ASUS AiProtection impacting download speeds

[pricemi115]

I am using an ASUS RT-AC5300 running ASUS-Merlin v386.5.
My ISP recently upgraded my service from 400Mbps down/10Mpbs up to 600Mbps down/20Mbps up.
Prior to the speed increase, when testing internet speeds from the router under the Adaptive QoS section,
I would see the expected download speeds (with overprovisioning - typically 430-450Mpbs down).
Since the speed increase, I am only seeing 490Mbps-510Mbps. Upload speeds are fine.
I found that if any of the AiProtection settings are active (Two Way IPS, Malicious Site Blocking, and/or Indected Device Detection/Blocking)
then the download speed is limited. If all are disabled, then I am seeing download speeds in the range of 650-680Mbps.

It would seem that there is some threshold for the TrendMicro/AiProtection and I have exceeded that resulting in the performance impact to download speeds.
Do others see this impact?
the router is 5 years old and I have been on the fence about upgrading to a WiFi6 version and I am wondering if a newer router would not be as significantly impacted.
The AiProtection seems to be a "good thing" in general and would like to keep it active.

If anyone has thoughts about other settings to check - any input would be welcome.
FWIW - QoS is disabled.

 

[bbunge]

I am using an ASUS RT-AC5300 running ASUS-Merlin v386.5.
My ISP recently upgraded my service from 400Mbps down/10Mpbs up to 600Mbps down/20Mbps up.
Prior to the speed increase, when testing internet speeds from the router under the Adaptive QoS section,
I would see the expected download speeds (with overprovisioning - typically 430-450Mpbs down).
Since the speed increase, I am only seeing 490Mbps-510Mbps. Upload speeds are fine.
I found that if any of the AiProtection settings are active (Two Way IPS, Malicious Site Blocking, and/or Indected Device Detection/Blocking)
then the download speed is limited. If all are disabled, then I am seeing download speeds in the range of 650-680Mbps.

It would seem that there is some threshold for the TrendMicro/AiProtection and I have exceeded that resulting in the performance impact to download speeds.
Do others see this impact?
the router is 5 years old and I have been on the fence about upgrading to a WiFi6 version and I am wondering if a newer router would not be as significantly impacted.
The AiProtection seems to be a "good thing" in general and would like to keep it active.

If anyone has thoughts about other settings to check - any input would be welcome.
FWIW - QoS is disabled.

If you are happy with your router and what it does for you, including protecting your devices with AiProtect, forget about the bandwidth. Speed is not everything!

As for the upgrade, go for it if you have the cash. I am well pleased with the AX86U even on my 100/100 service.

 

[Ellenswamy]

I am using an ASUS RT-AC5300 running ASUS-Merlin v386.5.
My ISP recently upgraded my service from 400Mbps down/10Mpbs up to 600Mbps down/20Mbps up.
Prior to the speed increase, when testing internet speeds from the router under the Adaptive QoS section,
I would see the expected download speeds (with overprovisioning - typically 430-450Mpbs down).
Since the speed increase, I am only seeing 490Mbps-510Mbps. Upload speeds are fine.
I found that if any of the AiProtection settings are active (Two Way IPS, Malicious Site Blocking, and/or Indected Device Detection/Blocking)
then the download speed is limited. If all are disabled, then I am seeing download speeds in the range of 650-680Mbps.

It would seem that there is some threshold for the TrendMicro/AiProtection and I have exceeded that resulting in the performance impact to download speeds.
Do others see this impact?
the router is 5 years old and I have been on the fence about upgrading to a WiFi6 version and I am wondering if a newer router would not be as significantly impacted.
The AiProtection seems to be a "good thing" in general and would like to keep it active.

If anyone has thoughts about other settings to check - any input would be welcome.
FWIW - QoS is disabled.

This is known with aiprotect. Same thing happens to me but it isn't showing the real speeds. can test the speeds on the router and get 600, I pay for 1.2...but do a wifi speed test on my Mac and get 800...

 

[Paliv]

You are cpu limited on your router in this situation as others have said. For reference my AX86U has hit downloads up to 700Mbps (not sure if it was limited by the service or the router which was only at 75% on the cpu core), and speed tests with 2 devices have been able to get 1.3ish Gbps with AiProtection on. Not sure if actual downloads would go that fast, but theoretically they could. So an upgrade could help, but may not be necessary.

 

[follower]

I am using an ASUS RT-AC5300 running ASUS-Merlin v386.5.
My ISP recently upgraded my service from 400Mbps down/10Mpbs up to 600Mbps down/20Mbps up.
Prior to the speed increase, when testing internet speeds from the router under the Adaptive QoS section,
I would see the expected download speeds (with overprovisioning - typically 430-450Mpbs down).
Since the speed increase, I am only seeing 490Mbps-510Mbps. Upload speeds are fine.
I found that if any of the AiProtection settings are active (Two Way IPS, Malicious Site Blocking, and/or Indected Device Detection/Blocking)
then the download speed is limited. If all are disabled, then I am seeing download speeds in the range of 650-680Mbps.

