ASUS Router Issue or ISP?

[mccainmw]

I spent a few hours troubleshooting with no luck. Issue occurred last year and I fixed by doing a factory reset and restoring from settings file. That didn't work this time.

I have two Asus RT-AXE7800 in mesh with ATT 1Gb service. Normally I can pull 800Mbps over close Wifi 6 or 6e connection. Now it only pulls about 500Mbps. I've checked connection with gateway and even the Asus GUI speed test and it is fine (990 Mbps on Gateway and 850 Mbps in router test). In any browser though (Windows, Android, or iOS device) it is slower. I have checked QOS, IPV6, and other known culprits without success.

The other interesting part is that if I enable VPN my speed goes to what it should be (800+ Mbps). I'd expect the opposite.

What am I missing that is causing the slower non-VPN speed. Region server issue or some other configuration or setting I'm missing?

Any help or explanation is appreciated.

 

[Tech9]

If you have 990Mbps at the Gateway - obviously not ISP related issue.

Channel bandwidth is shared, not exclusive or guaranteed. I can "pull" 500-850Mbps from my access points depending on how busy the environment is. Your 6GHz band has shorter range, your 5GHz band perhaps hears other networks around. For best speed you need: 1) quiet environment; 2) signal level -54dBm or better.

You may not get many model specific replies because this particular model is known around for past firmware related issues and for the fact it's an overpriced RT-AX58U V2 hardware with one additional radio. It also has no Asuswrt-Merlin support most Asus router users on this forum are after. Not too many people around have it.

 

[mccainmw]

Thanks...I just find it weird that with VPN enabled it has great bandwidth and without it doesn't...it should be the other way around. You're right though...while I don't necessarily regret the purchase because most of the time it works(ed) great. It was on sale and one of the more affordable 6E routers available at the time. I do have the latest firmware on both APs but wish Merlin or gnuton would make something for it. Maybe this weekend I'll do another factory reset an rebuild settings from scratch (as opposed to a settings file).

 

[Tech9]

This router can do about 100-120Mbps on OpenVPN and perhaps 300-350Mbps on WireGuard. The CPU doesn't have AES extensions and as far as I remember this hardware platform doesn't support flow cache bypass for WireGuard. If you test higher speed with VPN enabled: 1) the interface tested is not VPN; 2) data goes around as IPv6 leak; 3) some other bug happening.

 

[degrub]

Or maybe you are connecting to a different node and do not realize it.