RT-AC68U Slow upload speed on wired connection

[Boivie]

Hello!

I recently got a RT-AC68U for my 250/100 fiber connection. I'm getting the full speed both up and down over Wi-Fi, but all my ethernet connections are stuck at 250/10. The upload speed seems throttled somehow, always coming in at 10~11 mbps when I run tests.

I googled a bit and couldn't find that this was an common issue, and I tried to install Merlin, which didn't make a difference.

Anyone familiar with this issue?

 

[Zonkd]

Hello!

I recently got a RT-AC68U for my 250/100 fiber connection. I'm getting the full speed both up and down over Wi-Fi, but all my ethernet connections are stuck at 250/10. The upload speed seems throttled somehow, always coming in at 10~11 mbps when I run tests.

I googled a bit and couldn't find that this was an common issue, and I tried to install Merlin, which didn't make a difference.

Anyone familiar with this issue?

After upgrading to Merlin you should do a factory reset. When problems like this arise the first thing we usually recommend to do is a wipe and minimal and manual configuration first. If after that you still have the problem then it’s worth spending the time troubleshooting further.

Also no I don’t have this issue with my rt-ac68u

 

[L&LD]

Hello!

I recently got a RT-AC68U for my 250/100 fiber connection. I'm getting the full speed both up and down over Wi-Fi, but all my ethernet connections are stuck at 250/10. The upload speed seems throttled somehow, always coming in at 10~11 mbps when I run tests.

I googled a bit and couldn't find that this was an common issue, and I tried to install Merlin, which didn't make a difference.

Anyone familiar with this issue?

See my links below in my signature to get your router to a good/known state. Starting with the M&M Config link below.

This is not a common issue at all and a full and proper reset to factory defaults should eliminate most gremlins from your network environment.

 

[Boivie]

Thanks for the advice!

I've tried the full reset and M&M config now, but to no avail. It feels so weird since the wifi is running at full speed, and the download speed over ethernet works as well so it doesn't seem to be a cable issue.

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the advice!

I've tried the full reset and M&M config now, but to no avail. It feels so weird since the wifi is running at full speed, and the download speed over ethernet works as well so it doesn't seem to be a cable issue.

You did not use any backup config files after resetting the router, did you? Do you have any customizations on your devices (drivers or in the os)?

It won't hurt to try new cables. Test them first if you can on other devices.

 

[Boivie]

I realized I'd only checked my speed using one tool (swedish site bredbandskollen.se), on trying multiple speed tests I'm actually getting the promised results. So it seems there's just some connectivity issues vs bredbandskollen. Weird that my wifi gets the full speed on that site though, as far as I can see they're connecting to the same server.

Anyway, I can live with that one site showing weird results. Thanks for your advice!

 

[L&LD]

I realized I'd only checked my speed using one tool (swedish site bredbandskollen.se), on trying multiple speed tests I'm actually getting the promised results. So it seems there's just some connectivity issues vs bredbandskollen. Weird that my wifi gets the full speed on that site though, as far as I can see they're connecting to the same server.

Anyway, I can live with that one site showing weird results. Thanks for your advice!

Thank you too. I've learned at least one more question to ask the next person I try to help.

 

[Cros]

Actually just joined to say I have this issue as well. After your comment I tested https://www.speedtest.net/ which shows me the correct upload speed, so something is up with bredbandskollen.se. I'm running my ASUS RT-AC68U on standard firmware.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[ukrainer]

Hello everyone! I have the same problem with throttled upload speed of WAN for my router's services, but the upload speed for connected to the router devices (ethernet or wifi) is OK at the same time. Do anybody have ideas how to fix that?

I did already a factory reset and spent a lot of time to setup all again, but it didn't help and the upload speed didn't change at all. This problem I see in two of Entware services - transmission and spdMerlin, the maximal upload speed results of both services is in the range 25-32 Mbps...
Maybe I need to change some configs? Will be very appreciated for any help!

p.s. the fw version is 384.11_2, but problem exists for very long time. My Internet connection is 300/300 Mbps (but the real upload speed is provided by Internet provider even bigger - ~400-500 Mbps)

 

[L&LD]

Hello everyone! I have the same problem with throttled upload speed of WAN for my router's services, but the upload speed for connected to the router devices (ethernet or wifi) is OK at the same time. Do anybody have ideas how to fix that?

