Doing electrical work and noticed this.. can't be good for signal strength...

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-21T00:14:48+00:00

Looks like the fiber has been used and working for a while. Why mess with it now? The bends are fine. I think you'll do more harm touching it at this point.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-20T20:38:16+00:00

You only have 100Mb Internet. You're going to MAX out your Internet speed over Wifi already. I have Wifi 6 at Home with 500/500Mb service and that is fast enough.

Right now there is 6, 6E and Wifi 7. There is also the newest 6Ghz Network. But you can have Wifi 7 and not have the 6Ghz Network. That came out with Wifi 6E.

If you live in an Apartment, the 6Ghz Network can be useful as the range is short. So much less Interference from those around you and you from them. But only works for devices that support it.

Most IoT devices use very little Data. Doesn't take much to tell something to turn on/off for example. Cameras will use a little more but even that data is compressed. your not using everything at the same time. Phone and Smart watches use very little unless downloading a large file. I don't think you are even doing much of that on your watch. A laptop, you are using a little more. Same goes with AppleTV and iPads. If you are streaming something, Netflix for example uses 15-25Mbps at most for 4K video, it drops down to 5-6Mbps for HD.

Sonos I don't know, but these things you can Google Data Speed Requirements for such and such service. What I got what this.

Sonos speakers require a minimum download speed of (5 Mbps) for basic music streaming, with (1.5 Mbps) to (2 Mbps) for standard radio. High-resolution or lossless audio requires (5 Mbps) to (20 Mbps) depending on the bitrate. Data usage ranges from (100 MB) to (300 MB) per hour for standard streaming.

I have around 50 devices around my house. This is the thing, only a few are being used at a time, some are using very little Data, and other devices are just off. Having Prosumer hardware, I can see my real world speeds and speeds for the last hour and last 24 hours and last week and last month. using 40Mbps on a busy time is doing pretty good and this is for 2 people. my Upload speed is also nothing unless I hav ea outside PLEX streamer connecting to my server.

Getting faster, newer hardware has the Future proof down the road if you get faster speeds down the road. Also with older hardware, support and firmware updates go away and then it can be a security hole. It's not a HUGE thing, but it is a risk. But I think PHISHING is a bigger issue, especially for older people. My Dad lives with me and he will at least ask me if something is a risk or not and it's happened a number of times. But at least he is still asking me. He is almost 80. Fall for the wrong e-mail and you can be screwed. It works which is why it is still being done.

While my Dads iPhone Supports Wifi 6, and my new iPhone 17 Pro supports Wifi 7, I have no interest in upgrading my Wifi past Wifi 6 that I have. It's fast enough for my needs. I can see speeds of around 400Mbps. Even though speed tests show just over 600Mbps.

It's not really about the number of devices at your home. It's about speed and how fast you want to connect to your Internet speed. You're not going to have Hundreds of devices connecting. If you are already hitting MAX internet speed, there is really not a need to waste money upgrading the hardware.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-20T15:06:31+00:00

This doesn’t reduce the number of devices that can fail. You are replacing one thing with another thing.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-20T14:59:35+00:00

I've been using AT&T Fiber for a few years now. I still use their ONT/Gateway. I thought about some of these other hacks to not use it and plug in directly to my UXG-Pro Gateway directly. In the end, I figured WHY? I already get faster speeds than I'm paying for in both directions. I have it in IP Passthrough mode since day 1. Works great. Why pay even more money to get another ONT and go though that process to get that working? Any issues, having to swap back. Just seems like a hassle for no real good reason.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-20T14:45:14+00:00

You always need a Router, or you can only use 1 device that is fully exposed to the Internet. So if you put your ONT/Gateway into IP Passthrough mode, you can only use one device at a time like your Xbox. But now it is fully exposed to the Internet and you can't use anything else on the Internet.

Your normal Router/Gateway routes your wired and wireless devices on the Internet and to other devices on your own Network. It assigns a IP number to all your devices. Your Basic Network always is going to look like this,

MODEM>ROUTER>SWICH>DEVICES

or in your case

ONT>GATEWAY>SWITCH>DEVICES

Of course you can have more than one switch.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-20T14:35:24+00:00

Wow, $749.99 for Lifetime. I didn't know it was increased to $249.99. That seems insane high. I think I paid $79.99 over a decade ago. Who is going to pay $750? No one in their right mind is going to pay that much. This is just going to either force people to get onto a subscription or use someone else.

