What do folks think of Metronet fiber performance in Bryan? What is your ping/latency when you run a speed test (ms) on google?

I am having latency issues which impacts virtual meetings (and gaming) significantly, though the bandwidth itself is great (900Mbps+ on a 1Gbps service). I am also seeing transmission errors outside my network (aka packet loss, see below for nerdery level explanation). I recently moved from Frontier in College Station, which wasn't quite as fast (700Mbps), but it was reliable with consistent lower than 15ms latency.

Customer service yesterday was responsive, but they said the next step was to send a tech out, even though they recognized the problem was outside my home. Tech came out, wasted time re-splicing, then told me that "everyone on Metronet in the area was seeing high latency because everything has to flow through Atlanta until we get our own fiber loop at some point in the future". He said he would report the issue to the network operations center (NOC) and they would get back to me in a day or so. Then I got the emailed work order and the tech reported "issue resolved" so I'm not holding my breath.

/Nerdery version. When I run a tracert to www.google.com with a laptop connected straight to the fiber gateway, I get timeouts on hops 2-3 consistently, and timeouts on others inconsistently. Tracert to any URL shows <5ms, timeout, timeout, then jumps up to 55+ ms when it appears to leave the Metronet network. It's been a long time since I pretended to be a network tech, but doesn't that mean there is an issue on Metronet's routers?

Note: If you run a speed test of your own using something other than google (like speedtest.net), make sure you change the server to something outside this area to get realistic results.

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Tracert to any URL shows <5ms, timeout, timeout, then jumps up to 55+ ms when it appears to leave the Metronet network. It's been a long time since I pretended to be a network tech, but doesn't that mean there is an issue on Metronet's routers?

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Timeouts that close to home feels like their equipment is just configured to ignore/drop pings. Then 55ms or higher later on is too high if it's happening regularly, my tracert to google.com has timeouts further down the line, but the pings that actually come through are mostly 10 or 11ms at worst.

NateDog said:

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Tracert to any URL shows <5ms, timeout, timeout, then jumps up to 55+ ms when it appears to leave the Metronet network. It's been a long time since I pretended to be a network tech, but doesn't that mean there is an issue on Metronet's routers?

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Timeouts that close to home feels like their equipment is just configured to ignore/drop pings. Then 55ms or higher later on is too high if it's happening regularly, my tracert to google.com has timeouts further down the line, but the pings that actually come through are mostly 10 or 11ms at worst.

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Thanks for weighing in, and that's a good point. I did have some random timeouts in other areas though and a few of my pings failed. What service are you on?

Brazos WiFi (fiber version). The owner posts here occasionally & he'd be much more qualified to diagnose your issues.

When Optimum eventually ran fiber out here and came knocking on doors, I told them no thanks I'm happy with my current provider because "I can contact the owner directly if I have an issue." Kid goes, hey, I used to be a tech, you can call me!

Felt a little bad for busting out laughing in his face. Then I found out Optimum is just rebranded SuddenStink, and I didn't feel bad any more.

Check out Brazos WiFi's coverage map at their website. Reliable service and hands down the best customer service of any ISP I've ever had.

We have a 25gbps interconnect with Metronet as one of our backups in case the 100g circuits to Dallas and Houston go down.

Overall, the connection seems ok but I feel like their peering to google is constrained. I'm not sure how their peering is handled but we see similar ping timeouts. As a note, google will drop pings as well even if the regular traffic is moving correctly. Ping traffic is the lowest priority traffic.

Traceroute traffic often drops if the internal routing IPs are not public facing. Some ISPs do this to limit their attack surface.

How do pings to 1.1.1.1 look?

Would love to have Brazos Wifi fiber, but I'm in the middle of town near, so no go

Appreciate the suggestion to ping 1.1.1.1, I think I have that set as my DNS. Will try when I get home, but I am getting similar high latency when going to anything off the Metronet network. Tried a bunch of different speedtest.net servers too, including Optimum, lol.

Metronet just installed our 1 Gig service. Questions:

1) what should our download speed be?

2) same for upload?

I've had Metronet for a little over a year (I'd have rather gone with Brazos Wifi but no fiber in my area yet :P )

I typically get ~50ms ping times to most places because Metronet's primary gateway is in Chicago, and their backup is in Atlanta. When I used to work for a radio station that had Metronet fiber, I often got ping times under 10ms - which is phenomenal.

I typically get 750mbit up and down on speedtest.net (but we know speedtest lies) on my gigabit connection. Fast.com, sometimes a better indicator (because it's hosted by netflix and if somebody's gonna get throttled, it's netflix), I usually get around 400mbit down and 500mbit up, with similar ping times both unloaded and loaded.

I routinely get 500+megabit downloads from steam, so that's a little bit better real-world performance indicator.

Gasbandit said:

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I've had Metronet for a little over a year (I'd have rather gone with Brazos Wifi but no fiber in my area yet :P )

I typically get ~50ms ping times to most places because Metronet's primary gateway is in Chicago, and their backup is in Atlanta. When I used to work for a radio station that had Metronet fiber, I often got ping times under 10ms - which is phenomenal.

