Slow upload speeds on router Speedtest

[autoexec_bat]

Observing an interesting situation with upload speeds on my RS700 connected to a Verizon ONT, fiber gigabit.

The upload Speedtest on the RS700 tops out at about 300-ish Mbps; at the same time a hardwired AppleTV tops out at 950-ish Mbps on the same test server.

Wondering if this is a Speedtest app issue, an ONT issue, or an RS700 issue.

[autoexec_bat]

Thanks for your post. Yes, the issue could be rooted in some of the items you mentioned. There is no such thing as checking and optimizing ONT settings, as there aren't any available. The network is quite simple in its current setup as I am only testing with the devices indicated. Thus I am wondering if the Speedtest app itself on the RS700 is misconfigured or some other aspect of the RS700 itself is malfunctioning.

[FURRYe38]

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6A STP is recommended. 

If the Verizon unit has a built in router, disabling WiFi won't be enough.

 Does the Verizon ONT have 2.5Gb Ethernet ports? 

[autoexec_bat]

Latest fw, V1.0.7.82_2.0.80. Cable is CAT6A STP. There is no Verizon router in between, it goes ONT > RS700.

The VZW ONT is G-211M-C which has 1Gbit full duplex port.

The ONT is not the bottleneck as the other attached device (AppleTV via RS700) pushes near gigabit.

Hardwiring a laptop to the RS700 also gets near 100% saturation down and up.

[ShadowMario3]

I had a similar issue when I first got my RS700 back in September. Speedtest showed a fast download, but slow upload even though I had symmetrical fiber at the time. Turning off Netgear Armor fixed it for me.

[autoexec_bat]

QoS is disabled and so is Armor... I never enable those types of features 🙂

[FURRYe38]

Possible some issue in FW regarding how the speed test app is handling testing. Something NG will need to review.

@BH-C 

[autoexec_bat]

Thats what it looks like to me as well. I should add that this is the 2nd RS700 I am testing, both had same results.

In the meantime I hardwired my 2nd AppleTV via the RS700 and that too saturates down / up Ookla at nearly 100%.

So, in total, 3 hardwired devices via the RS700 can saturate the connection at nearly 100% in both directions.

On the other hand, the RS700's own Speedtest only maxes out download, up is no more than 350 consistently.

[FURRYe38]

Ok. Something to let NG know about the speed test app isn't working well. 

[ShadowMario3]

---

@autoexec_bat wrote:

QoS is disabled and so is Armor... I never enable those types of features 🙂

---

Ahh, Netgear Armor is usually enabled by default (if you got the router from Netgear's s website), which is why I assumed it was that. Seeing that other devices are getting the full download and upload, guess that wasn't the issue anyway.

What device are you using that is not getting the full saturation through upload? Are you able to check if it can get full saturation if it is directly connected to the ONT?

[autoexec_bat]

@ShadowMario3 the "What device are you using that is not getting the full saturation through upload?" answer is: the RS700 router itself 😉

[ShadowMario3]

Through the Netgear mobile app? Just in case, can you turn on QoS and see if that changes anything? Definitely odd that the app has that issue but other devices attached to the router don't.

[BH-C]

Hi @autoexec_bat,

I read your issue description and I cannot figure out where could go wrong. We may need to prepare a debugging firmware to collect some clues.

We verified the function in our test before and we didn't run into such issues. I just ran the speed on my RS700 (firmware v1.0.7.82), it got 945.35mbps for upload, my Internet speed is 1Gbps for both directions.

You mentioned you used the same test server as you ran the speed test on your Apple TV. But did you try different server for RS700's speed test?

FYI. You can select different speed test server from the RS700's Web GUI:

1. Go to the QoS Setup page in the Web GUI: Advanced tab / Setup / QoS Setup. Note: do NOT go to the QoS Setup page from the Basic tab.

2. Click on the "Select Speedtest Server"

3. Then you can click on the "Auto (last time server ID: xxxxx)", then a drop-down menu shows up, you can choose different speed test server from the list

4. Clik on the "Take a Speedtest" button to run speed test against the selected server.

Please see the screenshot below. Note: the servers in your list could be different from mine.

[autoexec_bat]

Hi @BH-C yes I did try 3 different servers on the RS700 Speedtest. On the RS700 internal Speedtest I always get more or less the same result and the constraint is always on the upload side, and always right around just under 350Mbps. It is as if there is a 350Mbps limiter in place set for uploads. I've since expanded my network and added several additional clients: a hardwired Intel NUC (on the RS700 10Gbit port, NUC has 2.5Gbit LAN) running Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS which now hosts an iPerf 3 Server and LibreSpeed test, plus two iPhone 15 Pro's, 2 MacBook Pro's (2021 M1) and several iPad Pro's (older and newer models). I do have slightly above basic knowledge of networks and am testing quite thoroughly. 

