TheEthyrB
I read that devices often have a minimum signal strength (~70db) before they decide to switch
Yes, that’s correct. So long as the AP is using the same SSID and password as the router, devices should roam on their own. It’s odd that this is not happening. It shouldn’t matter, but put the router and AP on different Wi-Fi channels.
Each switch port operates independently. Are you saying that all of your ports were running at 100 Mbps but switched to 1000 Mbps as soon as you replaced the one cable to the DVR? That would be very unusual.
What, specifically, did you do with ARP? I’m guessing you added a static ARP entry. Technically, this isn’t MAC spoofing. MAC spoofing involves changing your own computer’s MAC address. A static ARP entry is a way to bypass ARP spoofing used by Circle. Anyway, if you deleted the static ARP entry, then it should be back to normal.
Slow website performance but good speedtest results can often be a sign of a bad DNS communication. Since Circle filters all traffic, including DNS, it might be throttling/dropping DNS requests from your PC.
Since your Circle seems to no longer recognize your laptop, maybe it’s treating it as an unauthorized device and giving it minimal privileges.
Now, if you had actually changed the MAC address on your PC, then should be able to restore service by changing it back to its original address.
It sounds like you are saying that the two wired PCs are sucking up all of the bandwidth. Have you confirmed this by looking at the network statistics on the PCs? It’s hard to imagine that they would use 500 Mbps for more than short stretches of time (e.g. downloading a large game).
Unfortunately, the AT&T gateway doesn’t maintain detailed traffic statistics, so it’s impossible to tell if all of the bandwidth is really being used. The gateway does have a built-in speedtest under the Diagnostics page. At least you can confirm that you are getting the full 500 Mbps from AT&T. If you are, then you should call AT&T.
Setting up an Ethernet connection to your PC is never a bad thing. It will definitely help with your gaming. You shouldn’t worry about affecting the other PCs. After all, your 500 Mbps Internet bandwidth is shared among all devices. If anything, wiring your PC will put it on equal footing with the other PCs.
You can throttle the other PCs by manually setting the gateway’s Ethernet ports to 100 Mbps. But if the PCs belong to roommates, I would think twice before doing that. It’s best to first confirm that they are using a lot of bandwidth. Then negotiate with them to moderate their use.
Most consumer modem-routers speak DOCSIS, not MoCA, so you don’t want to get one. While you could probably find a ISP modem-router on eBay with MoCA, it would be more straightforward to buy standalone MoCA adapters and a WiFi Access Point.
You would connect one MoCA adapter between a LAN port on the Xfinity modem-router and the coax splitter. Then the other MoCA adapter between the coax splitter and WiFi Access Point.
You may want to replace the splitter with one that can pass frequencies up to 1675 MHz. A standard 1000 MHz splitter will work though speeds may be reduced.
Finally, it’s recommended to put a MoCA filter onto the input of the splitter to keep the MoCA signal confined to your house. If your Xfinity modem-router uses DOCSIS 3.1, a 2nd MoCA filter on the modem can ensure that the modem avoids using MoCA frequencies. Not all ISPs provision DOCSIS 3.1 to use MoCA frequencies, so the 2nd filter may not be needed.
Are these logs from a device provided by Century Link, perhaps the modem itself? If so, the problem is clearly Century Link’s. It even says that Wi-Fi/Ethernet is ok but the Internet connection is down.
You need to press Century Link to fix their problem. Show them this log.
I’m not 100% sure but it looks like a Leviton 47604-F6S. I think the 47611-C6 for Cat6 might fit. There’s also the 47603-C5 for Cat5e. See the full Leviton catalog. Please do your own research before buying anything.
Consider activating both Ethernet ports so that they connected to your router. Then your PC and TV can use them both for communicating with each other and with the Internet.
To accomplish this, you need to find where the in-wall Ethernet cables converge. There will usually be an enclosure. If you are lucky, the cables will be terminated either with RJ-45 plugs or punched down to female RJ-45 jacks. Either way, you want to connect them to your router. You can also connect them to an Ethernet switch, then connect the switch to your router.
If the router is located elsewhere, but is near an Ethernet wall jack, then you can put the Ethernet switch in the enclosure and connect it to all of the cables feeding the wall jacks. You would connect the router to its wall jacks. This will activate all of the other wall jacks.
LAG only works well when there is a sufficient diversity of traffic flows that can be distributed equitably across the child links. Since many LAG implementations hash only on MAC and/or IP addresses, the distribution can often be poor when there are only a few clients, as is often the case in a home network. This can possibly be finessed by careful assignment of IP addresses, but the point is LAG doesn’t guarantee access to the entire aggregate throughput of the child links.
For this reason, I believe LAG is seldom worthwhile in a home network.
Does another computer, like a laptop, work on your son’s connection?