I typically get 750mbit up and down on speedtest.net (but we know speedtest lies) on my gigabit connection. Fast.com, sometimes a better indicator (because it's hosted by netflix and if somebody's gonna get throttled, it's netflix), I usually get around 400mbit down and 500mbit up, with similar ping times both unloaded and loaded.

I routinely get 500+megabit downloads from steam, so that's a little bit better real-world performance indicator.

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Do you have 1 Gig service from Metronet?

Are you testing a wired connection or wifi?

LightningDammitt said:

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Gasbandit said:

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I've had Metronet for a little over a year (I'd have rather gone with Brazos Wifi but no fiber in my area yet :P )

I typically get ~50ms ping times to most places because Metronet's primary gateway is in Chicago, and their backup is in Atlanta. When I used to work for a radio station that had Metronet fiber, I often got ping times under 10ms - which is phenomenal.

I typically get 750mbit up and down on speedtest.net (but we know speedtest lies) on my gigabit connection. Fast.com, sometimes a better indicator (because it's hosted by netflix and if somebody's gonna get throttled, it's netflix), I usually get around 400mbit down and 500mbit up, with similar ping times both unloaded and loaded.

I routinely get 500+megabit downloads from steam, so that's a little bit better real-world performance indicator.

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Do you have 1 Gig service from Metronet?

Are you testing a wired connection or wifi?

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Yep, 1 gig service, testing on a gigabit wired card with a home network running on an HP 1920-24g managed switch, going through a TP-Link Archer A7 router.

While not true "gigabit," the bandwidth throughput results are better than I was getting from optimum by far, and the support and service has been lightyears better. The ping times are slightly slower, though.

Just to add another data point...we moved over to Metronet (from Suddenlink/Optimum) as they were the first fiber option in our Bryan neighborhood, and saw the same issues with latency and timeouts.

But when Frontier Fiber also became available in the neighborhood, we switched over and were relieved to get back to normal / short ping times (and also get away from Metronet's monthly required "tech assurance" fee, that they use to pad their bills)! That said, I know it's been announced that Frontier is being bought by Verizon, and definitely hope that it won't impact the current quality of their service...time will tell I guess!

Anyway, if anyone else decides to make a similar jump over to Frontier, you can use this link to get a bonus $150 Virtual MasterCard after 2 months of paid service:

https://www.frontiercustomerreferral.com/submit-invitation?user_id=47513&signature=044b6696efef014af6cecdfb3ce09893e3ea7202c6999dfc01b463d61b4e726c&utm_campaign=social-referral&utm_medium=click-to-copy&utm_source=web&utm_content=47513

(Full disclosure, using that signup link would earn me a bonus as well, and in addition you can get your own referral link after you become a Frontier customer...so ultimately a win/win for everyone!)

Resurrecting this


had an email come in for unscheduled maintenance

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Maintenance Notification
Day Of Notice
Metronet will be performing maintenance to our network in your area during the date(s) and time(s) listed below.
1st Maintenance Window -Sep-30-2024 12:00 AM to Sep-30-2024 04:00 AM CDT
Emergency Software Update
During the maintenance window, there may be a brief disruption to All Services. Services should restore automatically. If services do not restore at the end of the maintenance window, you may need to power cycle your equipment by unplugging from the power source for at least 10 seconds before plugging back in. If services still do not restore, please contact our 24/7 technical support team at 877-407-3224.

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Then I get a text message at 3:40 pm that there is another emergency outage

"they are working to repair as quickly as possible, no need to call"

I let it roll for a while and call about 7

Lady on the phone assures me they are wrapping up and itll be on in 30 min

I leave the house and run errand s and whatever

1am still not working

I work form home so I am concerned that it wont be working at 7am when I start work

I call, the new person on the phone says that there are no issues and she would have to send a tech......but she cant.......I'll have to call back. The system wont let her schedule anything

8 hours in no follow up text from Metronet

Same BS on the recording, "users in your area are reporting an outage, dont worry we are on top of it"

20 min in the lady says I am under emergency maintenance until 7am

She wont tell me why or what they've been doing

I go to bed


call again just before 7am, still no service

Same BS on the recording, "users in your area are reporting an outage, dont worry we are on top of it"

get a nice lady on the phone

she has no idea what im talking about, any maintenance that was started has long since been completed

she tried something and then schedules a tech



i notice during the day my PON has gone from 2 lights to 3 but is still not working, I find out this means there is no light coming from the head end

I call back around 2pm

Same BS on the recording, "users in your area are reporting an outage, don't worry we are on top of it"

new guy on the phone, I explain that I called just let them know that I was getting different lights on my unit than before and that ive read that it indicates im not getting in light from you.

He checks and says I am in emergency maintenance as there is a problem with the box at the head end

I ask starting when? He says just 2 hours ago?

I ask when it will be fixed and he says soon........I said no offense, but that's a non answer and that's all I've been getting for almost a day now

so, still working from home trying to use my phone as a hotspot so that I can work


Just wanted to relay my experience to the rest of town