How to move ONT (fiber)

[diane143]

My fiber was installed in the basement (cable was too). For the cable I ran a coax line up to my second floor office and created a hardwire network there.

When the fiber tech was done, he left me enough CAT6 line to run upstairs, but that only got the eero wifi unit upstairs. I can get my hardwired stuff hooked up again, but have lost considerable speed (it's 1gb in the basement, but under 100mbps upstairs - both wired and wireless). Wifi is less laggy with the eero upstairs so that's a plus but I'd like the speed back.

I'd like to move the ONT upstairs to sit with the eero and duplicate what I had in the cable network. I just need to know the patch cable to buy. Pic of the numbers on the cable currently going into the ONT.

Thank you!

 

[SG-]

you'll likely want to keep the ONT where it is and run an ethernet cable so where you want it. CAT6 cabling can do 10Gbit up to 150-180 feet, or 1Gbit at around 320 feet. somewhere in between it will also do 2.5Gbit and 5Gbit depending on things.

i recently did this myself with CAT6 allowing myself to future proof things a bit and decided to also jump up to 2.5Gbit gear using an Anker 2.5Gbit USB-C adapter for $30 and 5 port 2.5Gbit switch for $45 along with a 100 foot CAT6 cable.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"When the fiber tech was done, he left me enough CAT6 line to run upstairs, but that only got the eero wifi unit upstairs. I can get my hardwired stuff hooked up again, but have lost considerable speed (it's 1gb in the basement, but under 100mbps upstairs - both wired and wireless). Wifi is less laggy with the eero upstairs so that's a plus but I'd like the speed back."

Before going further, WHAT SPEED is the installation you have?
500?
1gb?
Something else?

You probably don't want to move the ONT upstairs.

Something's wrong here.
A Cat6 ethernet cable should not lose any "speed through-put" on a relatively short run from the basement to upstairs.

Personal experience:
Way back in 2010, I went to Radio Shack, bought a 75' cat5 ethernet cable, and ran it "along the wall" from upstairs to downstairs here. That was back with slow DSL. I've since upgraded to fiber (1gb/1,000), and that old ethernet cable still gives me about 940MBps over its entire length.

It would have helped if you showed us a better pic of the ONT.
I have Frontier fiber, with an ONT that looks like this:

On mine, there is a group of 4 ethernet ports together, and a "separate" ethernet port as well. See pics.

The ethernet going to the Eero should be in the "separate" port.

More thoughts:
When I had fiber installed, Frontier was giving out Eero routers.
But I didn't want the Eero, because I had no way to control it (I don't own a smartphone or tablet new enough to run the Eero software, and you CAN'T control it through a Mac).
So.... I had the Frontier guy put in the previous "Arris" router instead (a non-mesh, earlier-style router). It works well enough for me.

I would try to do a "factory reset" on the Eero, and then "set it up from scratch" again.

Also, did you plug the ethernet cable into the right port (see pic above)?

If none of this helps, might have to resort to a service call from the fiber provider to get things right...

 

[diane143]

Hi SG - I did that, using the CAT6 cable the tech left. It's less than a 35' run, and the same chute had been used in the past for both CAT5 and cable internet. I have a gigabit switch, which worked as expected with the cable modem. But now even plugging an iMac directly into the eero, I am only getting 100mbps (just shy of it actually). Same with wifi.

*******

Typing this made me think though. I moved the eero back downstairs and tried a few things:

Plugging a win laptop into the modem gives me 700 (hard wired)
My 13 mini down there gives me 700 over wifi
2015 MBPr gives me 400+ over wifi

I then plugged the CAT6 into the eero and came back upstairs

My iMac is in the 90s both wifi and hard wired
Win laptop in the 90s hardwired
Phone is 141 wifi
MBPr is 50
Cameras are not working again

I think I have two problems - the basement has never been a good place for wifi here

I also suspect my 1gb switch got damaged in a recent storm, so I will get another one and see if that helps the situation

But it doesn't explain why my wifi is limited to less than 100mbps when the ONT and eero are separated, which brings me back to my initial conundrum of what patch cable I need to move the ONT upstairs The eero app confirms this, I am at 1+ gbps when they are together but less than 100 when separated.

