Question 1gb connection, only getting 300mb when using my own router netgear R6400v2

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
9
91
Using firmware 1.0.4.102_10.0.74

I have a 1gbps internet connection. When i run a speed test I'll usually get around 500-600mbps down and 800mbps up. However, other then the speeds i get from speedtest.net, everything else seems to max out at around 300mbps down. I don't think i've ever downloaded anything from anywhere faster than that. Same for my uploads.

The way my home network is setup is I have a router from the ISP that's connected to the fiber modem. I then have my netgear router plugged into their router, and everything else is plugged into my router, or connects wirelessly to my router. I did it this way just because I'm a bit of a control freak.

Anyhow, tonight I was downloading a game update and it was coming down at around 250-300mbps. I decided to check some router settings to see if there was anything that might be slowing it down. MTU's are set to 1500 and I did a ping test and the max size was 1472. so 1500 should be correct. I tried lowering it to 1472 anyhow to test it and it had no effect. I also do not have quality of service turned on. I couldn't see any settings that would be limiting my speeds.

I then tried plugging my PC directly into the ISP's router, bypassing my router. I'm now getting downloads around 800-950mbps. Seems to be averaging around 850. Thats a huge increase. I even tried plugging my PC into the same port my router was plugged into just incase the router had a bad port. Also tried changing the patch cable from cat5 to cat7. There's maybe a 50mbps speed boost doing that, or could just be random network spikes. I also tried unplugging everything else from my router and turning off the both wifi networks on the router. No effect.

I can't think of any other settings to check or anything else I can do to rule out the router just not handling 1gb speeds. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get this working?
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
9
91
Most consumer routers that have any age to them can't route at gigabit speeds. I would just use your isp router for routing and use your existing router as just an access point. That will solve the speed issue.
I've been using this router for less then a year now.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Most consumer routers that have any age to them can't route at gigabit speeds.
Please, explain that line of thinking. Are we talking because of firmware bloat, due to updates, or thermal throttling due to dust build-up, or some other reason. Because I've never personally had that happen.

Edit: Or were you simply referring to the era and age of the tech in most consumer household's routers, that they couldn't even route gigabit when new?
 

mxnerd

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2007
6,799
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Try FreshTomato firmware?




How to install FreshTomato:

How to return to Genie:
 
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Hans Gruber

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2006
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I have said something controversial in the past. I questioned the gigabit ports on wifi routers. I also have a R6400 but mine is v1. I noticed the speeds were slower using the Netgear router. So I put in a 8 port gigabit switch and that solved the speed problem. My download speed loss was 50-100mbps from gigabit down speeds with the R6400.
 
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VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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I agree, that there are a LOT of semi-older routers, equipped with gigabit WAN and LAN ports, that don't have the CPU or other hardware capacity to actually route WAN-to-LAN at gigabit speeds.

SNB (SmallNetBuilder) has some "Router Charts" which are useful in this area, they rank and have graphs of things like WAN-to-LAN throughput for several generations of routers.
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
9
91
Try FreshTomato firmware?

Maybe - although i'd rather not do that unless I knew it was going to fix the issue.

Would it make sense to plug my desktop into one port and my laptop into another port and just try copying a few GB's between them and see what sort of speeds I get? I'd assume if that goes at the same speed, then the problem is with the router and not with my ISP.

Someone on the netgear forum suggested that maybe having two NAT's is the problem. I could certainly understand if it slowed it down a little bit, but 300 to 800-900mbps seems pretty excessive for that.
 

Hans Gruber

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2006
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You either find a Netgear firmware version that works or try the FreshTomato. You can always go back to Netgear's.
In defense of Netgear. They still fully support this router and have auto update features. I suspect that losing that much bandwidth is due to his NAS or network usage parallel to his download machine. I have argued in the past that using a standalone gigabit switch as the way point would solve the issue. In other words modem to switch to router.
 

mxnerd

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2007
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OP did not mention NAS or parallel downloading.

