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seank's avatar
seank
New Contributor

Slower performance than usual

I had a leased Netgear modem from COX that I took in to replace due to intermittent issues, and they gave me an Arris DG2460. All has been well since, service is excellent, with the exception of my download speeds. I noticed that where I would typically get 12-14MB/s downloads for large files, I'm now getting less than 5MB/sec.

I've been running speedtest.net each morning this week between 6am and 7am and noticed the same strange slowness. I'm capping out at 40mb/sec. My upload is also capping at 40mb/sec. This is a very strange considering I've always capped out the speedtest test at over 100mbit. My ping has also gone up from an average of 11ms up to a steady 14ms for the same server. I did verify that the speedtest is using a local San Diego server to test from.

What could be my issue?

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  • ChrisL's avatar
    ChrisL
    Former Moderator
    @seank

    The modem seems OK when I take a look from this end. What do you have plugged into Ethernet 1 on the modem? Also can you try signing into your http://www.cox.com account and getting some speed tests there?

  • seank's avatar
    seank
    New Contributor

    Ethernet 1 is my pfsense firewall. I did the speedtest directly from the modem after I posted earlier today, and it hovered around 90mbit. I tried it again connected to my switch (which goes through the pfsense firewall) and got 40mbit. I then tried directly connected to the modem again, and it was 50mbit. Very strange if you ask me, especially long before kids wake up on xmas break and start saturating the line.

    I ran the cox ookla speed test with the same results. Can't quite put my finger on what's happening. I don't have QoS/throttling enabled or even setup on my firewall. And I didn't see these slow speeds until I swapped modems. I even verified that my cox package is ultimate, and it is. I then verified the Arris modem speeds, and they're way more capable than 150mbit, so that's not the issue either.

  • seank's avatar
    seank
    New Contributor

    My last post had more to say, but it was mysteriously removed. The end of the post was a thank you, and that I appreciate your help.

  • ChrisL's avatar
    ChrisL
    Former Moderator
    @seank

    Because the Arris is a router it's designed to replace your PFSense device and you might have problem with this setup. One possibility would be to disable network address translation on the PFSense and use it as a traditional router although wifi devices connecting to the Arris would still bypass it. Can you try testing without the PFSense router attached and see what results you get?

  • grymwulf's avatar
    grymwulf
    Contributor II

    Normally with a PFsense firewall appliance your network setup should not involve a gateway (router/modem combo).  The PFsense acts as your router in the majority of setups.

    Proper network:  WAN -> Modem -> PFsense -> Switch -> Wifi Access Points/LAN Endpoints

    Using a gateway with a PFsense box introduces double-nat translation which definitely slows the connection, let alone the possibility of improper network subnets.

    For pretty much every consumer - one router good, more routers bad.

  • seank's avatar
    seank
    New Contributor

    That is currently the setup I have:

    WAN -> Modem (wifi off, 1 ethernet only to PFSense) -> PFSense -> Cisco Switch -> LinkSys AP

    I'm running the modem on 10.10.10.1/255.255.255.0, pfsense WAN port on 10.10.10.2, internal network 192.168.0.0/16 (with 3 networks based on ethernet, wifi, guest wifi).

    Again, as I stated before. I've always capped out the speed tests, and I find it strange that they're now stuck on 40mbit/40mbit since I installed the Arris. Perhaps it's a modem setting I didn't switch when I swapped them out?

  • seank's avatar
    seank
    New Contributor

    Something's up with my outgoing routes evidently. Aside from testing with speedtest, I also transfer larger files over SSH/SCP, and I'd typically max out the remote server bandwidth at about 11MB/s. But during my 40mbit/40mbit testing on speedtest, my downloads were mysteriously bouncing between 600kb/900kb/s. Like I was being routed through the entire country and back to the remote server.

    Well low and behold this morning, just after I replied about my network setup, I transferred a file at the original/expected speed of 11MB/s. I then ran speedtest, and I'm now hitting almost 200mbit/sec.

    Is this something that would be a COX routing change, or maybe one of my hops?

  • AllenP's avatar
    AllenP
    Valued Contributor

    The point is the Arris is a gateway, not a modem. Your 10.10.10.1 address is on the lan side of the Arris' internal router. Unless you found a way to turn it off, the Arris device is still doing NAT between 10.10.10.1 and the Cox internet. I don't even know if you can put the gateway in bridge mode, turning off NAT. Since you have the PFSense device, you want a stand-a-lone modem, not a gateway.

    If I understand your post correctly, in summary, you have NAT between the 192.168.0.0/16 and 10.10.10.2 plus another NAT between 10.10.10.1 and the internet ... double NAT as grymwulf posted.

  • ChrisL's avatar
    ChrisL
    Former Moderator
    @seank

    I suspect your outgoing routes were being problematic due to the nature of your setup. The way you have it now the PFSense box and the Arris are effectively working against each other to control access to the gateway. On top of all of that you're actually being charged monthly for the router and wifi in the Arris which you're trying to bypass. I'd suggest turning in the Arris and getting yourself a stand alone 16+ channel DOCSIS 3.0 modem if you wish to use your own router/wifi.