RBR50 - Static routes very slow transfers

[AtoTheN]

I have an RBR50 (192.168.1.1) that has been working great overall. I have an Asus Router running DD-WRT that is cascaded using a LAN->WAN connection and lives at 10.0.1.1. I have a static route setup on the Orbi to direct traffic to 10.0.1.0 and with the appropriate firewall rules on the Asus router, computers on the RBR50 are able to successfully connect to computers on the Asus router's LAN.

The odd issue is that I get VERY slow transfer speeds when copying "into" the Asus LAN. The speed for a large file bounces around 6 MB/sec. If I'm copying "out" of the Asus LAN to a machine on the Orbi network, I see around 100 MB/sec (so gigabit speeds). Here's the odd part....if I start the transfer from a machine that is in the Asus LAN, then the speeds are fine. Same file, copying across the same machines, but two very different speeds depending on which machine does the copying.

I've tried this on mulitple systems and have even hooked up a second Asus router (running Merlin) on a different IP/subnet and see the exact same issue. All computers are hardwired, so it's not any sort of wireless issue.

Additionaly, if I run a tracert from the Orbi LAN to the Asus LAN, I see occasional packet drops at 192.168.1.1 (the Orbi router), so something is definitely up with the connection.

Doesn't seem to be a firewall issue, because everything can connect fine and I've tried with firewalls disabled. If it were a firewall problem, I wouldn't expect to have any connection between LANs. It seems like an issue specific to how Orbi is routing the static route traffic.

Is anyone else using static routes and cascaded routers with an Orbi....and if so, do you see any similar speed issues when copying "into" your cascaded LAN?

[CrimpOn]

(I am probably too ignorant to offer advice.)  What does "cascaded" mean?  i.e. Can you give a more detailed description of exactly how this equipment is connected?  The Orbi is connected to the internet modem?  The WRT router is connected to one of the Orbi LAN ports?

[AtoTheN]

No problem! Cascaded means that you basically have one router plugged into another and each is managing their own LANs. There's an ethernet cable that runs from a LAN port on the Orbi router to the WAN port on a second router. The Orbi assigns an IP to the second router, serves internet to it, etc. By default, computers/devices on the Orbi LAN can't see anything inside the second LAN. By using the WAN port on the second router for the connection, that router is basically assuming that any traffic happening on the other side of that port is "outside" traffic and ignores it unless you have firewall or passthrough rules in place.

In my case, the Orbi LAN lives at 192.168.0.0 and the secondary LAN lives at 10.0.1.0. The static route tells any computers on 192.168.0.0 that have traffic destined for 10.0.1.0 to direct it to whatever the ip address is of the second router. That router catches that traffic, and if it's allowed through the firewall then it sends it to the appropriate destination on its own LAN.

With the issue I'm seeing, I don't recall it being so bad about a month or two ago when I set it up. There have been a couple of firmware updates in the meantime and I'm wondering if something came off the rails in a recent firmware. The way the transfer speeds of files "into" the second lan fluctuates is very odd and it's suspect that it's only happening in one direction and dependent on which side of the router the request is being made.

[FURRYe38]

@CrimpOn 

His in a double NAT condition is all.

@AtoTheN 

What happens if you use the ASUS router in front of the Orbi router and configure static routers on the ASUS Router to the Orbi router? 

You might try the ASUS router in AP mode and test this as well...

Not much user posts for static routes on Orbi...

[AtoTheN]

Thanks for the reply FURRYe38, you're right, not a whole lot of posts covering static routes and not really sure how to get more debugging information on the issue. I have a feeling that having the Asus router (or another more capable router) in front might be the solution. I'd like to keep the separation of LANs, so AP mode probably won't help. Was thinking about using VLANs, but the support for those seems a bit mixed on the Orbi and the implementaiton is geared more towards ISPs/modems that require VLANs. Ultimately, have the Orbi network be secondary to a main router is probably the right way to go.

[FURRYe38]

There is debugging log captures under routerIPaddress/debug.htm should you want to send these to NG support for review.

@Christian_R 

Yes the VLAN is mainly for ISP support. If you wanted LAN side VLAN, a simple external managed network switch may offer best configuration for LAN side VLAN support. 

Give the 2ndary network configuration a try and see how it goes. I've done this before and the only thing I notice is that I have to be specific about folder shares and inputting IP addresses to access them across two networks. It works, just a bit more typing is all. 

[AtoTheN]

Good info! I'm using hosts files and static IPs to avoid always typing IPs. I do have a decent TP-LINK switch that can manage VLANs, so it might be better to eliminate the second router altogether. The main advantage to having another router was to have an OpenVPN server that would allow me to remote into that secondary LAN, but there are a few other ways I could approach this.

[FURRYe38]