AT&T hybrid router: Internet priority and ping issues

Is there any way to prioritize web traffic over Max TV when I'm using the wired connection on my AT&T hybrid router? Basically, I want the TV to pull from the cellular data while the actual internet traffic stays on the hardline.

Chris Rogers2 said:Is there any way to prioritize web traffic over Max TV when I'm using the wired connection on my AT&T hybrid router? Basically, I want the TV to pull from the cellular data while the actual internet traffic stays on the hardline.

What kind of gear are you rocking right now, and what exactly is plugged into it?

Jack Cook7 said:What kind of gear are you rocking right now, and what exactly is plugged into it?

The router is a Huawei HA35 and the Roku is a GX-HT501EL. I've got that Roku on the VLAN IPTV VDSL, a VOIP phone on VDSL, and my PC hooked up via WiFi. If it helps, "VDSL Management" is also listed in the router settings. Everything is running on IPv4.

Chris Rogers2 said:The router is a Huawei HA35 and the Roku is a GX-HT501EL. I've got that Roku on the VLAN IPTV VDSL, a VOIP phone on VDSL, and my PC hooked up via WiFi. If it helps, "VDSL Management" is also listed in the router settings. Everything is running on IPv4.

Alright, so the TV box is using DirecTV (basically the IPTV VDSL setup), while everything else—like the phone and the PC—is just hitting the regular internet?

Or are you actually browsing the web through the TV too?

Jack Cook7 said:Alright, so the TV box is using DirecTV (basically the IPTV VDSL setup), while everything else—like the phone and the PC—is just hitting the regular internet?

Or are you actually browsing the web through the TV too?

Exactly. I don't use the internet on the TV. Just browsing and gaming on my laptop. My setup is running Killer WiFi 6 AX1650x and a Killer E2500 Ethernet card.

Chris Rogers2 said:Exactly. I don't use the internet on the TV. Just browsing and gaming on my laptop. My setup is running Killer WiFi 6 AX1650x and a Killer E2500 Ethernet card.

Gotcha.

So, basically, you’ve got two separate virtual networks running in your house—one dedicated to DirecTV, which only has one fixed device (your Roku) plugged into a specific physical ethernet port, and then a second one for everything else, covering all the other ports and the WiFi?

If that's how it's set up, we can totally fix this using two VLANs. One VLAN is for DirecTV—looks like that one's already there, labeled VDSL Management. The second VLAN would be for everything else.

Can you double-check if the actual physical port where your Roku is plugged in belongs to that specific VLAN (VDSL Management)?

The plan is to have the router route traffic from VLAN 1 (DirecTV) over to the mobile interface (like 4G?), while VLAN 2 (everything else) stays on the wired interface (VDSL).
It honestly looks like DirecTV set it up the exact opposite way by default.

Jack Cook7 said:Gotcha.

So, basically, you’ve got two separate virtual networks running in your house—one dedicated to DirecTV, which only has one fixed device (your Roku) plugged into a specific physical ethernet port, and then a second one for everything else, covering all the other ports and the WiFi?

If that's how it's set up, we can totally fix this using two VLANs. One VLAN is for DirecTV—looks like that one's already there, labeled VDSL Management. The second VLAN would be for everything else.

Can you double-check if the actual physical port where your Roku is plugged in belongs to that specific VLAN (VDSL Management)?

The plan is to have the router route traffic from VLAN 1 (DirecTV) over to the mobile interface (like 4G?), while VLAN 2 (everything else) stays on the wired interface (VDSL).
It honestly looks like DirecTV set it up the exact opposite way by default.

I'm not exactly sure how to verify this, but I've got access to the router settings via the admin password. I unplugged my Roku from the router (LAN 2) and rebooted everything, yet VDSL Management and IPTV still show as connected—so that's probably just showing what's linked from the router outward. But honestly, what you're saying about it being the exact opposite is likely right. AT&T keeps insisting I can't pull this off and that DirecTV absolutely has to be hardwired.

