ET12 connection to Frontier ONT fiber (500Mbps Up/Down) issue

[StickyRice]

I could use some help troubleshooting my routers connection to my Frontier (formerly Verizon) ONT fiber box. Let me give you some background info. I have had my ISP's fiber service since 2006 and I have always used my own router. I upgraded to 500Mbps up/down in October of last year. The router I am using is an Asus RT-AC87U which I have had since 2014 and is currently using the last Merlin firmware released for it (384.13_10). When I upgraded from my ISP's 100Mbps up/down to my current 500Mbps service I had no issues. I get over 450Mbps up and down when performing a speed test at the speed test site. Before hooking up my new router I turned of the internet connection of the old router in order to release the IP and proceeded to hook up my new router. Although it comes with 2 nodes I opted to just hook up 1 in order to make sure I didn't run into any surprises. After hooking up the ET12 directly to my ONT, like my previous router was, and setting everything up I ran a speed test. I am getting over 500Mbps down but I am only getting about 2Mbps up. This is consistent no matter which node I use. I performed a factory reset several different times and started over from the beginning only to end up with the same results. I made sure AI protection and QoS were off and the router is not going through a VPN. I run the speed test using my laptop wired and wireless. No matter what I do I get less than 2Mbps upload speed when using the ET12.

As a test I decided to disconnect the ET12 and re-hookup the AC87U. Once it was back up I performed a speed test and was back to 450+Mbps up/down. I then ran a connection from that router to the WAN port on the ET12 and when I run a speed test with either a wired or wireless connection to it from my latptop and I get 450+Mbps up/down.

I called my ISP and they did not see any issues on their end. Since I don't use their router they were not able to run a remote diagnostic but since my AC87U gets full speed I ruled out my ISP.

I contacted ASUS support and filled them in on the issue and after a lot of back and forth with them asking for and me sending syslogs and cfg files the only thing they can think of is that it is a hardware issue. I by no means claim to know more about their product then they do but I gotta believe that since I can get full speed from the ET12 when connected to my AC87U that it has to be a software issue of sorts.
I would like to know if there are any advanced troubleshooting techniques I can use to gather additional information before I send the ET12's in for RMA service.
I appreciate any help any of you may be able to provide.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Make a note of the AC87U's WAN MAC address. Put that into the ET12's "MAC Address" field at WAN - Internet Connection.

 

[StickyRice]

Thanks for the advice. Here is what I did:
I turned off the internet for my AC87U and shut it down. I also turned off the internet on the ET12. I went to the WAN Internet Connection page and added the MAC address of the AC87U and hit the apply button at the bottom of the page. After it refreshed I turned on the internet connection and rebooted it. After it came up I ran a speed test at the website and a speed test using the internal speed test app under Adaptive QoS>Internet Speed. If you are able to see the attached files you will see that cloning the MAC address of the other router did NOT work.

 

[ColinTaylor]

OK. Thanks for the update. It was worth a try.

It's strange that it works fine with the AC87U between it and the ONT, but not with the AC87U removed. I can't help but feel that if you RMA it Asus will find nothing wrong with it.

It's a bit of a long shot but you could try changing the "Extend the TTL value" and "Spoof LAN TTL value" settings on the WAN - Internet Connection page.


Also, https://forums.att.com/conversation...y-slow-upload-speeds/60efc46966c7636aabe49490

 

[StickyRice]

The changes you suggested did not work either. I first turned on Extend the TTL and got the same results during the speedtest. I tried enabling each one separately and testing and then tried enabling both at the same time and testing. Same results. Since it was getting late I did not try connecting the router to the ONT with a new network cable. I may try that tomorrow after work.
However, I did try some other changes. When I first engaged with ASUS tech support they always wanted me to make sure that Ai Protection and QoS were off. So I decided to do the opposite and turned on QoS. I first tried using the Adaptive setting and either automatic or manual gave me the same poor results but when I changed it Traditional QoS and set my upload/download to 525Mbps I actually got much better results. Download was anywhere from 400-500Mbps depending on what I set it to and upload actually went up as high as 400Mbps. What is weird is that when I used the speed Test app on the router it never went high than 104Mbps. I am going to update my ticket with ASUS and see if that helps them figure it out. I would imagine with this new information I would like to believe they wont think it is a hardware issue.
If there was a Merlin firmware for the ET12 I bet that would fix it.
Thanks again or your help.