New Router, New Problems

[Doomsday]

I actually forgot about this website cause I wasn't having any issues anymore with computer issues or net issues since I got a new computer and retired the old one. It was just starting to get too old and then to find out I can buy a computer for cheaper then rebuilding one

We had a problem at the block when we had a lighting bolt basically touch down close and in turned killed my D-Link 604 Router and my Motorola Surfboard Modem.

So, i picked up a asus RT56U and I'm enjoying it...........except for the slow speeds now. I'm getting less then 1mb download instead of the 5mb i was getting before.

It's crazy, what can i do before shipping this thing back?

[CA3LE]

I actually forgot about this website cause I wasn't having any issues anymore with computer issues or net issues since I got a new computer and retired the old one. It was just starting to get too old and then to find out I can buy a computer for cheaper then rebuilding one

We had a problem at the block when we had a lighting bolt basically touch down close and in turned killed my D-Link 604 Router and my Motorola Surfboard Modem.

So, i picked up a asus RT56U and I'm enjoying it...........except for the slow speeds now. I'm getting less then 1mb download instead of the 5mb i was getting before.

It's crazy, what can i do before shipping this thing back?

HEY! Don't ever forget about TMN! lol

So, I take it that if you reconnect the old router your speed returns to normal... I see that shortly after you posted you attained about 4Mbps, was that your old router? I can definitely see the difference in your results.

Is Penteledata a DSL provider? With many DSL providers an MTU of 1500 isn't ideal. From my personal DSL experience in the past an MTU of 1496 seemed to do the trick and make quite a difference... it may be as simple as that. Look through your routers settings for MTU and give that a try.

So, i picked up a asus RT56U and I'm enjoying it...........except for the slow speeds now. I'm getting less then 1mb download instead of the 5mb i was getting before.

I would have a hard time enjoying a new router if the speeds were slow -- hopefully you don't have to send it back. I love ASUS products... I've used their motherboards in builds dating all the way back to 1998 (maybe earlier) and they've been some of the most powerful and stable machines I've built. I've also bought about 8-10 ASUS LCD monitors and have never seen a dead pixel... I still have a 25.5" and a 27" and they're awesome... people always want to buy them off me for some reason. I'm like, "dude, just get a new one off Newegg... you'll get an up to date model... THESE ARE MINE!" --- At the time I got the 25.5" it would have cost me 3X what I paid for the ASUS to get a Samsung that had the same refresh rates. It was the only monitor within the price range I wanted to pay that had HDMI out... the next cheapest was twice as much and the refresh rate was 2X the ASUS. My point is that they have great quality products... at great prices too. Having said that, I've never used their routers... maybe after you've got it running correctly you could let us know your final thoughts on the ASUS RT56U.

[Doomsday]

I updated the router to version J of the firmware and found a site of the guy having the same issue with the bandwidth manager. changed that around to 1024kb, might mess around with it more.

PenTel is a Cable Provider, I have their cable internet that was a pain for some time till i had to get another line directly to the back of the cable modem ran because the old lines signal strength was a joke and kept dropping every few days.

From the D-link to this was a night and day differance with all the differant options of this Asus Router. it was incredible, but also a little annoying since I've been out of doing any type of computer stuff for about 3 years now.

[CA3LE]

You might have a bad router. Being a cable provider an MTU of 1500 is optimal. Sometimes using the routers reset button and setting up from factory defaults will help. That shouldn't effect the firmware upgrade you did by the way. Hold the reset for about ten seconds, unplug the router continuing to hold the reset as it boots up for about ten seconds. (Do this because some routers have a different sequence for resetting... this will ensure its being reset)... some little setting might be incorrect, sometimes starting over can help.

Another thing to try is to use the same Ethernet cable that you were using to connect the D-Link router to the modem. The one that came with the new router might be at fault... I've seen it happen more than once... supposedly brand new cable, bad.

Good luck, let us know what you find.

