L&LD
Part of the Furniture
A not so short post to compare a few key changes I was able to make to my personal network in the last few weeks. Hope someone finds it useful.
For a few short months I've been enjoying an upgrade over an RT-N66U to an RT-AC68U. Well worth it to me and I still wish I could have done that much sooner (upgrade to a newer router, that is).
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/is-the-rt-ac68u-a-good-replacement-for-a-rt-n66u.30303/#post-237039
My ISP previously provided DSL 50Mbps/10Mbps Down/Up speeds (and effectively and consistently 10% higher) with a latency of around 6ms. The RT-AC68U showed me that the RT-N66U single core design was not extracting all it could for me (routing; wired or wireless). Even though with RMerlin's firmware it has become better than when I originally bought it, it was way past it's 'due date'.
A few weeks ago, I saw my neighbor installing Fibre from (shock) my own ISP. I called the next day.
By that next week, I was upgraded to Fibre 100Mbps/20Mbps D/U speeds (and 'easily' hitting 120/45 d/u for peaks) and 1ms access times.
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ti...dem-issue-limited-download.32776/#post-263441
But now, I had a dilemma.
I was getting a better 'report card' from dslreports.com with my old DSL connection than with my new Fibre connection (F, F, F vs. my previous A, A, A), even if the internet was obviously faster than before. This was with Adaptive QoS set to 'Auto', which worked so well on my previous, DSL connection.
I started digging into some of the options that the RT-AC68U has. I enabled AI Protection for Malicious Site Blocking, Vulnerability Protection and Infected Device Protection and Blocking. I also enabled DNS Filtering (Global Mode; OpenDNS Family).
While the report scores didn't change, my latency went from 1ms to 2ms or more with the above options and features enabled. And this was noticeable while browsing different sites too, but I felt it was a worthwhile tradeoff for the extra layer of protection offered to my network devices and data.
I then began (re)fine-tuning the QoS settings (with time consuming reboots in-between tests; but well worth it in the end). The best settings for my setup was Adaptive QoS with manually entered Down/Up limits which exhaustive testing proved were ideal, overall, at 106Mbps Down and 23Mbps Up.
The above tuning turned the dslreports to B, A and C. But, for some reason, I was still getting 2ms latency at best (vs. 1ms if I used the ISP's modem) when I tested using the Ookla speed test.
One final tweak I did after finding out that my ISP brought more than just faster speeds for me (for effectively the same cost, btw) was that I once again enabled IPv6 on the RT-AC68U and was pleasantly surprised that not only is this 'Native' IPv6, but the ISP also gives me an /56 subnet size too (4,722,366,482,869,645,213,696 IP addresses just for me).
http://www.potato-people.com/blog/2009/02/ipv6-subnet-size-reference-table/
(Just don't forget to reboot after enabling IPv6 so that it gets properly enabled and activated).
What I didn't expect with all this 'extra' work I was making the router do was the following:
The dslreports scores now went to A+, A and C and the latency went down to 1ms again. Consistently (over a period of a week or more now).
In addition, http://test-ipv6.com/ now reports a 10/10 and http://ipv6-test.com/ gives me a 17/20 for IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity and speed. (To get a 20/20 I need to 'upgrade' my browser to firefox or chrome, uhm, no. And turn ICMP to 'unfiltered'. Any suggestions or advice for ICMP configurations)?
This is now the fastest I have ever seen the internet work on any network and/or computer I've ever used. And my network is even safer too (with AI Protection doing it's thing).
Is everything perfect? I have no complaints, really, but 'probably not totally perfect' would be closer to the truth from a little further investigating I did.
When I am testing or simply downloading a large (enough) file from the internet, I see that one core of the RT-AC68U (800MHz, no overclocking) is pegged at 100% with the second core hitting almost 40% at times. Even when doing an upload test, one core is hitting over 40% (at about 45Mbps upload - without QoS).
What this tells me is that the RT-AC68U may still be underpowered even for the beginner or 'baby' Fibre ISP connection that I currently have. I will need to see if an RT-AC3100 or RT-AC5300 will make a significant difference to me (when the money is there to do so, or, if I can borrow a customer's for a couple of days to 'configure it' for them).
After seeing the above results, I then went to several of my customers with the same ISP and also configured IPv6 (Native) to work on their RMerlin powered routers. In every single case, their browsing responsiveness was improved (even if the dslreports scores weren't). Even more impressive was that some have speeds as low as 2.5Mbps/0.5Mbps D/U (yes, this is 'bad' DSL). With a select few, I tried using OpenVPN (router to router) and turning IPv6 on/off was very noticeable from my connection (from clicking to seeing a response) - even for the almost dial up speeds a couple of them are stuck with.
The short version of the above is that even with an 'great' DSL or an entry level Fibre connection, an powerful router is required, along with an ISP that offers a solid IPv6 implementation (Native). Working QoS (and the time and patience to properly configure it) is also a must.
The RT-AC68U certainly deserves all the praise it receives. It has a lot of useful features and the raw power to utilize them. At least for (or less than) 0.1Gbps ISP speeds.
In a way, I am glad I don't have access to 1Gbps ISP speeds yet. As I am sure there are no consumer routers (specifically Asus) that can properly handle that kind of load with ease and aplomb. Not even the current dual core 1.4GHz models we can choose from today. Even if they'll most likely feel twice as responsive as the RT-AC68U does now.
