asus router for wired 1 Gbps PPPoE

[Terry Inge]

Hi folks,

I'll changing places and with this will upgrade my internet to 1Gbps however the ISP is using PPPoE for its connection and I'm looking for a router that can handle this.

# tl;dr
I have two main questions which I hope to find answers for:

1. What would be the most reliable and cheapest (Asus) router that can handle this type of connection? I'm interested mainly in the wired connectivity - I don't plan to use wifi much for this router so whether it's N or AC doesn't really matter.
All I want is for it to handle, as easy as possible the connection without losing packages or interruptions.

2. I've been using Tomato over the years and ended up with a lot of configuration in the firewall (port forwarding and such) so I'm hoping to keep it. However since Tomato does not rely on the hardware offload/NAT and thus is unsuitable, I'm thinking of using it right after the Asuswrt router in a scenario like this:

ISP -> AsusWRT-Merlin (PPPoE/hw NAT) -> Tomato

Any ideas whether this would work? Would Tomato from what you know/heard be able to handle 1Gbps WAN/LAN without PPPoE

# Long story

Why this complicated setup?

From the time I've spent researching this issue, such speeds are supported by the router hardware by using the closed source dedicated drivers (FA + CTF) and disabling QoS, port forwarding, IP monitoring, etc... basically anything that does some time of packet introspection (would a firewall apply here)?
My understanding is that one has to either pick the speed or the rules/monitoring convenience.

I'm trying to do both : have one router that handles the ISP connectivity and another router (in this case Tomato for convenience) to handle the bandwidth monitoring, etc... The idea being without the PPPoE and the NAT itself, Tomato would be able to handle this much better.

Would this work or not really?

Should I look for a full-blown x86/x64 machine (I really don't want due to their size but most importantly setup - I really appreciate the dedicated routing firmware and don't mind paying extra even if the performance is not as good)?

Thanks,

 

[RMerlin]

That setup won't work. Your Tomato router will still cap your traffic to around 150 Mbps, since it has to re-NAT the traffic between WAN and LAN.

 

[Terry Inge]

That setup won't work. Your Tomato router will still cap your traffic to around 150 Mbps, since it has to re-NAT the traffic between WAN and LAN.

Darn it - I was hoping the PPPoE was the bottleneck. I guess I could move the NAT all the way to the first router but than what's the point of using the second one...

What router would you recommend in terms of power for a gigabit PPPoE? And with hardware offload, what type of features are disabled (to achieve the high speed processing)? Is there a list somewhere?
I'm interested mainly in DMZ, Upnp/pmp, port forwarding and potentially port triggered (I can live without this one). The fact that bandwidth monitoring doesn't work is worrying (seems to be a basic function as oppose to say QoS).

 

[RMerlin]

What router would you recommend in terms of power for a gigabit PPPoE? And with hardware offload, what type of features are disabled (to achieve the high speed processing)? Is there a list somewhere?
I'm interested mainly in DMZ, Upnp/pmp, port forwarding and potentially port triggered (I can live without this one). The fact that bandwidth monitoring doesn't work is worrying (seems to be a basic function as oppose to say QoS).

No idea. None of the ISPs here offer PPPoE over 200 Mbps. Anything faster is usually optical fiber.

 

[Terry Inge]

Here it's optic fiber as well however for some reason, the ISP still wants PPPoE - why encapsulate the frames? I think it's mainly 'legacy' plus authentication (user/pass).
I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet, get a router, install the firmware, customize it and see whether hw offload is still present or not.
Sorry for asking a 'dumb' question (couldn't find an answer) but what's the easiest way to know on asuswrt whether FA and CTF are enabled (and not disabled through some option)?

Thanks,

 

[RMerlin]

Sorry for asking a 'dumb' question (couldn't find an answer) but what's the easiest way to know on asuswrt whether FA and CTF are enabled (and not disabled through some option)?

Thanks,

On Asuswrt-Merlin: Tools -> Sysinfo
On Asuswrt, you will have to dig through the system log.

 

[cosmoxl]

I have fiber to my room and ISP requires PPPoE as well. And only 35mbit/s for $60 per month. Waste of fiber and expensive to boot.

