Slower internet since firmware update 384.10_2

[ss911der]

Hello,

I have a RT-AC88U with the latest firmware 384.10_2. On my desktop computer (wired) and iPhone XS Max, I am getting far slower speeds than normal. I am on AT&T Fiber and usually get around 940/940 on my desktop PC, but now I'm getting around 310/500.
If I plug my computer directly into the gateway and run the same speed test, I am back to normal.
I power cycled already all the equipment, so I believe the issue is with the latest firmware, or perhaps the last few firmware updates...
I did try a different port on the router as well.

 

[L&LD]

There are no other issues except slowness? Everything else is working normally?

I am assuming that with each previous firmware update, including this one, you have not reset to factory defaults and then minimally and manually configured the router to secure it and connect to your ISP (See M&M Config in my signature below for links and further details)?

In your case, I might try reflashing the same version firmware once more and see if there is any improvement. If not, an M&M Config is probably the quickest way to a solution.

Are you running any other scripts, features or options other than defaults?

What test(s) are you using to determine that the speeds are slower? Have you tried a variety of tests and they all show the same?

 

[ss911der]

I just reset to factory defaults now, then changed the DHCP lan to 192.168.2.1 so it doesn't conflict with the gateway. No other settings have been changed since I reset the factory defaults and speeds are around 200 Mbps slower on up & down. https://www.speedtest.net/result/8171020009

 

[L&LD]

I just reset to factory defaults now, then changed the DHCP lan to 192.168.2.1 so it doesn't conflict with the gateway. No other settings have been changed since I reset the factory defaults and speeds are around 200 Mbps slower on up & down. https://www.speedtest.net/result/8171020009

How did you configure your router after the reset? Did you use a saved backup file?

 

[ss911der]

No, manually just put in the SSID, admin password, and then changed the LAN DHCP. After that I went to the speed test site.

 

[dave14305]

then changed the DHCP lan to 192.168.2.1 so it doesn't conflict with the gateway.

This might suggest that you are in a double NAT situation where your gateway and router are both translating IP addresses to private ones.

 

[ss911der]

The Asus router is getting a public ip address since I have the gateway set for the router's wan mac address to be in DMZ. This is how it's been since day 1. I only changed the lan dhcp range due to the gateway's ip being 192.168.1.254
I just put the settings I want back into the router manually, such as static ip addresses (lan side), port forwarding addresses, turning on AIProtection... all settings I've had forever, nothing fancy.
Now the download speeds are better, but upstream is weaker. Makes no sense.
Latest speed test: https://www.speedtest.net/result/8171051888

 

[L&LD]

This might suggest that you are in a double NAT situation where your gateway and router are both translating IP addresses to private ones.

No, manually just put in the SSID, admin password, and then changed the LAN DHCP. After that I went to the speed test site.

You may want to get your gateway into 'bridged' mode. The RT-AC88U will be faster if it has a direct (external) IP address.

 

[ss911der]

The router does have a public ip address. Also, now my iphone, which is connected to the 5 Ghz band, which normally will see speeds around 500/500 is getting 53.6 / 511.

 

[L&LD]

The Asus router is getting a public ip address since I have the gateway set for the router's wan mac address to be in DMZ. This is how it's been since day 1. I only changed the lan dhcp range due to the gateway's ip being 192.168.1.254
I just put the settings I want back into the router manually, such as static ip addresses (lan side), port forwarding addresses, turning on AIProtection... all settings I've had forever, nothing fancy.
Now the download speeds are better, but upstream is weaker. Makes no sense.
Latest speed test: https://www.speedtest.net/result/8171051888

Now it's making sense to me.

Your RT-AC88U has the same base hardware as the RT-AC3100 I had/have. That is not enough hardware for a 1Gbps up/down ISP connection with features such as AiProtection enabled.

That is why I have bought the RT-AC86U for its greatly improved hardware.

