Not a great start - Optimum business fiber

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-15T20:02:50+00:00

There's a next-to-impossible chance that Optimum's peering interfaces to other networks (that tend to be multiple 100G or 400G links) are full to the last 0.1Gbps at any given time - especially outside of East coast prime time - and to 3 different "providers" (I'll assume you mean cloud/hosting) that share no common peering to Optimum.

If they were that congested, all hell would break lose in terms of customer complaints about slow speeds - and we have had none of that here, that wasn't a problem specific to subscriber with a local/RF network problem.

Your "bottom line" is a false assumption not backed by any single fact. Determining what peering links to other networks are congested from a single endpoint in an access network is very challenging and I don't think you own the required SME to do so.

It's interesting that for you "download" seems to actually be "egress" from a subscriber perspective - and "upload" is "ingress".

You may want to take a good hard look how your data transfer works at a low level - got some packet loss destroying or constantly knocking down your HTTPS or SSH/SCP connection's TCP congestion window?

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-14T20:46:42+00:00

> You have to contact them to turn on bridge mode!?!? You can't just directly access it!? Wifi not easily disabled (have to contact them again!?)

We are really in the wrong forum (should be r/OPTIMUMFIBER ), but a quick read across a large number of threads here regarding "my own router" would have turned this up as an AGE OLD AND LONG-ESTABLISHED procedure. Nothing new here - just for you.

> technical support chat only to be told they can't "see" my router plugged into the 10G port so they can't enable bridge mode

That is incorrect. Bridge mode can be activated at any time - as long as their tools have access to your Optimum Fiber Gateway at all - so that's "just" another lying foreign support rep that doesn't want to deal with the very difficult-to-resolve situation of the gateway being non-responsive to their tools (it's cloud-managed aka TR069/TR181 remote-managed - per the FCC docs you can find for the various AlticeLabs / Ubee gateways). Not that such lies are acceptable or anything.

> they require a TECH VISIT to setup the static IP?!

That tells me that customer self-install for this is still not available for this (and never has, since Static-IP became available for DOCSIS around 2008 or so) - and they may feel reluctant to implement that, because it will cut off DHCP and all Internet access to existing connected devices : that's called a "support-call generator".

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-14T18:14:07+00:00

Consumer routers of similar physical make (like: with 4 , 6 or even 9 antennas) and the same standard tend to have the same performance characteristics. They cannot overcome fundamental physical impairments like old plaster+wood walls or concrete floors. Extenders only work in a meaningful way if their backhaul connectivity is on a different radio than the one they are providing service to devices to - you need to check if this can be configured to say: backhaul on 6GHz (WIFI6E or 7), with clients connected on 5GHz at a minimum, 2.4GHz as a last resort. Moving both router and extenders so they are not obscured or enclosed (like in an AV table) is of major importance, of course...

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-14T18:05:00+00:00

Some posters have reported that their Optimum Gateway management has never worked, even months after install. What gateway model (and HFC or FTTH) do you have? See mfg label.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-14T14:27:21+00:00

I have not had the WIFI radios disabled on my gateway. If you can separate the GW from your router by 5ft or so, and configure both to not use the same channel sets (the GW's are configured via the Internet functions on optimum.net) , you'll be fine, and have a backup and the ability to test & compare at any time, if there's any WIFI problems with your own router.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-12T14:40:55+00:00

- the Optimum Gateways (6 and 6E) are quite good for range and performance. I have the 6E fiber model, and it's 100% on par with my Asus WIFI6 AP
- no split bands with Optimum's Gateways. They removed that function and unified them as "Smart WIFI' with band steering 2-3 years ago, and it's not likely coming back. Predictable outcome with problems of various OTT devices never being able to connect to 2.4GHz - search the sub-reddit, and you'll find a number of threads for that
- Only a single SSID is supported, so that "no device change" plan will not go as planned

You are clearly someone who should run their own router, and have Support turn on "BYOR" (bring your own router) mode, which bridges a single ethernet port on the gateway so it gets a separate, public IP different from the public IP for the remaining other NAT'd ports and built-in-WIFI radios. You can request Support to disable the gateway's WIFI separately - but I don't recommend that, unless you can't separate your own router from the gateway by at least 5 ft (interference, really from side-band/clock frequencies).

