TP-Link ER605 + ASUS GT-AC5300 - DUAL WAN

[Tech9]

My thought with link backup is that load balancing would be nixed entirely, secondary WAN use for failover only.

No, you can have load balancing + fail over at the same time. All the connections are transferred to the active WAN when the other is down.

 

[ForkWNY]

No, you can have load balancing + fail over at the same time. All the connections are transferred to the active WAN when the other is down.

That may be the key...I'll test later today with load balancing off, I've read it causes slow-downs more so than anything else.

 

[Tech9]

When doing speed test on multi-WAN with load balancing active you are testing currently used WAN connection only. Two consecutive speed tests may go to different WAN interfaces and show completely different results. The system is working properly though.

 

[Smokey613]

If you do not have total symmetric ISP connections then load balancing does not work very well. I tried it on my setup listed in my signature and most of the time it kept going out my cable connection on the upload tests.

Failover works great on the ER605

 

[ForkWNY]

I've disabled app optimized routing and have limited the router (hopefully) to failover only.

I also noticed that the load balancer almost always seemed to send upstream traffic out the slower cable connection for some odd reason, vs sending upstream out over Fios. I know you can set up load balancing weight to try and steer traffic one way vs the other, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect. I just ran a couple of additional speedtests with balancing off and the upload still struggles to reach anything above 250mbps. I know for a fact it's going out over Fios or it wouldn't get above 40mbps for upstream. I'll have to keep digging to find out if there's a workaround, or open up a ticket with TPL.

 

[ForkWNY]

I have an open ticket with TPL on this issue...they're testing my config (which is about as basic as it gets) and they're suspecting a hardware issue. I think it's firmware or Omada-related, but we shall see. All I know is the ASUS router was getting over 900Mbps up and down consistently on my 1Gb Fios symmetrical connection, I have yet to see the ER605 go above 300Mbps upstream. It's fine downstream, 900Mbps+ consistently.

 

[ForkWNY]

So after a week of using the ER605 as my primary router, I don't think it's going to fit the bill...I hope this summary will help other forum members decide on whether or not the ER605 is for them...

My opinion of this router is for the v2 model, the one with the USB port in front, as shown below...

The upsides...

• handles load balancing well between multiple WANs - excellent failover, detects when one WAN is down and switches to the other easily w/o manual intervention
• Gigabit-capable WAN and LAN ports
• Easily configurable
• SDN/Omada capable - Omada is truly an amazing and modern way to manage a home network and I'm truly a fan of TPL based on Omada alone
• Achieves 1Gb download across multiple WANs

The downsides however...

• Takes several minutes to reboot (3+ minutes which is not acceptable in this day and age)
• Doesn't appear to handle a single, independent full 1Gb upstream/downstream ISP connection - I can't achieve over 300-400Mbps upstream through my 1GB symmetrical Fios connection no matter how the router is configured, or how many times it is reset, or when all settings are 100% default
• Weak firewall, not stateful, not very configurable - no IPS/IDS

Back to the drawing board on a suitable router that has the features I need and can handle 1Gb symmetrical fiber optic...the weak firewall may not have been a deal-breaker for me, but the limited ~300Mbps upstream bandwidth is a sure deal-breaker and why I'll be returning this router. My ASUS GT-AC5300 never had an issue cranking out 1Gbps upstream and downstream.

For those with multi-WAN and lower throughput on their upstream connection, this router has a great price/performance ratio. I cannot recommend this router for business use based on its limited throughput over the WAN...if it can't achieve 1Gbps up/down over multiple WANs, it does not meet the specs TPL is advertising.

 

[Tech9]

There is something specific with FIOS service. Asus firmware release has a note "Improved connection speed with Verizon FIOS". This upload speed issue seems like common when non-ISP equipment is used. The router can handle Gigabit, but don't forget this is the smallest Omada SDN compatible router for $60. The hardware inside is like Ubiquiti ER-X in the same price range. Your GT-AC5300 has faster router part. ER605 is good for what you wanted to use it initially - multi-WAN handling. Otherwise it's a basic router. No chance getting true IPS/IDS on such device. For Gigabit speeds you need i3 x86 CPU.

 

[ForkWNY]

Are there any Omada-capable SDN routers that can at least handle 1Gb symmetrical WAN? Or there are none (from TPL) because their firmware doesn't play well with Fios...

I do agree that in most cases the ER605 has a great price/performance ratio for what it can handle.

 

[Tech9]

This ER605 can do Gigabit, but what you experience is perhaps similar to this issue:

Asus AX/AXE Slow Upload Speeds

I’m having a slow upload speed using the AX86U compared to my old AC3100 have 500/500 AC3100 used to get the full speed wired and wireless AX86U is getting 500/300 on wireless only (A while ago I saw a post about the same issue on the 88 and I went through it all and didn’t find any...

www.snbforums.com

The speed cap or 300Mbps is very suspicious. The same as what you get with ER605.

