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Forum Discussion
RBR50 WiFi upload packet loss
Strange issue, just upgraded to 900/100 fibre.
I can reach full speed with a wired connection.
Running Speedtest.net I was seeing good WiFi download speeds >500Mbps, but slow upload speeds 20-30Mbps, with packet loss.
I upgraded to v2.7.4.24 and performed a paper clip reset of RBR and RBS.
With minimum default setup, all works well e.g. 529/100 0% packet loss.
However, if I now do a reboot, with no other changes, the problem comes back e.g. 511/33 6% packet loss.
The only way to resolve it is a full reset and setup. Other WiFi parameter changes work up until a reboot, then the problem recurs.
It’s as if there is some setting that is not persistent and lost after a reboot and the firmware restarts with a bad configuration.
Any ideas?
I can reach full speed with a wired connection.
Running Speedtest.net I was seeing good WiFi download speeds >500Mbps, but slow upload speeds 20-30Mbps, with packet loss.
I upgraded to v2.7.4.24 and performed a paper clip reset of RBR and RBS.
With minimum default setup, all works well e.g. 529/100 0% packet loss.
However, if I now do a reboot, with no other changes, the problem comes back e.g. 511/33 6% packet loss.
The only way to resolve it is a full reset and setup. Other WiFi parameter changes work up until a reboot, then the problem recurs.
It’s as if there is some setting that is not persistent and lost after a reboot and the firmware restarts with a bad configuration.
Any ideas?
4 Replies
WiFi can be frustrating. There is so much 'overhead' in WiFi compared to Ethernet (wired) that devices are really lucky to achieve speeds above 500MB. Plus there are many factors which influence WiFi throughput.
There is an enormous difference in the signal strength between WiFi access points and battery powered devices (smartphones, tablets)
- WiFi Access Points which typically broadcast at the maximum power allowed by the country regulations. In the US, that would be an EIRP of 36dBm - 4 watts (See, for example: https://afar.net/tutorials/fcc-rules/ There are dozens of web sites explaining WiFi power levels. That's just the first one I hit upon.)
- Battery Powered devices cannot possibly achieve the same transmit power. My Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact sitting four feet from the Orbi router reports a Receive Link Speed of 780 Mbps and a Transmit Link Speed of 468. As I sit here staring intently at the phone, those values change over time.
WiFi is entirely different from Ethernet. Every radio on a frequency shares transmit time. When any radio is transmitting, every other radio must wait for the channel to become free. During one specific Speed Test there may be not much "going on" on the 5G channel. The next test, there could be more devices using the network.
This situation does not seem unusual to me, and there are no parameters which would make a significant difference.
- This is a consistent packet loss issue, using the default SSID with no other WiFi devices connected.
It’s not a case of sometimes there is 0% loss, and other times 6% loss. Before a reboot there is 0% loss and consistently high upload speeds, near to maximum.
After a reboot, there is always a few % loss and 100Mbps is never reached.
It looks like a firmware bug to me.I confirmed this issue still exists with replacement hardware, so it looks like a firmware issue. I'm sure others must have much higher upload bandwidth (>100Mbps) and not seeing degradation?
So basically, the issue is max upload bandwidth (100Mbps) seen with no packet loss, up until a reboot. After a reboot, consistent reduced performance (20-30Mbps), with packet loss (1-8%).
This happens even with an out of the box minimal setup, with no other WiFi devices connected. No issue with wired bandwidth or WiFi download performance (up to 600Mbps).
- So, Netgear fixed this issue for me, but unfortunately did not merge it into the latest/final firmware.
Which means, I cannot use their patch as it is always replaced by the latest broken firmware.
Incidentally, I helped them identify the issue.
This is due to a firmware bug, ppp0 txqueuelen is still the default 3 rather than set to 1000, Suspect net-wan script fails on reboot. Reproduced on another unit running Voxel’s firmware. There a post boot ‘ifconfig ppp0 txqueuelen 1000’ resolves it
