bit give such awful experience.  

Got Asus AXE-16000 as needed 2.5 or 10 gig ports. Wired speeds are 1.6-1.7. Gigabit Wifi is 1.3-1.4

At this point Rogers is becoming a company that almost on my Ban list, and as a note that list only contains Gigabyte (makers for mother boards, GPU and such) the only two brands that ever got me this upset.

[aelaan]

Okay, let's just stop dancing around the fire.  There is no such thing as 1.5Gb wireless, especially not with overburdened Wi-Fi routers and neighbours shouting at each other on the same channels, let alone the ones that are not even protected or run with the standard admin passwords (one can have a lot of fun). You can get 1 device, connected to ETHERNET to the Rogers router, to commit to speeds over 900Mbps.  That means 1 device only, turn your Wi-Fi off, and you might even get more.  Having an expensive router in house and linking its 2.5Gb port to the Rogers router in bridge mode will get you, in my case, slightly over 900Mbps.  Even at the cleanest connection, routers will always have over-head.  Theoretical speeds and marketing be darned.  As soon as I connect multiple Wi-Fi 6e devices, the connections internally are fine, exactly what the doctor ordered.  Now I push three or more devices to speed test or whatever test I want to try.  The router now has to prioritize, share and trying to use the so-called AI build into the thing (again, whatever marketing mumbo jumbo they might want to tell you) the whole card house collapses.  Most home routers do have about 1Gb of memory if one is lucky.  Enterprise grade routers have fast amounts of memory and capabilities - home devices anywhere south of 400 bucks simply do not have the power or the balls to push the speeds through that are advertised.  Sure, we can all think that our router is superior, I agree yours is most likely better than mine.  I, too, was refused the upgrade to XB8 and God knows whatever they are smoking to tell the customers.  Truth is there that Rogers only sells the XB8 to new customers, not to the ones that have been with them since 1997.  So, it remains a rat race, but stop telling me you have done me a favour and "upgraded" my connection to 1.5Gbps - THEORETICALLY - which means just as much as the one fry I found in the bottom of the McDonald's bag.  As a consumer you are being laughed at, made confused, and you need to renew your commitment each year, so they can upsell you on stuff they will never deliver on.  Yeah, I have not forgotten my dead silence trying to reach 911... Rogers is so big, they don't care about peons, they now have Shaw too, so they can compete with Bell.... Anyway, the myth of 1.5Gbps is just that - a fable.  Those poor customer support people having to try to steer through all the nonsense and the technicians knowing better but rather have a job.  There - the state of all misery has now been exposed, we are all correct and our overlord Rogers don't give a hoot.

[TKDGene]

Hey, that's just plain not true. I know what you mean by theoretical, but here is a video I just shot because I know people will say, " oh, it was on cable or something. I live in a condo building and this is my connection over wifi, threw the laptop on the bed as well just to show there are no cables going in. 1.9 down and as always pathetic 0.05 up. 

https://youtu.be/R9QksM-nD3c

[-G-]

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@TKDGene wrote:

Hey, that's just plain not true. I know what you mean by theoretical, but here is a video I just shot because I know people will say, " oh, it was on cable or something. I live in a condo building and this is my connection over wifi, threw the laptop on the bed as well just to show there are no cables going in. 1.9 down and as always pathetic 0.05 up. 

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I'm not sure what we are discussing on this thread anymore.

With Wi-Fi 6E, there are not many people using the 6 GHz band, so you should be able to attain full speeds.  I was able to attain the following results between a Wi-Fi 6E client (AX210 chipset) and an XB8, at close range, with the Ignite 1.5 Gigabit Internet service: https://www.speedtest.net/result/14420702886

However, my biggest challenge was getting stable Wi-Fi drivers from Intel.

I also just got the following result using a computer with a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet adapter connected to my own network gear with my Ignite Gateway in Bridge Mode: https://www.speedtest.net/result/14853823386

For me, the Ignite 1.5 Gigabit service delivers more than the advertised upload and download speeds.

If speed and performance matters, you REALLY should be wired Ethernet, not Wi-Fi... and this is an even bigger issue for those with a XGS-PON FTTH Internet service because the one and only 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port on the XB7 or XB8 Ignite gateway is tied up for use as a WAN port to connect to an external ONT.

Rogers makes it very clear which Ignite Gateway you qualify for, and for the highest speed tires, customers could get either an XB7 or an XB8, and both will technically allow DOCSIS 1.5 Gigabit Internet customers to attain the advertised speeds.  Personally, I'll take whichever one has the most stable firmware.

I would also love to have the option of using a dedicated, simple cable modem, such as a Sercomm DM1000, that will allow me to connect my own router.  Right now, we are at the mercy of Comcast/Arris/Technicolor being able to create a firmware build for their Gateways that has working DOCSIS, eMTA, gateway and Wi-Fi code, and a working Bridge Mode.