 

[Terry Inge]

@RMerlin thanks (I meant asuswrt-merlin )
@cosmoxl not sure where you're based, but while internet is cheap here, the gigabit tends to apply locally (as in within the country so called metropolitan) - the moment you get out, things are completely different. And also, a lot of other things are expensive and the quality crap - so all in all, things balance out...

 

[Deepcuts]

N66U can do 850-860 Mbps with PPPoE
AC68U can do 940 Mbps with PPPoE

Any lower than that, price wise, I tested a TP-Link Gigabit TL-WR1043ND, with 900-910 Mbps PPPoE

 

[hasuboy]

Hi folks,

I'll changing places and with this will upgrade my internet to 1Gbps however the ISP is using PPPoE for its connection and I'm looking for a router that can handle this.

# tl;dr
I have two main questions which I hope to find answers for:

1. What would be the most reliable and cheapest (Asus) router that can handle this type of connection? I'm interested mainly in the wired connectivity - I don't plan to use wifi much for this router so whether it's N or AC doesn't really matter.
All I want is for it to handle, as easy as possible the connection without losing packages or interruptions.

2. I've been using Tomato over the years and ended up with a lot of configuration in the firewall (port forwarding and such) so I'm hoping to keep it. However since Tomato does not rely on the hardware offload/NAT and thus is unsuitable, I'm thinking of using it right after the Asuswrt router in a scenario like this:

ISP -> AsusWRT-Merlin (PPPoE/hw NAT) -> Tomato

Any ideas whether this would work? Would Tomato from what you know/heard be able to handle 1Gbps WAN/LAN without PPPoE

# Long story

Why this complicated setup?

From the time I've spent researching this issue, such speeds are supported by the router hardware by using the closed source dedicated drivers (FA + CTF) and disabling QoS, port forwarding, IP monitoring, etc... basically anything that does some time of packet introspection (would a firewall apply here)?
My understanding is that one has to either pick the speed or the rules/monitoring convenience.

I'm trying to do both : have one router that handles the ISP connectivity and another router (in this case Tomato for convenience) to handle the bandwidth monitoring, etc... The idea being without the PPPoE and the NAT itself, Tomato would be able to handle this much better.

Would this work or not really?

Should I look for a full-blown x86/x64 machine (I really don't want due to their size but most importantly setup - I really appreciate the dedicated routing firmware and don't mind paying extra even if the performance is not as good)?

Thanks,

i discussed with my colleagues some time ago just some of the questions you mentioned. i can provide some informations to you, and i hope useful to you.

the more developed countries in the network, or the network bandwidth more affluent countries, they usually do not use pppoe connections, like Korea, Hongkong, etc... as far as i know, they are all ways to use DHCP. in my country, 90%+ of users are using pppoe, and the ISP can provide the maximum bandwidth is 200Mbps(for home user).

i really don't know my internet bandwidth, because i have a brother who works in ISP, you know....i don't say it. i only know that my pppoe account has no bandwidth limit. i've tested on AC68U and AC87U, the maximum download speed can reach 65MB/S, about 500Mbps, of course the CTF need to enable. if i disable it, the maximum download speed can only reach 28MB/s. to be honest, i have limited knowledge about CTF, but i know it will affect NAT performance, and i think it has a huge impact on the performance of pppoe NAT. why did i say this?

i have a friend sent a router to me from Korea, he uses the router in Korea to reach 900Mbps+ NAT(download/upload), but to my home, the maximum donwload speed is only about 28MB/s(200+Mbps), i think this route don't have CTF, of course i think it has a relationship with pppoe. i also used iperf tool to test this router's NAT performance(WAN--->LAN), the test can reach 900+Mbps.

about tomato firmware, i remember in the latest version already has CTF, and i tested that the download/upload speed has no difference with AC68U/AC87U. in previous versions of old, my maximum download/upload speed is no more than 30MB/S.

in short, i believe that pppoe nat performance is different with dhcp mode or static ip. i think this is why did those ISP(high bandwidth provided) don't use pppoe.