So network is af follows now:

- RS700

- Hardwired Intel NUC (10Gbit port on RS700, 2.5Gbit port on NUC)

- 2x Hardwired AppleTV 4K

- 2x Wifi 6GHz iPhone 15 Pro (6e)

- 2x Wifi 5GHz MacBook 16 Pro M1 (ax)

- Wifi 5GHz (ac) / hardwired HP EliteBook 845 G8 

Internal network testing is perfect; traffic to and from the iPerf 3 server on the hardwired NUC is always near 100% saturation no matter if the client is hardwired or on 5Ghz / 6Ghz wifi connection.

External testing sometimes suffers upload cutoff; it makes nearly no difference whether client is hardwired or on 5GHz / 6GHz wifi (even if you account for wifi loss due to it being on wifi). Here are some examples (underlined are speeds where it's problematic as bandwidth is available but barely utilized):

- RS700 internal Speedtest: 900Mbps down / 345Mbps up

- Intel NUC (over ethernet) iPerf 3 to / from any internal network client: 950Mbps down / 950Mbps up

- Intel NUC (over ethernet) LibreSpeed to any NY server: 900Mbps down / 300Mbps up

- Intel NUC (over ethernet) Ookla Speedtest CLI to any NY server: 920Mbps down / 260Mbps up

- iPhone 15 Pro (over wifi 6GHz 6e) iPerf 3 from / to NUC: 1.5bps down / 1.2Gbps up

- iPhone 15 Pro (over wifi 6GHz 6e) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 900Mbps down / 100Mbps up

- AppleTV 4K (over ethernet) iPerf 3 from / to NUC: 941Mbps down / 943Mbps up

- AppleTV 4K (over ethernet) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 933Mbps down / 940Mbps up

- MacBook Pro (over wifi 5GHz ax) iPerf 3 from / to NUC: 702Mbps down / 440Mbps up

- MacBook Pro (over wifi 5GHz ax) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 500Mbps down / 940Mbps up

- HP EliteBook 845 G8 (over wifi 5GHz ac) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 500Mbps down / 300Mbps up

- HP EliteBook 845 G8 (over ethernet) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 500Mbps down / 300Mbps up

[BH-C]

Thank you @autoexec_bat for the thorough testing data. This is my understanding from your tests, does that match your understanding?

---

• RS700 speed tests always got lower than 400mbps for the upload; download speeds are good.
• Some LAN devices got good upload speeds (iPhone 15 Pro / 6GHz, Apple TV 4K / Ethernet, MavBook Pro / 5GHz ax)
• Some LAN devices got less than 400mbps for Internet upload speeds (Intel NUC / Ethernet, HP EliteBook / Ethernet & 5GHz ac), download speeds are higher than 400mbps, and the upload speeds for the internal network are good (Intel NUC)

---

I get a few questions...

1. For the Internet speed test on Intel NUC and HP EliteBook, did you run the test a couple of times and the upload speeds were always below 400mbps? I just want to check if the speeds are consistent.
2. Do you have some Port Forwarding rules to the Intel NUC or HP Elite?
3. Can you disable the RS700's DoS Protection to see if that causes any speed changes? You can find the DoS Protection setting on the Web GUI: Advanced tab / Setup / WAN Setup => check “Disable Port Scan and DoS Protection”.
4. Do you have any cybersecurity software installed on the Intel NUC or HP EliteBook (e.g. Armor / BitDefender endpoint application)? I knew you have disabled the Armor on the RS700. It looks, in addition to RS700, it's Windows devices that have low Internet uplaod speeds issue, thsi could be a separate issue. One more test you can do is to connect the HP EliteBook directly to the modem (i.e. to skip the RS700) through Ethernet (remember to set it as a public network on the HP laptop) and then run the speed test.

Thank you.

[autoexec_bat]

Hi @BH-C yes you got it right. Upload is almost always slow when leaving the LAN and going out to WAN. As a matter of fact I made a typo in the results, the MacBook Pro over wifi on Ookla Speedtest is also slow, below 300Mbps (I had 900Mbps in the post by mistake, can't edit it anymore). The only consistent upload to WAN is the AppleTV. Most shocking speed drop is on the iPhones as it clocks 1.2Gbps upload to local host (iPerf 3 server on NUC) yes only 100-ish Mbps to external hosts (Oookla and others). 

To answer your questions: I always test 3 times each test run, with 3 different servers. Additionally, I randomly would also do fast.com testing, the Google speed test, or Verizon's own web-based test. The results are very similar and consistent.

I have a very barebones setup: no VPN, no Qos, no Armor, no Access Control, no port forwarding, no VLAN, masks, tagging etc. Only one fixed IP for the NUC on the LAN, that's it.

