RT-AC66U with my New upgraded Gigabit Internet connection

[jat80]

Hi there,

I've just been upgraded to a new gigabit (1000/500) internet connection (woohoo!) But finding that i'm only getting around 700/400. Can never get faster than 714 down.

My setup is this:

Fibre box (ONT) --> Cat6 cable --> RT-AC66U --> Cat6 cable -->Mac Mini (late 2012) 2.5GHz Dual Core Intel i5, 8GB Ram, 256GB Samsung EVO SSD drive.

Others in my area have been getting between 850 - 950 down and i'm wondering what maybe could be hindering the connection? Now I know most of you are like "what the hell are you complaining about that is frickin awesome speeds" but I want to get the most out of my connection that i'm paying for and feel there is maybe something in my setup that is hindering it.

I'm running Merlin's latest firmware on it and have HW acceleration on in the settings. I notice when i'm doing speed tests that the CPU jumps up to around 80% on the router. Can this router handle the connection at those speeds? I can provide more information on the router settings if needed.

I actually have been thinking of upgrading my router as i've got a RT-N66U not being used as well so maybe sell both and get a new router.

Any help would be appreciated and also if I was to upgrade my router, do you have any recommendations that would be great for my gigabit connection?

Thanks.

 

[pete y testing]

I've just been upgraded to a new gigabit (1000/500) internet connection (woohoo!) But finding that i'm only getting around 700/400. Can never get faster than 714 down.

and you wont as that is prob the max wan to lan throughput the 66u is capable of

Others in my area have been getting between 850 - 950 down and i'm wondering what maybe could be hindering the connection?

then they must have slightly better routers

but I want to get the most out of my connection that i'm paying for and feel there is maybe something in my setup that is hindering it.

yup its called a router and qos and wan to lan throughput max , eg they all conspire to slow down the traffic

I actually have been thinking of upgrading my router as i've got a RT-N66U not being used as well so maybe sell both and get a new router.

might help a bit but you wont see 1000mbps with any domestic router

but it just depends on how much you want to throw at it to get closer to that max plan speed

the netgear r7800 is about as fast as it goes wan to lan wise but it still wont hit that max plan speed but will get you closer

pete

 

[jat80]

Thanks for your reply, are there any Asus routers that you could recommend that have great WAN to LAN through put?

 

[jat80]

Actually looking at the throughput of the RT-AC66U on this forum it's around 830 so maybe there is something wrong with the router or are there any settings I need to change? Difference of 130+ is quite a lot.

 

[pete y testing]

Actually looking at the throughput of the RT-AC66U on this forum it's around 830

again those figures are with qos and router features turned off which you do and have a router at the same time , you are doing well to get what you are out of the 66u

 

[L&LD]

That first generation AC router is almost 5 years old. Time to retire it with the ISP connection you now have.

An RT-AC3100 is what I would recommend, but an RT-AC1900P may be sufficient for your needs too, for now.

Like pete y testing said, nothing current will let you reach your top speeds (1000), just like most of your neighbors can't either, but a more current router is a much better match to your ISP than either of the (similar hardware based) router's you have now.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/new-asus-brt-ac828-wireless-ac2600-dual-wan-vpn-router.32839/

The above router is what you should be looking for if you want to achieve 1Gbps and higher speeds.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ne...-dual-wan-vpn-router.32839/page-2#post-265829

 

[doczenith1]

I'm running Merlin's latest firmware on it and have HW acceleration on in the settings. I notice when i'm doing speed tests that the CPU jumps up to around 80% on the router. Can this router handle the connection at those speeds? I can provide more information on the router settings if needed.

I'm not that familiar with Merlin's firmware but when you say that you have HW acceleration on does it report back if FA (Flow Acceleration) and CTF (Cut Through Forwarding) are both enabled? I realize that my router is newer and more powerful than yours but my experience is as follows. With NAT Acceleration set to auto and both FA and CTF enabled I get around 940 Mbps up and down with negligible cpu usage. With only CTF enabled (due to AiProtection turned on) I still get close to 940 Mbps up/down but cpu core 1 hits 100% utilization during the speed test.

Have you tested with your computer directly connected to the ONT to verify that you can get 714 down that way? Also note that many of the speedtest.net sites aren't fast enough to test a gigabit connection. Try a big city near you for a fast server.

That said, I do agree with L&LD that a newer router should be considered.

 

[jat80]

Thanks everyone. I will do some more testing as suggested above but I think I will definitely be getting a new router!