Netgear X4S R7800 Firmware comparison Stock vs Voxel performance issues

[maximillion82]

I recently decided to test three different firmwares for the R7800, I have noticed that the performance of my R7800 performed actually worse than the crappy router my ISP sent so I played around with the firmware. I have fibre 1 Gbps up and down with the ISP Wifi about 5 feet from the router I reached speed tests in the 900 Mbps up and down, but the connection was not stable and it needed to be changed.

Now with the R7800 I tried the following 3 firmwares (dslreport.com speed test results are attached or here https://resilient.d.pr/W21EGo):
1. Stock V1.0.2.52
2. Stock V1.0.2.60
3. Voxel's V1.0.2.62SF
I noticed that both stock firmware versions have much better upload results than Voxel's. Voxel's performs better with buffer bloat. I am running the speed tests on a 2017 MacBook Pro 13 OS 10.14.2, i5 CPU, 16GB Ram in Google Chrome Version 71.0.3578.98 (Official Build) (64-bit).
I turned QOS off, set 5 GHz network to channel 44 and use WPA2-PSK AES only. The MacBook says the TX Rate is 1300 Mbps.

This is the ISP stock router http://www.sagemcom.com/press-event...detail&cHash=a39b00c003d5bbc723cad1c835348acc
I am still not sure why this piece of junk performs better then the R7800 WiFi throughout. The connection with the R7800 is much more reliable though.
I cannot set the ISP router into bridge mode, but I connected the R7800 with the stock yellow ethernet cable on the internet port on the R7800 and chose Port 1 on the ISP router. I put the R7800 into the DMZ in the ISP router's settings and turned off the WiFi on the ISP router.

1. Which firmware would you recommend after seeing these results?
2. Overall are there certain settings I should set?
3. Should I use a different cable?
4. Is the XR500 faster? I can still return the R7800 but I thought since I am not playing games much that I don't need DumaOS.

Thank you all kindly for the recommendations.

 

[Juddjones]

Hey Maxi!

I have a similar issue as well. I'm using Centurylink's fiber optic gigabit internet with the Netgear X4S R7800, and my speeds - both Wifi and Ethernet - have been lackluster. I am running the latest stock firmware on the Netgear: 1.0.2.62. I only get about ~200mb download and upload using a 2006 iMac wired in with a gigabit ethernet port and CAT 6 cable. Just like you, I had better wireless and wired performance using the stock CL modem: an Actiontec C3000A. I'd also like to know if it would be worth it if I switched to Voxel's latest firmware revision on the Nighthawk.

 

[maximillion82]

I have been using Voxel .62SF for awhile now. It’s stable but the peak performance for uploads only is better at Netgear stock. I honestly do not notice a difference between the old and new Netgear firmware. In essence I chose to stick with Voxel, it has better ping, less bufferoat, and average speeds are a bit better, only upload peak is where Stock wins

 

[e38BimmerFN]

ISP modems with built in routers will impact performances of external routers connected behind them. Even if using DMZ, doesn't always guarantee to spec performances.
Also speed testing with different PCs and apps helps as well. I like using the actual speedtest.net app found in the apple store vs a web browser. Seen various differences between web browsers. I still check them though.

You can check the WAN to LAN performance your self to see how the R7800 is doing between two PCs by doing this test if you have a spare 1Gb LAN switch:
https://www.duckware.com/tech/router-wan-to-lan-throughput-test.html

Been a while since I check, however I thought the last time I ran this, my R7800 was capable of doing 900Mb on the WAN side.

Also have you checked into DDWRT FW?

 

[maximillion82]

Interesting. So it would be good to also look into the option to drop the ISP and go to one that is hardware neutral. There is one around here called init7, the issue is that they want 777 bucks for the whole year upfront.

If I go this route, would this https://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-43_MC220L.html thing provide full GB ethernet to the router and I could get around 700-900Mbit/s? It's not that I really need this speed, but I am paying for it and might as well get it. I also heard that init7 get's ping times around 0-2ms. Sunrise my current provider gets around 10ms pings.