Here’s the traffic straight from the router. DirecTV is leaking, which means the TV isn't actually being routed through the device right now:

I can't see any images or links here, man. You gotta drop the actual text if you want me to take a look at it.

Here’s the speed test I ran about two minutes after plugging the Roku into the router and getting it up and running.

I can't see the image you're trying to show me. If you want me to take a look at those screenshots or whatever you've got there, you'll need to actually upload them or provide a link I can access. Give me something to work with!

Chris Rogers2 said:I'm not exactly sure how to verify this, but I've got access to the router settings via the admin password. I unplugged my Roku from the router (LAN 2) and rebooted everything, yet VDSL Management and IPTV still show as connected—so that's probably just showing what's linked from the router outward. But honestly, what you're saying about it being the exact opposite is likely right. AT&T keeps insisting I can't pull this off and that DirecTV absolutely has to be hardwired.

Here’s the traffic straight from the router. DirecTV is leaking, which means the TV isn't actually being routed through the device right now:

I can't see any images or links here, man. You gotta drop the actual text if you want me to take a look at it.

Here’s the speed test I ran about two minutes after plugging the Roku into the router and getting it up and running.

I can't see the image you're trying to show me. If you want me to take a look at those screenshots or whatever you've got there, you'll need to actually upload them or provide a link I can access. Give me something to work with!

Alright, looking at that second screenshot, it's obvious the Roku is sitting on the IPTV VDSL VLAN since the traffic spiked immediately. You've definitely got multiple VLANs running.

1. Does that Roku always have to be plugged into one specific physical port on the router?

2. Could you try this experiment: while the TV is running, just pull the plug on the main wired internet interface (basically kill the wired connection). Theoretically, after a few seconds, everything should kick over to the 4G backup (the "mobile" interface, right?). Grab a screen recording of the traffic during that switch.

Chris Rogers2 said:Is there any way to prioritize web traffic over Max TV when I'm using the wired connection on my AT&T hybrid router? Basically, I want the TV to pull from the cellular data while the actual internet traffic stays on the hardline.

Look, if it actually is possible to change that, there’s a massive reason why it’s set up this way—with the TV running on the fixed line instead of mobile. It’s not like the provider just picked that at random for no reason.

TV is one of those services that doesn't need insane download bandwidth (and the upload is basically nothing), but that download speed absolutely has to be consistent. ADSL/VDSL is perfect for that because it has those exact traits: the download isn't huge, the upload is pretty terrible, but both are steady. Since you're on a copper medium, that connection is essentially dedicated to you—at least for that "last mile" part of the network, anyway; aggregation is a whole different story.

On the flip side, standard internet traffic is way more "bursty." It's interactive, it needs upload, and it actually fits the characteristics of a mobile network much better. In a mobile setup, tons of users are statistically sharing much higher capacities—we're talking a few hundred megs on the downlink and a bit less on the uplink. But because everyone is sharing, the capacity available to a single user fluctuates wildly, so you end up hitting moments where you just don't have enough juice left for the TV.

That’s exactly why providers usually only offer TV over mobile as an OTT service. The "real" IPTV stuff is almost always reserved for phone lines, cable, or fiber (even though, honestly, a typical speed test might show the phone line having a much lower nominal speed).

I'm guessing you're a gamer, so the higher latency on mobile is what's killing you. That's just how the technology works, though I'll admit 5G is a bit better. Just keep in mind, though, that measuring ping with 32-byte packets isn't always a great way to judge actual latency. It mostly just measures the "propagation" part of the delay, not the "serialization" component, which gets worse as your bandwidth drops.

So, if your DSL throughput is low—which happens all the time on the upload side—your effective latency (that actual time-to-content) might actually be worse than mobile, even if the ping numbers don't show it.

Jack Cook7 said:Alright, looking at that second screenshot, it's obvious the Roku is sitting on the IPTV VDSL VLAN since the traffic spiked immediately. You've definitely got multiple VLANs running.

