Hi, I have been running an RT-AC88U with one additional AiMesh node (RT-AC68U) on stock firmware 3.0.0.4.385_20631 without issue. My internet was recently upgraded from 10/100 Mbps to 1 Gigabit, and the same day I started getting between 2 & 4% packet loss.
After some troubleshooting I found that pinging my ISP's nearest router directly from the Router (System Tools, Network Analysis, Ping) was exhibiting the same packet loss, eliminating most other client or local network sources of the problem. I also noticed that packet loss seemed to come in regular bursts, 20-30 seconds with no problems, then a short 'blip' with higher ping times and/or packet loss.
When looking for the cause, I did some power off/reboot cycles with no improvement, then saw a recurring CPU spike (+15%) on CPU Core 1 on the router with timing that seemed to match the duration and frequency of the packet loss. Moving on to SSH, looking at 'Top', I saw that the process '/etc/openvpn/vpnserver1 --cd /etc/' seemed to be responsible for the 'cycling' and the 15% additional load on the CPU. The CPU didn't seem to be getting close to 100%, but as a testing step I deactivated my OpenVPN client, disabled my OpenVPN server and rebooted the router. this seems to have worked around the issue, and I am now running without packet loss, and getting reasonable (500-700 mbps) Upload/Download speeds.
I also however notice a large number of repeated 'portsLinkStaus=1' messages in the Log, as well as frequent repeated:
rtl_fail: rtkswitch fail access, restart.
kernel: rtk_port_linkStatus_get() fail, return 14
kernel: rtl8365mbrtl8365mb initialized(0)(retry:0)
kernel: rtk port_phyEnableAll ok
...which I think from posts here is related to a known issue with Ports 5-8.
Has anyone here with Gigabit Internet experienced anything similar? Any thoughts as to whether OpenVPN is the root cause, or whether I simply made the router work a bit less hard, and masked another remaining issue?
...and finally, the reason for posting to this group (when I don't have merlin on this router) is that I have read that Merlin enables hardware acceleration on the router, which might offload some of that work - can anyone with experience with OpenVPN before/after merlin firmware confirm? Anything else I might need to consider before trying Merlin? (Currently working from home, so 'disable OpenVPN' might be a long-ish term solution if I don't have a long boring weekend coming, and feel particularly brave..)
Thanks!
After some troubleshooting I found that pinging my ISP's nearest router directly from the Router (System Tools, Network Analysis, Ping) was exhibiting the same packet loss, eliminating most other client or local network sources of the problem. I also noticed that packet loss seemed to come in regular bursts, 20-30 seconds with no problems, then a short 'blip' with higher ping times and/or packet loss.
When looking for the cause, I did some power off/reboot cycles with no improvement, then saw a recurring CPU spike (+15%) on CPU Core 1 on the router with timing that seemed to match the duration and frequency of the packet loss. Moving on to SSH, looking at 'Top', I saw that the process '/etc/openvpn/vpnserver1 --cd /etc/' seemed to be responsible for the 'cycling' and the 15% additional load on the CPU. The CPU didn't seem to be getting close to 100%, but as a testing step I deactivated my OpenVPN client, disabled my OpenVPN server and rebooted the router. this seems to have worked around the issue, and I am now running without packet loss, and getting reasonable (500-700 mbps) Upload/Download speeds.
I also however notice a large number of repeated 'portsLinkStaus=1' messages in the Log, as well as frequent repeated:
rtl_fail: rtkswitch fail access, restart.
kernel: rtk_port_linkStatus_get() fail, return 14
kernel: rtl8365mbrtl8365mb initialized(0)(retry:0)
kernel: rtk port_phyEnableAll ok
...which I think from posts here is related to a known issue with Ports 5-8.
Has anyone here with Gigabit Internet experienced anything similar? Any thoughts as to whether OpenVPN is the root cause, or whether I simply made the router work a bit less hard, and masked another remaining issue?
...and finally, the reason for posting to this group (when I don't have merlin on this router) is that I have read that Merlin enables hardware acceleration on the router, which might offload some of that work - can anyone with experience with OpenVPN before/after merlin firmware confirm? Anything else I might need to consider before trying Merlin? (Currently working from home, so 'disable OpenVPN' might be a long-ish term solution if I don't have a long boring weekend coming, and feel particularly brave..)
Thanks!