Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
cdb9191
Newbie

Hi everyone, my wife and I have recently experienced substantially slower connection on our Peloton Bike and are nearly positive it is being caused by an interfacing issue between our G3100 Verizon Fios router and Peloton's software--with Verizon seeming to cause the issue. Our bike only recently started behaving this way, and operated with no issues before this began occurring approximately 30-45 days ago. We purchased this router in July 2021 and have used it since with no major issues.

 

Problem description: The bike monitor takes up to 15 minutes to simply load a new page and or to start streaming a workout. This makes the bike effectively not functional. We consistently receive normal-looking upload and download speeds when we run the bike software's native speed test (>100 mbps), suggesting that we shouldn't be having any issues with loading or streaming. Despite the good looking numbers, it takes forever to load anything. All other devices connected to our router work without issues.

 

Troubleshooting Process:

-Yes, we turned the bike monitor and the router off and back on.

-We originally assumed this was caused strictly by a buggy Peloton software update.

-After calling Peloton, they suggested updating our software, which did not fix the issue (and took an exceptionally long time).

-Peloton then sent us a new monitor to install on the bike. This did not fix the problem either.

-Peloton sent a tech to our house, who immediately recognized this problem as one that he has seen at many houses across the Maryland, DC, and Virginia areas. He noted that he has only seen it occur to users with Verizon internet, and told us there wasn't anything he'd be able to do to fix it.

-The Peloton tech suggested seeing if the problem would resolve itself by using an ethernet cable to directly connect the Peloton to our router. He had been told that some Peloton users had success with this, but that it was not guaranteed. Connecting our router to the Peloton via ethernet did not improve our speed,

-He also urged us to try using our phone hotspots. The bike works properly and at near-normal speeds when connected to a hotspot, suggesting that something is wrong with our Fios router's ability to interface with Peloton and that this is not an issue with the bike software.

-We then called Verizon to see if they had observed similar complaints elsewhere. The technical support representative was unaware of any other instances of this issue. We requested multiple times that this issue be routed to Verizon corporate for further exploration.

-After 45 minutes of troubleshooting (yes, we tried switching off self-organizing network and connecting to only one bandwidth) and repeatedly telling the tech that the problem was neither the bike nor the speed of our 200 mbps plan, the technical support representative suggested directly connecting our Peloton to the Optical Network Terminal via the ethernet cable that extends from it. This yielded perfect performance with no lag whatsoever, isolating the problem to our Fios router and confirming that the problem is being caused by some interfacing issue caused by Verizon.

-The tech then told us that our only options were to purchase a new router for $400 or to rent a new router despite us having already paid in full for our previous router.

 

Is this really how Verizon is going to handle this issue? It is going to make its loyal customers (we have Verizon cell service too) pay for something that is clearly a technical issue on its end? I purchased our router because I trusted Verizon to build it to work properly and because I expected it to last a reasonably long time.

 

Is anyone in Verizon headquarters aware of and working on this problem? If not, can someone please investigate this issue with Peloton?

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