LAN speeds much faster than my spdMerlin results?

[iamnick]

Hey guys, I'm having a weird issue with spdMerlin's results. I'm having some speed inconsistencies between WIFI and LAN, so I've been running the tool when I make tweaks. The results don't make sense to me, and I'm hoping someone here can help me.

My setup:
ATT 1gbps fiber => Arris BGW210-700 => (IP Passthrough to WAN Port) => RT-AC3100

RT-AC3100 operation mode is 'wireless router', and the WAN IP shows that it's connected to a public IP. Devices connecting to the router are using assigned IP's of 192.168.2.*

I'm able to run the speed test inside the diagnostics of the BGW which gives me these results over the last couple days:

Test Completion Time Direction Throughput(Mbps) Overhead Average Latency(ms)
03/10/2020 18:39:39 downstream 976.073 70 13.325
03/10/2020 18:39:28 upstream 896.708 70 2.588
03/09/2020 21:27:47 downstream 976.073 70 3.053
03/09/2020 21:27:36 upstream 896.684 70 2.42
03/08/2020 15:00:28 downstream 974.126 70 3.073
03/08/2020 15:00:17 upstream 895.031 70 9.924
03/08/2020 00:31:11 downstream 976.073 70 6.686
03/08/2020 00:31:00 upstream 897.167 70 10.308

Thanks to spdMerlin, I am able to run the speed test directly on my RT-AC3100:

Time Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps)
2020-03-10 18:37:00 543.79 486.98
2020-03-09 23:44:46 545.05 473.41
2020-03-09 23:42:28 536.04 430.5
2020-03-09 23:38:14 537.32 438.56
2020-03-09 22:22:30 544.08 456.27
2020-03-09 22:09:57 534.83 482.73
2020-03-08 15:05:07 537.93 510.02
2020-03-08 14:12:23 538.18 455.58
2020-03-08 13:42:21 535.89 507.22
2020-03-08 13:12:28 539.47 487.26

Here's the kicker, when I plug my laptop(ASUS OH102 Network Adapter) into the first LAN port of the RT-AC3100, the speed tests on the laptop match the output results of the BGW. When using the same laptop on WIFI(IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 / 5 GHz 2 x 2 MIMO) the results match the results I'm getting from spdMerlin. Shouldn't my LAN speeds match the speeds given by spdMerlin?

Thanks,

 

[ColinTaylor]

You should ask your question in the spdMerlin thread.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...reless-ac3100-gigabit-router-reviewed?start=3

 

[iamnick]

You should ask your question in the spdMerlin thread.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...reless-ac3100-gigabit-router-reviewed?start=3

I had considered it, but I wasn't sure if this was a spdMerlin question or if this was expected behavior in the way routers work in IP passthrough mode. However, thanks for that link, now I'm kind of second guessing my spontaneous decision for purchasing the AC3100.

 

[ColinTaylor]

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/ookla-speedtest-cli-binary-available.60837/#post-535618

AFAICT processes running on the router (like spdMerlin) don't benefit from hardware acceleration (CTF) and are therefore limited by the CPU.