Rogers Xfinity Upgrade Experience

FrathosCAN

Hello all,

I thought I’d share my experience upgrading from Rogers legacy Internet & STB to Xfinity products.

My Rogers NextBox 4K PVR STB has become unreliable since Dec 2024 (recordings were short or playback on full recordings stopped randomly prematurely) so I bit the bullet on Friday and requested the upgrade to the newer Xfinity service. I was pleasantly surprised when the package arrived the next day by Purolator as I wasn’t expecting it until Monday if sent by Canada Post.

I tried setting up the new XB7 gateway with my Samsung Tab S9 FE tablet & the Xfinity app but it got stuck because it had no internet connectivity after I disconnected the legacy cable modem from my ASUS GT-AC5300 router and plugged into the XB7 instead. No problem I thought, I’ll just connect via my Desktop PC & configure the new XB7 WiFi that way & internet access was restored to PC & tablet.

The Xfinity app on the tablet still insisted on activating the XB7 WiFi even after uninstalling & reinstalling the app. Fine, I told it to use the same WiFi credentials that I set via PC and it finally completed the process to allow me to view the XB7 via the app.

I elected to continue using my ASUS router so I wouldn’t have to go through the laborious process of reconfiguring my 4 LIFX WiFi lights so I put XB7 into Bridge mode after disabling the 2.4 Ghz & 5 Ghz radios.

Next I setup the XI6 STB to connect to my ASUS routers second 5 Ghz radio. Typing using the remote was annoying (Arrow buttons are very stiff & hard to use) but it got the job done. The STB connected and displayed TVOntario Ch2 & holy cow did that look so much better than the old NextBox video quality. All channels in fact looked sharper & I noticed that now some channels were even 4K (eg some Sport channels).

This morning I noticed while watching CP24 that there were some audio glitches and the picture quality had degraded. I switched channels to TVOntario & back to CP24 & it went back to normal.

I then decided that if picture degradation was due to WiFi congestion issues in my MDU then I’d try using the wired ethernet connection instead to try and avoid that issue in future. That worked initially until I checked my router & noticed it had dedicated ports that can be assigned which I didn’t plug into & that STB was only connecting at 100 Mbps. I replaced the ethernet cable with a Cat 5e cable & STB remained at 100 Mbps no matter which port I plugged into on my router so I guess that’s what it’s going to use. I wanted to see 1 Gbps connection because I noticed WiFi was using up to 173 Mbps Up/Down throughput.

Next I looked at my router IPTV settings and changed it to use Port 5 & 6 instead of 1 & 2 (the default) which are the gaming prioritized ports for my game console & desktop PC. The router rebooted and after a ca 3 minute wait (this happened repeatedly with each reboot - XB7 DHCP seems slow to respond) my PC had functional internet again while the XI6 stopped using ethernet connected to Port 5 & switched back to WiFi instead despite the ethernet socket status LED on back of XI6 flashing to show Port was active).

Several hours later after much Googling, I wasn’t able to find out any VLAN specific settings compatible with XI6 that I could apply to the IPTV tab in the ASUS router and ultimately had to change from the plan to use Port 5 or 6 for the XI6 & my Samsung S95B (it didn’t like the router change either) so I switched the XI6 to use Port 3 instead & Samsung TV to Port 7 following which they both were able to work properly again using their ethernet connected ports.

I’m guessing that there is some issue with Multicasting being disabled (it was originally enabled but went disabled with no way to change again) when ASUS router has Port 5&6 set as IPTV port that affects the STB & TV from being able to get internet services they require via those ports (they worked when setting was left at 1&2). Thankfully I don’t have additional devices that need those 2 ports so I guess I’ll just have to leave them empty as I don’t want the default 1&2 setting to affect my gaming console & PC gaming prioritization usage now that I have a STB that uses IPTV.

AdmiralMike

My cable boxes connect at 100mbit, no issues with it at that speed.

Do you have IPv6 setup on your network? I found I had issues with the TV service at first until I set that up, mind you this was years ago.

Also there are no required VLAN settings for anything.

FrathosCAN

AdmiralMike IPv6 is enabled on the ASUS router & confirmed available on my Xbox Series X and Windows 10 PC. The XI6 STB says it’s using the Ethernet connection but otherwise tells you nothing about the particulars of that connection.