If OP does not want to flash 3rd party firmware, he can turn the R6400v2 into an AP (basically an wifi access pint + ethernet switch), uplink one of the R6400v2's LAN ports to ISP fiber router/gateway, it then can eliminate the possible NAT problem, see if it works first.
 

Hans Gruber

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Maybe - although i'd rather not do that unless I knew it was going to fix the issue.

Would it make sense to plug my desktop into one port and my laptop into another port and just try copying a few GB's between them and see what sort of speeds I get? I'd assume if that goes at the same speed, then the problem is with the router and not with my ISP.

Someone on the netgear forum suggested that maybe having two NAT's is the problem. I could certainly understand if it slowed it down a little bit, but 300 to 800-900mbps seems pretty excessive for that.

He said it right before your original response.
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
9
91
OP did not mention NAS or parallel downloading.

If OP does not want to flash 3rd party firmware, he can turn the R6400v2 into an AP (basically an wifi access pint + ethernet switch), uplink one of the R6400v2's LAN ports to ISP fiber router/gateway, it then can eliminate the possible NAT problem, see if it works first.
There's nothing else going on when i tried downloading. In fact, when i tried downloading that recent game, i was physically switching the ethernet cable plugged into my pc between my router and the ISP's router. So the different download speeds I was getting was all within the same time frame with nothing else going on. My phone and 2 tv's were connected to the router. I wasn't doing anything with my phone and I'm pretty sure both tv's were off. Or at most one of them was on.

I guess I can give tomato a shot if there isn't anything else that might be causing this.
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
9
91
In defense of Netgear. They still fully support this router and have auto update features. I suspect that losing that much bandwidth is due to his NAS or network usage parallel to his download machine. I have argued in the past that using a standalone gigabit switch as the way point would solve the issue. In other words modem to switch to router.
Can you explain why using a switch might fix this? Wouldn't it be pointless to have a switch if there's only one thing connected to it?
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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The only reason to use a switch between a modem and a router (as a 1-to-1 connection), would be due to a hardware incompatibility between the cablemodem's WAN port and the WAN port on the router, such that they weren't auto-detecting a connection at the maximum line rate.
 

merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
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Hmm...according to the routers status page, it's connected at 1000mbps. But I'll give tomato a try first since it's free.
 

MenialSix88

Junior Member
Feb 15, 2015
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Hmm...according to the routers status page, it's connected at 1000mbps. But I'll give tomato a try first since it's free.

Depending on your routers age (when the model was made, not when you bought it) 300mb/s download is pretty normal for any standard consumer router, especially if you are using wireless connection.

Status page only most likely shows Speed & Duplex which is not same as your Internet connection speed, (get 10Gb NIC and connect Cat 7 cable to it and same status should show 10000mbs)

I would recommend chaining the ethernet cable to shorter and / or CAT 7 type ethernet cable first and test the speed with ethernet connection.

If wireless speed is too low for your liking, then you need beefier router and it's just best to get one from your ISP (Good network stuff is DAMN expensive and unless you know what to get, it gets even more expensive.)

I can recommend Ubiqity USG 4 PRO security gateway, Ubiqity Unifi video US-24 switch and 2-3 Ubiqity Unifi AP-AC Lite access points, but that might be "Slightly" expensive and yes, you need at least 1 firewall, 1 switch and 2-3 access points to have fast ethernet and wifi which both are protected from intruders (Switches and access points don't have firewall and NAT, so connecting them directly to internet is HUGE no no, despite them allowing speeds that gives you biggest nerd boners ever. Lack of NAT and firewall are reasons for those speeds).

In addition to ISP side of things, internet speed depends on your cables lengths, types, how many wireless and wired devices are connected to same router and your routers firewall throughput.

Most affordable consumer routers aren't really made for 1GB internet connections because most people don't have that fast Internet yet, ISP is best bet to get best quality router since you pay it in installments alongside with your internet bill, oh and even with ISP router, you can expect internet speed to be around 800 and 1 000 give or take 5% slower / faster speeds. Your ISP won't necessarily provide 1Gb speed 24/7 whenever weather is rainy or sunshine, it's just the maximum speed to which ISP has set a limit to your household.
 
