Speed loss thru r8000 router

[Jpershke]

Ive had this about 10mo wo incident. Recently things got slow and alexa started dropping from network. I uploaded the latest firmware and nothing. I found hundreds of "wired" things connected  which makes no sense so did my best to elimate a bunch. Then rebooted from the app and things got better .....

But, i onluy have 12 mbps so need it all....connected wo router i get 11.5. Connected thru router about 8. Wifi between 6 and 8.

So:

1) what is acceptable speed loss thry router?

2) what is this nonsense with all these connected devices? How to prevent?

3) other tips?

If defective, want to deal w that before 2 mo.

Thanks

[IrvSp · Accepted solution]

Ah, a little clearer... you are running in AP mode. What is the modem, and I assume it is a combo with a router and maybe an eMTA?

Why do you have ACCESS CONTOL on?

Why are you even running in AP mode? Why not have the modem bridged and run the Router as a full router?

If the modem isn't also a router, then the R8000 doesn't need to be in AP mode.

[IrvSp]

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@Jpershke wrote:

Ive had this about 10mo wo incident. Recently things got slow and alexa started dropping from network. I uploaded the latest firmware and nothing. I found hundreds of "wired" things connected  which makes no sense so did my best to elimate a bunch. Then rebooted from the app and things got better .....

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Where did you see them? 'hundreds'? 'wired'? You only have 4 wired ports?

What about RESETTING the router? That will clear everything and then manually reenter all settings. Might fix it?

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@Jpershke wrote:

So:

1) what is acceptable speed loss thry router?

2) what is this nonsense with all these connected devices? How to prevent?

3) other tips?

---

You should have NO loss or a very minimal amount.

Got to tell us what they are, what IP Address they have, and how you see them? MAC Addresses too so one can tell what they are? Screenshots work for this, just use the Browse button to attach them to the right of the reply. Don't PUT them into the reply, takes too long to see them appear (you can see them immediately but others can not until a moderator approves them).

Other tip, RESET!

[Jpershke]

screen shot of first page....wired devices back up to 112 and 0 physical things connected to the router???? any idea what is going on and if this could be affecting performance and what to do about it. the wireless devices seems fine.

[GreenMotion]

Regarding the many connected devices; I saw something similar on my 8000. I too noticed performance degradation and looking at the connected devices, I saw my Onko Receiver - which is physically connected to the router - connected 30 - 40 times. Same MAC Address, but 30-40 different IP addresses and surprisingly, all of them were pingable. (My receiver was set to acquire IP via DHCP)

I assumed my Onkyo receiver was doing something funny and switched it from DHCP to a static IP address, but seeing this post it looks to be a router issue.

[IrvSp]

What is the Router IP Address? 38.132.1.1????

See all start with 38.132?

============

IP address:	38.132.130.22
hostname:	38-132-130-22.dynamic-broadband.skybest.com
ISP:	SkyBest Communications
Organization:	Cogent Communications
City:	Fleetwood
Region:	North Carolina
Country:	United States (US)
Postal code:	28626
Area code:	336
Metro code:	531
latitude:	36.2964
longitude:	-81.5001

I looked at the one above, you do NOT own that? Those IP Addresses are NOT private ones.

MAC Addresses, note many are the SAME...

MAC Address Details

Company

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc

Address

San Jose CA 95134
UNITED STATES

Range

00:12:F2:00:00:00 - 00:12:F2:FF:FF:FF

Type

IEEE MA-L

I have NO idea what you have done here?

Go to the Advanced tab and post a screenshot of the 2 boxes that I have taken on the picture attached on the right please?

[Jpershke]

no idea - skybest is my internet provider....could it have something to do w/ their box which is where the ethernet comes from?....that is the only thing "wired" in the network....

[IrvSp · Accepted solution]

Ah, a little clearer... you are running in AP mode. What is the modem, and I assume it is a combo with a router and maybe an eMTA?

Why do you have ACCESS CONTOL on?

Why are you even running in AP mode? Why not have the modem bridged and run the Router as a full router?

If the modem isn't also a router, then the R8000 doesn't need to be in AP mode.

[Jpershke]

I may not be following but let me be clearer - by "box" , I mean this...which i believe is simply a fiber to ethernet switch/converter of some type - not a router.....to my knowledge, I set it up the r8000 as plain vanilla as possible.  not sure how it got to ap mode - I assume that can explain some of the flakiness....I'll look at how to reconfigure - any directions of what I should have re: settings is appreciated.  I am not trying to do anything special here ....I hate to spend my holiday resetting this thing up but maybe should just start over.

still not clear how it propogates wired connections that don't exist but really don't care if I just get the setting right.

thanks for the help.

[Jpershke]

meant to include pic of "box"...

[Jpershke]

so just took ap and access control off....so now looks like this - better?

[IrvSp]

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@Jpershke wrote:

so just took ap and access control off....so now looks like this - better?

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Yes, to me at least. Only 'oddity' is the DNS's used? That 8.8.8.8 2nd DNS is part of Google's free DNS settings. The first one, 69.77.131.61, is Skybest's. Have you changed the

Domain Name Server (DNS) Address

on the Internet Setup page? Set it to Get Automatically from ISP might be better unless you KNOW the ISP's DNS is SLOW.

With the return of the router to normal usage (not an AP) is your speed better? Phantom devices gone?

[Jpershke]

ok - think we are good.  getting about 11.5 now.  the wired devices are "gone".  I also checked qos - hopefully that is a good move.

really have no idea how I got into AP mode but that seems to have been the issue.

thanks for all the help

[Jpershke]

ps - not sure about dns - "get automatically" is checked....but I'm counting this solved for now...

