AC-RT68U throughput

[Doug Nix]

I’m running my AC-RT68U using AsusWRT-Merlin 384.10_2, and I’m wondering what kind of throughput I should expect to see. I’m paying for gigabit access (1000/25), but I’m seeing < 150 Mb/s. I’ve got connmon running, as well spdMerlin, and my connection quality looks good, so I’m wondering if the Asus is the bottleneck. I tested line speed with just a single iMac connected directly to the cable modem and then through the ASUS using Ethernet, and saw 250 Mb/s with a single machine, and then a drop of about 100 Mb/s when the ASUS (and the rest of my network) was connected.

So what kind of throughput should the ASUS be capable of?


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[L&LD]

Before I upgraded the RT-AC68U to the RT-AC3100 and now to the RT-AC86U, with my 1Gbps up/down connection I could get around 400Mbps with AiProtection enabled.

With the RT-AC3100 I can see around 750 Mbps with AiProtection enabled.

With the RT-AC86U I can hit 950Mbps with AiProtection, amtm and almost all the scripts running (please see my signature) using a USB 3.0 drive in USB 2.0 mode on the router. Note, that with 1Gbps up/down, QoS is not recommended on an Asus router.

If you're running with QoS and other features, you should still be able to improve the speeds considerably.

Upgrade to 384.11_0 (release), perform a full reset to factory defaults and I'm positive your performance will increase substantially.

 

[Doug Nix]

Thanks LD&D! I will do that. I need to back up my scripts and so on before I flash the new firmware and do an M&M config. I’ll update once I get that done and have a chance to see how it’s performing.


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[L&LD]

Thanks LD&D! I will do that. I need to back up my scripts and so on before I flash the new firmware and do an M&M config. I’ll update once I get that done and have a chance to see how it’s performing.


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Please note I edited post 2. I had the RT-AC3100 showing 950 Mbps, oops! I meant the RT-AC86U, of course.

I don't know what scripts you're using, but I would start with the amtm Step-by-Step guide.

amtm Step-by-Step https://www.snbforums.com/threads/amtm-step-by-step-install-guide-l-ld.56237/#post-483421

There have been many changes to not only the scripts but also to RMerlin's firmware with the 384.11 release, a clean and manual configuration of the scripts that are actually needed today would be very beneficial towards a secure, fast and stable network.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I tested line speed with just a single iMac connected directly to the cable modem and then through the ASUS using Ethernet, and saw 250 Mb/s with a single machine, and then a drop of about 100 Mb/s when the ASUS (and the rest of my network) was connected.

I'm a bit confused about what you're saying here. Are you saying that with a single machine plugged directly into your cable modem you're only getting 250Mbps from your 1000Mbps line?

 

[doczenith1]

I could easily hit 940 Mbps both up and down with my old 68U with CTF enabled albeit at 100% cpu usage. I had no scripts running and a minimal config. I did have AiProtection enabled when I was getting those speeds. If I disabled AiProtection then FA would enable and I would get the 940 speeds with very little cpu usage.

I agree with @ColinTaylor that your post is not clear on what speeds you are getting with the computer connected directly to the cable modem via Ethernet. Can you confirm that you are able to get 'gigabit' speeds when connected directly to the cable modem. Also, which speed test site are you using? Using speedtest.net I can get results ranging from 300 Mbps to 950 Mbps depending on which server I connect to. The DSLReports speedtest takes a little longer but is usually a bit more accurate.

 

[Doug Nix]

I'm a bit confused about what you're saying here. Are you saying that with a single machine plugged directly into your cable modem you're only getting 250Mbps from your 1000Mbps line?

Yes. I’ve actually got a service tech here right now from Rogers to see what they can do to fix that problem. I spent most of an hour dealing with their telephone tech support yesterday. That guy was pretty useless. He mostly wanted to set me up with an eero mesh network, which I don’t want.


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[Doug Nix]

I ran tests this morning with QoS enabled and disabled which had no effect.

Yesterday I was getting around 250 mb/s with my iMac connected directly and exclusively to the cable modem. Clearly there’s a problem with the line. I’m working on getting that solved today.


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[L&LD]

I ran tests this morning with QoS enabled and disabled which had no effect.

