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Forum Discussion
oldfart825
Aug 25, 2021Guide
R7800 Speed degrades over a day
Hello everyone. Here's my issue: I bought my R7800 about a year ago, when I saw that they were running fiber in our neighborhood. At that time we had 6Mb DSL and typically got 5Mb at best. As my old WN3000 was getting rather long in the tooth, I bought the R7800 in anticipation of better internet. 3 months ago they installed the fiber connection at our home. Day of install, we connected the R7800 to the fiber modem. 970Mb down, 980 up on Speedtest. Wow.
But...I noticed a few days later that the internet connection seemed to not be as snappy. Run speedtest. 670Mb down, 45Mb up.
WTF... Down router for a minute. Power up router. Run Speedtest. Back to full speed. Couple days later...same issue, same fix.
So, latest firmware - 1.0.2.82, QoS, off, no parental controls, no traffic metering, no settings I can see that would slow it down. I never noticed this issue with the old DSL, but there's a huge difference in speed there.
This is in a home with 3 people, rarely more than 3 devices on network. 3 PC's hardwired on CAT6 network, phones only on wireless when it's needed. Network consists of fiber modem, router, 24 port switch, wireless printer.
Now that all the base info is out there, and I know routers need to be rebooted occasionally because the memory tends to "load up" with crap, is there anyway to avoid having to reboot almost twice a day to keep the router running at full speed? Any odd/obscure settings I need to check?
Thanks guys!
24 Replies
Here's another piece of the puzzle - I had rebooted the router just minutes before I made the above post. Reran Speedtest, 914 down, 934 up. Made that post. Proceeded to surf the 'net a bit, just a few news articles. Reran Speedtest again. 614 down, 54 up. That was maybe an hour later. So something is definitely going on. And the Speedtest results are the same on all of our PC's, so it isn't a machine issue.
- JellyKateAspirantJust off topic. What kind of fiber do you have? I have AT&T fiber gigabit and with Modem BGW320-505 in IP passthrough with the R7800 and i’m only getting 700+ down and 150+up. I disable everything i could in R7800 but won’t get the gigabit speed. Do you have any settings that might help me? TIA
My fiber connection is through the local fiber provider - MidSouth Fiber. The modem is a Calix Gigapoint 803G and is just a modem, so I can't do a connect through the modem alone. If I reboot my router, and run speedtest from any of our three PC's, I typically get about 950Mb down, and 980Mb upstream. My problem is that with every other device off of the network but one, after browsing for about 30 minutes the speed drops off to around 670Mb down and 70Mb upstream. The speed doesn't get any worse than that.
I've tried everything except a 30/30/30 reboot and as soon as I get a chance - because that will mean setting everything back up from scratch, I'm going to try that. I'm on the latest firmware which I upgraded to without doing the 30/30/30 bit. Arrgh. When we had 6Mb DSL I never saw a problem like this.
So I really don't have any suggestions for you, other than making sure you have the latest firmware, and then doing the full reboot, though you said you were going through your provider's modem/router as a test, which I would assume you have in bridge mode in order to use the Netgear router. If you can't get full speed with the provider's setup, I would get them to make it work at full speed with that alone before getting your own router involved. You need to know that part is working as it should before injecting another piece of hardware into the mix.
I posted here hoping for some help, but so far no one from the Community or Netgear has replied so I guess no one has any suggestions about why a gigabit router which is great in every other way, won't provide full gigabit service. Maybe I should have gone with the router the provider wanted us to use (something called a Gigaspire) but with a router that was a few months old I felt that was silly and I didn't want to pay the monthly fee for their router.
I have been using Netgear products for a good twenty years with good results, but in this instance I'm rather stumped.
- michaelkenwardGuru - Experienced User
oldfart825 wrote:
My fiber connection is through the local fiber provider - MidSouth Fiber. The modem is a Calix Gigapoint 803G and is just a modem, so I can't do a connect through the modem alone.
Being "modem only" does not prevent you from connecting a PC to the device and testing the speed and the connection. You are simply limited to one wired device. That test would tell you what you are getting through the service.
You said earlier:
Run speedtest. 670Mb down, 45Mb up.How did you run a speedtest? Wifi tests tell you nothing, because they are client dependent, and even wired tests are unreliable because some test servers are better than others. I usually run a handful of tests on different servers.
You also said:
I know routers need to be rebooted occasionally because the memory tends to "load up" with crap,I have an R7800 that gets rebooting once in a blue moon, usually when there is a power cut. So that sounds like a myth to me.
A key point is that you have used this R7800 with an earlier Internet account.
It is highly advised to reset the router when changing accounts, so that it forgets any settings inherited from the previous account.
oldfart825 wrote:
I've tried everything except a 30/30/30 reboot and as soon as I get a chance
I bask because I wondered where you got the 30/30/30 reset idea from. (Reset and reboot are completely different processes.) It is not the usual way to clear settings when you move accounts.
A conventional reset is usually adequate. If you have already done that, then I doubt if the recovery reset – the 30/30/30 thing – would get you much further. If you haven't reset the thing since you moved from DSL to fibre, that is the obvious first move.
When you do have things up and running, be sure to disable anything that puts a load on the router's processor, such as QoS (a pointless exercise with fast Internet) and traffic metering.
If you still see the same symptoms, which don't look good, then you might need to get into RMA territory.
- michaelkenwardGuru - Experienced User
JellyKate wrote:
Just off topic. What kind of fiber do you have? I have AT&T fiber gigabit and with Modem BGW320-505 in IP passthrough with the R7800 and i’m only getting 700+ down and 150+up. I disable everything i could in R7800 but won’t get the gigabit speed. Do you have any settings that might help me? TIAJumping in the middle of, or hijacking, someone else's discussion is a bad idea. (It is also "against the rules".) If you want people, especially the Netgear team, to pay attention to your problem and offer tailored advice, then start your own conversation.
- qba94089Aspirant
Any solution found ? I have a similar issue: speed going down from 150 to 80, after reset, all fine.
Someone recommended using the Voxel firmware (there should be a thread here with the link in it). I tried that and have had no more issues since. It's a very easy change to make, the user interface is the Netgear UI so it doesn't look different, all the controls are in the same places. I have looked into WW-DRT, I think it is, and that looks like a bit more work to install and set up. I would try Voxel first, and if that doesn't work go the WW-DRT route.
- qba94089Aspirant
Thanks !
- Lp3AspirantUnfortunately, the best solution I can provide is to return it if possible and purchase a different brand. I went with a TP-Link AX6600 and have been EXTREMELY satisfied. Blazing fast speeds and a much faster web interface as well. This is there top of the line model, and they have a version of it with gaming features as well (priorize game traffic, etc.). They have a wide range of products at different price points, and in my experience, they all work very well. Best of luck.