The XI6 STB is definitely looking for something that it isn’t getting on Ports 5 or 6 when the ASUS router is set to use those ports for IPTV purposes.

So far I have had no issues with using the XI6 on ASUS router Port 3 at 100 Mbps apart from having to reselect a different channel after router reboots as the STB doesn’t automatically restart the current channel otherwise. The other annoying thing about the ASUS router reboots is that the XB7 gateway DHCP is much slower to provide an IP for the router WAN port than the older CODA gateway thus making me wait longer (ca 3 to 4 minutes instead of 1 to 2 before) for internet connectivity to resume.

FrathosCAN

FrathosCAN I wanted to add that the Xfinity app apparently is intended to be used with a cellphone with an active data plan during the initial setup of the XB7 gateway & that’s why it had an issue with the WiFi only Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE tablet during the initial setup.

I was also disappointed with the Xfinity Voice Remote because it didn’t have a visible Day+ & Day- button like the NextBox remote that I used with the Guide to select programs up to a week in advance. I thought this would make selecting programs in future days cumbersome & tried using Voice Remote instead to select shows that I wanted to schedule. A problem I noticed with this method is that it frequently wouldn’t let me pick the Canadian channel for a program & instead defaulted to the US channel when I wanted to ensure STB would only record the program once.

The default HD Preferred option I found ended up recording the same show multiple times on the same day when I only wanted to record the first instance of All New episodes. Time will tell if the change to a specific channel will eliminate the duplicate recordings (I think it may as the Canadian main channels don’t tend to repeat the same program immediately within hours on the same day like BNN does for repeat programming).

Later I discovered while manually scrolling forward through the Guide’s hours with right arrow that STB prompted me to use FF to advance a day. REW can also then be used to go back a day. This allowed me to manually scroll forward to the date & time like I used to do on NextBox Guide and then select Canadian channels to record as the desired channel source.

FrathosCAN

The past couple of days has been okay with Xfinity STB service. When it works properly it seems really good. When it starts to act up then it’s not so good (audio glitches, pixelation, complete freeze) with no way to check via the STB as to what is going on.

Yesterday I noticed that CTV News Network channel 62 had random audio drop outs and slight pixelation. I switched to CP24 on channel 24 & had no issues there or other shows etc for remainder of the day.

Tonight while watching Global News on channel 3 the image & audio froze completely. The STB was slow trying to change to other channels & image was low quality.

I fired up my PC to check what’s happening with router etc & image etc returned to normal by the time I got logged in. I did a speed test & performance seemed normal for early evening.

My router has QOS enabled with prioritization for gaming & audio/video streaming second. I went into Custom setting & switched that around to audio/video first & gaming second to see if it makes a difference.

I then noticed that router showed STB had switched back to 5G WiFi despite ethernet being plugged in. I unplugged the ethernet cable & reconnected it following which the router updated to show STB switched back to ethernet connection.

Now I’ll have to go back to using & watching to see what happens next. 🤔

FrathosCAN

I figured out what happened with the IPTV settings on my ASUS router.

IPTV tab
Choose IPTV STB Port - None
Don’t select 5 or 6 or 5 & 6 as that disables Enable Multicast routing setting (this is what I did thinking it was needed to optimize router IPTV setup for XI6 - NOPE!)

Now make sure these settings are set appropriately:
Enable Multicast routing - Enable
Default IGMP version - IGMP v3
Enable Fast Leave - Disable
UDP Proxy (Udpxy) - 0

Check Wireless Professional tab for each radio
Enable IGMP Snooping - Enable (this was already the case for my router)

I applied the revised IPTV settings which rebooted the router & moved the XI6 STB ethernet cable from Port 3 back into Port 5. The router rebooted & reconnected to the XB7 gateway much faster this time. I still had to reselect a channel on the XI6 STB after reconnection was complete otherwise you are stuck watching a black screen.

I checked the router connections & confirmed the XI6 STB was using ethernet on Port 5. It still connects at 100 Mbps but that seems to be fast enough for all of the channels or shows that I’ve watched on the weekend.