 

[diane143]

OP wrote:
"When the fiber tech was done, he left me enough CAT6 line to run upstairs, but that only got the eero wifi unit upstairs. I can get my hardwired stuff hooked up again, but have lost considerable speed (it's 1gb in the basement, but under 100mbps upstairs - both wired and wireless). Wifi is less laggy with the eero upstairs so that's a plus but I'd like the speed back."

Before going further, WHAT SPEED is the installation you have?
500?
1gb?
Something else?

You probably don't want to move the ONT upstairs.

Something's wrong here.
A Cat6 ethernet cable should not lose any "speed through-put" on a relatively short run from the basement to upstairs.

Personal experience:
Way back in 2010, I went to Radio Shack, bought a 75' cat5 ethernet cable, and ran it "along the wall" from upstairs to downstairs here. That was back with slow DSL. I've since upgraded to fiber (1gb/1,000), and that old ethernet cable still gives me about 940MBps over its entire length.

It would have helped if you showed us a better pic of the ONT.
I have Frontier fiber, with an ONT that looks like this:
View attachment 2427083

View attachment 2427084

On mine, there is a group of 4 ethernet ports together, and a "separate" ethernet port as well. See pics.

The ethernet going to the Eero should be in the "separate" port.

More thoughts:
When I had fiber installed, Frontier was giving out Eero routers.
But I didn't want the Eero, because I had no way to control it (I don't own a smartphone or tablet new enough to run the Eero software, and you CAN'T control it through a Mac).
So.... I had the Frontier guy put in the previous "Arris" router instead (a non-mesh, earlier-style router). It works well enough for me.

I would try to do a "factory reset" on the Eero, and then "set it up from scratch" again.

Also, did you plug the ethernet cable into the right port (see pic above)?

If none of this helps, might have to resort to a service call from the fiber provider to get things right...

Hey, I'm attaching more pix. Please read my response to SG above too, I added some more details.

It's a 1gb plan

I wasn't thrilled about controlling the eero through my phone, I said that, but wasn't offered another option. He knew the rest of my network was upstairs and left me the CAT6 to run later (I kind of don't want random people banging around in my plaster walls anyway, so I was fine with that)

 

[Fishrrman]

Re this pic:

This is the back of the Eero, right?

What is the 2.5 for?
What is the 1 for?

I'm going to take A GUESS that the 2.5 port is ethernet "in", and the other "1" port is for attaching other ethernet devices?

I'd start out by taking out the cable in the 2.5 port,
then
UN-twisting it,
then
RE-connecting it being careful not to apply any undue pressure on the connection.

REASON WHY:
Perhaps "the twist" is affecting connectivity.

Next thought:
Can that 2.5 ethernet cable (goes to the ONT, right?) be REMOVED and REPLACED by a different cable? For test purposes?

Where does the "1" cable go?
To your switch?

What happens if you remove that cable, and just run with the 2.5 cable?
Does it affect speeds in any way?

Just asking questions for things I'd try myself.

 

[Nermal]

Something's wrong here.
A Cat6 ethernet cable should not lose any "speed through-put" on a relatively short run from the basement to upstairs.

Personal experience:
Way back in 2010, I went to Radio Shack, bought a 75' cat5 ethernet cable, and ran it "along the wall" from upstairs to downstairs here. That was back with slow DSL. I've since upgraded to fiber (1gb/1,000), and that old ethernet cable still gives me about 940MBps over its entire length.

I'm just going to confirm this. A Cat6 (or 5e) cable will be perfectly fine for domestic use, assuming there's nothing physically wrong with it. I also installed one to the garage back in the DSL days, and it still gives full gigabit to the ONT today.

Something that may be possible (it's going to depend on your provider's configuration) is bypassing the router entirely. If you plug a computer directly into the ONT - using the same cable that you're using now - if it works, what sort of speeds do you get?