 

[ForkWNY]

Interesting, and does seem to be similar. Unfortunately TPL hasn't released a firmware update for the ER605 since March 2022, not sure if or when they'll release another update, if they get the Fios issue figured out. They have a ticket open for my issue, but they're taking the same approach as ASUS, RMA to close a ticket. If it's a firmware limitation, no matter how many RMA's they send, the issue will never be resolved.

So there are no Omada-SDN capable routers that can handle 1Gb up/down? I noticed that TPL has a relatively new model, the ER8411...it has way more WAN ports than I'd ever need and it seems like I'd be wasting most of its functionality. I've read that the ER7206 has slower/more outdated hardware than the current ER605 routers. I know my old ASUS GT-AC5300 can handle 1Gb up/down, but the firmware on that router is unreliable and unstable, hence why I'm looking to get rid of it. Are there any decent wired load-balancing routers that would fit the bill here (handling Fios 1Gb up/down)?

 

[Tech9]

So there are no Omada-SDN capable routers that can handle 1Gb up/down?

All of them, but what's the issue with FIOS we don't know. Asus say they have fixed something perhaps with Verizon help.

the ER8411

This is x86 hardware device. Instead of running TP-Link software on such device I would rather run pfSense on mini PC box.

 

[ForkWNY]

...

This is x86 hardware device. Instead of running TP-Link software on such device I would rather run pfSense on mini PC box.

And this is exactly where I've been looking...running a pfSense device on x86 hardware. Netgate appears to make such a product, but it's a bit out of my price range. Thanks for all the informative responses.

The irony (based on the thread you linked just above) is that my ASUS GT-AC5300 has never had a problem achieving 1Gbps up/down in Wireless router mode, across any of my clients, whether wired or wireless. Of course, most the wireless clients aren't going to achieve even close to 1Gb speeds anyway, unless they're 10 feet away from a mesh node or the Wireless AP itself. I only ever test bandwidth from wired clients, wireless clients I don't really care about, the Wife will never notice her Instagram load times on 1Gbit vs a 100Mbit wifi connection through her iPhone. I however do notice...if I'm uploading a 4GB file from my rather high-end PC workstation (wired), the 1Gb upload is a huge time-saver and much more appreciated.

 

[Tech9]

Netgate appears to make such a product, but it's a bit out of my price range.

Yes, Netgate 6100. Too expensive for home use indeed. I have 3x units for my business networks and the firewalls are actually cheap compared to all port 1/2.5/5/10GbE managed switches with PoE+ they are connected to. If you get speed obsessed at home every next matching component will cost a lot. This is simply not needed for 3-4 users network. For home network go DIY route instead and save money. Example x86 box with 2.5GbE ports:

 

[ForkWNY]

Probably a dumb question, but is setting up load balancing on these x86 boxes feasible? I'd presume 3x2.5Gbe ports would be a minimum...I've noticed most of these boxes come with at least 4 ports. With the 2.5Gbe ports these boxes should be capable of reaching speeds beyond 2Gbps over the WAN...I'm wondering if the "Fios" issue of capped upstream bandwidth is an issue with pfSense on these boxes, or not. Prices around $200 and up on these, depending on CPU and how much RAM/SSD capacity they include. Disappointing that there's not a competent router in that $100-$200 range that would meet my needs, minus some more advanced firewall features I may or may not use.

 

[Tech9]

All WAN/LAN configurations are available in pfSense/OPNsense. About FIOS upload issue - I don't know.

 

[ForkWNY]

The confusion continues...Verizon's own speedtest page indicates I'm getting full upstream/downstream...

I saw my wired laptop hit 800-900mpbs for "send" within Win 11's Taskmgr, at least briefly during the upload test.

 

[Tech9]

Is this using the ER605 as main router?

 

[ForkWNY]

Is this using the ER605 as main router?

Yes. ER605 was the main router. All other speedtest.net servers however show much slower upstream speeds, 200-300mbps. Testing from same wired laptop, going through ER605 as the main router.

 

[ForkWNY]

Here's another test where I observed my wired laptop sending at over 800Mbps...

Was going through random speed test servers within NYS that I normally don't test. Speed test servers are definitely not reliable. The perplexing issue is that the speedtest server I test from routinely (which is in Toronto, ON) gets 1Gb up/down from my ASUS router, yet through the ER605, 1Gb down/~250Mbps up. Really really odd. I can literally swap the two routers and get those results 100% of the time consistently using the same speedtest server.