1. Does that Roku always have to be plugged into one specific physical port on the router?

2. Could you try this experiment: while the TV is running, just pull the plug on the main wired internet interface (basically kill the wired connection). Theoretically, after a few seconds, everything should kick over to the 4G backup (the "mobile" interface, right?). Grab a screen recording of the traffic during that switch.

The Roku needs to be plugged into LAN 2, right?

Connection's still holding up before the line expires. TV is working fine, and I’ve even got a 1080p 60 FPS stream running on my PC.

I can't see the image you linked, so I don't have any text to work with! Drop the content here and I'll get to work on it.

So, I went ahead and reset the DSL line on my router, and now my DirecTV is completely dead. It won't connect at all. Meanwhile, the internet on my PC is working perfectly fine—I’ve even got a stream running right now without a single hiccup. What gives?

I can't see the image you're trying to share. It looks like the link is broken or the upload didn't go through. Try posting it again so I can actually take a look.

Totally blanked on checking the mobile broadband settings, so here’s a screenshot of the router right after the reset while the external line is still dead. The router rebooted just fine and I'm getting smooth 1080p 60 FPS streaming, but the TV is still throwing that "x306 service currently unavailable" error, and my phone is acting up too.

I can't see the image you linked. Drop the details or a description here and I'll get on it.

Internet VLAN status: disconnected.
The IPTV VDSL VLAN is showing as disconnected.
VOIP_VDSL status says disconnected.
VDSL Management just dropped.
Mobile connected, IPv4

Edit: that VDSL Management thing might be for bonding or tunneling, whatever way it actually works.

Roger Castillo9 said:Look, if it actually is possible to change that, there’s a massive reason why it’s set up this way—with the TV running on the fixed line instead of mobile. It’s not like the provider just picked that at random for no reason.

TV is one of those services that doesn't need insane download bandwidth (and the upload is basically nothing), but that download speed absolutely has to be consistent. ADSL/VDSL is perfect for that because it has those exact traits: the download isn't huge, the upload is pretty terrible, but both are steady. Since you're on a copper medium, that connection is essentially dedicated to you—at least for that "last mile" part of the network, anyway; aggregation is a whole different story.

On the flip side, standard internet traffic is way more "bursty." It's interactive, it needs upload, and it actually fits the characteristics of a mobile network much better. In a mobile setup, tons of users are statistically sharing much higher capacities—we're talking a few hundred megs on the downlink and a bit less on the uplink. But because everyone is sharing, the capacity available to a single user fluctuates wildly, so you end up hitting moments where you just don't have enough juice left for the TV.

That’s exactly why providers usually only offer TV over mobile as an OTT service. The "real" IPTV stuff is almost always reserved for phone lines, cable, or fiber (even though, honestly, a typical speed test might show the phone line having a much lower nominal speed).

I'm guessing you're a gamer, so the higher latency on mobile is what's killing you. That's just how the technology works, though I'll admit 5G is a bit better. Just keep in mind, though, that measuring ping with 32-byte packets isn't always a great way to judge actual latency. It mostly just measures the "propagation" part of the delay, not the "serialization" component, which gets worse as your bandwidth drops.

So, if your DSL throughput is low—which happens all the time on the upload side—your effective latency (that actual time-to-content) might actually be worse than mobile, even if the ping numbers don't show it.

Look, whenever I fire up a game and my ping jumps from 42 to 120+, it happens every single time it starts drizzling outside. And regardless of what you say about latency not showing it, I can clearly see my connection is trash by the packet loss.

I get that it was designed this way on purpose, but as a customer, I'm not feeling it. My internet was better before they shoved this hybrid router down my throat, and it was even better back when I could disable interleaving—something AT&T won't let you do anymore because of DirecTV. Not to mention how they use this mobile backup and hybrid router setup to mask technical failures and sheer laziness.

Chris Rogers2 said:The Roku needs to be plugged into LAN 2, right?

Connection's still holding up before the line expires. TV is working fine, and I’ve even got a 1080p 60 FPS stream running on my PC.

