slow upload speeds RS700

[idevelop]

I just purchased the RS700 and got it setup and when running multiple hardwired speedtests on multiple different servers I can't hit above 250~Mbps on upload. Download speeds are 900+Mbps as expected.

Previously to using the RS700 I was using a XR1000 getting 900+Mbps download and upload.

I have ran tests before and after turning off Netgear Armor and get the same results.

When running the internal speedtest from the RS700 GUI I get the same degraded upload speeds.

There have been no new devices introduced, just a straight swap of the XR1000 to the RS700. After failing to get better upload speeds I switched back to the XR1000 and immediately got my full speeds again. 

When doing speedtests on wifi I am receiving about the same percentage loss as I am getting hardwired. Going from 300-400~Mbps upload down to 50-60~Mbps.

The RS700 is fully up-to-date as well.

[Rob1099 · Accepted solution]

Quick update - I was very fortunate to have a first-class technician from Frontier come out today. He really knew networking, both as a career and a hobby.  I was worried my ISP might (rightfully) say sorry buddy,  use the Eero Pro's we gave you, our ONT is fine... but thankfully it went the complete other way. 

After chatting with him, he agreed to move me over to XGS-PON with ONT swap. Issued a FRX523. Pulled a short new fiber and moved the whole setup into my garage, nice enclosure, very clean. With sincere thanks expressed to him.  He was far more thankful that I ran the cables all weekend and drilled the holes 😂

Anyways ---- while this is "good news" for me, I got very lucky and if the tech didn't take care of me,  I would have to return this Netgear back. I'm reminded of other users with this problem with ISPs / techs that may not have new equipment or be willing to do a whole ONT model exchange. I just upgraded my service from 500m to 1gb last week too, so I had a bit of a leg to stand on. Not all will have that luxury.

Bing @BH-C you've been a big help so far, I'm just hopeful that the Engineering team figures this thing out.  I did send over a detailed technical manual from Alcatel-Lucent on the 211 series, if it helps. I'm looking forward to the next stable firmware release.  (Is there a Wi-Fi Channel Scan / Optimizer on this thing?)

In closing, big thanks to the other users who actively helped me and others. Fingers crossed Netgear dials this one in. 

Rob

[BH-C]

Which internet service provider do you use?

[idevelop]

I have Verizon fiber 1gb up/down.

I am using Speedtest.net on multiple different servers.

And again, if I use my XR1000 I get above 900 on both up/down with a wired connection.

I am a system engineer as my day job the reason I posted here is because I have 2 other friends that bought the rs700 yesterday (micro center was doing $200 off) and all 3 of us are capped around 200~ on a wired connection. We all have Verizon 1gb up/down. 3 different local cities. Each 20+ minutes away from each other and we are all having the same issue.

[idevelop]

Verizon Fios 1gb up/down

[BH-C]

We noticed this issue for some Verizon fiber customers and looks there is an Ethernet interoperability issue between the RS700's internet port and a certain Nokia ONT providied by Verizon. We still work on this issue. Can you send me a photo of the product label on your ONT through a private message? Thanks.

[Atagg]

Hi, one of the friends here. Have fios 1gb up and down. Before installing the rs700 i had fios router. Swapped over got same issue as OP. My only fix was to bridge the network to the rs700 using the fios router. I have everything working getting my full speeds now but still have a piece of hardware (fios router) wasting electricity now. You mentioned NOKIA ONT device, my ONT is the Alcatel I-211M-L. I tried doing troubleshooting with Verizon and got nowhere no matter what I tried it just wouldn't get full speeds unless that fios router was connected in front of the rs700.

[autoexec_bat]

Nokia and Alcatel are the same company, so the I-211M-L is identical to the G-211M-C. 

There is an upload speed issue of some sort with RS700 and I-211M-L / G-211M-C on Verizon.

I saw someone else recommend a 3rd device in between as a fix, need to try that myself.

[FURRYe38]

Might try a non managed switch in between the Verizon ONT and the RS. Maybe GS105 or GS305 switch. 

[Rob1099]

Thanks for this thread.  I, too, am scratching my head with the RS700 and Fiber FIOS performance.

I purchased the RS700 yesterday 06/08/2024.  It's connected with a brand-new Cat6A cable from the RS700 to the Frontier (formerly Verizon FIOS) ONT. (I tried it with previous cat5e cable run too, no difference at all, ONT to RS700 cable is not a variable here)

The ISP WAN speeds I pay for are 1gb up/down symmetrical. Historically I get at or above these speeds on my previous Linksys MX5300 Velop units. (DFW Area, great new fiber residential infrastructure) 

The ONT I have is an Acatel-Lucent 1-211M-L.

