Can’t get 100Mbps on WAN port fir WL-520GU

[bsartist]

Greetings,

I have a WL-520GU running Tomato 1.28. Running great for years.

Just upgraded my internet service to 100Mbps down / 10Mbps up.

I get 10+ up. But can’t get more than 28, or 29 down. I think this router should do 100.

I checked the WAN port speed setting. It was auto. I tried 100 full and 100 half. No difference. I changed the cable going from wan port to modem. No change.

My Mac is hard wired through the house to a structured wiring panel next to the router / modem using cat6. I replugged the patch cord for that circuit moving it from the router and patching the Mac directly into the modem. I got 131Mbps. So it’s not the modem. It’s not my wiring. Definitely the router.

Any ideas are MUCH appreciated.

Bill

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Yes it's your router. The only idea is that you need a new router. It's extremely old, and router processing in the home market has become *much* more capable over time. That router with DD-WRT was only making 30-40Mbps WAN to LAN throughput, so you're never going to get close to your speed desires with that unit. Everything has to be processed by the SoC from WAN to LAN (and vice versa) and there's only so much a single core 240Mhz MIPS CPU is going to manage.

It's more than time for a new router.

 

[bsartist]

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

Any recommendations for a router that supports Tomato and a USB slot? I use the USB slot to serve my music library up to my Sonos.

Thanks again.

 

[mnewsham]

Netgear WNDR4500 would probably work

It's at least listed as supported here http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=69

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Any reason why Tomato? It's main branch has not been developed for in over 8 years. While there are mods that have off and on continued it for newer models (Fresh Tomato Mod for instance), I don't see them on the forums having the same sense of polish and functionality as the simpler routers in the past. With the higher performance of modern routers, their complexity and integration has also increased, making these sort of firmware efforts more difficult.

 

[bsartist]

Any reason why Tomato? It's main branch has not been developed for in over 8 years. While there are mods that have off and on continued it for newer models (Fresh Tomato Mod for instance), I don't see them on the forums having the same sense of polish and functionality as the simpler routers in the past. With the higher performance of modern routers, their complexity and integration has also increased, making these sort of firmware efforts more difficult.

Good question.

My needs for tomato have diminished since my kids grew up. LOL. Less need for filtering and monitoring the logs. I can give that up.

But I do use the USB port on my router to plug a stick into and serve the file system to my media tank. That is a feature that I can’t give up.

 

[bsartist]

Just read up on the ReadyShare on the Netgear router mentioned above. Looks like it could give me what I need.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Yeah, I don't hear many complaints about the Netgear Routers, especially the R series. Something like a R7000P isn't a bad idea either. It's more powerful, but that whole R line has also been consistently a known-quantify Broadcom chipset, so various DD-WRT branches have been making builds for them for a couple of years, if you're interested in an alternative firmware.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I of course, am going to recommend an Asus AC66U / AC1750, AC66U B1 / AC1750 B1, AC68U/R/P/AC1900 router. Those all are: 1) still supported by factory firmware updates from Asus, and 2) also supported by many open-source distros, including Shibby Tomato (which hasn't been officially updated since May, maybe of 2017. But still decent, I run it.)

Don't recommend the T-Mobile "CellSpot AC1900" TM-AC1900 router, as that one has been known to revert back to T-Mobile firmware, after being flashed to "regular" firmware, upon factory firmware updates. (Tomato to Tomato is probably OK.)

Edit: Oh yes, the AC68(R), flashed with Shibby Tomato 1.40, and with "CTF" enabled, and filtering and QoS disabled, WILL route a gigabit internet connection WAN-to-LAN. I've personally tested that with FIOS. 100Mbit/sec is a walk in the park for this dual-core router, CTF enabled or disabled.

 

[bsartist]

I of course, am going to recommend an Asus AC66U / AC1750, AC66U B1 / AC1750 B1, AC68U/R/P/AC1900 router. Those all are: 1) still supported by factory firmware updates from Asus, and 2) also supported by many open-source distros, including Shibby Tomato (which hasn't been officially updated since May, maybe of 2017. But still decent, I run it.)

Don't recommend the T-Mobile "CellSpot AC1900" TM-AC1900 router, as that one has been known to revert back to T-Mobile firmware, after being flashed to "regular" firmware, upon factory firmware updates. (Tomato to Tomato is probably OK.)

Edit: Oh yes, the AC68(R), flashed with Shibby Tomato 1.40, and with "CTF" enabled, and filtering and QoS disabled, WILL route a gigabit internet connection WAN-to-LAN. I've personally tested that with FIOS. 100Mbit/sec is a walk in the park for this dual-core router, CTF enabled or disabled.

Thank you! I’ve been pouring over those routers and others by Asus. I’m impressed with their software since it seems to give me everything I need with respect to USB support, static DHCP, port forwarding and some other goodies. I may not need Tomato.

One thing that’s been driving me bonkers all day is reading reviews on them. Some pretty negative reviews on reliability and such which concerned me. But I think ALL routers are suffering these complaints. I guess I need to stop “bottom feeding” on the reviews and just go for it and hope I’m in the group without problems.