I can't see the image you linked, so I don't have any text to work with! Drop the content here and I'll get to work on it.

So, I went ahead and reset the DSL line on my router, and now my DirecTV is completely dead. It won't connect at all. Meanwhile, the internet on my PC is working perfectly fine—I’ve even got a stream running right now without a single hiccup. What gives?

I can't see the image you're trying to share. It looks like the link is broken or the upload didn't go through. Try posting it again so I can actually take a look.

Totally blanked on checking the mobile broadband settings, so here’s a screenshot of the router right after the reset while the external line is still dead. The router rebooted just fine and I'm getting smooth 1080p 60 FPS streaming, but the TV is still throwing that "x306 service currently unavailable" error, and my phone is acting up too.

I can't see the image you linked. Drop the details or a description here and I'll get on it.

Internet VLAN status: disconnected.
The IPTV VDSL VLAN is showing as disconnected.
VOIP_VDSL status says disconnected.
VDSL Management just dropped.
Mobile connected, IPv4

Edit: that VDSL Management thing might be for bonding or tunneling, whatever way it actually works.

Look, kid, it sounds like they did the exact opposite of what you actually wanted.

I poked around that router a bit, but I couldn't find an Operator's manual, just the User's one.

It uses "bonding"—basically pairing up links, like DSL and LTE. I haven't figured out exactly how it handles it on the Huawei HA35 yet, but there are usually a few ways it works.

It looks like the DSL/wired connection is dedicated specifically to the DirecTV traffic, meaning those VLAN IPTV VDSL setups where the DSL port and the LAN 2 port live.

Everything else stays in VOIP (phone) and the Internet VLAN, which map to their own LAN ports. It seems like the bonding is set up so they can failover from DSL to LTE. There might even be a load threshold on the DSL connection that triggers the LTE kick-in.

That’s probably why your TV dies when you pull the DSL connection, while your PC and phone just hop over to LTE.

Now, you should be able to see the configuration details under "Bonding tunnel" and "Bonding Information," if they aren't locked away. Some versions even have "Bonding Filtering" or something similar that dictates which traffic gets access to which link. Can you actually find those settings on the router, or are they hidden?

My guess is this stuff is configured via the command line, along with all the priorities and thresholds.

By the way, does he get lag in his games only when the TV is on, or is it happening all the time?

Chris Rogers2 said:Look, whenever I fire up a game and my ping jumps from 42 to 120+, it happens every single time it starts drizzling outside. And regardless of what you say about latency not showing it, I can clearly see my connection is trash by the packet loss.

I get that it was designed this way on purpose, but as a customer, I'm not feeling it. My internet was better before they shoved this hybrid router down my throat, and it was even better back when I could disable interleaving—something AT&T won't let you do anymore because of DirecTV. Not to mention how they use this mobile backup and hybrid router setup to mask technical failures and sheer laziness.

Try running a ping test from your PC using 64kB packets toward an external host, maybe something over at DirecTV.

ping -l 64000

Give it a shot, and try disabling fragmentation just to see if it actually works; it really should for streaming:

ping -f -l 64000

Jack Cook7 said:Look, kid, it sounds like they did the exact opposite of what you actually wanted.

I poked around that router a bit, but I couldn't find an Operator's manual, just the User's one.

It uses "bonding"—basically pairing up links, like DSL and LTE. I haven't figured out exactly how it handles it on the Huawei HA35 yet, but there are usually a few ways it works.

It looks like the DSL/wired connection is dedicated specifically to the DirecTV traffic, meaning those VLAN IPTV VDSL setups where the DSL port and the LAN 2 port live.

Everything else stays in VOIP (phone) and the Internet VLAN, which map to their own LAN ports. It seems like the bonding is set up so they can failover from DSL to LTE. There might even be a load threshold on the DSL connection that triggers the LTE kick-in.

That’s probably why your TV dies when you pull the DSL connection, while your PC and phone just hop over to LTE.

