We recently purchased a XR500 and after setting it up with the aid of he only video currently available on youtube (Thank you Sim) we are now finding that our 2 hardlined devices are seriously not getting any speed. So let me elaborate on this a bit, we have the router connected and from that we run 2 CAT 6a cables out the back, 1 to my laptop and 1 to our xbox one, when we first got the router the xbox was showing download speeds of 380mbps and my laptop being an old girl was pulling in about 175mbps. Here we are several days later and many visits from our internet providers tech guys and they keep saying the same thing, we show you getting 524mbps but we are like...umm nope! Now the weird thing is I can do a speedtest on my Note 8 and sure enough I pull 383mbps, but go back to the hardwired devices and the speed is trash. It has to be something in the settings and honestly I do not know enough to try and figure out what we did other than to do a master reset on this thing, that is not something I really want to do. I have checked out cables and it is not that, we even bought a new one for the sake of arguement and still the same trash speeds.
Hi Misskitty, first set your bandwidth to what you're supposed to get. Then set Anti-Bufferbloat to 'Never'. Reset distribution on Bandwidth Allocation for both download & upload. Also make sure share excess for both download & upload on Bandwidth Allocation are ticked. Then remove/disable anything in Traffic Prioritization.
Then for an accurate test make sure to do a wired speed test from a PC from speedtest.net (console tests are often inaccurate). If you don't get your full speeds after that then disable QoS completely within Anti-Bufferbloat's settings.
I followed your instructions and I see no change in my computer but it may just be that it is old and on it's last legs, my cell phone tested at 293mbps so I think that is pretty great :). I did test the xbox, I know it is not accurate but well curiosity kills the cat everytime, and it showed 188mbps. So my question is this, when I was in the QoS and selecting never on the antibloat it advised it could slow dow my gaming queue, but will it cause lag while I am in game? My husband is a COD player and that is the sole reason we bought this router, so of course I want this to run as it should for him 🙂
Okay great! So how the QoS solution works is that by lowering your download/upload (which lowers your speeds) it allows all the devices in your home room to use the internet without lagging/buffering. Here's what I suggest:
Set Anti-Bufferbloat to 'When High Priority Traffic Detected' and then set the download/upload sliders to 70%. In Traffic Prioritization enable DumaOS Classified Games.
What this means is that you will get your full speeds when your husband isn't playing his Xbox. Then when he starts to play Traffic Prioritization will kick in automatically, prioritizing his gaming so that he gets the best possible ping. That will then set off your Anti-Bufferbloat to ensure that no one in your home experiences any lag/buffering (you will get slightly slower speeds). This way everything is automatic and everyone is happy.
ok I have done those settings and I'm sending him off to play to see how it performs 🙂 Do you change anything in the bandwidth allocation wheel? or leave everything evenly distributed?
That's just the QoS feature, you can also use the Geo-Filter for his gaming to ensure he gets the closest server possible and thus a better ping as well. I would recommend doing the tours for both QoS & Geo-Filter to get to grips with how they work. You can start them by clicking the ? icon next to their titles in the menu bar beside the logos.
You can leave Bandwidth Allocation as it is as it will automatically give bandwidth to the devices that need it the most.
Hi, I'm also seeing an extreme cap on my Internet speed. Supplied via modem directly by cable to desktop computer I get around 250 Mbit/s. When plugging in the XR500 it drops down to 20-50 Mbit/s. I've updated to latest firmware, reset the router twice, added more than generous speeds in the config menu under QoS and finally disabled QoS completely. Nothing changes the issue. Any other suggestions before I return the product?
Hi Andreas - if you have disabled QoS and you’re still getting low speeds then it’s either an issue with settings or a hardware fault. I recommend you contact Netgear directly using their 24/7 live support. They should be able to fix this for you. You can contact them here:
Hi Aje, I know Netgear are helping you now but just thought I'd add in a potential solution. Sometimes when adding a new router the ISP gets funny about it, if you give the XR500 the same MAC address as the previous router you were using that may fix it.
Thanks for the suggestion but I didn't have a router previously. It's a new appartment with a new internet connection, and I still run my old setup at my old place. 🙂
Funny enough, after returning with the system off for 24h, I now get full speed. I don't get it...? Did the router self-correct or what? I'll keep pushing the XR500 today with lots of TB of data and see what happends. I'll keep you all updated. This is really interesting!
Great to hear it's been resolved, thanks for the update! The ISP can just get weird when a new router is introduced, it can sometimes take a few days before the speeds are restored. I'm not sure why this is, the MAC address trick will solve it if that's an option.
I noticed on my XR500 that if I set the download and Upload excactly to what I have, 300 down and 20 up, my speeds measured are lower, i.e 275 down and 19 up as per speedtest. If I set the download to 400 and upload to 25 in the Duma software, I get 356 down and 24 up. Consistently. Is somewhat strange I thought, but these are my findings. And I went back and forth numerous times. Just my 2 cents.
Hi Lynx, that likely means that you have higher than you think as a router can not give you higher speeds that your ISP provides. So if you set it to 356 down and 24 up then at 100% on Anti-Bufferbloat you should also achieve that speed.
Thank you, I tried that but my speeds are still slower for some reason. I get the maximum speed by increasing it past that 356 down and 24 up. It is strange. And this is hardwired in from my ISP router to XR500 to S8000 (uplink and port #1 set to gaming preset) and then to my PC. If I go straight from my ISP router to my PC I get 356 down and 24 up.
When I take the xr500 out of the mix, I get 356 Down and 24 Up. If I take the S8000 out, and go straight from ISP router to XR500 to PC the speeds are reduced. The XR500 for some reason is not calibrated correctly. If I input 356 and 24 my speeds are reduced. But this is just my experience. I don't know if anybody else is experiencing this. I just wanted people to be aware that this is happening. I don't know if my unit is faulty, It seems to work perfect now I have everything set up. Just an observation.
Thanks for letting us know Lynx we'll have a look trying to reproduce it. Glad everything is working perfectly! Do continue to keep an eye on it and let us know if you have any issues!
I wanted to chime in on this. I'm having the same issue with my PS4 and PC. I replaced my old Netgear modem and one of the older Nighthawks with a CM700 modem and an XR500 router.
I'm using Comcast Xfinity with 250mbps down and I'm getting no where near that on my PS4. I've tried with and without anti buffer bloat and I'm averaging 50-80 Mbps on my PS4 hard wired, I get the same speeds on my laptop on wifi. If I'm connected to the modem directly I end up getting 297 Mbps. My phone is the only device connected to my router that's getting the proper speeds, on wifi I'm getting 270-290 Mbps.
I've tried speed tests through Google, Ookla, and Xfinity and they all get the same. I got this router specifically for gaming and love the DumaOs options but these download speeds are a 5th of what I'm paying for. I don't want to return it if I don't have to.
Do ALL devices get full speeds directly connected to the modem? If not then it sounds like your devices do not have Gigabit ethernet ports or do not support AC WiFi.
I've never gotten full speeds through a PS4 regardless of what it's been connected to. Console speed tests are not entirely accurate but you definitely have plenty for gaming.
Do other devices hardwired to the XR500 get the speeds you expect?
I'm getting 270-297 mbps directly on laptop to modem. I'm getting 325 Mbps with laptop to router. I'm getting 300ish on wifi where I was getting 50-80 an hour ago.
The PS4 is giving now giving me up to 200 connected wired to the router, but occasionally drops back to 50.
I guess I'm going to keep testing over the next couple days but I can't find any method to the madness.
