AC68U with 1.5Gb fibre?

[Mine Ong]

I expected to know the answer but would like to get confirmation from the more experienced users of this group.

Recently I upgraded to Bell 1.5Gb/950Mb fibre internet. Still using my old trusty AC68U router. I have the b1 username/password, so I experimented with doing the PPPoE pass-through (AC86U does the login) and double-NAT.

In both cases, my download/upload speed is around 94/94 Mbps, running speedtest on a PC that is hard-wired to the AC68U. However, running the speedtest directly on Giga Hub gave me a speed exceeding the advertised speed: 1.6Gb/930Mb.

double-NAT has a bit more latency but that's a different story.

My question is, time to upgrade the AC68U?

I don't need 1.5Gb download but will settle 1Gb download since the WAN port of the AC68U is 1Gb. I am guessing that the CPU is simply too slow to hand even 1GB?

regards,

 

[L&LD]

You may want to check your cable between the PC and the router.

Either way, that is an old router and effectively EOL today (as is all AC class equipment).

I would suggest you buy the best bang for the buck GT-AX6000 for your new ISP speeds. It may prove to be the only router you need in the entire home vs. the older routers you have now.

[ 386.4 alpha Build(s) ] Testing available build(s)

There are some odd regressions being discussed on the dnsmasq-discuss list from the PiHole guy (Dominik). https://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/pipermail/dnsmasq-discuss/2021q3/015598.html https://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/pipermail/dnsmasq-discuss/2021q3/015596.html I see Merlin is testing 2.86 out...

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[ColinTaylor]

Even with various options enabled your AC68U (not the AC86U you mentioned?) should be capable of >94 Mbps. Are you sure you haven't set a QoS limit of 100Mbps? Check that your WAN and LAN cables are connecting to the router at gigabit speed and not 100Mbps.

 

[bennor]

My question is, time to upgrade the AC68U?

If you want to utilize the full bandwidth of your connection, yes its time to upgrade. If not why bother paying for 1.5Gb broadband? The Rt-AC68U can do no better than 1 Gb due to the WAN port, and by extension the LAN ports, capabilities.

If you are not getting close to 800 to 900 Mbps speed with the router, do a hard factory reset and do a basic manual configuration with the latest router firmware installed. Do not restore a saved router config file. Do not enable AiProtection, QoS or any other extra features on the router. Do not attach a USB drive to the router.

Edit to add: The following was posted early today in another subforum...

Throughput testing 386.11 on RT-AC1900 (RT-AC68U)

Had seen a couple questions around throughput and had some time to kill (and was curious) so did some testing. TL;DR: RT-AC1900 (Equal to RT-AC68U v1 variants with 1Ghz dual core processor) running Merlin 386.11 with extra VPNs removed. Aiprotection and Traffic Stats enabled, but no other...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Tech9]

I am guessing that the CPU is simply too slow to hand even 1GB?

This router in light configuration will do 940Mbps wired and about 500Mbps wireless.
Your 94Mbps up/down result is a Fast Ethernet connection (100Mbps) on your WAN port. Check the cable and the port speed.

If not why bother paying for 1.5Gb broadband?

Because Bell packages are almost the same price up to 1.5Gbps. Plan 150/150 is CAD115, 500/500 is CAD125, 1500/940 is CAD130. Most people get some discount and go for the highest they can afford. Then spend few hundreds of dollars in chasing the ISP speed for no good reason.

 

[heysoundude]

If you can't bridge Ma Bell's hardware, it's time to use your AC68 as an extra AP for coverage or a media bridge to the GigaHub.
@bennor summed up what I had to say otherwise.

 

[wouterv]

To add some to all above:
My RT-AC68U did handle around 600 / 600 Mbps, it required either a 1 Gbps wired connection (check the Status Tab on the Network Map page) or at least 2x2 wireless clients.
To go beyond 600 - 700 Mbps wireless also the clients need to be capable with e.g. 3x3.
In short 1 Gbps Internet speed can't be handled by the RT-AC68U and probably most of your wireless clients will not either.
Consider if there is a real need to scale up your wireless network.
We scaled down and went back from 600 / 600 to 75 / 75 which is way sufficient for our plain household.

 

[Mine Ong]

Thanks to all who replied. There indeed is a bottleneck within my LAN, which I'll investigate.

For now, I made sure that the WAN port of AC68U is connected to the silver port on the Giga Hub, and connected my linux server directly to the LAN of AC68U (i.e. without going to additional switch). I then ran the speedtest from the linux prompt, and I am now getting around 700/900 Mbps.

I am aware that to take full advantage of 1.5Gb fibre, I will need to invest in additional hardware including AX routers, 2.5Gb switch, etc.

regards,

 

[drinkingbird]

To add some to all above:
My RT-AC68U did handle around 600 / 600 Mbps, it required either a 1 Gbps wired connection (check the Status Tab on the Network Map page) or at least 2x2 wireless clients.
To go beyond 600 - 700 Mbps wireless also the clients need to be capable with e.g. 3x3.
In short 1 Gbps Internet speed can't be handled by the RT-AC68U and probably most of your wireless clients will not either.
Consider if there is a real need to scale up your wireless network.
We scaled down and went back from 600 / 600 to 75 / 75 which is way sufficient for our plain household.

Depends on the version of the router you have, my 1Ghz variant can do almost 900M wired to the WAN and that's with Aiprotection and Traffic stats enabled. Without those it could probably hit the full ~930 to ~950 limit of gig.

Older versions have 800Mhz CPUs, newer have 1.4ghz, so obviously those will have potentially lower/higher abilities.

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks to all who replied. There indeed is a bottleneck within my LAN, which I'll investigate.

For now, I made sure that the WAN port of AC68U is connected to the silver port on the Giga Hub, and connected my linux server directly to the LAN of AC68U (i.e. without going to additional switch). I then ran the speedtest from the linux prompt, and I am now getting around 700/900 Mbps.

I am aware that to take full advantage of 1.5Gb fibre, I will need to invest in additional hardware including AX routers, 2.5Gb switch, etc.

regards,

Do you know which variant (800mhz, 1Ghz, 1.4ghz) of the 68U you have? Those number seem pretty reasonable for the 800mhz one, or even the 1Ghz one as the double NAT setup may be adding enough latency to slow it down a bit. But you may be able to get the full ~950M speed of 1G by disabling stuff like Aiprotection and Traffic stats if you are using them. In reality, putting the latest firmware and hard factory resetting it, followed by configuring only minimal stuff (definitely no Trend Micro features or traffic stats) will probably get you up to the full gig speed regardless of the CPU you have. But as you said, if you want to hit your full >1G speed you need a new router with 2.5G port(s).

If you can't bridge or eliminate the ISP device, then it may make more sense to just use that, and maybe relegate the 68U as a second AP if needed, or just retire it.