AT&T hybrid router: Internet priority and ping issues
in IT Support ·
Chris Rogers2 said:Alright, so is there any way I can use a filter or something to reserve just a few Mbps of my DSL for browsing? Honestly, I don't give a damn about download speeds; I just need my ping to stay low.
So I was doing a little deep dive into that HA35 router. Honestly, it’s pretty much like any other piece of gear designed for big telecom companies to blast out to homes everywhere—you just can't find much info on it. Sure, you can track down the User's manual if you look hard enough, but it’s super thin. It barely tells you anything!
The trick with these kinds of devices is that they work on different permission tiers. Cisco calls them "levels." Level 15 is the big boss—that’s full root access where you own the whole thing. Then you've got the user mode you're stuck in, which is usually level 2; it lets you dabble in some admin stuff, but you aren't running the show. If you're down at level 0, you're basically just a passenger—you can use the device to pass traffic through, but you can't see or touch a single setting. You can actually customize the other levels to fit specific admin roles, too. The main thing to remember? A lower level can't peek at or mess with anything from a higher level. Period.
Look, what you're seeing when you log into the HA35 is basically just Level 2 access. It’s a super limited set of router commands that only lets you mess with the bare essentials. It's all laid out in the User's manual if you want to dig into it. As for the Operations manual—the one that actually gives you Level 15 privileges? Yeah, good luck finding that one anywhere. It's nowhere to be found.
Look, if you want to mess with the heavy-duty stuff—I'm talking GRE tunneling, configuring VLANs per port, tweaking traffic priorities, or deciding exactly which data flows through which link—you’re gonna need Level 15, aka root access. And let me tell you, AT&T isn't just going to hand that over to you. They won't. For a million different reasons, they keep those keys locked tight. Sure, you could try to crack it, but why even bother? It’s a total waste of time. The second they run their next automated maintenance cycle, they’ll just wipe your changes and reset everything back to how they want it. Same deal if you try to factory reset the router using the firmware defaults. You'll just end up right back where you started.
Look, there's really only one way to go about this: you’d have to crack the router and swap out that root password entirely. It’s basically a way to effectively snatch the hardware away from AT&T. But honestly? I wouldn't recommend it. Since they technically own the thing until you buy it out, messing with it feels a bit like breaking into someone else's apartment. Plus, once you go down that rabbit hole, you're on your own—you lose all technical support from the provider and won't even have a User's manual to fall back on.
Another way to play it is to just grab an equivalent DSL/LTE router and start messing around with it. You know, see what sticks. But honestly? That’s really only for the folks who already know their way around routing and aren't afraid to break things.
The big thing you gotta do here is move that IPTV over to the LTE—maybe even throw the VoIP and video on there too—so you can save the DSL strictly for gaming. With how things are set up right now, it’s just not happening. I actually tried killing the DSL link to see if it would force the switch, but the TV went totally dead. Turns out the current settings are basically hard-blocking any IPTV traffic coming through the LTE. Total bummer.
The real question is where the bottleneck actually is. See, GRE works by bundling two or more links into one single virtual connection, and then it just manages the bandwidth—kicking links into gear whenever it feels like it. The whole algorithm behind how that happens is constantly shifting, and honestly, it depends entirely on what kind of links you’re playing with. It’s a totally different ballgame when you’re pairing up four 1Gbps Ethernet lines versus trying to mash some DSL with an LTE connection. At the end of the day, both of those are basically just dial-up setups that spin up a connection only when they need to.
Theoretically speaking, your router is the one calling the shots here. It’s all about those bandwidth thresholds, RTT thresholds, and those specific Binding filters that dictate which port hits which link—basically deciding which connection takes priority, whether you call it primary, least cost, or whatever. Honestly, I'm stumped on how to help you there, though. There isn't anything in the HA35 User's manual about tweaking those settings, and frankly, I'm not even sure if you can change them at all with this specific configuration.
In the worst-case scenario, the ISP basically runs the whole show. They control every single bit of traffic flowing through the line, which means they can even force your IPTV to run over LTE if they feel like it. On top of that, they won't let you touch anything involving GRE tunnels—they’ll just block all that traffic on those specific ports before you even get a chance to try.
Man, there’s honestly nothing you could’ve done about that mess during the game. It clearly wasn't on your end. See, since your setup runs on dual links—both DSL and LTE—the ISP has the exact same thing going on at their headquarters. They’ve got the DSLAM and the LTE base station both feeding into the same hub. That hub uses a beefier router to run a GRE tunnel straight to every single individual user out there. With everyone jumping online for the big game, that router just got slammed. It likely choked out the DSL, then the LTE, and then the whole router probably just hit a wall and rebooted. Once that happens, you’re stuck waiting ten minutes or so for everything to kick back in. Tough luck!
It’s the same old story—they won't let you kill the interlacing on your TV because it would absolutely wreck your connection, the DSLAM, and the ISP's router all at once. It isn't just about your setup, man; you're talking about hundreds of other users sharing that same hardware. Turning that stuff off would spike the load for everyone on that router big time.
And honestly? I don't think timing in the game is your actual headache. You're probably playing just fine while IPTV is running in the background. The real killer is the congestion happening somewhere else entirely—not on your end, but likely at the ISP's GRE router. Whether the bottleneck is right there at the router, deeper in the backbone, or even on the transit link connecting your provider to the one hosting the IPTV stream or linking you to other players... who knows? The ISP isn't going to give you a straight answer; they really don't care enough to dig into it for you.
Your best bet is to play around with whatever settings you actually have access to. Mess with the bandwidth threshold, the RTT threshold, or those Binding filters—maybe you'll stumble onto a sweet spot that works better for you. You could also try toggling the firewall for outbound traffic to block everything that isn't strictly necessary.
I'm gonna do a little more digging to see if I can track down a User's manual for the HA35.
PS: I found this Maintenance manual for the HA35 that lists some default passwords on page 9. Most likely, they've already been changed, but maybe you could try a factory reset and go from there.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...xWVnCsUlK41Vca
from: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/unlockin...-dsl-lte/34302