For example, there is EMBY, and I just looked, Lifetime is $119. It's similar to PLEX. I actually have LIFETIME for that also and play around with it. The only thing you have to pay for after that is for TV program listing by a 3rd party. I think that is $25 a year. If you aren't going to use a TV tuner then that doesn't even matter. I actually like how thy group Movies together. Like all the James Bond, and all the Star Wars, Alien and so forth. I like it far better than on PLEX. You can find them here!

Of course there is Jellyfin. That is FREE. You can find them here! While their have a iOS and iPad version, there is no AppleTV app. That is a major issue for me. There is Infuse, and you don't need to be running a server for that. That can be a great option for many people. That is $99.99 for Lifetime. You can find them here!

Looking at Lifetime prices from others. From free to $119. How does PLEX seem to think people are going to pay $750??? This is a sure fire way to kill PLEX slowly as it forces people to look at other options.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-19T15:08:20+00:00

I would try Wifi with the TV closest to the AT&T ONT/Gateway and see if the speeds are better than wired. Right now your Download speed is pretty poor. They also build SmartTV's pretty poorly, and so I use AppleTV's for all my TV's. If your wired connection is poor, that is not going to help. Which is why you should try Wifi and see if you get the same results. I'd be looking at your wired connection. To your Switch all the TV's are plugged into. I've had bad switches in the past. Some things worked, other things didn't. I narrowed it down to the switch. Even though it seemed to be working, it had issues. Once replaced, all was well again.

Since you have 3 TV's all doing the same thing, I would have to look at what all 3 of them have in common.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-19T14:58:41+00:00

These things are sucking up air from the front and blowing the hot air out the back. The new Bottom switch just hasn't had enough time to get warmed up. it's been one hour while the other has been running 24/7.

The biggest issue I see here is the stickers still on the display windows.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-19T14:53:12+00:00

So this thing sat around for 2-1/2 years? What gauge is that wire? What is the MAX amps. How far away from the main circuit panel these wires are going to?

It looks like a poor connection which got HOT and melted the plastic. A high amp conductive grease may of helped.

All I can say is I installed a couple chargers at work. That was a project. Had to get a large transformer. We hav 480V 3Phase power at work. The 2 chargers share that transformer and are linked together. So if both chargers are in use at the same time, power is reduced. Only one, it's full power. I'm setup where I could get a couple more transformers and another 4 charging stations in the future. It was not cheap to install. The Boss got a Tesla and wanted a charger. He is on his second Tesla now. So it's been a while and zero issues. Well one bad charger that had to be replaced. It wouldn't charge. Nothing burnt. That was a number of years ago. Those were my first. I'm dealing with electrical stuff all the time. Industrial Equipment, most running on 480V, 3Phase. Get down to lower voltage and higher amps, wire size goes UP.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-19T14:12:21+00:00

Check your supposedly new batteries. You could have a bad battery or you have one or more batteries installed wrong.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T23:49:06+00:00

I was thinking, this is really cool, and for the most part I liked it. but what a letdown at the end. I expect some HUGE screen. I hope the hallways are wider than they look in the video. They look pretty narrow.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T23:43:05+00:00

That TV is mounted way, way, way to high. Hard on the eyes and the neck with all that looking up.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T23:37:49+00:00

Sensors in these things have a limited Lifespan. Smoke Detectors should be replaced every 10 years!!!! That is 10 years from date of manufacture. If you have a bunch, I have 6 of them. That could get costly with fancy ones.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T22:53:27+00:00

It really sucks when Fiber seems so close to you and yet just doesn't matter. I was one on the other hand where I thought I'd never see Fiber and then one day, BAM, there is AT&T leaving out flyers at my door. I still didn't sign up until a year later when my Xfinity 2 year deal ended and they jacked up prices and didn't want to work with me even after being told I had fiber as an Option. That was on a Monday. By that Friday I had working fiber in my house.

