Looking for feedback: PPPoE and poor WAN performance

[RMerlin]

Howdy folks,

I'm trying to gather some of the feedback that is currently scattered around the forum concerning HW acceleration not working properly on some routers with PPPoE connections. If you have a fast (100+ Mbps) PPPoE-based connection and are having difficulties hitting the speed provided by your ISP, please post here. Specify which router model and which FW you have tried, including any previous FW versions that might have worked for you.

Make sure you do not have QoS or URL filtering enabled. If you are using my FW, please confirm that the Tools -> Sysinfo page does report HW acceleration as being Enabled.

I'm hoping to gather enough feedback here in one single place so Asus can take a look at it and determine if it's really a FW issue that can be resolved or not.

 

[viasat]

Hello
Long time reader,first time poster here.I've registered on the forums,only to say thanks for your hard work and passion.
Now,regarding the slow wan-to-lan speed on pppoe,it will be hard,because for e.g here in Romania,RDS-RCS ISP offers full gigabit connection on fiber,unlimited traffic,for 20usd/month and all the local forums are full of complaints about Asus's top end routers, like AC66U and AC68U,regarding slow speed.
No one wants to spend 200eu to be beta-tester for Asus,so people are returning or selling the routers,and go for much cheaper brand like TP-Link and much more speed comparing to Asus(at least on pppoe type connection).For e.g tp-link wdr3600 it's given by ISP at 60usd for new customers(or rent for 1,5usd/month) and Archer C7 can be bought from shops much cheaper than Asus's top models.
Same complaints on UK's forums for FTTH connection,just one topic here for e.g http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18502761
In my humble opinion,I think that's Broadcom's fault,because simililar models from Asus,like RT-N65u or RT-N56u ,with Ralink chipsets,are like rockets on pppoe,similar with Qualcomm Atheros chipsets on TP-links.
On the Russian market,one of the biggest with pppoe connection,same results,only routers with Ralink chipsets can achive good speeds on pppoe,e.g RT-N56u,65U and Zyxel Keenetic Ultra.Using google translate,you can take a look here http://forum.ixbt.com/?id=14 , Padavan it's also member there.
Anyway,thanks again for your hard work and good luck with your initiative!
Best Regards!

 

[tdub42]

I am one

Hello RMerlin, sorry I addressed you on twitter for help on this. But this problem is annoying to say the least I have had it on probably all the settings on my ac68u, I have tried changing dns addresses and such. I am currently using 375.35_4. The odd thing is that my wired win7 ultimate doesn't have the issue as bad as well as one of my wireless win7 premium. But my wired fedora 19 and wireless win8 (x2) and wireless win7 pro have issues with the wan connection. While my new 2520 tablet doesn't have them as bad either. Sorry for scattered responses working as well right now. This issue is a pain when trying to do research or anything, or go to new sites. While I like the customization of Asus I get what I am paying for with the new technology ( n66u -> ac6u -> ac68u). Thankfully I am finally getting a cable provider and maybe able to help with comparing the two on this router temporarily. Also my provider is ATT (Southeast). If you need to contact me quickly I am following you on twitter same handle except underscore. Thanks for all you do for our devices as well.

 

[iotzan]

Hello Merlin,

Writing here for posterity as I had already made a thread for this issue.

My connection is a GPON FTTB to "black box", then Ethernet [1 Gbps down / 100 Mbps up] to an Asus RT-N66U router.
Going back through all of your firmware revisions, the most recent version that provides me good performance is RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_354.29-BETA1. I have tested all of your firmwares up to and including RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.36_beta1 (148 Mbps) & RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_374.36_beta1-sdk5 (174 Mbps).
None of the currently available firmware files on the Asus website provide more than ~140 Mbps down. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the library of Asus provided firmwares throughout the life-cycle of the RT-N66U so I don't know when the low performance was introduced.

Thank you very much for looking into this issue!

 

[Deepcuts]

RT-N66U
Latest official firmware 3.0.0.4.374_979
No more than 150 Mb/s on PPPoE.

 

[squawker]

Hi Merlin,

Glad to see youre working in this issue that afflicts, by what i know until now, only specific ASUS routers using PPPoE connections.

