R7000 with DD-WRT - thinking of replacing

[Bart]

6 months ago, I bought a Netgear R7000 to replace my ageing D-link DIR-655. The D-link was still going strong, but the problem was it's WiFi didn't cover the entire house.

So after reading some reviews, I bought an R7000. The stock firmware was reasonably good, but I wanted good VPN features, so I flashed it with DD-WRT.

It works pretty good, and I'm impressed with its features. But there's one terribly annoying thing about DD-WRT. I have no idea if others also experience this, but I found it's not very fast when loading webpages. If I load a webpage, more often than not it loads about 50% to 70% of the page, then it stops for a few seconds, and then continues. This is annoying. It feels like my entire system is slow, which is certainly not the case. My internet connection is cable with 150down/10 up, so I cannot imagine this being the problem.

I've always been very happy with my D-Link DIR-655, so now I'm considering chucking the R7000 and buy a new DIR-880L instead. Unfortunately, it seems D-link has also renewed their trusty and good interface for a new one with this model, so I don't if it's any good.

Another route I've been considering is a Ubiquity Edgemax POE router combined with 2 or 3 unify access points. This is a considerable more expensive option and I must admit reviews saying the ubiquity routers are not easy to setup are holding me back. Even though I have considerable experience with routers, I have no experience with CLI or IPtables. I've also considered PFsense, but the hardware that runs on seems too old (no AC). Or maybe I should setup a Pfsense router combined with some unify access points, I don't know...

Aaargh! I just want a STABLE router, preferably AC, and which does feature VPN (PPTP etc...). Why is this so hard to find? Draytek used to be a good choice, but their hardware lineup also still doesn't support AC. Would Asus be an option? I have absolutely zero experience with Asus...

Thanks all!

 

[AcostaJA]

try Latest KONG DD-WRT, his personal branch (R7000 ir his personal router)

http://www.desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-Arm/

Pick BT version if you need Transmission than Zabbix (std)

 

[Bart]

Thanks, but that is the version I'm currently using.

 

[AcostaJA]

The symptoms you name doesn't seems related to router, but your pc own OS, try with other than your pc, or an newer tablet (old tablet don't load pages fast), also consider factors as flash content and what some browsers just switched engine and now render some elements just before everything is loaded to save power (Firefox and safari).

About fpsense it's intended only for Router w/o wireless a/p (there is an misconception about common router actually aren't routers but a router/switch /wireless ap combo to be precise).

I've deployed fpsense before, an mini itx board with dual Lan, a Pico psu and fpsense loading from USB, impressive performance, then combined across a big facilty, with an Cisco 16 port switch plus 4 Asus ac68 ap (the pyramid) and the results where fantastic for an demanding deployment ( N wireless devices plus 2 workstation with dual link and a Nas with dual link).

 

[AcostaJA]

At aliexpress (maybe eBay too) you can find Pico PC with dual gigabit Lan, fan less cooling and external laptop like psu which to me seems ideal for fpsense, add an descent switch (maybe one unmanaged if you don't need exotics as link aggregation), to this deployment combine with as many dedicated AP (or routers in AP mode) you need for full coverage, an wds configuration it's an bit complex but allow you a single ssid across the facility, some routers as AP are an much better option than ubiquity dedicated AP, special indoors, outdoors another question, also consider ubiquity reliability and long lasting actually isn't as exceptional as its price.

 

[Bart]

The symptoms you name doesn't seems related to router, but your pc own OS, try with other than your pc, or an newer tablet (old tablet don't load pages fast), also consider factors as flash content and what some browsers just switched engine and now render some elements just before everything is loaded to save power (Firefox and safari).

I'm using a Core i7 PC with 16GB RAM, SSD and Windows 8.1 with all the latest drivers. Using both FireFox and Chrome. My laptop is a Core i5 model with 8 GB ram, SSD and Windows 7. For a tablet I'm using iPad Air and also iPhone 5. So you see, this is all very recent hardware. The problem exists all all hardware, so my guess is it's the router. Especially since I didn't have this problem with my D-Link DIR-655 combined with the same hardware.

The other reaon I want to try PFSense it's also because it's something new to try and learn from it, which is also good. The fact that everybody agrees it's fantastic once you get it running makes it a very attractive option.

 

[Bart]

At aliexpress (maybe eBay too) you can find Pico PC with dual gigabit Lan, fan less cooling and external laptop like psu which to me seems ideal for fpsense, add an descent switch (maybe one unmanaged if you don't need exotics as link aggregation), to this deployment combine with as many dedicated AP (or routers in AP mode) you need for full coverage, an wds configuration it's an bit complex but allow you a single ssid across the facility, some routers as AP are an much better option than ubiquity dedicated AP, special indoors, outdoors another question, also consider ubiquity reliability and long lasting actually isn't as exceptional as its price.