 

[ss911der]

How does it make sense?! As mentioned, my speeds were fine before the latest firmware update with the same settings and features enabled. In addition, now that my manual settings are back to where they were since a factory reset, the speeds improved from where they were after doing a basic setup.

 

[dave14305]

Do you use QoS bandwidth limiter? There was a bug fix in 10_2 where it wasn’t disabling hardware acceleration like it should have been.

 

[58chev]

@ss911der
Have you flashed the previous version of firmware?

That is what I would try and then test the speed once again. If you are back to normal, then definitely something going on.

 

[ss911der]

Going to do that right now as I exhausted all other options at this point.

 

[jsbeddow]

I might be able to provide a bit of insight on this, as I am also on a gigabit AT&T fiber connection. As far as I can tell, ALL of the AT&T provided gateways have severe issues with their firmware in respect to providing a true or "pure" bridge mode that actually passes on the external IP without in some way passing through and using the internal NAT tables of the gateway device. This is regardless to what they claim to be called in the gateway firmware settings, whether that is IP-Passthrough, DMZ+, Bridge, etc... and this is well documented on many other forums (check DSLReports ,AT&T forums, and others). The simplest (lowest cost) workaround that i have found is this one:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/att-gigabit-issue-any-suggestion-welcome.50003/#post-445195
In particular, post number 3 by #rijh.
Also, #L&LD is absolutely right about testing various speedtest sites, my results vary widely by site chosen as well as time of day. My previous RT-AC68U could basically keep up with the raw gigabit speed, but only my new RT-AC86U can do so with adaptive QOS turned on.

 

[ss911der]

Something is definitely up with firmware version 384.10_2. I just flashed my router back to 384.10 and speeds are back to normal.
https://www.speedtest.net/result/8171094873

 

[L&LD]

Something is definitely up with firmware version 384.10_2. I just flashed my router back to 384.10 and speeds are back to normal.
https://www.speedtest.net/result/8171094873

Do you use QoS bandwidth limiter? There was a bug fix in 10_2 where it wasn’t disabling hardware acceleration like it should have been.

I might be able to provide a bit of insight on this, as I am also on a gigabit AT&T fiber connection. As far as I can tell, ALL of the AT&T provided gateways have severe issues with their firmware in respect to providing a true or "pure" bridge mode that actually passes on the external IP without in some way passing through and using the internal NAT tables of the gateway device. This is regardless to what they claim to be called in the gateway firmware settings, whether that is IP-Passthrough, DMZ+, Bridge, etc... and this is well documented on many other forums (check DSLReports ,AT&T forums, and others). The simplest (lowest cost) workaround that i have found is this one:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/att-gigabit-issue-any-suggestion-welcome.50003/#post-445195

In particular, post number 3 by #rijh.
Also, #L&LD is absolutely right about testing various speedtest sites, my results vary widely by site chosen as well as time of day. My previous RT-AC68U could basically keep up with the raw gigabit speed, but only my new RT-AC86U can do so with adaptive QOS turned on.

​

That doesn't conclusively prove anything.

Did you try 384.10_2 with default settings (after factory reset)?

 

[jsbeddow]

Here are my results using 384.10_2 on an RT-AC86U, WITH FreshJr Adaptive QOS turned on and manually set to 850mbps on both up and down (in order for QOS to truly work, it must be manually set somewhat below the full raw rated connection speed).
https://www.speedtest.net/result/8171108555

Edit: On top of that, I can't guarantee that other devices in the house are not concurrently accessing the internet, slowing the results slightly.

 

[ss911der]

Yes I did. Also, not sure why you said "That is not enough hardware for a 1Gbps up/down ISP connection with features such as AiProtection enabled." All the AiProtection features are enabled and I'm getting 926/944 on the prior firmware.

 

[L&LD]

Yes I did. Also, not sure why you said "That is not enough hardware for a 1Gbps up/down ISP connection with features such as AiProtection enabled." All the AiProtection features are enabled and I'm getting 926/944 on the prior firmware.

You may have not read all the posts above.