I haven't looked into DDWRT Firmware yet, I used Voxel because it's super simple to install and uninstall. But I think it might be worth flashing another FW on it, if someone can confirm it works better than Voxel.
But I can highly recommend Voxel over Stock with my current setup going though the ISP's junk router.

 

[e38BimmerFN]

What ever ISP you go with, check with them to see what interfacing devices they support and buy accordingly. Ask them about modem only options for those ISPs that support cable modems. Fiber and ONT supporting ISP, you'll need to ask them what HW is needed and the use of external routers besides ISP routers. Sometimes ISPs require the use of there own routers.

 

[maximillion82]

That’s exactly the problem, my current IPS requires to use the router they provide, else the TV won’t work and they do not officially support other modems, though I think it might work with a standard fiber modem.

The new ISP I was looking at says they are hardware neutral except they require AppleTV 4 or 4K for TV because they have an App.

 

[e38BimmerFN]

I guess you'll have to figure what to use then.
Hope you find something that works for you.

 

[Razor512]

Also keep in mind that a few netgar routers including the 7800, for some reason, has a bug where throughput over port 80 will be slower than others, almost as if CTF will randomly stop working. This happens even if QOS and any anything else that seems like it would inspect packets, is disabled.

 

[Gloria Williams]

Hey Maxi!

I have a similar issue as well. I'm using Centurylink's fiber optic gigabit internet with the Netgear X4S R7800, and my speeds - both Wifi and Ethernet - have been lackluster. I am running the latest stock firmware on the Netgear: 1.0.2.62. I only get about ~200mb download and upload using a 2006 iMac wired in with a gigabit ethernet port and CAT 6 cable. Just like you, I had better wireless and wired performance using the stock CL modem: an Actiontec C3000A. I'd also like to know if it would be worth it if I switched to Voxel's latest firmware revision on the Nighthawk.

You Need to update your firmware, Latest version of firware for your netgear is 1.0.2.63. You can download or update by pushing update button or from voxel's official site.

 

[Voxel]

You Need to update your firmware, Latest version of firware for your netgear is 1.0.2.63. You can download or update by pushing update button or from voxel's official site.

Dear Gloria,

Let me correct you a bit: latest official version of firmware for R7800 is 1.0.2.62. My version (latest is really 1.0.2.63SF) in spite of it’s using skeleton of GPL codes of official version is very different internally thus it is not a software product of Netgear but is a third party firmware. So it could not be updated by pushing update button. But it really could be downloaded from my site. And to use it or to do not use everyone should decide himself/herself because of (possible) loss of warranty or other reasons (some people prefer to use only stock firmware).


Thank you for your message,

Voxel.

 

[Razor512]

I wanted to give more info on the port 80 issue by showing a few benchmarks of the behavior.

Basically, when this issue happens, it will only effect port 80, if you run a throughput test on any other port, e.g., 23, 443, 1024, etc. you will effectively get 940Mbps on download and a little less on uploads for some reason.

But once you set a benchmark tool to use port 80, you instantly drop to the 400-500Mbps range. if I repeat the same test on a router like the TP-link c3150, if no QOS is in use, all of the ports will saturate the gigabit connection.

When doing this test, I did a factory reset, and used the firmware R7800 v. 1.0.2.63SF, though this behavior will also happen on the stock netgear firmware.

Here are my results:

The first 2 are on ports other than port 80.

WAN to LAN:

LAN to WAN:

The final 2 are using port 80.

WAN to LAN:

LAN to WAN:

Overall, the behavior is extremely strange and none of the settings should cause such behavior. All analytics are off, QOS is off, and the only changes needed for the benchmark is placing the test end point's IP on the DMZ, and assigning a static WAN IP for the second PC connected directly to the WAN port.

It is one of the main bugs that seems to span multiple firmware versions on the R7800.