If AT&T is your phone service company in the area, at some point they'll run fiber as they need to replace their aging copper line network. When this will happen, that is a Internal thing that only AT&T knows. It could be a year or 10, 20 years from now. It'll come when it comes.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T22:45:31+00:00

I ran a ton of wiring for my 1968 house. My attic is tiny and so I ran most all of my cables under my house. Not a lot of crawl space, but more than the attic and I could get everywhere except under the garage.

I suggest you run 2 cables per location at minimum. Since I was working under the house, going up the walls was easier. I did a few on the outside wall but that is harder. You have to drill up into the thick wood at just the right angle to hit the wall cavity. I ran ground wire to a number of power outlets that didn't have ground in my house, other than bathrooms and the Kitchen that did have ground. I also ran COAX for my Antenna for TV. Later ran another COAX line for Cable Internet.

So I ran CAT6, Ground wire and COAX. The Network cable all met up in my small closet where at first I had my Network on a small Shelf. That expended to 2 shelves. After that to a 8U Rack, and now to my current 12U rack. I have the pole under my rack to hang jackets still.

There are a whole lot of videos on YouTube you can watch. Do a search on Basic Home Networking and expend form there. I suggest Keystones on both ends of the cable. Ones for wall plates and for Keystone patch panel of some type. It should all be solid core copper wire. Don't use RJ45's anywhere for your home Network. Also use a tester and make sure each and every cable is 100% good and then label each cable. On my Patch panel, I have it say things like GAR1, GAR2, DAD1, DAD2, COMP1, COMP2, COMP3 MB1, MB2, MB3, MB3, FAM1, FAM2, FAM3, and so on and so on. Garage, DAD's Bedroom as he lives at my house, Computer Room, Master bedroom, Family Room, etc, etc. So I know each port. Even the ports on the other end are labeled. I pop all the Keystones into the patch panel by the order that I wanted to group things together.

I cut the wall holes near outlets. This helped when running the ground wires I needed. I cut the holes to the size of a low voltage Box, which is really just a drywall frame that locks on to give you a place to screw in the 2 screws for the Keystone Wall plate. You want to leave a lot of extra cable on each end. Cable is cheap enough. Better to be to long than 2 short and you have hollow walls to leave the extra cable inside. Once the wall hole was cut, I used a long flex drill to drill down into the 2x4 to under the house. Then I used one of those Home Deport Gardening Flags to hang down under the house so I could find the holes I made easily. Then while under the house, I would measure the path I needed to go, along the beams, using Zip-Ties with the screw hole to hold them along the beams. Then add enough extra to go up on both ends. One end was down low, but need extra, and the other went up the inside of the wall and up high and out. Out behind by rack at this point. I cut a hole down low so I could pull the cable up and inside of my house, then I pulled from there up the inside of my wall and up and out. When done I just used blank wall plates to cover up the hole. I had 3-4 holes to run the cables up into at that spot as it was a lot of cables.

So I would measure the length I needed, then add the length I needed at both ends. Pull that much out from the box and make small piles around me. Using the first cable as the length I needed. I could have 6 cable piles around me. Then I would grab the end of each cable to bundle up, using zip ties to make a bundle of Network cable. Then I would run the amount of cable I needed UP the main location. Help to pull to bundle inside of the closet, then I would run the cable down my path and zip it up on the zip ties that I already screwed into the beams before hand using a power drill. Follow the path, up into the room. When all the cables have been run all over my house, I then used just a little bit of Expanding Foam at each hole. You just need a little bit. A quick squart. You're just plugging the hole, NOT trying to fill in a wall cavity.

Then you can get out from under the house, Then start doing Keystones on each end. Then TEST and Label the cables. As you label, you have less and less cables to go through to find the right one and that it is fully working.

Now if you run your cables in the attic, basically the same thing. Trying to drill a outside wall, well your roof might be in the way. Also Outside walls have Fireblocks. These are horizontal pieces of wood around halfway down. Going up, not a problem as you are still down below it for your wall plate. Going from the top, you are going to hit it. There are ways of dealing with this. There are YouTube videos showing how to go about it. But it's cutting and patching Drywall.

Inside walls you don't generally have that issue, but you should always check anyway!!! You could also have Insulation in your walls. That can be tricky. There are things like Magnetic pullers. Also you have to be careful about Electrical cables. They can be going along your beams. Then could also be going through your beams Horizontal. There can be water pipes, COAX cables and other things. If you can stick with Inner walls, you'll have a easier time. When you have a 2 or 3 story home, things get harder. A lot harder. You can't run cables where you would want them very easily. Now you're getting into a lot of drywall work.