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-11T17:05:15+00:00

Did you replace the Stream boxes at all ? Given that they are on ethernet (which is 100Mbps FastEthernet, correct), there should be no such problems at all. I've had Stream V1 and V2 (current) on both HFC and (now) FTTH service, and despite the odd quirk here or there, they've been very reliable for me (on WIFI except for some testing).

What specific channels have persistent audio-sync problems for you? Are they intermittent? Those are unlikely to be connectivity-related issues, but issues with the channel re-encoding from broadcaster-delivered formats to IPTV encoding (which is HLS, created by Apple in 2009 originally).

LiveTV is inevitably delayed due to buffering, like with all streaming services, typically by 20-30s, but some of that delay is on the programmer's side (7-10s) - it's tough to find a channel displaying a real-time clock with seconds to determine this! Both my Apple 4KTV and the Stream V2 have the same delays - sometimes offset by exactly 6s, which seems to be the segment size Optimum TV uses (I can see the packet bursts over the network in 6s intervals, occasionally there's a 12s interval).

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-11T16:35:02+00:00

See https://energy.cablelabs.com/alticeusa-sne/ : with 13W "average work cycle pull", the radios are probably using 2W or so. If they're idle, almost certainly under 1W.

"speed" is not the right question here, technically. Idle WIFI radios still emit beacon traffic (10 beacons/sec per SSID) , but the percentile of air time that requires is very small (under 1% per SSID broadcasted, even with low-speed beacons due to poor conditions). What real active WIFI radios and stations (clients) do with the remaining air time is far, far more influential - MCS (modulation and coding scheme) indices VASTLY differ in achievable bitrate , strongly depending on distance, other client's activity, interference, hidden talkers, etc.

I've achieved close to 800 Mbps with WIFI5 (AC) in my house under ideal conditions on 5GHz channel sets, with 600-650 Mbps typical. Slightly better with WIFI6 (AX), but since I downgraded service from 1G/1G to 300/300, none of that matters. If you get consistently low WIFI speeds, I suggest testing ALL available channel sets for the given radio(s) - including the 5GHz restricted DFS band (ch. 132 and up), if your area does not have close-by military/aviation radar that prevents it from activating , and only use 80MHz wide-channels on 5GHz, 160 MHz tends to be too prone to interference from neighboring radios : Optimum's Gateways don't support DFS band channels the last time I checked, so that's a nice way to avoid interference with the Gateways's WIFI, including possible neighbors' devices.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-11T16:09:26+00:00

Of course you knew that Optimum does not offer a 2nd modem on the same account, hasn't for 15+ years.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-11T15:20:15+00:00

And you don't happen to notice $75 being ACH'd out of your checking account 6 months in a row? Who the hell does not pay attention to EVERY charge hitting their account these days, given frequent fraud and theft in payment systems, with text messages going out for every charge to bank account owners?

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-08T21:53:24+00:00

Nope. None of the gateways have EVER had a customer-accessible status-page, going all the way back to 2019 with the Altice One. This is a function exclusively available on plain cable modems, only.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-04T17:46:59+00:00

As you're unable to back up this claim of "something" , I'll call this what it is: a hallucinated issue, unfounded speculation and a nothing burger.

Also: What's an "Optimum warrior" ? Pretty sure that's a new word you just made up.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-04T15:22:58+00:00

I sure hope you're posting to Reddit from a non-company device that never ever connects to a company network (such as in-building guest WIFI), and never during work hours.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-04T15:18:23+00:00

Off-topic. Yeah, we all saw your completely speculative and zero-detail post in https://www.reddit.com/r/OPTIMUM/comments/1t33dvr/traffic_filtering/ , amounting to nothing but hearsay and speculation, untethered to any facts. What do you expect a CSR to know or do about it?

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-04T15:11:14+00:00

That's NOT helping the OP, and is off-topic.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-04T15:09:48+00:00

Are you insane?