😃👍

FrathosCAN

Another day, another bad experience. 😧

This afternoon while watching CBC Newsworld, the XI6 picture & audio quality degraded. The remote control was also slow to navigate the XI6 settings where I found that the STB had once again switched vack to using 5G WiFi instead of the ethernet port that is connected & active per it’s status LED’s.

Unfortunately, there is no setting in the XI6 network setting that you can use to tell it to disable WiFi & use ethernet exclusively. This is stupid design especially for people who live in MDU community that has more likely incidence of WiFi interference!

I suspect the switch back to WiFi is happening during my router’s automated daily reboot at 6 AM (done to minimize memory leaks or WiFi issues that happen after extended uptime). This is going to be annoying if I’ll have to manually unplug & reconnect the ethernet cable every day that the XI6 doesn’t automatically use the ethernet port like the description says it will do!

I have a second XI6 for the bedroom so I’ll try setting that up & see if it behaves the same way as the first one.

🫤

Donoreo

Try running for a day or two with just the Rogers equipment. Get a baseline.

FrathosCAN

Donoreo Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll keep it in mind if my change tonight doesn’t help (or to test my other finding below):
I realized that my router automatic reboot was occurring after the XI6 STB reboot window so I changed the latter to occur after the 6 AM router reboot. Hopefully this will fix the random 5G WiFi switch as the STB seems to honor the ethernet connection when it reboots (as seen when using STB refresh command from My Rogers account).

I also noticed that My Rogers account doesn’t show MAC or SN info for the XI6 while it’s connected to my router. Somehow without that info being present, the Refresh STB option on the website still worked (presumably because Rogers knows the SN in their backend DB). Im curious now whether that info shows up on the account when equipment is direct connected to the XB7.

While Xfinity STB does seem to make watching more programs easier when you want (eg via Watch Now, Restart or On Demand), I do miss the NextBox Picture-In–Picture (technically Picture-By-Picture) mode which came in handy when I wanted to watch two Sports programs at same time & quickly swap which one was Primary with audio playback.

I also just noticed that there appears to be an audio/video sync issue while watching Beverly Hills Cop II on AMC. Audio seems to lag behind the video by a second or so. 🤔

FrathosCAN

FrathosCAN Re Audio/Video sync issue:
I changed XI6 Settings/Device Settings/Audio/HDMI Audio Output to Expert Mode & that seems to have better audio/video sync for my Samsung S95B.

mozerd

FrathosCAN

For your Xfinity Home TV system Rogers does not need Multicast and Rogers does not need IGMP …
Where did you get the isea that it does ?

Bell uses those protocols for its TV sevice when you have multiple TVs …. but Rogers does not …

FrathosCAN

mozerd Because it doesn’t work when that Enable Multicasting setting is disabled! The logical conclusion to enabling it and XI6 suddenly working properly again is that the STB does indeed use or need multicasting in some way. 🫤

Re the IGMP settings, I got that info from other forum posts related to Xfinity product in the US. Without a network sniffer I can’t check for sure exactly what the STB needs or uses.

🤔 My ASUS router displayed that it can’t do Multicasting at the same time as IGMP when you set IPTV port to 5 / 6 / 5&6 so now I have to wonder why the XI6 doesn’t work when Multicasting is disabled if it also doesn’t use IGMP as you say. 🫤

mozerd

FrathosCAN
Yes Xfinty TV VIA Rogers is IPTV … BUT you do not need to configure iptv on your Router because the X16 does that automatically….. your Router just needs ipv6 to sync with the xfinity x16 either via wireless or via Ethernet ….

So disable your roter iptv setting completely … I am not familiar with your router so I cannot be totally accurate on its capability but you are not configuring it properly …

FrathosCAN

mozerd Please re-read my earlier post where I explained that I already disabled the IPTV port specific setting. My router is correctly set up for the Rogers XI6 STB (has been since I corrected it per my earlier posts) & it has been working perfectly fine all day today only on the ethernet connection.

mozerd

FrathosCAN
I have read your entire thread.