 

[bsartist]

I of course, am going to recommend an Asus AC66U / AC1750, AC66U B1 / AC1750 B1, AC68U/R/P/AC1900 router. Those all are: 1) still supported by factory firmware updates from Asus, and 2) also supported by many open-source distros, including Shibby Tomato (which hasn't been officially updated since May, maybe of 2017. But still decent, I run it.)

Don't recommend the T-Mobile "CellSpot AC1900" TM-AC1900 router, as that one has been known to revert back to T-Mobile firmware, after being flashed to "regular" firmware, upon factory firmware updates. (Tomato to Tomato is probably OK.)

Edit: Oh yes, the AC68(R), flashed with Shibby Tomato 1.40, and with "CTF" enabled, and filtering and QoS disabled, WILL route a gigabit internet connection WAN-to-LAN. I've personally tested that with FIOS. 100Mbit/sec is a walk in the park for this dual-core router, CTF enabled or disabled.

Oh and I almost settled on the N66U. But I’ll take another look at these that you suggest.

 

[bsartist]

I of course, am going to recommend an Asus AC66U / AC1750, AC66U B1 / AC1750 B1, AC68U/R/P/AC1900 router. Those all are: 1) still supported by factory firmware updates from Asus, and 2) also supported by many open-source distros, including Shibby Tomato (which hasn't been officially updated since May, maybe of 2017. But still decent, I run it.)

Don't recommend the T-Mobile "CellSpot AC1900" TM-AC1900 router, as that one has been known to revert back to T-Mobile firmware, after being flashed to "regular" firmware, upon factory firmware updates. (Tomato to Tomato is probably OK.)

Edit: Oh yes, the AC68(R), flashed with Shibby Tomato 1.40, and with "CTF" enabled, and filtering and QoS disabled, WILL route a gigabit internet connection WAN-to-LAN. I've personally tested that with FIOS. 100Mbit/sec is a walk in the park for this dual-core router, CTF enabled or disabled.

Oh and I almost settled on the N66U. But I’ll take another look at these that you suggest.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The N66U, although I've never owned one, is good tech, but 'N' wifi in general is rather out-dated these days, when you can get 3x3 stream 'AC' for about the same price, and OH, "so much faster".

If you can get one cheap, or that's the newest tech available in your country, then it wouldn't be a bad choice, just not the choice that I personally would make.

The N66U supports third-party firmware as well.

Edit: One thing to keep in mind, is that the cutoff point for AiMesh support, appears to be the AC68U and friends. That one has a dual-core ARM-based SoC / chipset by Broadcom.

 

[bsartist]

The N66U, although I've never owned one, is good tech, but 'N' wifi in general is rather out-dated these days, when you can get 3x3 stream 'AC' for about the same price, and OH, "so much faster".

If you can get one cheap, or that's the newest tech available in your country, then it wouldn't be a bad choice, just not the choice that I personally would make.

The N66U supports third-party firmware as well.

Edit: One thing to keep in mind, is that the cutoff point for AiMesh support, appears to be the AC68U and friends. That one has a dual-core ARM-based SoC / chipset by Broadcom.

I’m pretty much limited by my 100Mb/s internet speed anyway. On the LAN side I don’t do too much heavy transfer. Although sometimes from desktop to media tank when I create a video. That’s hardwired stuff so gigabit ports are useful.

 

[bsartist]

The N66U, although I've never owned one, is good tech, but 'N' wifi in general is rather out-dated these days, when you can get 3x3 stream 'AC' for about the same price, and OH, "so much faster".

If you can get one cheap, or that's the newest tech available in your country, then it wouldn't be a bad choice, just not the choice that I personally would make.

The N66U supports third-party firmware as well.

Edit: One thing to keep in mind, is that the cutoff point for AiMesh support, appears to be the AC68U and friends. That one has a dual-core ARM-based SoC / chipset by Broadcom.

I noticed on the Shibby tomato site that for the AC68U, there is a hardware rev C1 restriction. I’d be leery about ordering one and getting one that won’t support tomato in case I wanted that flexibility. Is C1 an older rev that I’m unlikely to get, or a newer rev that’s more likely?

Also is AImesh all that necessary? I already have a second router pulled into my network as a second AP and my wireless devices migrate seamlessly between the two.

 

[razel]

AiMesh is not necessary, but is a vote of confidence that Asus will not be abandoning firmware updates anytime soon.

 

[bsartist]

AiMesh is not necessary, but is a vote of confidence that Asus will not be abandoning firmware updates anytime soon.

Thanks.

What does AIMesh give me that a second hard wired access point with same SSID won’t give me?

 

[VirtualLarry]

What does AIMesh give me that a second hard wired access point with same SSID won’t give me?

Automatic hand-off. Some clients will "hold onto" a signal, even a weak one, while a stronger one is available. Even one with the "same" SSID (the BSSID / MAC is different, of course.)