Fiber Optic Speed on GT-AC5300 Slower than Cable

[Umrk]

Hello wouterv:

Like I posted earlier, after resetting the router to factory default settings, I ran multiple speed tests. I connected a relatively new Mac Book Pro (2022) directly to the router using a Cat 6 cable. I included the results of just one of the many speed tests I ran:

Date​	Time​	Download (Mbps) ​	Upload (Mbps)​	Latency (ms)​	Server Location​	Distance (mi)​
3/26/2024​	12:42​	412.92​	505.22​	7​	San Diego​	29​

Prior to running the speed test above, I connected the same MBP directly to the ONT “modem” and got the following result(s):

Date​	Time​	Download (Mbps) ​	Upload (Mbps)​	Latency (ms)​	Server Location​	Distance (mi)​
3/26/2024​	12:36​	916.43​	942.65​	1​	San Diego​	29​

I really don’t understand how you can write off handing all of my home network’s traffic to Trend Micro by saying “on the internet, there is no such thing as privacy.” Do you seriously believe that justifies sending ALL of my data to Trend Micro? You may feel comfortable doing so, but not me and, I’m willing to bet, many other people. Who knows what they are doing with my private data. In any case, I don’t want to argue the merits or criminality of ASUS’s relationship with Trend Micro and privacy. What I really need is help determining why I am getting such poor service from a router that I paid a lot of $$$ for. Finally, I am making a point of warning others about ASUS so they don’t get fooled into buying what’s turning out to be a privacy destroying brick.
If anyone has any suggestions on what settings I can alter to increase the speed or my router, your suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
Umrk

 

[L&LD]

Dump the router (as I've stated earlier, it is EOL and ancient at this point).

Buy the RT-AX88U Pro. Current, proven model that will be reliable and performant up to an ISP speed of ~2Gbps.

If you haven't already, try new cables. Plug in the Mac to a wall outlet and put it in Performance mode (not battery savings). Be sure you have disabled WiFi when plugged into the Ethernet cable on your laptop.

Trend Micro doesn't get 'all your data'. Find and read the appropriate UELA for Asus routers (and not a generic Trend Micro document).

Your router, no matter how expensive it was to you, is now a sunk cost, and effectively unsupported. Drop it and move on to other equipment if it doesn't satisfy your current needs.

If you're connected to the internet (i.e. you're 'online'), you're not private, you're not secure, and you're not anonymous. Ever.

Regardless of the router, software, or other snake oil you may be lied to believing in via marketing or pure misunderstanding of how the internet works.

If you can connect to any other computer/server on the internet, so can anyone else back. And/or track your movements, sites visited, and any other information your devices are giving up without your explicit or implicit consent.

Trend Micro on Asus routers is a valuable service. It's not there to protect your privacy (nothing can do that). It's there to protect the websites you visit and/or your network devices with websites they may try to connect to (with or without your knowledge).

 

[bennor]

@Umark, the AiProtection/Trend Micro feature has long been a part of Asus router firmware. A cursory internet search of those features would, or should, yield the many complaints people have about Asus and Trend Micro tracking. One can read, if they haven't done so already, what data is collected:

https://nw-dlcdnet.asus.com/trend/tm_privacy

https://nw-dlcdnet.asus.com/trend/tm_pdcd

The "feature" is what it is. You have an option. Return the router and buy something else if you are still within the return window. Otherwise one can perform testing to see if they really need to enable any feature that specifically requires opting in to the AiProtection/TrendMicro feature.

Reading through your posts and replies I do not see any posting indicating the specific ONT you have from your broadband provider. What is the make and model of the ONT? Is it a combo ONT/gateway/WiFi router? What other broadband provided equipment is installed (for example did they install a router or gateway in addition to the fiber ONT)?
Edit to add: Does the Asus router indicate your broadband IP as the WAN IP when connected to the ONT or does it indicate a private network IP address (192.168.x.x, 10.0.0.x, 172.16.0.x, etc.) as the WAN IP address?

 

[EtheAv8r]

I had the same issue with my AC-RT5300, the solution was to get a better router. See https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ac5300-not-going-well-on-new-full-fibre-service.86427/

Also, regarding ASUS Support, I quickly discovered an issue with my new ASUS GT-AXE16000 in that after a router reboot, the 10G port would not work until I unplugged and re plugged the network cable, or power cycled the switch connected to that port.

The problem occurred with official ASUS firmware but not with Merlin firmware. I planned to use Merlin firmware, so in a way I did not care, but I reported the issue to ASUS and they responded quite quickly, and over a period of time we worked together resulting in them sending me a beta firmware with a fix in to see if it resolved the issue, which it did. They then issued an official release with the fix in it. So I think their support was pretty OK.

With your problem, the 5300 is ancient and EOL and was designed when such high domestic internet speeds were unthinkable. Fact is when launched the 5300 was a great router but today it cannot keep up with full fibre speeds. That is not a problem with the router, it was great for what it was designed for, but if you want the best from high speed full fibre, you need a new router designed to cope with that.

I will not address your misguided comments about Trend Micro and Privacy, as they have been well addresses above. Latest ASUS routers are good, as good as any other domestic routers, and better than most others. The Trend Micro protection is good, but if you don’t want it switch it off, but I recommend you keep it on.

If you want better privacy, install your own DNS services with PiHole, and use a VPN.

 

[Tech9]

I had the same issue with my AC-RT5300

Your RT-AC5300 (dual-core 1.4GHz ARMv7, 512MB RAM) was much older router than GT-AC5300 (quad-core 1.8GHz ARMv8, 1GB RAM).

There is no comparison between the two. Different generation devices running different firmware. GT-AC5300 is much faster HND router.

If GT-AC5300 can't handle Gigabit WAN then similar hardware GT-AX11000, GT-AXE11000, RT-AX88U, RT-AX86U also can't do Gigabit.

 

[EtheAv8r]

My bad. Symptoms very similar.