I've only had the RS700 for one day but some odd findings so far:

• WAN ISP Speeds when plugged directly into the ONT are as-expected, up/down.
• WAN ISP Speeds on my Linksys Velop MX5300 that this is replacing are consistently right around the 1Gbps speed up and down, perfect. 
• Wired devices into the RS700 are decent, but still about half of what they were wired into my Linksys MX5300 (I'm getting around ~400 mbps up,  nearly half of the wired speeds on those same exact clients, same network cables, same everything)
• Wireless upload speeds via WAN are really bad, on Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, and 6E clients, literally 40 - 90 MBPS consistently. 10 feet away from the router
• Download speeds via Wireless on the RS700 seem decently respectable

Netgear I appreciate you responding here and highlighting what you say may be an issue.

If there's anything I can provide to help, just let me know.  Concerning and I really want this RS700 to work out for me. 

[zeuss]

@Rob1099 

I have a suggestion that might be helpful for the Netgear team's analysis, though I'm not sure if you'd like to try it.

You can set up your RS700 in AP Mode, then move your WAN cable from the WAN port to one of the LAN ports (1/2/3/4). Connect your wired PC to another LAN port and check if you get better speeds.

After that, with the same AP mode setup, move the WAN cable back from the LAN port (1/2/3/4) to the WAN port. Then, see if the speed remains improved or if it drops again.

[Rob1099]

Thanks @zeuss good to know, I will keep this in mind.

I'm working with @BH-C on the Debug firmware that was sent last night, 1.0.7.91.  I hope our combined efforts from those investing time on this forum are able to help Netgear figure out root cause and issue update.

About to start the testing now.

[autoexec_bat]

You can check my original thread here, I've done quite a lot of testing: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-with-WiFi-7-BE/Slow-upload-speeds-on-router-Speedtest/td-...

The details in @Rob1099 's post match my situation nearly to the T. I am working on FW testing as well together with @BH-C. 

Ironically it's good to validate that others have an identical issue, at least I know it's not something on my end alone.

Having said that, I really hope this gets a bit more resource on NETGEAR's side as it is clearly a problem that needs work. I imagine millions of potential Customers will be eventually / are already affected, FIOS is not a small provider. 

[Rob1099]

Thanks @autoexec_bat for your time and help on this.  Looks like you've been chasing it down for several months already.  I don't want to return this router but that's a long time, props for the work you've done already. 

Quick question for you, @BH-C  and others here.... do we know if a different model ONT performs better / as-expected?  I'm going to try and get a different ONT from Frontier (for semi-unrelated reasons) and I'm curious if this software bug is related specifically to the Alcatel-Lucent 211M-L ONT or if it's a bug for Fiber ONTs at large?  Perhaps we don't know?

Thanks again,

Rob

[FURRYe38]

Would be good to know if a GS series non managed switch could be a alternative or work around for this issue, until NG can figure this out. 

[Rob1099]

Hi @FURRYe38 - are we talking a simple Ethernet connection from ONT into unmanaged L2 like a GS108, and then Ethernet GS108 into the WAN port of RS700?

The way my home network is physically and logically setup,  I can make that work (for a short-term, temporary test) with minimal headache.

Let me know if so, I can confirm back?

Sincerely,

Rob

[FURRYe38]

Yes. Would be great to see if anything changes. Just don't connect anything else to the switch. Just the ONT and the RS. 

[ShadowMario3]

@Rob1099 

"do we know if a different model ONT performs better / as-expected?"

I have a Nokia ONT XS-010X-Q through GoNetspeed. I have no issues with getting 2 gig Internet on both download and upload.

[Rob1099]

Okay - definitely something here.

ONT -> GS108 -> RS700 WAN Port

The wired and wireless download speeds are certainly reduced,  by about ~200MBPS or so on both wired & wireless interfaces, but let's put that aside for now...

Upload speeds increased dramatically on wired, and notably higher on wireless too...

Wired (MBP M3 Max via USB C Gigabit adapter) pushing ~790Mbps++ Upload

Wireless (Same client, 6E Interface) not great at ~350-420Mbps upload ~508Mbps peak, but better than the 60 or 70Mbps I was getting

Lenovo ThinkPad client Win11, similar results. (Download speeds took a hit compared to ONT direct, but upload is flirting with the 8/900s Mbps ^)

Just a reminder, for context, the Linksys Velop 6 (MX5300) this replaced would have sustained near full-1Gbps speeds up and down.  I simply bring this up to share what my ONT would sustain in real-world. I'm not trying to rub it in "some older competitors router blows it away".  Just a statement of fact in the positive spirit of troubleshooting.