It would seem that there is some threshold for the TrendMicro/AiProtection and I have exceeded that resulting in the performance impact to download speeds.
Do others see this impact?
the router is 5 years old and I have been on the fence about upgrading to a WiFi6 version and I am wondering if a newer router would not be as significantly impacted.
The AiProtection seems to be a "good thing" in general and would like to keep it active.

If anyone has thoughts about other settings to check - any input would be welcome.
FWIW - QoS is disabled.

Disable it.

 

[Tech9]

Do others see this impact?

Test the actual speed to wired client. Built-in speedtest is CPU limited.

 

[pricemi115]

Test the actual speed to wired client. Built-in speedtest is CPU limited.

I have done this and I get the expected download speeds, which led me to discover that simply disabling the AiProtection on the router also results in the full download speeds with the Built-in ASUS Speed test on the router. I further found that having any of the AiProtection items enabled would result in the lower speed.

 

[pricemi115]

You are cpu limited on your router in this situation as others have said. For reference my AX86U has hit downloads up to 700Mbps (not sure if it was limited by the service or the router which was only at 75% on the cpu core), and speed tests with 2 devices have been able to get 1.3ish Gbps with AiProtection on. Not sure if actual downloads would go that fast, but theoretically they could. So an upgrade could help, but may not be necessary.

Thank you. I have been on the fence about upgrading the 4+ year old router for other reasons.

 

[pricemi115]

This is known with aiprotect. Same thing happens to me but it isn't showing the real speeds. can test the speeds on the router and get 600, I pay for 1.2...but do a wifi speed test on my Mac and get 800...

I expect (and have observed) that running speed tests on the LAN side will always show slower speeds. It is always preferable to test "as close to" the gateway as possible, which is why I prefer to use the built-in speed test app on the router. (or take the router offline and replace with a single computer for testing, but that is a real pain for anything other than debugging why I was not seeing the expected speeds and trying to identify where the bottleneck was.

 

[Paliv]

I expect (and have observed) that running speed tests on the LAN side will always show slower speeds. It is always preferable to test "as close to" the gateway as possible, which is why I prefer to use the built-in speed test app on the router. (or take the router offline and replace with a single computer for testing, but that is a real pain for anything other than debugging why I was not seeing the expected speeds and trying to identify where the bottleneck was.

So my AX86U can test up to 1400 Mbps with AiProtection on, if the network is really quiet. But, it consistently is much lower because the CPU is busy. However 2 clients aggregated test over 1Gbps consistently. So I think the built in speed test isn’t the best indication of gateway bandwidth.

 

[Tech9]

I have done this and I get the expected download speeds

AiProtection items enabled would result in the lower speed

Incorrect measurement in GUI.

 

[SunrisePro]

I have done this and I get the expected download speeds

Where are you measuring the download speeds?

 

[Tech9]

Where are you measuring the download speeds?

You can see actual speeds on a wired to the router computer. If it's a laptop, energy saving features have to be disabled for accurate results.

 

[SunrisePro]

Is the speed test part of the router firmware? Or using an external site like speedtest.net?

 

[Tech9]

Integrated in firmware, but using external Ookla service with privacy policy attached. I see it as just another bloatware in Asuswrt.

 

[SunrisePro]

Got it. I'll compare both and see what the difference is once I setup my router.

 

[Tech9]

You can play with it, it's a gimmick. The result doesn't matter though, if your actual clients are getting expected speeds.

 

[ToXic_DST]

in gt-ax11000 (386.5) AI is ON speed down to ca.540Mb/s and AI is OFF speed up to ca.940Mb/s in Bulitin speedtest to same in internet browser speedtest (((

 

[drinkingbird]

I expect (and have observed) that running speed tests on the LAN side will always show slower speeds. It is always preferable to test "as close to" the gateway as possible, which is why I prefer to use the built-in speed test app on the router. (or take the router offline and replace with a single computer for testing, but that is a real pain for anything other than debugging why I was not seeing the expected speeds and trying to identify where the bottleneck was.

Actually the built in speed test is always slower for me than using a PC on the LAN (wired or wireless) to the same test server on speedtest.net.

I have an old AC-1900 and was capped about 250M and one CPU would be pegged at 100%. At one point I did a full reset/initialize and reconfigured everything. Even with the protection features enabled, I can now max out my 350M service and both CPUs are around 60%. So you may want to consider trying that along with the latest firmware.