Speed issues depending on which channel I connect - Possible hardware issue:

[nelsonwcf]

Hi,

I purchased a R8000 about 1 month ago and it worked pretty well. Last week, I was reading a review on the router which suggested turning on the Smart Connect. That's when the issues started.

- The panda USB wireless that worked flawlessly started getting speeds of 1.5MBPs when my service is Comcast Blast of 150MBps. Before turning S.C. on, it reached that speed easily.

- After turning of Smart Connect, the performance of the USB dongle didn't improve. It stayed at 1.5MBPs to 3MBPs. I've been trying to fix it for one week now.

- I resetted the modem (reset button pressed for 10s), configured my router again and in additional to my dongle working poorly, the router started having problems to detect my External WD "My passport".

Today, troubleshooting the dongle with Panda Wireless, I changed from the Secondary 5Ghz channel to the Primary and the speed came back to 170MBPs. The router is kept about 3M from the computer without any obstacle between them.

Finnaly, streaming from my router (using cable) to my TV through DLNA sometimes stutters; yesterday it even caused the TV to not recognize the transmitted file.

Can you help me troubleshoot the router further to find if it defective?

Thank you,

[nelsonwcf · Accepted solution]

Since I started the topic, let me give it a closure. My issue was that I had a USB Wireless Dongle from Panda which performed well in the Secondary Channel (High Channel) but ridiculously poor in the Primary Channel (Low Channel). Since I had Smart Connect turned on, I couldn't control which channel my computer connected and appeared the problem was with the router.

That said, I noticed a better balancing between devices when I disabled the dynamic QoS option. I don't know if the algorithm for the dynamic QoS is just bad or its implementation by the current firmware (V1.0.3.4_1.1.2) is bugged.

Anyway, right now everything is working fine at my home. Comcast Blast of 150Mbps and the speedy tests getting between 157 to 153Mbps in the tests using any of the 5G channels.

[Rising_Star]

This interesting in that I came here looking for any solutions to a very similar problem with my R8500.  I have not tried disabling smart connect, yet, but will give that a try when I return in one week.  My issue has been that since upgrading to the Comcast 150Mbps tier, Business Class, my bandwidth seems to slowly degrade on the LAN side.  A test from the router using the speed test in the dynamic QoS shows that Comcast is not degraded and I am at least getting the expected bandwidth to the router.  Passing through the router I experience degradation over time.  A reboot sets me back to the expected bandwidth but over a few hours I will experience degradation and even the appearance of no internet connection.  Using the Speedtest website and testing against a nearby Comcast server as well using Comcast's own speed test site I see my bandwidth, over time, creep as low as 30Mbps.  Interestingly, running the same test from a Galaxy Note 5 on the WiFi side obtains about 130Mbps and I have yet to see any degradation there.  Other devices such as my Smart TV, my Roku, and various laptops on WiFi will lose internet; i.e. no internet access but still connected to the router.  During these moments I have noticed that accessing the router via the web UI is also problematic---laggy or non-responsive.  I should mention here that the my primary machine that experiences the slow degradation is wired to the router using CAT6 STP, 10ft.

It appears to me that this may be a thermal problem.  I have noticed there were more problems today than others (had to reboot four or five times) and invariably the temperature in the home was considerably warmer.  I will be on vacation for a week and will continue troubleshooting upon my return.  My first thought is to put a little fan near the router to circulate the air better.  Should that not resolve the issue, the I will swap out the router for my previous router, the R7000, to see if it experiences the same problem.  If the R7000 doesn't experience the same problem then I will revert to the R8500 and begin an in-depth analysis of the problem.

It should be noted, too, my previous tier was at the 50Mbps speed.  With this tier the performance was consistant and never dropped below 50Mbps.  On the 150Mbps tier I have seen the performance drop to less than 50Mbps. 

[ElaineM]

What are the firmware versions installed on your respective routers?

Have you tried flashing the firmware of the router?

After firmware reflash, reset the router by using a paperclip for 10 seconds and then reconfigure.

Make sure that there are no other wireless devices that may interfere with the wireless connection.

Avoid devices like microwave ovens, cordless phones, baby monitors, etc.

[nelsonwcf]

Thank you, I guess I already figured this out. The problem seemed to be BOTH the Wireless USB Adapter, which stopped working at the Primary Channel (because of the lower frequency channels). The second issue was the Smart Connect option, after disabling it the speeds get back to the appropriate range. In fact, I also disable Dynamic QoS but I don't know if this was responsible for the fix.

[ElaineM]

Thank you for the update.

You may perhaps try to redo it one by one to see which one made it work.

[Rising_Star]

Elaine,

To answer a previous question, my current firmware is 1.0.2.54_1.0.56.  I loaded this firmware update after backing up the configuration and then followed the update with a factory reset.  Upon completion of the factory reset I reloaded the configuration.

Some other details I have come upon are as follows?

Preliminary information:  ISP speed is 150Mbps and problem did not exist or wasn't evident when the ISP speed was 50Mbps.

1.  Connecting directly to the cable modem/router reveals no speed degradation even after an entire day.

2.  I can run a speed test from the NetGear router (Advanced-Setup-QoS Setup) through out the day and see no speed degradation.

3.  Initial connection to the Ethernet port on the router shows no degradation but after a two or three hours the speed has dropped.