Yesterday I was getting around 250 mb/s with my iMac connected directly and exclusively to the cable modem. Clearly there’s a problem with the line. I’m working on getting that solved today.


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At 250Mbps or less, QoS won't show any difference on almost any router newer than an RT-AC56U.

 

[Doug Nix]

So... I spent two and a half hours with a Rogers tech. He made busy with crimping some new connectors on the coax, fiddled with the Hitron CODA 4582U, then deemed it to be the problem. Replaced the modem to little effect. More fiddling and calls to Level 2 tech support, and eventually he was able to get speeds to the Rogers backbone of up to 930 Mb/s down / 25 Mb/s up. OK. Blamed the ASUS router for the whole thing. Left me to straighten out the mess. Now I find that the 5G wifi on the Hitron isn't working properly. What a piece of crap.

Anybody got any recommendations for high quality, Comcast compatible cable modems I could buy? I don't need one with an integral switch or Wifi, but don't care if it has either/both.

 

[L&LD]

So... I spent two and a half hours with a Rogers tech. He made busy with crimping some new connectors on the coax, fiddled with the Hitron CODA 4582U, then deemed it to be the problem. Replaced the modem to little effect. More fiddling and calls to Level 2 tech support, and eventually he was able to get speeds to the Rogers backbone of up to 930 Mb/s down / 25 Mb/s up. OK. Blamed the ASUS router for the whole thing. Left me to straighten out the mess. Now I find that the 5G wifi on the Hitron isn't working properly. What a piece of crap.

Anybody got any recommendations for high quality, Comcast compatible cable modems I could buy? I don't need one with an integral switch or Wifi, but don't care if it has either/both.

If you don't care for it to have a switch or WiFi, why do you want to buy one?

Isn't the one they provided giving you the ISP speeds you're paying for now?

 

[Datalink]

@Doug Nix Rogers does not allow customer owned modems on their network. The only exceptions are the original CGN3 modems that were sold by Best Buy approx three years ago, or longer, and the much older Cisco 3825s and SMC3DGNs and TPIA modems which have been approved by Rogers for TPIA customers. Every other modem used by Rogers customers, beyond those CGN3s, 3825s and SMC3DGNs, is supplied by Rogers on a rental basis.

Just out of curiosity, why are you attempting to use the 4582 for wifi purposes when you have a much better router on hand which is the 68U?

Fwiw, the 68U will top out around 910 to 930 Mb/s on an IPV4 speedtest. From what I remember that doesn't change with the AI Protection enabled or disabled. If you run an IPV6 speedtest with AI Protection enabled, then you will notice a drop in performance.

As long as your external cabling and connectors are operating correctly, you should find that the combination of the modem in Bridge mode and 68U in Router mode is very stable and performs as expected.

 

[sinshiva]

So... I spent two and a half hours with a Rogers tech. He made busy with crimping some new connectors on the coax, fiddled with the Hitron CODA 4582U, then deemed it to be the problem. Replaced the modem to little effect. More fiddling and calls to Level 2 tech support, and eventually he was able to get speeds to the Rogers backbone of up to 930 Mb/s down / 25 Mb/s up. OK. Blamed the ASUS router for the whole thing. Left me to straighten out the mess. Now I find that the 5G wifi on the Hitron isn't working properly. What a piece of crap.

Anybody got any recommendations for high quality, Comcast compatible cable modems I could buy? I don't need one with an integral switch or Wifi, but don't care if it has either/both.

Hi, think you may need to try reverting to 384.10_2 (3-Apr-2019)

384.9 (2-Feb-2019)

384.8_2 (8-Dec-2018) < i believe this puts you into john's LTS fork.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-asuswrt-merlin-374-43-lts-releases-v39e3.18914/

 

[L&LD]

Hi, think you may need to try reverting to 384.10_2 (3-Apr-2019)

384.9 (2-Feb-2019)

384.8_2 (8-Dec-2018) < i believe this puts you into john's LTS fork.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-asuswrt-merlin-374-43-lts-releases-v39e3.18914/

Why?

 

[sinshiva]

Why?

yeah, i misread this as being wifi with a similar bandwidth limit on downstream as the other thread, and tricked myself into seeing a pattern, which i then attributed to being possibly a blob. since this user was using the previous blob, i editted and recommended the blobs before that; except that i mistakenly suggested the blobs it was already using and got to a 3rd edit for what ended up being the last release that was compatible with the ac56.