There should be no diferrence between the ethernet and wireless … if it works to your satisfaction on the ethernet and not on the wireless then something that you’ve done on the asus is misconfigured. as I have stated earlier the asus does not need to be configured for iptv at all on the rogers Xfinity Network … ipv6 is the only critical protocol required the rest is very straight forward. Rogers Gateway in Bridge Mode. The assus Internet port connected to the Rogers Bridged Gatewy. Make sure the ipv6 is working on the Asus via “Native DHCPv6” …

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Archived-Posts/Rogers-IPv6-Status/m-p/373238/highlight/true#M153804
Rogers IPv6 Settings for ASUS routers
In the Advanced Setup / IPv6 menu:
Internet Connection Type: Native
DHCP-PD: Enable
Auto Configuration Settings: Stateless
Connect to DNS Server automatically: Enable
Enable Router Advertisement: Enable

AdmiralMike

mozerd

I can attest to needing IPv6. My entire network is UniFi and when I switched to Ignite a number of years back I found that while the TV boxes worked without IPv6, they had issues. It wasn’t until I enabled IPv6 did my issues go away.

FrathosCAN

mozerd Thanks for the reply however you misunderstood what I meant by only on ethernet in my previous post so I’ll clarify that statement:

I wanted the STB to use ethernet instead of WiFi & that only on ethernet was in reference to the STB remaining on ethernet following my router daily reboot and the STB reboot window, not that the STB couldn’t operate on WiFi (it could, just not reliably well long term & yes IPv6 was enabled appropriately).

Since those changes were made, I had two more instances where the STB defaulted back to WiFi presumably on days after my router reboot time without the STB rebooting during it’s assigned window. My point was & is that the STB hardware/software is flawed & is not defaulting to ethernet all of the time when it is connected like it’s description says it will do!

As to why I don’t want to use WiFi with that STB, every time the STB operated by WiFi 5G on my router it would work fine for hours (most of the day) & then randomly crap out (audio/video freeze followed by degraded image quality). The STB hardware/software exhibits further flaws in this degraded state with the remote control being extremely difficult to use as it becomes super slow/laggy. It almost becomes faster to simply unplug the power & let it reboot that way to re-engage the ethernet connection.

### I got so annoyed with the STB switching back to WiFi after my router reboots every other day that I finally said screw it, disabled Bridge mode on the XB7, then connected the STB via ethernet directly to the XB7. To avoid double NAT on my Xbox Series X game console, I also connected it directly to the XB7 via ethernet. Lastly, my router also remained connected directly to the XB7 so that my LIFX etc devices can continue to use the ASUS configured WiFi since it’s a royal PITA to change them all over to a new WiFi access point.

So far, the STB has remained using ethernet since direct connecting it to XB7. It’s only been 1 day though so time will tell what happens if/when the XB7 goes through a reboot.

One reason why I wanted to try direct connecting the STB to XB7 is that I noticed in My Rogers Acct TV overview that the STB entry is not showing it’s MAC or Serial number (it should because that info is shown for my Mother’s XIOne on her account). When I can find some time, I’ll set up the second STB & see if it gets registered properly on MyRogers account. 🫤

AdmiralMike

You could temporarily change your wifi password, setup the STB on the new wifi, then change it back. This way it will have the wrong credentials and wont be able to connect to your wifi. or something along those lines.

mozerd

FrathosCAN

FrathosCAN I had two more instances where the STB defaulted back to WiFi presumably on days after my router reboot time without the STB rebooting during it’s assigned window. My point was & is that the STB hardware/software is flawed & is not defaulting to ethernet all of the time when it is connected like it’s description says it will do!

I have 5 Xfinity STB and 4 Unifi Access Points scattered throughout my residence … I have never seen this type of behavior where an ethernet connected STB device would switch to Wi-Fi on restart … so there must be an issue with your STB or Asus Router. To eliminate the Router as the problem child remove it from the chain and convert your Rogers Bridged Gateway back to being a Gateway Router – if in this mode the STB does not exhibit this weird behavior the culprit is your Asus etc. …

Donoreo

mozerd To eliminate the Router as the problem child remove it from the chain and convert your Rogers Bridged Gateway back to being a Gateway Router – if in this mode the STB does not exhibit this weird behavior the culprit is your Asus etc. …

I suggested this 9 days ago. I would setup the default first, make sure the components work as Rogers supports, and then go and make changes, not the other way around.