In a rough estimate, there should be at least 10 people only in this Forum, including me, that have reported this issue in recent times.

In my case my ISP is a FTTH 200/60 Mbps PPPoE connection, and i was very disappointed when changing from a RT-N56U to a shining new RT-AC66U, and the download speeds plunked from 190/200 Mbps to about 140/160 Mbps.

The 56U’s FW was 3.0.0.342 and i’ve not changed it,or tried another until now, with fear of same problems that occur with 66U regarding download speeds.

For me, any FW newer than 3.0.0.354 in the AC66U limits download speeds to the mentioned 140/160 Mbps; i’ve not tried any other FW than official ASUS.

As i’ve mencioned in a thread about this subject, i think ASUS should put a remark about this issue on official FW download pages, and make easily found for download older FW’s that have not this problem.

Thanks for your interest in this subject and for your all hard work.

 

[scorpionro]

Hi,

I have a RT-N66U Rev.B1 and the only FWs that offers over 200MBps are based on the official 3.0.0.4_354 ( I am currently using your 3.0.0.4_354.29 Beta1 ). My connection is 1Gb PPOE and I've obtained up to 900MBps downlink and up to 105MBps uplink ( I'm limited by my provider there ). Newer FWs provide much worse performance ( the latest one - 3.0.0.4.374_979 - provides 145MBps downlink ). It's also kind of strange, but disabling HW Acceleration actually improves performance on newer FWs ( on 3.0.0.4.374.35-4 it boost performance to 165MBps downlink ).

Regards,
Cristi

 

[beholder0]

Hi,

I have a RT-N66U Rev.B1 and the only FWs that offers over 200MBps are based on the official 3.0.0.4_354 ( I am currently using your 3.0.0.4_354.29 Beta1 ). My connection is 1Gb PPOE and I've obtained up to 900MBps downlink and up to 105MBps uplink ( I'm limited by my provider there ). Newer FWs provide much worse performance ( the latest one - 3.0.0.4.374_979 - provides 145MBps downlink ). It's also kind of strange, but disabling HW Acceleration actually improves performance on newer FWs ( on 3.0.0.4.374.35-4 it boost performance to 165MBps downlink ).

Regards,
Cristi

Hi,

Could you check Merlin latest beta: 3.0.0.4.374.36 Beta 1 (with and without HW acc.)?

Here is the thread: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=14332

Thanks!

 

[iotzan]

I am currently using 3.0.0.4.374.36_beta1-sdk5 and I tried 3.0.0.4.374.36_beta1 too. At most I get 170 Mbps. I am 95% sure that scorpionro and I share the same provider.

 

[beholder0]

Iotzan,

Thanks for the info!

 

[razvandinculescu]

Guys please try 3.0.0.4.374_1631 beta frimware

I'm on RCS-RDS 1Gbps connection and I'm using RT-AC66U router. I was of course really dissapointed by its WAN to LAN performance over PPPoE with every official firmware I was able to find for it (I did not have the chance to test DD-WRT or Tomato). Until I have found an article on the internet and ... it seems there is a new firmware in development by ASUS - currently it is said it is in beta state: 3.0.0.4.374_1631 available here: https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/s/EAF32D058DCE4839B44376BDC88568D0Y

I have speeds around 900 mbps down with it and it seems it's working great with every feature it has except ... port forwarding (I haven't been able to make port forwading working with it) ...but at least now I know ASUS is working on a fix for our problem and the router is hardware capable of great speeds over PPPoE.

Best Regards,
Razvan Dinculescu

 

[stephn666]

@razvandinculescu, it works well thank you.

Edit: Port 3 & 4 not work after connect my second router (dual wan auto)? USB port won't working after update. :/

 

[scorpionro]

On the 36 Beta 1 and on the new 37 I obtain around 139MBps with HW Acceleration on, so still about the same as with the official 374_979

 

[Gratje]

I have a RT-AC66U and RT-AC68U.
with the RT-AC66U I can make a connection with PPPoE. running dutch KPN fiber. only with 5GHz wifi on. every speed drops. 2.4GHz, 5GHz even wired.
with the RT-AC68U I can't even make a connection through PPPoE.
running both routers on latest firmware. and also tried stock firmware.
I noticed with the RT-AC68U the rt-pppoe is reverted back to 3.10? instead of 3.11 on my RT-AC66U.
at the moment I have 2 expensive routers. that don't function properly while using PPPoE.
the biggest concern is the bad 5GHz wifi.