[/mytwistedlogic]

 

[Doug Nix]

All right friends, here's the final upshot. I was finally able to get the Hitron CODA-4582U running properly in gateway mode, obtaining 950/27 with an Ethernet connection to the cable modem. I switched it over into bridge mode and reconnected the RT-AC68U. I then verified the line speed through the RT-AC68U, and it was running about 150 Mb/s down which was about where it was when I started this.

I followed LD&D's M&M process, and then flashed the 380.11 firmware. My first test, before doing anything to the RT-AC-68U except the basic config yielded:

and a line speed test using my ethernet connected iMac of

I then turned on AIprotection, settled the router and tested, then I added QoS with custom config based on the info on FreshJR Adaptive QOS, but without installing FreshJR Adaptive QOS. This killed the throughput.

So I disabled QoS for now.

I left the RT-AC68U alone for awhile so it could settle, then I went ahead and set up the swap file and /jffs/. Once I had that all set up, and the router stable, I installed amtm, and Entware, and then I retested the line speed.

So far, so good.

I installed Diversion, Skynet, connmon, scMerlin and uiDivStats, testing between each to make sure that I wasn't killing the throughput.

With all of that onboard the dashboard looks like this:

With all that running, my last speed test yielded 853/32! So I'm going to leave her to run following one last re-boot and then I'll retest in the morning.

Thanks to RMerlin, theLonelyCoder and JackYaz for all the great software, and LD&D for the step-by-step instructions for M&M and script installation and ASUS for a capable box running open source software.

Now, to bed. I should get at least a few hours sleep before I need to get up and do some real work.

 

[Doug Nix]

One last pic:

 

[L&LD]

All right friends, here's the final upshot. I was finally able to get the Hitron CODA-4582U running properly in gateway mode, obtaining 950/27 with an Ethernet connection to the cable modem. I switched it over into bridge mode and reconnected the RT-AC68U. I then verified the line speed through the RT-AC68U, and it was running about 150 Mb/s down which was about where it was when I started this.

I followed LD&D's M&M process, and then flashed the 380.11 firmware. My first test, before doing anything to the RT-AC-68U except the basic config yielded:
View attachment 17521
and a line speed test using my ethernet connected iMac of
View attachment 17522

I then turned on AIprotection, settled the router and tested, then I added QoS with custom config based on the info on FreshJR Adaptive QOS, but without installing FreshJR Adaptive QOS. This killed the throughput.
View attachment 17523

So I disabled QoS for now.

I left the RT-AC68U alone for awhile so it could settle, then I went ahead and set up the swap file and /jffs/. Once I had that all set up, and the router stable, I installed amtm, and Entware, and then I retested the line speed.
View attachment 17526

So far, so good.

I installed Diversion, Skynet, connmon, scMerlin and uiDivStats, testing between each to make sure that I wasn't killing the throughput.

With all of that onboard the dashboard looks like this:
View attachment 17527

With all that running, my last speed test yielded 853/32! So I'm going to leave her to run following one last re-boot and then I'll retest in the morning.

Thanks to RMerlin, theLonelyCoder and JackYaz for all the great software, and LD&D for the step-by-step instructions for M&M and script installation and ASUS for a capable box running open source software.

Now, to bed. I should get at least a few hours sleep before I need to get up and do some real work.

If you did the M&M Config properly, you would have flashed the 384.11_0 firmware first.

Glad to see you got your router and network back to shape.

 

[Doug Nix]

If you did the M&M Config properly, you would have flashed the 384.11_0 firmware first.

Glad to see you got your router and network back to shape.

Which is what I did, but I was writing it up at 03:45 and so my timeline might have been a bit scrambled... zzzzz

 

[doczenith1]

@Doug Nix when you are running your speed tests can you check the level of NAT acceleration on your router. Finding out what level of NAT acceleration may help figure out why your speeds are varying. I believe on the 68U the NAT acceleration (might be called HW acceleration) is shown under LAN>Switch control and also maybe on the Tools tab. After making changes to AiProtection and other options such as QoS that affect NAT acceleration you'll need to reboot router for the NAT acceleration to update.