 

[diane143]

I'm just going to confirm this. A Cat6 (or 5e) cable will be perfectly fine for domestic use, assuming there's nothing physically wrong with it. I also installed one to the garage back in the DSL days, and it still gives full gigabit to the ONT today.

Something that may be possible (it's going to depend on your provider's configuration) is bypassing the router entirely. If you plug a computer directly into the ONT - using the same cable that you're using now - if it works, what sort of speeds do you get?

Re this pic:
View attachment 2427273
This is the back of the Eero, right?

What is the 2.5 for?
What is the 1 for?

I'm going to take A GUESS that the 2.5 port is ethernet "in", and the other "1" port is for attaching other ethernet devices?

I'd start out by taking out the cable in the 2.5 port,
then
UN-twisting it,
then
RE-connecting it being careful not to apply any undue pressure on the connection.

REASON WHY:
Perhaps "the twist" is affecting connectivity.

Next thought:
Can that 2.5 ethernet cable (goes to the ONT, right?) be REMOVED and REPLACED by a different cable? For test purposes?

Where does the "1" cable go?
To your switch?

What happens if you remove that cable, and just run with the 2.5 cable?
Does it affect speeds in any way?

Just asking questions for things I'd try myself.

The twist is because I flipped the unit for the pic, it's straight otherwise. That is the eero.

That flat cable is the one they provided, from the ONT to the eero. It's not very long.

When the eero is upstairs I am not using that cable.. though I could use the cable from the eero to my switch. Then I have the round CAT6 that is in "1"

This morning I plugged that flat cable from the ONT directly into the win laptop (unfortunately my MBPr doesn't have an ethernet port) and that's when I got 700+ speeds (with everything, including me, in the basement). It does work well at that point, it just doesn't fix the really slow wifi speeds (which is most likely a product of being in the basement)

The "1" cable goes to the switch. That is the CAT6 that was left by the tech. Full disclosure, I added the ends. It's possible I guess that one of the ends is having an issue, and I can remake them. I would think I'd be having "no network" issues if that was the case though.

The "2.5" is ethernet in from the ONT. If I leave the eero in the basement and run everything off wifi, nothing is in the "1". That's how the tech left it.

Replacing the CAT6 in the "2.5", yep, thought of that but I will need to find another long cable to see how far away I can get the eero out of the basement. I should have a few patch cables kicking around to test with, I'm trying not to dismantle the entire office but I do have to eliminate the possibility of issues with the CAT6 he left me (aka my ends).

Right now the wifi is downstairs so anything that's on wifi is pretty horrible.

So I think my next step is to find a long cable. Actually I can try that, and also try to move the eero upstairs and use the flat cable between that and my switch. I have tried a couple of different patch cables between the eero and switch but it wouldn't hurt to use theirs.

I did order a new switch but it won't be here till Sunday.

Thanks for the ideas!

 

[diane143]

Using the CAT6 cable (basement to office) directly into the iMac - under 100mbps. Same with using the switch

Using a different CAT5 cable ONT --> eero --> win laptop: back to 700. Running wifi off the laptop gives me about 400 even with the laptop sitting next to the eero. Could be the laptop itself, it's pretty old.

I'll redo my ends but I may also order a pre-made cable and run that back upstairs, sounds like my issue is the CAT6 somewhere

Thanks again for tossing ideas around with me!

 

[diane143]

Thought I'd give a partial update. I ordered a new 8 port switch and things are working better in that. I even got the Mini working off ethernet again and have gotten the MBP working through my dock a couple of times.

I also ordered a new cable which I ran down the stairs today (literally tossed it down two flights). Finally!! 1gb speed to the modem through the new CAT6. Now to just run it through the wall.

I was still not able to get the Mini over 100mbs using the ethernet port so it's possible that took a hit as well. I had also ordered a USB-Ethernet device and after downloading a driver, that is working well. The MPB also works with the same device, so I've ordered another.

Looks like the dock is just a fancy USB hub at this point, I'll poke around with that some other time. I did get it to work over the weekend but nothing today.

Thanks again for the help!