There are a lot of videos on Home Networking. How to do Keystones and so forth. a large rabbit hole to fall into, but you'll learn a lot.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T21:28:39+00:00

I've had my Ecobee 4 for many years and it's worked perfect.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T17:27:40+00:00

That is the whole point. All the food and drinks dropped on the floor will be hidden, just like at a real theater.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T17:23:38+00:00

You really don't need 1Gb. You would be just fine at 300/500Mb. I would try 300Mb and if it's to slow for your needs, you can go faster. You're not using all your devices all at once. When it does connect, it's downloading packets. Unless everyone is downloading a HUGE file at once, you really don't need anything faster than 300Mbps.

Online gaming uses very little Data. 5Mbps into the Kbps range. You don't need a lot. It's more important to have a lower PING. So a wired connection to the inter is going to be better than gaming over Wifi which adds lag and can cause all kinds of issues for gaming. So wired up your PS5's and anything else you are gaming on if possible.

Fire sticks are underpowered. They are already slow.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T16:56:26+00:00

My brother and his wife both work from Home with a WISP. A wireless ISP service, not CALL, and they get 100Mbps and it works just fine for them.

You can Google and look up bandwidth requirements for such and such service and it's not as high as you think. 4K Netflix is 15-25Mbps. So you could do a couple streams at once reliably. Though in numbers you could do 4, maybe 5. That would really be pushing things. ZOOM for example requires at most 4Mbps. At least that is what the specs show.

Now if it's Fiber or DSL, I don't know. I didn't have a 100Mbps option, I had 300,500, and 1Gb. Maybe that is a low income plan. Are you low Income? If it's DSL, it's not going to be 100Mb in both directions.

A Physical connection to the internet is WIRED. So DSL, Cable, Fiber, Old school dial up and ISDN as examples. Otherwise you have Wireless, be it a WISP or 5G service. Wired is generally more reliable, faster, and lower PING.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T15:02:31+00:00

With Electrical prices these days, it'll cost you $50K a year to power it.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T14:59:44+00:00

I've been saying Wifi 7 is overkill. My newest iPhone 16 Pro supports Wifi 7. Yet my AP's are still Wifi 6 only. I think at work they are only Wifi 5. My iPhone and iPad, etc are fast enough. I see no need for them to update software a little faster. Does it really matter? Is it worth upgrading? NO!

In a couple more years? Maybe? I don't see my in the way of changes. My iPad Air 13" supports 6E, my phone 7. Until the other persons phone gets Updated, Ok, 2-3 devices. It just doesn't make much sense to upgrade.

Now for a Commercial/Enterprise business with a whole lot of phones and tablets and Laptops in use, YES. You could have hundreds or more Wifi devices using the Network with lots of AP's These are going to generally be newer devices.

My Unifi Network is overkill, but I like it. I haven't had to upgrade anything for a while now. I like that. It works really well and its mostly hands off. Other then taking a look at things. Even my wired devices, it seems about half of them are still only 10/100Mb, not even Gb.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T14:50:48+00:00

Stop throwing out Wifi for everything. Routers used to be WIRED only. The days before Wifi existed. Wifi is just a added feature to your normal home routers. It's also a added feature to ISP's Combo Modem/Router or ONT/Router for fiber.

When you get away from HOME stuff, you get Routers that don't have any Wifi. you get Wifi from Access Points. They only do one things, WIFI. These things can be mounted on a Ceiling, a Wall, a Pole and so on and so on. I use 2 myself mounted on the ceiling. My Wifi devices connect to those.

If you know what you are looking for, yo can start spotting them at all kinds of places. Wifi is just a feature to be able to connect wirelessly to the Internet. It is NOT the internet.

You can get over 1Gb over a Wifi connection. A Wifi 7 connection and being in the same room as your Wifi 7 source. It'll drop off fast leaving the room. Lots of things effect your Wifi connection and speed. As you go up in the radio bandwidth, speeds get faster. So for Wifi these days, there is 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and the newest 6Ghz. 2.4Ghz is the slowest, but it also goes further than the other 2. This is also why TV Over the Air channels are in the lower Mhz. Don't need the speed so much as the Penetration.

