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Forum Discussion
R6400v2 - Slowed speeds
Hi all, I am having an issue - I pay for 500 Mb down internet and historically have received it. Recently I noticed that I was only getting about 150 Mb down. After a LONG investigation invo...
Forgot to mention Firmware: Problem noticed on v R6400v2-V1.0.4.126_10.0.102
Updated to most recent: R6400v2-V1.0.4.128_10.0.104
Downgraded all the way to R6400v2-V1.0.2.14_1.0.7
Now to enjoy the incremental updates and security patches - oh happy day -_-
Hi Steve, I agree with you 100% - thanks for sharing your experiences. I don't think I mentioned in my post here but I believe the root cause is that Netgear likely only maintains a handful (at most) of different firmwares. I'm guessing most of their products get the same firmware with features enabled/disabled depending on the price point, the CPU, and the board features.
There were probably changes made that are not compatible with these older routers. I'm guessing most customers won't ever be aware because (a) most users won't notice things like this and (b) most users won't have internet fast enough to expose the issue. I'm frustrated because I only bought this router 2 years ago, and to have a router become almost worthless after only 2 years is not an acceptable business practice.
After careful consideration I decided to jump ship and bought an ASUS GT-AX11000. So far I've been happy with it, but I noticed that even with the Asus, if I enable QoS, my speeds get capped at around 300 Mb/sec (I upgraded my connection to gigabit, so this was a substantial change).
All of this makes me wonder if I wouldn't be better off running DD-WRT, or getting a used PC and throwing a few network cards into it to run my own Linux router.
iamamish wrote:
So far I've been happy with it, but I noticed that even with the Asus, if I enable QoS, my speeds get capped at around 300 Mb/sec ....
Why would anyone want to use QoS with 300 Mbps Internet?
It was invented to cope with clashes when Internet speeds were in the teens.
I'm not sure who would want to use QoS, but I wouldn't. It was turned on by default when I configured the router.
Enabling QoS can nuke your connectivity speeds, and it is worth calling out because a lot of routers seem to have this issue.
iamamish wrote:
I'm not sure who would want to use QoS, but I wouldn't. It was turned on by default when I configured the router.
Was it second hand?
Then again, it is a pretty basic router that dates back to 2016.
Enabling QoS can nuke your connectivity speeds, and it is worth calling out because a lot of routers seem to have this issue.
Using QoS, along with traffic metering, is one of several features that require the router's processor to inspect the traffic it processes. This can slow things down. So "turn them off" is a regular suggestion for people with speed issues.
The usual advice on QoS – even Netgear suggests it – is to disable it when you have an Internet service that is over 300 Mbps. Some say even lower. If your speed is that good you would have hard time overloading the bandwidth.
