Switching to ATT fiber from Xfinity cable, some questions

[pinkoos]

Install supposed to occur this Saturday, some questions:

1. Currently I have 800 down / 25 up with Xfinity - the Araknis WAPs I have spread through the house are capable of something like 300 down on 2.4 GHz and 800 down on 5GHz - will getting the 1Gig fiber plan (1 G up / 1 G down) be noticeable since my WAPs are not capable of realizing those speeds? I mean noticeable as compared to my current Xfinity speed

2. My dealer has told me the easiest thing to do is to have the ATT tech install the 'gateway' or whatever they call it as purely a replacement to the cable modem but still have my Araknis router actually handle the internet connection (he may have used other terms but I can't remember exactly). He said that if the ATT tech installs the gateway to serve the purpose of the router, then a lot of reconfiguration will be needed in terms of specific ports, etc I have setup inside the Araknis router

3. Will switching from cable to fiber in any way break any of my Control4 integrations or setup? I'm assuming if I follow my dealer's instructions in #2 then the answer is no but if the tech doesn't follow those instructions then the answer may be yes

4. Anything else to keep in mind or keep a look out for or 'buzz words' to mention to the tech so that the install goes well and, importantly, nothing gets screwed up in the process?

Thank you in advance

[shupp872]

I went through this same internet service swap a couple years ago...my take aways....

 

1.  I doubt you will realize any noticeable download speed increase via wifi with the new fiber service.  You will probably notice some significant upload increase depending on what you are doing via wifi.  Obviously for any wired devices, you would get the full 1 gbps.  You may also notice that your latency is greatly reduced, but that can be area dependent.

2.  You will want to configure the ATT gateway in 'Pass-through' mode.  This will make the gateway just act as an authentication tool for AT&T service, and all internet traffic will pass-through from AT&T directly to your Araknis router.  You shouldn't have to change anything in your router to accomplish this, but you will need to configure the AT&T Gateway.  In my experience, the AT&T installers don't typically handle this configuration for you, but you may get lucky with yours.

3.  My switch from Xfinity to AT&T was seamless and completely transparent to my Control4 Integrations / setup, but I am bypassing the AT&T hardware completely. 

4. I can't think of anything else.  It should be pretty painless.

[zaphod]

The speed increase may be somewhat noticeable but it depends on what you are doing.  If you are downloading large files then you may see a speed increase.  But for most things that you would do on a phone or tablet it won't make much differenced.  If you are watching video the buffering may go slightly faster.

[pinkoos]

Thanks for the responses

Re: latency - I saw that mentioned multiple times in some reddit threads but I'm not sure what it would mean to me in real life - is it possible to explain what I may notice because of this reduced latency?

One of the reasons I'm making the switch is that, living in Houston (Texas), we deal with hurricanes fairly frequently and, although we have a whole home generator supplying power during extended outages, we can't use the internet b/c Xfinity service would continue to be down (their local 'nodes' or whatever they're called require power)

Some people have mentioned to me (including my direct next door neighbor who somehow got fiber to his house way before the rest of the street) that their ATT fiber internet never went down during, for example, the most recent extended power outage here caused by Hurricane Beryl

[ekohn00]

1 hour ago, pinkoos said:

Thanks for the responses

Re: latency - I saw that mentioned multiple times in some reddit threads but I'm not sure what it would mean to me in real life - is it possible to explain what I may notice because of this reduced latency?

One of the reasons I'm making the switch is that, living in Houston (Texas), we deal with hurricanes fairly frequently and, although we have a whole home generator supplying power during extended outages, we can't use the internet b/c Xfinity service would continue to be down (their local 'nodes' or whatever they're called require power)

Some people have mentioned to me (including my direct next door neighbor who somehow got fiber to his house way before the rest of the street) that their ATT fiber internet never went down during, for example, the most recent extended power outage here caused by Hurricane Beryl

Latency is reduced on the fiber networks a lot.  This is a benefit, and unless you’re moving large data you may not notice it.