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Slow cloud storage upload speed on RT-AX86U

jdbhomenet

New Around Here
Hey all, this is my first time posting here, as I've been going crazy trying to figure this out.

I have gigabit service up and down. When plugged into the modem directly, I get the full gigabit of upload speed from Dropbox and iCloud Drive. But when connected to my AX86U (both Wi-Fi 6 and ethernet), I get 6-12MB/s upload—a far cry from the 100-115MB/s I get when connected directly.

I've updated firmware, used Merlin and stock firmware, and changed DNS settings, but I still cannot figure out why it's so slow through my router.

What are your thoughts?
 
Has QoS been accidentally enabled?

Check the ethernet connection between the modem and the router's WAN port is 1 Gbps and hasn't dropped to 100 Mbps (Network Map > System Status).
 
Has QoS been accidentally enabled?

Check the connection between the modem and the router's WAN port is 1Gb and hasn't dropped to 100Mb.
I appreciate the quick response. QoS and traffic monitoring are both off. DNS over TLS is on, but even when switched off, it has no impact. I've also tried both the 1Gb and 2.5Gb ports as WAN. No dice.
 
Also, for the record, speed tests work as intended over Wi-Fi. It's just the cloud storage upload speeds.
Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were having slow speeds for all traffic, and cloud storage was just an example of something that should always be higher than 12MB/s.

I don't use Dropbox/iCloud so I'll have to leave it to others to comment on that. Apologies for the confusion.
 
Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were having slow speeds for all traffic, and cloud storage was just an example of something that should always be higher than 12MB/s.

I don't use Dropbox/iCloud so I'll have to leave it to others to comment on that. Apologies for the confusion.

I appreciate the help, regardless.

Is there anything at all in the router that would slow down dropbox?
 
Is there anything at all in the router that would slow down dropbox?
As far as I know Dropbox uses a standard HTTPS connection. Are you uploading/syncing lots of small files or a few very big files? Have you tried other cloud storage services like onedrive and google drive? Are they equally slow?
 
AiProtection on ?
Hey there, ai protection is on yes.

As far as I know Dropbox uses a standard HTTPS connection. Are you uploading/syncing lots of small files or a few very big files? Have you tried other cloud storage services like onedrive and google drive? Are they equally slow?

My test is one big zip file made up of many smaller files. And yup, this is happening on iCloud drive, too. Also, I just tried uploading it to Google Drive over the web, and the same thing is happening there.

So, it's happening with all cloud services: 6-10MB/s over Wi-Fi and connected to router LAN, but 90-115MB/s connected directly to the modem. I've also confirmed that no other device is using any bandwidth during my tests.

Note: My speed tests give expected results, which is why this is so confusing. I can get a gigabit upload when connected to my router but can't get even close to that speed using cloud storage. Is there another way to test sustained upload outside of a simple speed test?
 
As @degrub suggested, try it without AiProtection enabled.

Otherwise, maybe it's a multithreading issue perhaps? If you go to https://www.speedtest.net/ you can choose between between multi and single connection tests. Try that and see if it reveals anything.
 
As @degrub suggested, try it without AiProtection enabled.

Otherwise, maybe it's a multithreading issue perhaps? If you go to https://www.speedtest.net/ you can choose between between multi and single connection tests. Try that and see if it reveals anything.

Toggling aiProtection didn't seem to change anything.

Also I ran a test: I upload the same file in three places: Dropbox via web, Google Drive via web, Dropbox via desktop app, and measured upload speeds.
- Connected to the modem, I got a consistent 117MB/s, saturating Gigabit as expected.
- Connected to the router LAN, I got 40-60MB/s
- Connected to WiFi, I got 10-12MB/s

Also, fast.com seems to indicate a speed discrepancy that speedtest doesn't pick up. I've attached screenshots.
- Connected to the modem, I got 1Gb up and down
- Connected to the router LAN, I got about the same, but a bit lower on upload.
- Connected to WiFi, I got 560 down, which is not unusual in my environment, but the 86 up is VERY low. Especially being next to the router.

Again, speedtest gives me very different results on wifi. I've attached a screenshot of those results as well.

Overall, I'm honestly stumped. Would a factory reset accomplish anything?
 

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Over many years I've never seen fast.com report speeds that were anything near reality. It's more like a random number generator for me.

Failing all else you could try cloning the MAC address of the PC you've been plugging directly into your modem. The idea being that in most cases your public IP address will change depending on the MAC address seen by your ISP's modem. And perhaps the IP address the router is getting is restricted in some way.

To test this theory log into the router's webUI using the same PC you previously connected to the modem and go to WAN - Internet Connection. Hit the MAC Clone button and the field next to it should become populated with your PC's MAC address. Apply that change (it might reboot the router - I can't remember). Once everything has settled down, power off the modem and the router. Then turn the modem back on and wait for it to fully boot up. Then turn the router back on. In theory your public IP address will now be different.
 
Over many years I've never seen fast.com report speeds that were anything near reality. It's more like a random number generator for me.

Failing all else you could try cloning the MAC address of the PC you've been plugging directly into your modem. The idea being that in most cases your public IP address will change depending on the MAC address seen by your ISP's modem. And perhaps the IP address the router is getting is restricted in some way.

To test this theory log into the router's webUI using the same PC you previously connected to the modem and go to WAN - Internet Connection. Hit the MAC Clone button and the field next to it should become populated with your PC's MAC address. Apply that change (it might reboot the router - I can't remember). Once everything has settled down, power off the modem and the router. Then turn the modem back on and wait for it to fully boot up. Then turn the router back on. In theory your public IP address will now be different.
Okay, so I ended up totally wiping the router.

PITA, but the speeds are back! This got me thinking... what is causing my uploads to drop off?

So, I started with your Mac clone idea, but it didn't help. This tracks because the IP I got on my router was the same one doled out to my Mac when connected directly. My ISP didn't give a different one.

When setting up my WAN, I started fiddling with DNS settings. As soon as I enabled DNS over TLS, my speeds dropped off! That was the thing the whole damn time. Even switching DNS providers didn't help. DoT makes the connection very inconsistent and, eventually, slow.

Has anyone else experienced this?
 
DoT makes the connection very inconsistent and, eventually, slow.

Interesting observation. DoT can make DNS resolution inconsistent and slow, but it won't affect the WAN speed.
 
Interesting observation. DoT can make DNS resolution inconsistent and slow, but it won't affect the WAN speed.
That was my understanding as well: You trade in a bit of speed for a lot of security and privacy. But I've tried DNS.SB and Cloudflare with DoT, and both eventually slow uploads to 6-12MB/s.

I remove DoT, restart and refresh everything, and performance comes back. Super weird. Maybe it's ASUS' implementation? Merlin's firmware doesn't fare any better, though.

Can anyone confirm I'm not going nuts?
 
AiProtection - you have to completely deauthorize your licenses otherwise, my understanding is that it continues to traffic through the providers relay. That is likely why you saw no difference until you factory reset the router.
 
AiProtection doesn’t work this way.
 
AiProtection - you have to completely deauthorize your licenses otherwise, my understanding is that it continues to traffic through the providers relay. That is likely why you saw no difference until you factory reset the router.
I appreciate the input, but I did get my upload speeds back while aiprotection was on. It was definitely DoT. This was reproduced about 3 or 4 times on a fresh factory reset too. DoT from multiple DNS providers slowed down both wifi and LAN uploads to dropbox and google to a crawl.

I have no idea why this would be the case, but I encourage anyone to use a DoT DNS like cloudflare, reboot the router and test uploads to google drive or dropbox. I'd love to know it can be reproduced.
 

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