I hope we have a choice of Asus routers with Intel processors soon. These puny arm cores have been outmuscled by my ISP already. And the only way to go is up.
For a few short months I've been enjoying an upgrade over an RT-N66U to an RT-AC68U. Well worth it to me and I still wish I could have done that much sooner (upgrade to a newer router, that is).
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/is-the-rt-ac68u-a-good-replacement-for-a-rt-n66u.30303/#post-237039
My ISP previously provided DSL 50Mbps/10Mbps Down/Up speeds (and effectively and consistently 10% higher) with a latency of around 6ms. The RT-AC68U showed me that the RT-N66U single core design was not extracting all it could for me (routing; wired or wireless). Even though with RMerlin's firmware it has become better than when I originally bought it, it was way past it's 'due date'.
A few weeks ago, I saw my neighbor installing Fibre from (shock) my own ISP. I called the next day.
By that next week, I was upgraded to Fibre 100Mbps/20Mbps D/U speeds (and 'easily' hitting 120/45 d/u for peaks) and 1ms access times.
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ti...dem-issue-limited-download.32776/#post-263441
But now, I had a dilemma.
I was getting a better 'report card' from dslreports.com with my old DSL connection than with my new Fibre connection (F, F, F vs. my previous A, A, A), even if the internet was obviously faster than before. This was with Adaptive QoS set to 'Auto', which worked so well on my previous, DSL connection.
I started digging into some of the options that the RT-AC68U has. I enabled AI Protection for Malicious Site Blocking, Vulnerability Protection and Infected Device Protection and Blocking. I also enabled DNS Filtering (Global Mode; OpenDNS Family).
While the report scores didn't change, my latency went from 1ms to 2ms or more with the above options and features enabled.
And this was noticeable while browsing different sites too, but I felt it was a worthwhile tradeoff for the extra layer of protection offered to my network devices and data.I then began (re)fine-tuning the QoS settings (with time consuming reboots in-between tests; but well worth it in the end). The best settings for my setup was Adaptive QoS with manually entered Down/Up limits which exhaustive testing proved were ideal, overall, at 106Mbps Down and 23Mbps Up.
The above tuning turned the dslreports to B, A and C.
But, for some reason, I was still getting 2ms latency at best (vs. 1ms if I used the ISP's modem) when I tested using the Ookla speed test.One final tweak I did after finding out that my ISP brought more than just faster speeds for me (for effectively the same cost, btw) was that I once again enabled IPv6 on the RT-AC68U and was pleasantly surprised that not only is this 'Native' IPv6, but the ISP also gives me an /56 subnet size too (4,722,366,482,869,645,213,696 IP addresses just for me).
http://www.potato-people.com/blog/2009/02/ipv6-subnet-size-reference-table/
(Just don't forget to reboot after enabling IPv6 so that it gets properly enabled and activated).
What I didn't expect with all this 'extra' work I was making the router do was the following:
The dslreports scores now went to A+, A and C and the latency went down to 1ms again. Consistently (over a period of a week or more now).
In addition, http://test-ipv6.com/ now reports a 10/10 and http://ipv6-test.com/ gives me a 17/20 for IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity and speed. (To get a 20/20 I need to 'upgrade' my browser to firefox or chrome, uhm, no. And turn ICMP to 'unfiltered'. Any suggestions or advice for ICMP configurations)?
This is now the fastest I have ever seen the internet work on any network and/or computer I've ever used. And my network is even safer too (with AI Protection doing it's thing).
Is everything perfect? I have no complaints, really, but 'probably not totally perfect' would be closer to the truth from a little further investigating I did.
When I am testing or simply downloading a large (enough) file from the internet, I see that one core of the RT-AC68U (800MHz, no overclocking) is pegged at 100% with the second core hitting almost 40% at times. Even when doing an upload test, one core is hitting over 40% (at about 45Mbps upload - without QoS).
What this tells me is that the RT-AC68U may still be underpowered even for the beginner or 'baby' Fibre ISP connection that I currently have. I will need to see if an RT-AC3100 or RT-AC5300 will make a significant difference to me (when the money is there to do so, or, if I can borrow a customer's for a couple of days to 'configure it' for them).
After seeing the above results, I then went to several of my customers with the same ISP and also configured IPv6 (Native) to work on their RMerlin powered routers. In every single case, their browsing responsiveness was improved (even if the dslreports scores weren't). Even more impressive was that some have speeds as low as 2.5Mbps/0.5Mbps D/U (yes, this is 'bad' DSL). With a select few, I tried using OpenVPN (router to router) and turning IPv6 on/off was very noticeable from my connection (from clicking to seeing a response) - even for the almost dial up speeds a couple of them are stuck with.
The short version of the above is that even with an 'great' DSL or an entry level Fibre connection, an powerful router is required, along with an ISP that offers a solid IPv6 implementation (Native). Working QoS (and the time and patience to properly configure it) is also a must.
The RT-AC68U certainly deserves all the praise it receives. It has a lot of useful features and the raw power to utilize them. At least for (or less than) 0.1Gbps ISP speeds.
In a way, I am glad I don't have access to 1Gbps ISP speeds yet. As I am sure there are no consumer routers (specifically Asus) that can properly handle that kind of load with ease and aplomb. Not even the current dual core 1.4GHz models we can choose from today. Even if they'll most likely feel twice as responsive as the RT-AC68U does now.
I hope we have a choice of Asus routers with Intel processors soon. These puny arm cores have been outmuscled by my ISP already. And the only way to go is up.
