Orbi 870 WAN performance

appreciate you taking the time to share this.

I totally get the point around Ethernet overhead and that we’ll never see a “true” 10.00Gbps line rate. That’s expected. I’m not chasing perfection here just trying to figure out why my Orbi 870 is consistently capped around 4.5Gbps on the built-in speed test, even under what I’d consider ideal conditions.

Ive run multiple speed tests directly from the ONT & Firewalla, bypassing the router, and those easily hit 9+Gbps so I know the connection is solid.

But when I use the Orbi’s internal speed test, I never see more than ~4.5Gbps, even at off-peak hours. This has been sustained for a week. 

I’ve reached out to Netgear Support though it’s through a third-party distributor in my country, so I’m still waiting on a response. Thought I’d also ask here in case anyone else has run into the same thing.

The bigger question I’m trying to answer is this:

Is the Orbi 870 hardware-limited in such a way that it simply can’t push more than ~4.5–5Gbps on the WAN side, even under perfect conditions?

If there’s a technical reason why that’s not possible with this model, I think a lot of us would benefit from knowing that up front. It’s not a complaint just looking for clarity so I know whether to hang onto the system or go a different route.