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merk

Senior member
May 29, 2003
471
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Thanks for the explanation, although I'm aware of all that. I actually used to do tech support for an ISP, although that was a while ago ;)

Anyhow, i think i ruled out every other possible explanation. I'm using CAT7 cables. I used the same cable and the same ports on the routers to do my tests. So using the same cable my PC was connecting to my router, I plugged that cable into the same port on the ISP's router that my router was connected to. And i ran the tests at the same time, just switching the cable back and forth. And it was consistently downloading at around 850mbps vs 300mbps. And i even tried disconnecting anything else connected to the router and turned off the wifi on the router. So I'm pretty I ruled out everything other then there being some issue with my router. Or with the router being connected to their router.
 

Fallen Kell

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Well, sounds like it is the router. Smallnetbuilder has the R6400 in their tests and put it at approx 700Mbps, but it doesn't specify if it was V1 or V2. The R6100 (same approx age, just AC1200 instead of AC1750) was only capable of 94Mbps WAN <-> LAN throughput.

Personally I just placed a pfsense router in my network setup. Built it for about $200-250 (combination of ebay and new parts), and it has no problems hitting around 900Mbps (which I believe is limited from the ISP), while also performing IDS (Intrusion Detection System) and malware/virus blocking.
 

Hans Gruber

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Well, sounds like it is the router. Smallnetbuilder has the R6400 in their tests and put it at approx 700Mbps, but it doesn't specify if it was V1 or V2. The R6100 (same approx age, just AC1200 instead of AC1750) was only capable of 94Mbps WAN <-> LAN throughput.

Personally I just placed a pfsense router in my network setup. Built it for about $200-250 (combination of ebay and new parts), and it has no problems hitting around 900Mbps (which I believe is limited from the ISP), while also performing IDS (Intrusion Detection System) and malware/virus blocking.
I have a V1 R6400. Netgear does an excellent job of updating the firmware on it. The gigabit ports push 900mbps+ most of the time. Wifi AC is 380mbps on a new Ipad and I have seen speeds up to 500mbps when nobody had wireless AC (5Ghz) in my neighborhood. I agree, Mesh network is the way to go.

This is what it looks like going through a TP-Link 8 port gigabit switch followed by a Netgear 8port gigabit switch into the Xfi modem while streaming Espn HD during the speedtest. The R6400 has been retired to only wireless traffic.
 

DaaQ

Golden Member
Dec 8, 2018
1,278
923
136
Using firmware 1.0.4.102_10.0.74

I have a 1gbps internet connection. When i run a speed test I'll usually get around 500-600mbps down and 800mbps up. However, other then the speeds i get from speedtest.net, everything else seems to max out at around 300mbps down. I don't think i've ever downloaded anything from anywhere faster than that. Same for my uploads.

The way my home network is setup is I have a router from the ISP that's connected to the fiber modem. I then have my netgear router plugged into their router, and everything else is plugged into my router, or connects wirelessly to my router. I did it this way just because I'm a bit of a control freak.

Anyhow, tonight I was downloading a game update and it was coming down at around 250-300mbps. I decided to check some router settings to see if there was anything that might be slowing it down. MTU's are set to 1500 and I did a ping test and the max size was 1472. so 1500 should be correct. I tried lowering it to 1472 anyhow to test it and it had no effect. I also do not have quality of service turned on. I couldn't see any settings that would be limiting my speeds.

I then tried plugging my PC directly into the ISP's router, bypassing my router. I'm now getting downloads around 800-950mbps. Seems to be averaging around 850. Thats a huge increase. I even tried plugging my PC into the same port my router was plugged into just incase the router had a bad port. Also tried changing the patch cable from cat5 to cat7. There's maybe a 50mbps speed boost doing that, or could just be random network spikes. I also tried unplugging everything else from my router and turning off the both wifi networks on the router. No effect.

I can't think of any other settings to check or anything else I can do to rule out the router just not handling 1gb speeds. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get this working?

You may have some bandwidth reservation limits going on here.

Expand to see bolded and underlined.

No QoS turned on.
 