4.  The same occurs even over WiFi.  My WiFi card is an Intel 802.11ac card.

*****Interestingly, a Galaxy Note 5 connected via 802.11ac does not seem to be afflicted with the same problem.

5.  It should be noted that when 3 or 4 above occur, the test in item 2 shows no degradation.

6.  Also note that the degradation exhibits a speed drop to between 50Mbps and 30 Mbps.

7.  Disabling Smart Connect does not change the results.

8.  There is no QoS implemented.

More testing to follow.

Sincerely,

Charles

[ElaineM]

@Rising_Star

Thank you for the information.

Have you tried other firmware? Just to isolate.

What's the average speed that you're getting on the LAN and for both wireless bands?

[Rising_Star]

Hi Elaine,

Should this discussion be moved to another forum?  I have found others experiencing speed issues with the R8500.

Regardless, I will answer your questions here for now.

I have not tried other firmware, yet, and will probably try further along the troubleshooting path.  I have eliminated additional network hardware for now to see if that helps any.  I had a NetGear GS108T connected to the router and was using port aggregation between the router and the switch.  Additionally, I had my NAS connected to the switch also using port aggregation.  Both port channels were operating 802.1ad.  As it takes about two hours for the probably to manifest itself these tests are taking a bit of time to note whether any changes resolved the issue.

When there is no degradation in performance my average speed has been about 125Mbps down, 23Mbps up.  At the moment of degradation I see the download speed creep towards about 34Mbps down.  This happens over a period of about two hours at the onset of the degradation.  Thus, at the beginning of the degradation which occurs within two hours of rebooting the router I will see my speed drop to about 100Mbps and then over a span of two to three hours it will finally settle in at around 34Mbps.  The upload is unaffected.  When I perform the speed test from the router (in the QoS test) the speeds down and up are always comparable if not equal to that which I experience before the degradation occurs.  Also, during the time that it has settled in around 34Mbps the download speed was not as stable; i.e. there were a lot of peaks and valleys as the download progressed.  When there is no degradation the speed ramps up to the maximum possible and remains at that level until the download completes.

My current network configuration has two, sometimes three, computers connected via wire to the router.  There is no switch attached to the router anymore.  My NAS is connected to the two ports on the router that provide port aggregation and is configured for 802.1ad.  All other devices are connected via wireless.  Thus far my Galaxy Note 5 has yet to experience the degradation and I am beginning to wonder if this may be an issue with Windows machines connected to the router.  Android devices don't seem to have a problem but, too, they are connected via wireless.  However, further testing needs to be made before I can definitively associate Windows and the router's interaction with Windows machines as a possible element.  Meanwhile, I have also began testing the wireless with Windows machines.

Testing continues.  Updates to follow.  I will eventually get around to accomplishing packet captures once I have eliminated all possible hardware issues.

[Rising_Star]

Hi Elaine,

Here is the latest.

I have tried other versions of firmware and even went to the initial release.  I did not test them all but the problem persisted with each firmware version.  Afterwards, I returned to the latest version.

I noticed on a couple of my tests that there was hesitation and then suddenly a burst of data such that the speed test reported that I had a 220Mbps connection---if only this could be true for the same price.  My first thought was that this this could be a memory problem or a buffer allocation, utilization or release issue on the router.  Unfortunately, this router does not afford me the tools I am accustomed to for troubleshooting router issues and its internal processes.

I tried a Windows laptop that does not have the latest Windows updates and found that it doesn't exhibit the same problem as my primary laptop.  For the record the two laptops are Dell, both contain 32GB of memory, the lesser is an M4700 while my primary is an M6700.  I decided to use the two to test the router using LAN Speed Test and LAN Speed Test Server on each machine.  The test consisted of the following:

Packet size 1GB

Transfer test: 1GB packets, 5 packets, pause 5 seconds and repeat for thirty minutes.

Test scenario 1

Directly connected both machines.

This resulted in a bit rate up and down of about 850Mbps.

There was literally no degradation.  The bit rate would fluctuate within +/-10%.

Test scenario 2

Both machines connected to a NetGear GS108T switch.

The switch was not connected to the router.

This resulted in a bit rate of approximately 750Mbps, +/- 10% with no degradation.

Test scenario 3

Both machines connected to the router.

The initial bit rate was approximately 650Mbps.

The interesting aspect in this test was that the download speed began to creep downward while the upload speed stayed within reasonable expectations.  Here I watched the creep down to approximately 380Mbps before stopping the test.  When I restarted the test a few minutes later I found that the download speed was down to about 170Mbps.

Sincerely,

Charles

[nelsonwcf · Accepted solution]

Since I started the topic, let me give it a closure. My issue was that I had a USB Wireless Dongle from Panda which performed well in the Secondary Channel (High Channel) but ridiculously poor in the Primary Channel (Low Channel). Since I had Smart Connect turned on, I couldn't control which channel my computer connected and appeared the problem was with the router.

That said, I noticed a better balancing between devices when I disabled the dynamic QoS option. I don't know if the algorithm for the dynamic QoS is just bad or its implementation by the current firmware (V1.0.3.4_1.1.2) is bugged.

Anyway, right now everything is working fine at my home. Comcast Blast of 150Mbps and the speedy tests getting between 157 to 153Mbps in the tests using any of the 5G channels.