[Jpershke]

Still thinking about this - this is in my vacation home so I'm not using a lot but it has worked fine since I bought it in october.  I also have several smart devices attached so I know when they get disconnected and never an issue.  then the other day - all kinds of weird stuff....I really can't believe it was in AP mode that whole time w/o noticing weirdness....and I know I didn't mess w/ it until after the problem started....is it possible it changed settings on its own somehow....just wondering...

[IrvSp]

@Jpershke, rationally, there is no way to tell. Emperically, I doubt it (will flood this place if it happened to even a small number of users).

Possible causes in my mind, and again assuming you did NOT try to upgrade before this started happening, power drop or even a surge. Could even come in via the Internet line.

Could have switched during the new firmware upload as well, especially if the old was was quite old. I sort of feel some router problems are due to the firmware code. Like and program, data fields are created with in the RAM and referenced by the code. Usually one can just upgrade the code (firmware flash) and continue to operate. I think that at some point in the version chain the physical address in the code for data gets changed. That means the new code goes to a spot it things the setting is at, but it isn't. All bets are off in that case. Data can be the actual setting you see or data used by the firmware. Stuff you don't see, like the QoS database for instance. Others too I guess. That is why I think 'initially' NG stated you should RESET the router and manually reenter your settings. Now that is NOT required, at least not explicitly mentioned in the firmware README. My guess, NG finally instituted some coding controls, like at data area must start at the top part of RAM and no program can be bigger than the RAM size minus the area for data. Possible though older firmware didn't do this, hence the requirement to reset and reenter.

Did you do a reset? Might be worth it? Not doing that could be why 8.8.8.8 is showing for a DNS? Easiest way to do the reset, go to ADVANCED, ADMINISTRATION, BACKUP ROUTER and the last button on the page, ERASE, does it. Once the router is done rebooting, reenter the settings manually.

[Jpershke]

I didn't reset. Will when have some time but don't want to mess with it with a house full of people. What issues could this done thing cause?

[IrvSp]

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@Jpershke wrote:
I didn't reset. Will when have some time but don't want to mess with it with a house full of people. What issues could this done thing cause?

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I don't know what it could cause? It may not even? All I know is that if you do the reset and it fixes whatever problem you had, that was the fix. Doesn't fix it, well, it is something else. Is it worth trying? Don't know, but if you do it and it does fix everything it is worth it. I'd also think what could go wrong could be a function of how old the old firmware was vs. the new one, and possibly more important, what options/settings you use.

I've seen people say resetting worked and other that say it didn't....

[mark97564]

I had speed loss and frop outs on both bands of my r7000 routers. I had to go back 2 firmware versions to fix the issue... netgears 3 or 4 newest firmware version's break wifi... lan devices continue to work fine.... so flash older firmware. Then do a hard reset by holding the reset button for 10 seconds and then setup your router like it's New out of the box and i bet it will work.. when both of my routers went down shortly after i update i knew netgear screwed up. I also unchecked the box to automatically update the firmware, which may have happend to you.. good luck, post back with your results

[IrvSp]

@mark97564, I don't doubt for a minute what you did fixed the problem. That is why NG used to advocate doing exactly what you did.

I also think that is really masking the problem. You had a situation that caused this to happen. Yes, applying NG's firmware made it happen. Yes, going back in firmware versions, 2 in your case, fixed it.

Now with that said, think about this. What was so special that you had this happen? Why did it NOT happen to every one? Software works the same for every one albeit it does do different things due to settings for everyone as well. Why wasn't every user complaining? Why did you need to go back 2 versions and not the last one you had working (or was this the case, you were on that versions before updating?)?

I was using an R7000 for about 5 years, replacing it 4 months ago with the R8000. It was replaced as it start to randomly not work. Power light every few days would go from white to orange. Rebooting worked for a few days and it happened again. It started after applying new firmware that was released around that time (forgot version). I did the 'usual', just like you did. Never cured it. Got the R8000 and have had no problems with it other than some problems caused by a dying USB drive (which could have also be the R7000's problem, I never 'went back' to try it out).

If the firmware is bad, why am I and everyone else, other than some percentage that could be very small, not seeing the same problems?

Personally, I don't think many people use the routers the same way, and I mean functions of, not the use of. There are so many things that can vary from user to user. Not only within the router but external stuff like cables used, home construction, ISP speeds and type of service, devices that connect, and number of devices, and even power source. All those can have an affect as well. Settings and options enabled also will vary from user to user. VPN's, DNS's used, Parental Controls, QoS, Blocked Services, Access Control, Guest SSID's, Port Forwarding, and other settings might not be used by all, and in some cases those (and others) have been implicaed as problems. Did the user do a reset after installing and manually reenter settings. Due to these options, think of the number of different configurations that can exist. I think that is the problem, some configurations were not tested by NG.

I'm not saying what you propose is wrong either. I'm not saying NG didn't break something either. I wonder if you applied the 2 versions of firmware now and did a reset each time and reenter the settings if you would be working OK as well? If you did, then it would seem some remnant inside the router was the cause, and again, that doesn't let NG off the book on this.

I also don't understand why the saved CFG file can't be used after a firmware update. Yes, it is a binary file. It would have been better if it was almost a text file that could be read by the router to configure the settings... but that is a different discussion but for a developer of the firmware. I did have NG take a copy of mine when I did have a problem though... so maybe the way it is is good?

Just my thoughts and comments. Glad you were able to recover.