 

[bobyang]

I had AC56U with PPPoE 100m/40m with the 3.0.0.4.374.37 firmware. I have faced few issues

1. I allowed remote access, load a page can take up to 10 minutes (in the average, loading a page takes about 5 mins). However, other router with tomato router can load up in less than 3 seconds remotely. I think a lot of packages lost with the ac56u router because sometimes refresh the browser while loading for 10 mins helps loading up faster. so I think it is performance issue because CPU is low.

2. the ISP speed test seems slow than other router I have in the average.

3. I also PPTP into the router first and test loading router web through internal IP, which is slow as 5-10 minutes.

4. Then I plug directly into the LAN, everything loads up very fast. I did another test: I put this Asus router behind a tomato router and connect through LAN to LAN. I PPTP into tomato, and then open Asus router 172.17.0.2 and it loads up very fast.

after all those, I think there is an issue somewhere in the WAN. could be the package lost so sometimes refresh browser could finish loading faster.

 

[mathieulh]

I am suffering from slow WAN to LAN throughput over PPPOE (using VLAN ID 835) on firmware 3.0.0.4_376.45 (merlin build) on the ASUS RT-AC68U.

My connection drops from 500mbps to 300mbps while connecting through the RT-AC68U

The performances are just as poor on the latest official ASUS firmware.

I haven't tried any other firmwares or to disable hw acceleration so far.

 

[RMerlin]

I am suffering from slow WAN to LAN throughput over PPPOE (using VLAN ID 835) on firmware 3.0.0.4_376.45 (merlin build) on the ASUS RT-AC68U.

My connection drops from 500mbps to 300mbps while connecting through the RT-AC68U

The performances are just as poor on the latest official ASUS firmware.

I haven't tried any other firmwares or to disable hw acceleration so far.

Make sure you're not using any feature that causes HW acceleration to be disabled, which would effectively make the top speed closer to 300 Mbps. Check the Tools -> Sysinfo page to see the HW acceleration state.

 

[MonkY]

Sorry for waking up the thread, but i have about the same issue. Let me tell you my store: I just upgraded from AC66U to AC68U... then flashed the latest Merlin 376.48.1 firmware, and everything went to hell. I was on PPPoE with AC66U Merlin 376.47 and was getting arround 700Mbs on my gigabit connection, and i was hoping that upgrading the hardware a little (after all AC68U has better hardware) i will go over 8-900Mbps (like even cheap routers can). But with AC68U and 376.48.1 i only get arround 300Mbps (if lucky)...

I have tried resetting to defaults from Settings, also used the reset button, flashed again. Nothing works. The NAT Acceleration is set on Level 1 CTF (can't set to Level 2 CTF - it says it doesn't work on PPPoE).

What else can i try? Did i just spent the upgrade money for a worst router or is just a bad firmware?

 

[Deepcuts]

Can you first try with the network cable plugged straight into your PC?
Do a test again and see if you get the speed you are looking for.
I am also on PPPoE with 376.48.1 and AC68U and I get 933 MB/s
Also check your NIC drivers and cable if you can.

 

[MonkY]

Can you first try with the network cable plugged straight into your PC?
Do a test again and see if you get the speed you are looking for.
I am also on PPPoE with 376.48.1 and AC68U and I get 933 MB/s
Also check your NIC drivers and cable if you can.

I guess you realize that would be a waste of time as i just said that on the same NIC (with latest Intel drivers), i am getting DL speeds over 700Mbps with AC66U, while AC68U can't do not even half. Also, with N56U, on the same NIC and settings, i get even arround 800Mbps. Anyway, i solved the problem: i sent back the AC68U to Asus. Their PPPoE support is just bad - even RMerlin said that.

Yes, i saw the same AC68U getting arround 950Mbps on another provider, but on a standard cable connection, not PPPoE. So, until Asus fixes their PPPoE issues, i guess i'll try another manufacturer - i was thinking about Linksys or Netgear...