[Smith6612]

I know with the ASUS routers and even D-Links there are these fancy Automatic QoS settings that are sometimes enabled by default. I would definitely try disabling any QoS setting in the router that relates to the WAN connection. Wireless QoS such as WMM can remain on and must be on for Wireless N devices. Also, some newer cable modems are coming with firewalls built-in to them. If your provider uses Ubee or Motorola Gateways for example, I find the firewall in the modem is often to blame for poor speeds, and these often include settings under the guise of "IP Flood Detection" or another term. Shutting that off entirely and bridging the modem too helps.

But definitely, rule out all QoS/GameBooster settings and also rule out any hardware-based firewalls. If you're still seeing issues, definitely check your cable signal levels too. You may be erroring out just enough to kill speeds but not enough to kill the connection entirely. That stuff isn't just with DSL and Fiber

[TriRan]

I know with the ASUS routers and even D-Links there are these fancy Automatic QoS settings that are sometimes enabled by default. I would definitely try disabling any QoS setting in the router that relates to the WAN connection. Wireless QoS such as WMM can remain on and must be on for Wireless N devices. Also, some newer cable modems are coming with firewalls built-in to them. If your provider uses Ubee or Motorola Gateways for example, I find the firewall in the modem is often to blame for poor speeds, and these often include settings under the guise of "IP Flood Detection" or another term. Shutting that off entirely and bridging the modem too helps.

But definitely, rule out all QoS/GameBooster settings and also rule out any hardware-based firewalls. If you're still seeing issues, definitely check your cable signal levels too. You may be erroring out just enough to kill speeds but not enough to kill the connection entirely. That stuff isn't just with DSL and Fiber

QoS being enabled on a router is a good way to overload the CPU on the router itself its usually a good idea to leave it disabled, in most home uses it won't serve a real purpose anyway

~ Mark

[Smith6612]

QoS being enabled on a router is a good way to overload the CPU on the router itself its usually a good idea to leave it disabled, in most home uses it won't serve a real purpose anyway

~ Mark

True, considering most home routers are already subject to ISP QoS policies at the edge and the home routers already have too much other nonsense running on them to bog them down. Not much you can do when your router's just going to queue up data at the WAN as far as downstream QoS/Traffic Shaping goes. Upstream QoS unless you have FiOS or another symmetrical fiber plan is almost a definite must though. Any router that was built to do QoS in the hardware itself (which is significantly faster and does not tear at the CPU as much) would be suggested for QoS in the home.

My router at home is a few years old, but it has a 532Mhz CPU from Intel that is ARM-based. It's 32-bit, not exactly 64-bit or Dual core like the newer generations of the router I have but the thing is a powerhouse. It's WAN <> LAN Throughput exceeds 100Mbps and that's with QoS services enabled. I don't run anything such as a Samba share or a Print server off of it which cuts down on all the rediculousness, but it is quite a workhorse. CPU load hardly has to work.

Time: 06:58:15 up 284 days, 8:22, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Edited September 4, 2012 by Smith6612

[mudmanc4]

These issues are precisely why my opinion is this, no need for the best router, so long as what your trying to do matches what available bandwidth you got to work with.

I grabbed an old netgear WNR834b v.2 from a swap I did, flashed it with ddwrt, opened everything up, set access via mac ,WPA-AES and toasted the DHCP server. Plug it up to an old managed 2924 XL-EN only allowing the static IP's managed by pfsense on a separate machine through the port, tri gigabit nics , and get the NAT going with snort, a few blocklists and presto, cheap awesome trouble free ( for the most part lol )

I've got an old wrt54g v.8 flashed w/ ddwrt for when they come in trying to use the handhelds, where otherwise nothing gets in on the wireless. Although I think it's rendered it's final byte, have to look at it when I have some time.

I think I have 50 bucks in the entire ( listed ) network. With 60/3 connection , rarely an issue, local streaming isnt an issue either, were not watching more then one HD movie at a time, and if we were it could easily handle it.