I did already a factory reset and spent a lot of time to setup all again, but it didn't help and the upload speed didn't change at all. This problem I see in two of Entware services - transmission and spdMerlin, the maximal upload speed results of both services is in the range 25-32 Mbps...
Maybe I need to change some configs? Will be very appreciated for any help!

p.s. the fw version is 384.11_2, but problem exists for very long time. My Internet connection is 300/300 Mbps (but the real upload speed is provided by Internet provider even bigger - ~400-500 Mbps)

This is a known issue with any consumer router. Very weak hardware vs. a desktop or laptop and upload speeds suffer.

Not a firmware or configuration issue. Simply not enough hardware in the router issue.

 

[ukrainer]

Understood, thanks) are there any tricks how to get little bit more speed in this situation just changing any configs of Entware/firewall/Qos/Transmission etc?

 

[L&LD]

Understood, thanks) are there any tricks how to get little bit more speed in this situation just changing any configs of Entware/firewall/Qos/Transmission etc?

Not afaik. The limitation is the weak CPU hardware and limited RAM, hard to set 'cpu=i7-9900k + ram=32GB' and have it work.

 

[ukrainer]

Thanks))
its interesting the hardware is enough for providing 300 Mbps upload speed for devices connected over router's wifi/NAT/firewall to Internet, but at the same time it's not enough to provide the same speed for Entware services((

 

[L&LD]

Thanks))
its interesting the hardware is enough for providing 300 Mbps upload speed for devices connected over router's wifi/NAT/firewall to Internet, but at the same time it's not enough to provide the same speed for Entware services((

Routing a high-speed connection isn't the same as uploading from the same device and also routing with it too.

In the first scenario, the router is routing and the client device's CPU is doing the actual uploading part.

 

[ukrainer]

I understand what you mean)) but I didn't think the file upload processing needs 9 times more hw resources than routing process. Especially if my Entware and file storage located on USB 3.0 SSD and I use SWAT located on the SSD... So i thought there should be some "software fuse" to avoid overloading and it leads to throttling.
It's interesting which upload speed show your router's services?

 

[L&LD]

I understand what you mean)) but I didn't think the file upload processing needs 9 times more hw resources than routing process. Especially if my Entware and file storage located on USB 3.0 SSD and I use SWAT located on the SSD... So i thought there should be some "software fuse" to avoid overloading and it leads to throttling.
It's interesting which upload speed show your router's services?

A router's SoC is made specifically for routing and is very efficient at doing so. The actual CPU part is very weak vs. a desktop processor, for example. The RAM disparity makes a huge difference too. Half a GB of RAM vs. 8GB or more is a very big deal. For both uploading and for USB 3.0 use too, even with an SSD connected (an HDD easily saturates a router's USB usable throughput already).

When I am using an i7-6700 with 16GB RAM and perform a speed test with my 1Gbps up/down (symmetrical) ISP connection with the RT-AC86U, the CPU usage can peak upwards of 80% during the upload sections of the test.

Any consumer router is very far from that capability.

9x is only in relation to what you have now. That ratio will get worse when compared with an actual, higher ISP provided speed.

 

[Grisu]

I understand what you mean)) but I didn't think the file upload processing needs 9 times more hw resources than routing process. Especially if my Entware and file storage located on USB 3.0 SSD and I use SWAT located on the SSD... So i thought there should be some "software fuse" to avoid overloading and it leads to throttling.
It's interesting which upload speed show your router's services?

sell your 68U and get an RT-AC86U, it will for sure much more than double the speed (AFAIK some users said about 3 times faster).

 

[L&LD]

sell your 68U and get an RT-AC86U, it will for sure much more than double the speed (AFAIK some users said about 3 times faster).

Not a real solution as it will still be more than 3x slower than the ISP provided upload speed. And less than 1/10th of a 1Gbps symmetrical connection too.

 

[ukrainer]

So the best of cheaper solutions is to wait for more efficient router than present on the market, correct?

 

[L&LD]

So the best of cheaper solutions is to wait for more efficient router than present on the market, correct?

No.

There will not be a cheaper solution. More hardware will require more cost. But I still don't see them coming anytime soon.

The BRT-828 was an exception though, but still pricey.

https://www.asus.com/us/Business-Networking/BRT-AC828/