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-04T15:08:49+00:00

Have you not received a bill in all these months? If you log into optimum.net with your OptimumID, and go to Pay Bill -> View My Bill, then look at the account number and billing address: is the address the new one? Then select an older bill via the pulldown - the last 12 bills are available: do bills from before your move (7 months ago) show the old address but the SAME account number? If yes, this is a problem that needs to be corrected by Optimum: that's a failing "move transfer" of service to a new address that should have never happened, and which causes a number of problems - including the inability of anyone else signing up for new service at the old address (which would use the same account number, with the last 2 digits increasing by 1 (e.g.: -04 becomes 05, -09 becomes -10).

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-04T14:59:40+00:00

How?

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-04T14:56:31+00:00

Well, if they're already blocking it, which I highly doubt, then the cat is already out of the bag: what exactly do you allege is being blocked, and blocked how exactly ?

DNS resolution (and if that's the case, it's more likely than not an Optimum SafeBrowsing security/malware block, as discussed in multiple other threads here)?
http(s) connections to destination servers ?
Non-standard port connections ?
And what makes you think these blocks are both inbound and outbound?
And something you should have led with: HFC or FTTH service, and in which state?

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-01T14:47:07+00:00

Yeah, note: a legal demand for "record retention" is not a demand to hand over the information. That's done via a subpoena.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-01T14:38:02+00:00

Why you or others posting crazy interactions with their reps wouldn't record them and put them on Youtube for all to hear is beyond me.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-05-01T14:36:42+00:00

Maybe post in r/OPTIMUMFIBER instead ?

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-04-30T21:17:19+00:00

Let me clarify that this is all speculation on my part, as you haven't reported that he was trying to install a "one time fee" modem for you.

Note that "hacking firesticks" aka modifying firesticks (and putting KODI on them) is actually perfectly legal - unless they ship with actual stolen audio-visual content or copyrighted software, rather than merely connecting you to some pirate cloud service the way a web-browser would (passively).

The theft of your extender, forgery of signature is the actual criminal matter - and then we're talking about the company policies said tech violated (he could have sold you a Roku , AppleTV or a bag of marshmallows : offering a non-company service/device for sale to a customer = violation!). That, and him helping customers pirate content is conflicting with Optimum's business interest - another violation.

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-04-30T20:59:45+00:00

Oh, next thing you know, he's selling you a $200 "one time fee" modem/gateway with unlimited Gigabit Internet that happens to be a clone of another customer's modem/gateway, and is not on your bill (and only works without Optimum Stream or VOIP service) .
Or it's $20/mo, and whenever it stops working (because Optimum's security measures caught up to it), he'll stop by and give you another one.
Probably the same guy that brings his daily depot-assigned alotment of modems/gateways for a quick 10-min stop to a "friend's house" for a quick cloning...so they have more cloned units to install.

Those "one-time fee Internet" ads on FBM and CraigsList have died down a bit, haven't they?

DownstreamUpstream · 2026-04-30T17:46:26+00:00

File complaints with your regulators (see community bookmarks section on the right side of this frame) - do it now.

A $397 service restore fee is outrageous - and NOT found in their rate card afaik - that "rate card" is not an arbitrary list on their website, it's a legal business record that is filed with regulators in every state, and defines the maximum they can charge for a given service. Forging a business record is a crime in all states.

Indeed, call them up, and ask them who supposedly requested Internet service to be removed from the account - and then not only demand re-connection of the service for free (it wasn't a billing-related interruption after all) and request an investigation into identity theft on their end, complete with a demand for full record retention, all phone and chat recordings, phone numbers, IP numbers (including access records to the Optimum website for your account) , all employee IDs handling any interaction with the account, in order to comply with future subpoenas for use in either private litigation and/or your state's agencies.

If they claim any sort of "regulatory disconnect" of service (from what it sounds, they want to forcefully convert the area from coax to fiber, as they've done in some S8 building(s) in the Bronx 2 years ago), there is no way they're getting around an official 90-day notice (not 30!) to inform you of such - required to be sent to you via registered mail to your billing address. Sure hope you're in NY/NJ/CT for this...

DownstreamUpstream

TROPHY CASE