Browsing Delays with AC3100

[ember1205]

Hi, all.

I've got a lot of experience in networking (20+ years) as a career, but Wireless often throws curveballs at me. I recently dumped my old WiFi network for an AC3100-based network, and things have gotten much better. I have discovered, however, that the router appears to be interfering with my browsing a slight bit.

If I browse my local LAN to hit a web site, things are very snappy. As soon as I have to traverse the AC3100 to the outside, there is a delay for opening ALL web pages. The AC3100 is deployed as my edge device, with firewall services enabled. I've got QoS enabled and time management for a couple of devices for the kids. Other than that, it isn't mangling the packets in any way or tracking anything. Still, every page click yields a quick "Waiting for..." message from the browser while it spins for 1-2 seconds before starting to load the content.

Firmware is current at 3.0.0.4.380_2345-ga24f32d

Any thoughts?

 

[dsring]

Hi, all.

I've got a lot of experience in networking (20+ years) as a career, but Wireless often throws curveballs at me. I recently dumped my old WiFi network for an AC3100-based network, and things have gotten much better. I have discovered, however, that the router appears to be interfering with my browsing a slight bit.

If I browse my local LAN to hit a web site, things are very snappy. As soon as I have to traverse the AC3100 to the outside, there is a delay for opening ALL web pages. The AC3100 is deployed as my edge device, with firewall services enabled. I've got QoS enabled and time management for a couple of devices for the kids. Other than that, it isn't mangling the packets in any way or tracking anything. Still, every page click yields a quick "Waiting for..." message from the browser while it spins for 1-2 seconds before starting to load the content.

Firmware is current at 3.0.0.4.380_2345-ga24f32d

Any thoughts?

Do you have AI Protection enabled? I experience similar delays when it is enabled.

 

[kvic]

AiProtection isn't that bad. Certainly won't have noticeable delay on every website nor page load.

But occasionally it does, especially on a website you never visited or haven't visited for a long time. Because of this sporadic behavior, I have stopped using AiProtection.

I'm now solely counting on my custom adblock for blocking known malicious domains.

 

[ember1205]

Do you have AI Protection enabled? I experience similar delays when it is enabled.

I had it enabled for the kids' devices only, but turning it off makes a big difference. Is there a way to NOT experience the heavy lag on all devices if you're using AI Protection on only a couple of devices?

 

[ember1205]

AiProtection isn't that bad. Certainly won't have noticeable delay on every website nor page load.

But occasionally it does, especially on a website you never visited or haven't visited for a long time. Because of this sporadic behavior, I have stopped using AiProtection.

I'm now solely counting on my custom adblock for blocking known malicious domains.

Actually, it IS that bad. Using devices that are not being filtered, visiting the same sites frequently (Amazon, eBay, online forum sites, etc.), and the lag is on every single page load.

 

[kvic]

Actually, it IS that bad. Using devices that are not being filtered, visiting the same sites frequently (Amazon, eBay, online forum sites, etc.), and the lag is on every single page load.

I shall have been more specific. I was referring to the knobs on "Ai Protection - Network Protection".

Looking at WebUI, I can see Ai Protection refers to quite a few more things.

 

[ember1205]

I don't use the network protection stuff... I have time Windows configured for the kids' devices (specified by MAC address) and was also using content filtering to remove access to adult content. The content filtering, while ONLY being designated for the four devices the kids use, was having significant impact on ALL devices and ALL access types. For example, streaming Netflix on my iPad was impacted and quality was reduced purely because of that filtering option. And it wasn't even set to apply to me!

 

[dsring]

I had it enabled for the kids' devices only, but turning it off makes a big difference. Is there a way to NOT experience the heavy lag on all devices if you're using AI Protection on only a couple of devices?

You cannot have it specific to just a few devices. I also have kids and use OpenDNS for content filtering. You can use the Merlin firmware and enable OpenDNS content filtering by specific MAC address.

 

[ember1205]

You cannot have it specific to just a few devices. I also have kids and use OpenDNS for content filtering. You can use the Merlin firmware and enable OpenDNS content filtering by specific MAC address.

Seems like that's exactly how you apply it.

AI Protection -> Parental Controls -> enable Web & Apps Filters

From here, you add the specific devices that you want to apply filtering to and choose the rules to apply. If you want to bypass a filter, you uncheck it. The filters are referred to as "Rules", so I see it as being very similar to an ACL or IPTABLES rule. If the device does not get included at all, it should very quickly bypass the rules processing engine and not be impacted by it running. This is clearly not how it works, though.

It seems all devices are routed through the filtering subsystem and then either get rules applied or not. Somewhat similar to using something like squid with squidguard in transparent proxy mode only there's no caching benefit.