Speed for second router in LAN got capped in half

[Modd]

Greetings. Hope someone give me a hint or two about this.

Sites like Youtube/Netflix/Spotify/Google are blocked in my current country. To bypass the blockage I tried to install some tproxy software on an old Netgear WNDR4300 which then wired (CAT 7, very near) into the main router ASUS AX86U which is behind the ISP’s modem device with a 500 Mbps downlink speed.

The AX86U (stock firmware) handles all things but the tproxy which runs on the WNDR4300 (Openwrt). The tproxy works fine in term of bypassing the ban, only it has a poor link speed. Under this topology, the YouTube static shows me a link speed about 10,000 Kbps. I can get more than 80,000 Kbps when using same devices without the WNDR4300 cabled.

Tried to change the WNDR4300 for a Netgear R7000(Freshtomato+entware), things didn’t turn better. Several iperf tests showed that the link speed between devices in LAN and the WNDR4300 was a little above 150 Mbps, the R7000 gave me 350 Mbps. (With no tproxy or other 3rd-party apps running)

I understand the link speed between cable-linked LAN devices could be less than the theoretical 1 Gbps, but 150 Mbps and 350 Mbps seem a little bit too low to be normal, aren’t they? Any help?

 

[Adooni]

for R7000 with FT you need turn on CTF (Cut-Through Forwarding) to have speed above 350-400Mb/s up to about 920-960Mb/s - I do not know if CTF can be used with tproxy if not you will not see any improvement. It is not working with QoS, bandwidth monitor etc.
https://wiki.freshtomato.org/doku.php/advanced-misc

FT for MIPS old routers like Asus RT-N16 is using bcm_nat and you need to add to init script

modprobe bcm_nat

 

[Modd]

@Adooni, thanks for the swift and kind reply. Before posting the thread, I did try R7000 with CTF enabled (when tproxy not running), which in turn gave me a poor 250 Mbps ( R7000 <===> AX86U <===> macbook with wifi n/ac ), even less than the 350 Mbps with CTF disabled. I don't know why but I am going to try the CTF thing again to make sure.

Another thing, according to what you described and from what I understand that 350 - 450 Mbps is quite acceptable and perfectly normal for this R7000 (wired in LAN, CTF diabled), am I right?

 

[Adooni]

hm I could be too optimistic about speed w/o CTF - it will be max 280-300Mbit for R7000. I had AC56U @1400MHz to get it faster . This is speed you have w/o any router configuration.
to check you shall back to factory setting (just to check nothing will impact your speed) and check speed with and w/o CTF and then add tproxy. CFT is not working when QoS or BW monitoring or BW limiter are enabled - if you make test at "clean" router you will be sure nothing will impact it.

 

[CaptainSTX]

@Adooni, thanks for the swift and kind reply. Before posting the thread, I did try R7000 with CTF enabled (when tproxy not running), which in turn gave me a poor 250 Mbps ( R7000 <===> AX86U <===> macbook with wifi n/ac ), even less than the 350 Mbps with CTF disabled. I don't know why but I am going to try the CTF thing again to make sure.

Another thing, according to what you described and from what I understand that 350 - 450 Mbps is quite acceptable and perfectly normal for this R7000 (wired in LAN, CTF diabled), am I right?

I run an R7000 double NATed behind by AX86S and with CTF disabled it would only get speeds in the 350 - 450 Mbps. With it enabled get close to the theoretical 960 Mbps. Check in the miscellaneous setting tab that CTF is enabled. Be sure if you are using any of the traffic monitoring options they are not disabling CTF.

 

[Modd]

Ran several iperf3 tests between the R7000 and the AX86U. The results seem the speed is perfectly capped in half between these two. With/Out CTF makes no difference here.

@CaptainSTX Thanks for the input. I will check it again but may I ask the topology of your LAN. Double NATed means that the WAN port of your R7000 is connected to the LAN port of AX86S, is it? Or it has nothing to do with the ports?

I am suspicious that my problem could be caused by the way the two routers were connected or their built-in bridge settings.

one result from iperf3 tests (ax86u and R7000)

^[[Accepted connection from 192.168.50.3, port 8092
[ 5] local 192.168.50.1 port 5201 connected to 192.168.50.3 port 8093
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 59.8 MBytes 502 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 63.6 MBytes 534 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 62.4 MBytes 524 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 62.5 MBytes 524 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 62.1 MBytes 521 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 58.8 MBytes 493 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 62.3 MBytes 522 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 62.1 MBytes 521 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 62.3 MBytes 522 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 62.6 MBytes 525 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 10.00-10.06 sec 3.77 MBytes 517 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.00-10.06 sec 0.00 Bytes 0.00 bits/sec sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.06 sec 622 MBytes 519 Mbits/sec receiver

 

[CaptainSTX]

I run an R7000 double NATed behind by AX86S and with CTF disabled it would only get speeds in the 350 - 450 Mbps. With it enabled get close to the theoretical 960 Mbps. Check in the miscellaneous setting tab that CTF is enabled. Be sure if you are using any of the traffic monitoring options they are not disabling CTF.

A LAN port on my AX86S is connected to the WAN port of the R7000. Each router in its own subnet with the WAN IP of the R7000 being in the LAN subnet of the AX86S. Both units running in router mode.

Hardware acceleration/ CTF enabled on both units.