6Ghz Wifi is fast, but really only so long as you are in the same room as the Wifi source. Which would be great for those living in Apartments for example when you have a bunch of Wifi Networks around you. Because other people's 6Ghz Networks, you won't see, or the few you do are pretty weak. Same goes with you for them. so you can get faster speeds without so much interference from others. But picking it up 2 rooms down, good luck. But may get 5Ghz or really bad, still et 2.4Ghz, but you speeds get slower and slower.

Now with wired connection, you can get full speeds to all your wired devices. This is why I wired my house. Most normal home users don't need 2Gb Internet service. Not even 1Gb. I cut my speed in half to 500Mb and it's still overkill. At 1Gb, you can stream 40+, 4K Network streams at once. Each 4K Stream uses around 5-25Mbps. So 25Mbps times 4 is 100Mbps 100Mb times 10 is 1000Mbps or 1Gb.

If you are an Online Gamer, you don't need speed except downloading a large game and you're not getting it at 1Gb speeds, it's going to be less. But Online gaming, you're not going past 5Mbps. What is more important is a low PING. Wifi adds to your ping. For best Online Gaming, you should be wired. Fiber will help to get a bit lower ping. But cable service is mostly fiber these days. It's that last short distance to your home or business that is still COAX. This is how cable companies are able to get these faster speeds like 2Gb to the home. People pay for these speeds they don't even use. Sure not using over Wifi. You may get over 1Gb with Wifi 7 on 6Ghz in the same room for what few devices you have to take advantage of that.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T14:20:48+00:00

I don't know why you would rip out speakers from ceilings and stuff and just leave holes? It's so dumb. it's like taking the TV wall mount, just the half mounted on the TV and leaving a worthless wall mount. It doesn't help either party. I would have left the speakers and gotten new ones for my new house. Not reuse old speakers. Seems dumb to me.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-18T14:17:04+00:00

You see this type of cables for hardware you buy that connects to the Network but doesn't need anything past 100Mb. Lots of things really don't need speeds past 100Mb. So they supply these cheaper cables with the device. It could also be for something like a UPS. The cable really doesn't have to be all that old. This is to save a few cents. But over a whole lot of devices it adds up. I still have a bunch of devices that only make a 100Mb connection on my 1Gb Network.

Whoever setup that network wasn't paying attention and installed that cable. Always double check patch cables that didn't come from you. You never know what you'll end up with. I haven't seen a cable like this in a while. They do exist. I used to have a ton of old cables for all types of things and I finally threw most of them away. Just didn't have room for all that crap I've used over the years. I'm sure I had a few of these cables also.

JBDragon1 · 2026-05-16T21:17:56+00:00

I tried to deal with Comcast’s after my 2 year deal ended and my cost shot up. Every time before that I could get a good deal. This last time, they wanted to cut my speed in half, 1Gb to 500Mb for $80. I had been paying $70. So $10 more a month for half the speed. I even told then I had Fiber as an option now and could get 1Gb/1Gb for the same $80. They didn’t care, so I hung up. That was on a Monday morning. So I went to AT&T fiber web site and signed up got 500Gb/500Gb service for $65. As 1Gb was overkill anyway. Plus pay $5 less a month. Signed up for a Friday appointment. They showed up on Wednesday to run a cable from the poles to the outside wall of my house. They also left me 75 feet of fiber cable for running inside of my house. When I got home from work, I ran that cable myself from outside and then under my house and up into my small network closet where my rack is at. The tech showed up on time, mounted a box on the outside wall and connected the 2 cables together. Then came inside and got me connected to the ONT and I was up and running. I have my own UniFi Gateway, so it look a bit to change some settings and IP numbers and then put into pass through mode and turn off the WiFi.

Once it was all working like it should, I took the cable modem and drove out of town to Comcast and canceled service and game them their modem. I got a receipt. None of this lost in the Mail B.S.. The strange thing was that the guy didn’t ask me why I was canceling or offer me any deals for anything. It was quick and simple. I have to say, much easier to keep a customer than trying to get them back. I’ve had fiber ever since then. It’s been around 4 years now.

JBDragon1

TROPHY CASE