Can you get single SSID and 'roaming' features with multiple routers converted to AP using WDS? How do you do that? Also, you claim that Ubiquity doesn't score high on the reliability chain? That's a first for me. Usually everybody has very high praise for this brand. This is probably the main reason I'm considering it.

 

[AcostaJA]

About ubiquity, my personal experience (I used to sell network hardware) is its reliability much overrated, bullets m2 use to fail 18 month before outdoors deployment, indoors may last more, latest m2 I sold where the *titanium* supposedly an stronger unit, since I left this business before the first bullet titanium I sold aged more than 18 month I can't assure it's last, but in general all variants of m2,m5 bullet or loco don't last more than 18-24 months deployed, most common failure was flash (can't upload files updates first, later can't boot) less common was radio failure but about 1/3 ( most due remote deployments uses full power)

 

[AcostaJA]

WDS: most common deployment of uses same SSID, since it's std for Extended Service Set, a guide at Tom's explains everything http://www.tomsguide.com/us/how-to-wds-bridge,review-253.html

 

[AcostaJA]

My favorite method for wireless "roam" is having an central router delivering dhcp and handling firewalling etc, and having another router configured as bridge on a different channel and with its wan port connected to a Lan port from firs router, here is another focus with an easy to follow guide, the trick is avoid channel interference and have a single dhcp server : http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Confi...thOneSSIDNetworkNameAtHomeForFreeRoaming.aspx

 

[AcostaJA]

More less was the setup previous mentioned with an fpsense router and N Asus AP, this case the AP where bridged, the issue was not having an guess network, but on a conventional deployment could be done at the central router but satellite ap only can spread a unique SSID (or at least I didn't research how to have ap with multiple SSID isolated from my main network only connected to the wan - which is what an guest network does-

 

[AcostaJA]

I'm using a Core i7 PC with 16GB RAM, SSD and Windows 8.1 with all the latest drivers. Using both FireFox and Chrome. My laptop is a Core i5 model with 8 GB ram, SSD and Windows 7. For a tablet I'm using iPad Air and also iPhone 5. So you see, this is all very recent hardware. The problem exists all all hardware, so my guess is it's the router. Especially since I didn't have this problem with my D-Link DIR-655 combined with the same hardware.

The other reaon I want to try PFSense it's also because it's something new to try and learn from it, which is also good. The fact that everybody agrees it's fantastic once you get it running makes it a very attractive option.

Check If you have enabled any firewall related feature, if not sure, reset to factory (thru DDWRT interface, not a hard reset) and configure it again being carefully not to enable features you dont use that may interfere the traffic, be sure to enable UPnP at Nat/QOS, and disable any kind of traffic priorization at QOS, of course comment to KONG this issue, if an firmware issue sure you're not the only one.

Sometimes other applications or services compete for the software CPU or bandwidth, check if you have an Hog inside or outside your router.

 

[RogerSC]

I also have a laptop with a quad-core i7 processor, 8GB of memory, and an SSD. Chrome is also the browser that I use. And I've had dd-wrt on my R7000 router for extended periods of time, and haven't experienced what you've described with web pages. Almost sounds like router bufferbloat, but like I said, I'm not seeing it.

Right at the moment, I have tomato firmware on my router, and I haven't experienced problems with web page loading using it, either. So I really don't know what's going on at your place. If you do replace your router, I'd be real interested to hear if solves your problems, though *smile*.

 

[Bart]

I'll try with a different system first then. To be honest, my windows 8 install is now a few years old, and it was an upgrade from a Windows 7 install to begin with. So maybe it's time to do a completely fresh setup... I've been meaning to try Ubuntu for a while now, maybe this is a good excuse.

 

[Bart]

OK, update. I've just done some tweaks to my browser which have made a lot of difference! So it seems my router wasn't at fault at all.

I've still got the idea that my wired connection with my DIR-655 was faster, but with these tweaks its very workable able so the annoyance factor is largely gone.

Thanks guys for giving me the necessary insights. I would still like to try PfSense or Untangle one day though, but now this has become a lot less urgent.

Cheers!

 

[RogerSC]

Thanks guys for giving me the necessary insights. I would still like to try PfSense or Untangle one day though, but now this has become a lot less urgent.

Cheers!

Glad you're doing better! And it is fun to play with new stuff, whether you need to or not *smile*.