Now, you should be able to see the configuration details under "Bonding tunnel" and "Bonding Information," if they aren't locked away. Some versions even have "Bonding Filtering" or something similar that dictates which traffic gets access to which link. Can you actually find those settings on the router, or are they hidden?

My guess is this stuff is configured via the command line, along with all the priorities and thresholds.

By the way, does he get lag in his games only when the TV is on, or is it happening all the time?

View on imgur

Regarding the bonding, it says the type is LTEDSL and "available bandwidth 15279"

RTT switch:
0
Current RTT:
47
RTT threshold:
500
Bandwidth statistics interval:
10
Available bandwidth:
15297
Error message:
None

Jack Cook7 said:Try running a ping test from your PC using 64kB packets toward an external host, maybe something over at DirecTV.

ping -l 64000

Give it a shot, and try disabling fragmentation just to see if it actually works; it really should for streaming:

ping -f -l 64000

Right now the ping is fine—I'm seeing 42-43 in-game—but there have been days where I can't get anything under 120 for two or three days straight. Or it'll be good and then suddenly spike, probably when it switches over to mobile data. Yesterday afternoon was a total disaster; the connection just completely died on me. Probably because everyone was watching the game and the lines were totally slammed.

Chris Rogers2 said:View on imgur

Regarding the bonding, it says the type is LTEDSL and "available bandwidth 15279"

RTT switch:
0
Current RTT:
47
RTT threshold:
500
Bandwidth statistics interval:
10
Available bandwidth:
15297
Error message:
None

Honestly, port forwarding doesn't do much for me. I think having some actual "Bandwidth control" would be way more useful.

Regarding the bonding, it shows the type as LTEDSL and the "available bandwidth 15279"

RTT switch: 0
Current RTT: 47
RTT threshold: 500
Bandwidth statistics interval: 10
Available bandwidth: 15297
Error message:None

So this is the "Bonding Information." Is that seriously just 15 Mbps? Or are we talking 15 MB/s?
Looks like they're using GRE for the bonding.

Any way to check the routing rules? They might have just handled everything with static routes.

Chris Rogers2 said:Right now the ping is fine—I'm seeing 42-43 in-game—but there have been days where I can't get anything under 120 for two or three days straight. Or it'll be good and then suddenly spike, probably when it switches over to mobile data. Yesterday afternoon was a total disaster; the connection just completely died on me. Probably because everyone was watching the game and the lines were totally slammed.

So, you're running without DirecTV?

Jack Cook7 said:So, you're running without DirecTV?

Nah, DirecTV works fine.

Jack Cook7 said:Honestly, port forwarding doesn't do much for me. I think having some actual "Bandwidth control" would be way more useful.

Regarding the bonding, it shows the type as LTEDSL and the "available bandwidth 15279"

RTT switch: 0
Current RTT: 47
RTT threshold: 500
Bandwidth statistics interval: 10
Available bandwidth: 15297
Error message:None

So this is the "Bonding Information." Is that seriously just 15 Mbps? Or are we talking 15 MB/s?
Looks like they're using GRE for the bonding.

Any way to check the routing rules? They might have just handled everything with static routes.

Yep, they've got static routes—about ten of them:

View on imgur

Probably Mbps, because on a good day, Speedtest pulls around 20-something Mbps download, and 20-28 Mbps upload (which is plenty for me). Right now, I'm hitting 15 Mbps on Speedtest.

Chris Rogers2 said:Nah, DirecTV works fine.

So, if the TV is fine, the bottleneck isn't on your end. The real question is whether there's a massive congestion issue at the DSLAM or within the ISP's routing, or if it's happening at the LTE base stations, or maybe even deeper in their core network.

That "spike" you're seeing is most likely what happens in-game when the system flips from DSL over to LTE. Your TV stays glued to the DSL line, while everything else jumps over to LTE. That’s where the Binding filter comes in—it basically dictates which traffic goes where.

Your RTT is sitting at 500ms. Man, that's a bit high.

When the connection dropped yesterday, was it the TV or your gaming session that cut out?