Fallen Kell

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,009
417
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I don’t know why people push “mesh” routers. All you are doing is using up more of the available WiFi bandwidth to let the routers talk to each other in a “mesh” over WiFi. Think of it this way, there is a fixed amount of WiFi bandwidth. Let’s just say for argument, 2Gbps total (made up number for simplicity’s sake). You personally can only use 1Gbps from your device to the router. That means there is a second channel out there allowing another router in the same area to also run at 1Gbps like say your neighbor.Everything is ok since the both of you are not using the same channels. Now, one of you decides, “hey I’m gonna put in a new mesh router and expand my network that way”, thinking it is a great idea, no need to run cables anywhere. So you upgrade, and all of a sudden you see that you periodically have really crappy performance that you can’t explain. And the reason is there is only 2Gbps bandwidth, and it is already in use between you and your neighbor. Your “mesh” router is attempting to communicate over a second channel to the other routers in your network, and now you are sharing channels with ones in use by neighbors, meaning that your devices all need to wait when communicating because another device is communicating at the same time on the same channel, and your devices all have to attempt to read those communications because they won’t know it isn’t for them or not because it is the same channel, and they won’t know until after receiving it and attempting to decode it. On top of that, if they attempt to communicate at the same time, then all devices stop communicating and go into collision resolution protocol, pausing a random amount of time before attempting to communicate again to try and prevent the collision from immediately happening again, slowing things down even more. And all of a sudden, instead of running at 1Gbps, you now are running slower than 0.5Gbps. It gets even worse because if your using the same channel as another person and they have older devices like say something that is still 802.11G, well, now everything on that network has to go into fallback modes to make sure the G devices can communicate properly even if you had your network configured as N-only or AC-only to take advantage of the speed boosts, it all goes to hell because your neighbor on the same channel as you still has that old device out there.

Sure, there are places where you can use mesh. These places are typically places that your next closest neighbor is around 1000 yards/meters away. Everywhere else is typically already dealing with highly congested WiFi.
 
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Harry_Wild

Senior member
Dec 14, 2012
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I don’t know why people push “mesh” routers. All you are doing is using up more of the available WiFi bandwidth to let the routers talk to each other in a “mesh” over WiFi. Think of it this way, there is a fixed amount of WiFi bandwidth. Let’s just say for argument, 2Gbps total (made up number for simplicity’s sake). You personally can only use 1Gbps from your device to the router. That means there is a second channel out there allowing another router in the same area to also run at 1Gbps like say your neighbor.Everything is ok since the both of you are not using the same channels. Now, one of you decides, “hey I’m gonna put in a new mesh router and expand my network that way”, thinking it is a great idea, no need to run cables anywhere. So you upgrade, and all of a sudden you see that you periodically have really crappy performance that you can’t explain. And the reason is there is only 2Gbps bandwidth, and it is already in use between you and your neighbor. Your “mesh” router is attempting to communicate over a second channel to the other routers in your network, and now you are sharing channels with ones in use by neighbors, meaning that your devices all need to wait when communicating because another device is communicating at the same time on the same channel, and your devices all have to attempt to read those communications because they won’t know it isn’t for them or not because it is the same channel, and they won’t know until after receiving it and attempting to decode it. On top of that, if they attempt to communicate at the same time, then all devices stop communicating and go into collision resolution protocol, pausing a random amount of time before attempting to communicate again to try and prevent the collision from immediately happening again, slowing things down even more. And all of a sudden, instead of running at 1Gbps, you now are running slower than 0.5Gbps. It gets even worse because if your using the same channel as another person and they have older devices like say something that is still 802.11G, well, now everything on that network has to go into fallback modes to make sure the G devices can communicate properly even if you had your network configured as N-only or AC-only to take advantage of the speed boosts, it all goes to hell because your neighbor on the same channel as you still has that old device out there.

Sure, there are places where you can use mesh. These places are typically places that your next closest neighbor is around 1000 yards/meters away. Everywhere else is typically already dealing with highly congested WiFi.
Some Tribunes have the 3rd channel reserve to communicates with different nodes that are attached to the router!