While this is better, it still leaves me wondering why download isn't stronger, especially on the wired side. When running the ONT directly to RS700, download speeds were around the 7-850Mbps++ mark. 

Photos attached. (Pardon the mess, had to move cables around to make this test work.) I also have a managed MS510TXPP switch, I'd prefer not to disrupt it but if helpful for testing anything, throwing it out there. 

[Rob1099]

Great info, thanks @ShadowMario3 

[FURRYe38]

If you have ISP speeds over 1Gb, might try a MS105 multi gig switch...

Sounds like there is some interoperability issue with the RS and direct connection with the particular branded ONT. 

[autoexec_bat]

I had tested a while back with a MikroTik hEX inbetween, had forgotten about that: Permalink (SETUP C)

My results were nearly identical to what @Rob1099 got with his GS108 in the setup so it's not even the routing part that is the problem as in my setup the routing was taken over by the MikroTik while in his setup the GS108 only does switching. 

Some sort of packet mangling happening between the RS700 & ONT ports...I wish I could get my hands on the Calix 812NG-V which is their new ONT for >1 GBit but the service is not provisioned in my area just yet.

[Rob1099 · Accepted solution]

Quick update - I was very fortunate to have a first-class technician from Frontier come out today. He really knew networking, both as a career and a hobby.  I was worried my ISP might (rightfully) say sorry buddy,  use the Eero Pro's we gave you, our ONT is fine... but thankfully it went the complete other way. 

After chatting with him, he agreed to move me over to XGS-PON with ONT swap. Issued a FRX523. Pulled a short new fiber and moved the whole setup into my garage, nice enclosure, very clean. With sincere thanks expressed to him.  He was far more thankful that I ran the cables all weekend and drilled the holes 😂

Anyways ---- while this is "good news" for me, I got very lucky and if the tech didn't take care of me,  I would have to return this Netgear back. I'm reminded of other users with this problem with ISPs / techs that may not have new equipment or be willing to do a whole ONT model exchange. I just upgraded my service from 500m to 1gb last week too, so I had a bit of a leg to stand on. Not all will have that luxury.

Bing @BH-C you've been a big help so far, I'm just hopeful that the Engineering team figures this thing out.  I did send over a detailed technical manual from Alcatel-Lucent on the 211 series, if it helps. I'm looking forward to the next stable firmware release.  (Is there a Wi-Fi Channel Scan / Optimizer on this thing?)

In closing, big thanks to the other users who actively helped me and others. Fingers crossed Netgear dials this one in. 

Rob

[autoexec_bat]

@Rob1099 did you see a difference after switching ONTs? 

Ironically after I posted about not having 2Gbit service availability I checked with Verizon and well, I have a tech coming in 1st week of July to upgrade my service. Looking forward to swapping ONTs and running some tests to see if anything changes. I think sharing test data with old vs new ONT will be helpful also for troubleshooting (provided the new ONT / RS700 pair actually works better).

[Atagg]

@autoexec_bat if you don't mind me asking, which area are you in? trying to see if Verizon is playing games with me on the 2Gbit service. 

[Rob1099]

Yessir,  generally speaking, I think the new ONT did it. Today has really been "day one" now with the router for me granted, I'll need to play with the settings. But I can consistently get ~850-950 MBPS Up and Down, while wirelessly connected on 6E 6GHz, on both MacOS and Windows 11, 6e clients.  I can only get this if I'm like 10 feet from the router, but I can get it consistently on two machines.

When I venture into another room,  it's been..... somewhat underwhelming and sporadic. I don't mean to be negative about it.  Hopefully I just need more time to play with the RS700 and dial it in. I was expecting a more consistent experience on wireless. (1 story home, ~2,600 sq feet, very good central-placement of the router)  I'm sure there's some LAN-related settings, plus me getting realistic with 6Ghz too. Although coming from a 6E network before, my hopes are high. (BTW if anyone has any setting tips, I'm all ears. Coming from Linksys Velop planet and cutting my teeth on Netgear)

Oddly, a wired Ethernet client (HP EliteBook Win11) into the RS700 (through a GS108 gigabit switch, granted) can push upload speeds into the 8's... but I'm only getting 300-400Mbps download, maximum, all day.  For tonight, I'm chalking that one machine up to possibly an Enterprise firewall (ZScaler), I don't have the constitution yet to troubleshoot why.

Long winded!  But short story - ONT seems great. t's on me now to dial it in and juice the RS700. I wish you both luck with your upgrades as well! The Verizon Nokia ONT seems to fill the same role / specs as the Frontier FRX523 they issued me (carrier next-gen).  Very cool.

Cheers,

Rob