Very slow internet at night

I've had FIOS gigabit for about 2 years and very rarely had a problem until about 2 weeks ago. I am now getting speeds as low as 30 mb at night. This is using the Verizon speedtest to the router. I'm using a wired connection and I've called Verizon support 4 times now. They acknowledge there is a problem, but they haven't done anything to fix it. I've rebooted and reset the router multiple times, which accomplishes nothing other than making me set up the wifi again.

They sent a technician here 2 days ago. He was pretty clueless. He changed the router, which didn't do anything. I suggested that maybe there's a capacity issue in my neighborhood because of everyone streaming at night, but he dismissed that suggestion and said I'm not sharing capacity with anyone, which I doubt very much, and said that my neighbors streaming would only affect my wifi speeds, so I don't think he knows too much about this.

I've searched this forum and haven't found any solutions and nothing recent, other than one thread suggesting that FIOS throttles the speed. Can anyone offer any insight into getting this fixed? I really hope I don't have to go back to cable (Optimum), because FIOS is generally much better. Thanks for any information that you can provide.

Accepted answers

amsny

You're right, I do have an Ethernet cable coming in to the router from the outside. I never noticed that before. I am renting the router, and this will cost me an extra $3 per month. I wasn't crazy about that, but I was trying to be agreeable.

Replacing the Ethernet cable won't be easy. The ONT is on the other side of the house and it's a pretty long run to where the cable comes into the house. The installer was here for more than 6 hours for the initial setup. I did ask the tech about checking anything at the ONT, but he said there was nothing to check there.

I'm going to try the phone support one more time, just to get it on record that I still had the slow speed at night after the technician was here. After that, I'll try the social media.

All comments

gs0b

Welcome to the forums. You're talking mostly to other customers here.

You're right, the tech didn't know what they were talking about.

The internet is shared. The difference between end user networks is where the sharing occurs. On cable systems, the sharing is much closer to the user than it is on FiOS. It is unlikely that your neighbors streaming activities are causing such a big slow down for you.

I've never seen any evidence that Verizon throttles FiOS bandwidth.

You didn't mention what speed you pay for. That would be helpful to know, also what model router you have and how it's connected to the ONT. There may be some suggestions we users can make if we know those details.

With the Verizon speed testing showing poor speeds to the router, that should get their support people to pay attention. The phone support folk are often the least helpful. I suggest you try their social media support team. Use @verizonsupport on Twitter or post over in https://www.dslreports.com/forum/vzdirect. They have a Facebook page, too, but I don't know what it is.

amsny

Thanks for replying and the suggestion about social media.

I've signed up for gigabit internet. When the technician was here he suggested changing the router. I didn't really think that's the problem since it's fine during the day, but I didn't want to argue with him, so I let him change it. I now have the G3100 router - I previously had the G1100. It hasn't made any difference as far as the slow internet, but I'm getting somewhat faster wifi speeds after turning off the self organizing network.

Just to be clear, I wasn't complaining about the wifi speeds - the testing that I was doing was using a desktop PC using a wired connection to the router. The router is connected to the ONT with a coax cable.

gs0b

The G1100 is perfectly fine for gigabit. If you were renting, it's probably okay that the router was upgraded. Watch your bill, though, it may cost more to rent. If you had purchased the G1100, things could get messy; you should check with Verizon to find out what if they replaced your property with the G3100. Anything else is a big mistake. Use the social media contacts provided to check with them.

If you have gigabit, there must be an Ethernet cable between the ONT and router. You'll see it plugged into the WAN port on the router and the Ethernet jack on the ONT. A coax connection is needed only when TV service is (or was) used. You simply can't get speeds over 100Mbps out of a pure coax connection. If you really don't have Ethernet between the ONT and the router (which I doubt), that is the problem; but the tech should have seen that.

If you do have Ethernet between the ONT and router, definitely reach out to Verizon's social media support team and get them to look at your Verizon speed test results. They should pay attention to the router speed test.

Other things you can try are resetting the ONT and replacing the Ethernet cable with a known good cable.

amsny

I'm going to try the phone support one more time, just to get it on record that I still had the slow speed at night after the technician was here. After that, I'll try the social media.