Big issue with my fiber optics internet for Qobuz streaming

Folks, thank you again for your input. To recap, I added a Netgear RAX80 router, enabled IP passthrough, and turned off the Wi-Fi on the AT&T BGW320 modem.

I ran the player for six hours last night over 5 GHz Wi-Fi with 24/192 hi-res files and did not experience any issues. I hope this has completely resolved the problem.

Thank you as well for the confirmation from several of you who reported no issues after implementing a similar setup.

OP seems to have fixed this, but let me say, this community may know audio but networking seems like there's a huge knowledge gap and some of you should not be chiming in when you aren't experts.  Those saying "it's at&t" are clueless.  If the OPs other streams that require WAY more bandwidth, it's not the ISP.  This seems like a pretty easy conclusion but you guys are all bashing the ISP bc you don't understand networking.  I am not defending At&t.  Just saying, don't chime in on stuff you have zero clue about.  Rant over.

No one here mentioned port settings?  Very possible the other router had certain ports blocked which would make it so traffic from Qobuz could be blocked. 

Hope you didn't have to buy a new router.  Ridiculous some of the responses here come on people 

Well done on getting the problem sorted @lanx0003! As a personal rule, I do not let any external entity administer or have access to my wifi network. I even own the cable modem.

To further improve your performance, if possible you might consider running a cable from your router to your streamer thus getting another possible source of noise out of your signal path. I used Cat8 for the 25' run for mine and I found an audible difference with my setup.

Happy listening.

@musicfan2349 

Thank you. With all the support I received from several individuals and AI, I am glad to have that issue ironed out in a relatively short time.

Your security precautions are well taken. Since the ISP modem is in bridge mode with Wi-Fi disabled, I have my own router handling firewall, NAT, and DHCP functions, which provides basic protection. Beyond that, with AI’s assistance, I will perform several straightforward steps to strengthen security further, including changing the router’s admin username and password, disabling WPS, disabling remote management and WAN administration, and using encrypted DNS.

You also raised an interesting topic regarding sound quality between wired and Wi-Fi connections. I previously used a 6-ft wired connection with Cat-8 cable and believe that a short, shielded ethernet cable should not act as an antenna that couples noise. Nevertheless, after resolving the Wi-Fi issues, I now feel that more stable Wi-Fi produces slightly better sound quality (or prevents degradation, I should say) — with a more open and richer sound in a nontrivial way. I was concerned about being subjective or imaginative, so I asked my better half to listen as well, and she felt the same.

With the wired connection, I made sure Wi-Fi was turned off to ensure a fair comparison. This finding remains somewhat of a mystery and counterintuitive, but it might be related to my Cat-8 cable not being truly high-end, the LAN port quality, or the need for a higher-quality network switch.

For now, with the issues resolved and the better sound quality ever I have experienced so far, I am going to relax and enjoy my streaming.

@erik_squires 

Thank You! for speeding up my fiber network. I used your suggestion, asked grok how to do it and now my whole home wifii network is faster. I already had google home and nest. Grok even hooked me up to cloud fare IPv6. Don’t yet know how my EVO will react yet but I imagine it will love the faster loading speed too.

Thanks.