In the meantime I disabled the DoS Protection and that completely messed up everything. I couldn't get any of the clients to re-associate with the router. They would get an IP for about 3 seconds and then get kicked off the network. I rebooted everything multiple times. Ended up doing factory reset on the RS700 and ran speed test on the router itself as soon as I completed initial setup (didn't change any settings whatsoever). It still can't do above 300Mbps on its internal Speedtest. 

[autoexec_bat]

@BH-C here are some more tests:

MacBook hardwired to RS700 which is hardwired to Verizon's ONT (used a USB-C to LAN adapter as MacBooks don't have LAN ports)

...and just a few seconds later that same MacBook os now hardwired directly yo Verizon's ONT (so RS700 is removed from the chain); same test servers:

[BH-C]

Thank you @autoexec_bat, I will check with the team to see the next step to debug the issue.

[autoexec_bat]

Hey @BH-C more testing this morning, with some interesting results:

SETUP A: MacBook hardwired to RS700 which is hardwired to Verizon's ONT:

SETUP B: MacBook hardwired to Verizon's ONT (removed RS700 in between):

SETUP C: MacBook hardwired to MikroTik hEX (router) which is hardwired to Verizon's ONT, RS700 also hardwired to MikroTik hEX; RS700 is an AP Mode and routing is done by MikroTik:

You can see that removing the RS700 from the equation resolves upload speeds. When RS700 is switched to AP mode, and the MikroTik router is inserted between the ONT and RS700, doing all the routing, then RS700 can finally max out its own upload test. With this setup, all uploads from hardwired clients max out; however uploads via wifi are still very slow. 

[BH-C]

Thanks @autoexec_bat for the updates. The weird thing is the Apple TV is OK and the speed test is OK in other places.

We will check how to dig out more clues to fix the issue.

[autoexec_bat]

Thanks @BH-C . Wifi is still very constricted though on the upload, no matter the setup / test / client. Not sure if you saw this, it's a 2nd unit I am working with as I exchanged it, thinking that 1st one was defective.

[BH-C]

Hi @autoexec_bat ,

When you said "Wifi is still very constricted though on the upload", did you refer to MacBook Pro or other devices?

    MacBook Pro (over wifi 5GHz ax) iPerf 3 from / to NUC: 702Mbps down / 440Mbps up

It looks iPhone 15 Pro is good:

    iPhone 15 Pro (over wifi 6GHz 6e) iPerf 3 from / to NUC: 1.5bps down / 1.2Gbps up

We didn't see speed issue in our test. Please let us know the exact model with which you got slow upload speeds. Thanks.

[autoexec_bat]

Hi @BH-C 

Quoting from before, updated the incorrect MacBook upload which is constricted uploading to WAN.

Yes, the iPhone 15 Pro over wifi is outstanding on the internal network, however it drops to 100Mbps to WAN.

HP EliteBook 845 G8 is also constricted to slow upload to WAN over wifi. Pretty much all uploads except ATV.

- RS700 internal Speedtest: 900Mbps down / 345Mbps up

- Intel NUC (over ethernet) iPerf 3 to / from any internal network client: 950Mbps down / 950Mbps up

- Intel NUC (over ethernet) LibreSpeed to any NY server: 900Mbps down / 300Mbps up

- Intel NUC (over ethernet) Ookla Speedtest CLI to any NY server: 920Mbps down / 260Mbps up

- iPhone 15 Pro (over wifi 6GHz 6e) iPerf 3 from / to NUC: 1.5bps down / 1.2Gbps up

- iPhone 15 Pro (over wifi 6GHz 6e) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 900Mbps down / 100Mbps up

- AppleTV 4K (over ethernet) iPerf 3 from / to NUC: 941Mbps down / 943Mbps up

- AppleTV 4K (over ethernet) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 933Mbps down / 940Mbps up

- MacBook Pro (over wifi 5GHz ax) iPerf 3 from / to NUC: 702Mbps down / 400Mbps up

- MacBook Pro (over wifi 5GHz ax) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 500Mbps down / 100Mbps up

- HP EliteBook 845 G8 (over wifi 5GHz ac) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 500Mbps down / 300Mbps up

- HP EliteBook 845 G8 (over ethernet) Ookla Speedtest to any NY server: 500Mbps down / 300Mbps up

[autoexec_bat]

Added Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus to the mix: 900+ Mbps down, no more than 200 Mbps up to any WAN test on WiFi 6e.

[autoexec_bat]

Hi again @BH-C did a WireShark run this morning on Verizon SpeedTest and capturing src client on upload only for two different setups (about 550K packages per capture). I did the test / capture multiple times with very similar results:

Setup A: MBP direct to ONT (ethernet)

Setup B: MBP to RS700 (ethernet) to ONT (ethernet)

You will notice that when we have Setup A (without the RS700), the WireShark log shows only 24 Warnings and just a few Notes / Chats. 

However, with the addition of RS700 in Setup B, the WireShark log shows a sizable new entry of 3,491 out-of-order-segment frames, plus 479 retransmissions.

Here are the screenshots: