WAN on AX86U Slower than previous router

[Arvn]

Hi,

I was previously using a Netgear R8500 for about 5 years, and recently the router started making a loud whining noise, from the WiFi. It stays quiet when I disable the WiFi. I decided to upgrade to an ASUS AX86U after reading some feedback over here.

When I received the router, I kept it on stock for a day, and I did not notice any difference in WAN speed, therefore everything was good. I wanted to be sure that I was getting the same WAN speed before upgrading to Merlin to eliminate any variables.

I upgraded to Merlin and everything was normal, if i remember correctly. I am not sure if these are related or not but over the week, i installed Diversion to block ads and WireGuard for me to connect into my network when I am out.

After about a week, I started noticing slower speeds when downloading over nzbget. The "server" where nzbget is hosted, is connected via ethernet to the router. I am getting a maximum of 35 MB/s which is below the norm of 60 MB/s.

Earlier today, I decided to power on the Netgear R8500 and tried downloading a file on nzbget and i was able to attain the full speed of 60.0MB/s as shown in the screenshot below:

Once I switched back to the AX86U, it went back to 35.0 MB/s:

QOS is not enabled and i disabled Diversion but that made no difference. What else should I do to test and perhaps resolve this?

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @Arvn.

What firmware version(s) was the RT-AX86U on before you flashed to which version of RMerlin firmware?

Afterward, did you do a full reset to factory defaults, without using any saved backup config file to configure your network?

 

[Arvn]

Welcome to the forums @Arvn.

What firmware version(s) was the RT-AX86U on before you flashed to which version of RMerlin firmware?

Afterward, did you do a full reset to factory defaults, without using any saved backup config file to configure your network?

Thank you for your reply.

I can't remember the original firmware that was on the device but once I tested the device, i upgraded the firware to 3.0.0.4.386.46061.

I then flashed it to Merlin 386.4.

I did a full reset and checked the box as well:

I did not use any saved backup config. Once the device was reset, i configured it from scratch.

 

[bbunge]

Try the 386.5 alpha 1. I noticed some improvements over 386.4.

 

[DiGz_Au]

386.4 is weird on the ax86u. Vouch for 386.5 also

 

[Arvn]

I upgraded to 386.5_alpha1 and now it seems slower than before

 

[mlord]

Look at the Tools-->Sysinfo page in the WebGUI and ensure that HW acceleration is fully enabled. If not, that explains the speed drop.

 

[Arvn]

Hey guys,

Thank you for the replies. Did a reset by issuing the command "hnd-erase nvram" and re did the settings of the router once again.

I have not installed Diversion and WireGuard yet, but at the moment I am able to attain the full speed of my connection once again.

Will experiment later by installing these 2 modules to see if they could be the cause.

 

[kernol]

Hey guys,

Thank you for the replies. Did a reset by issuing the command "hnd-erase nvram" and re did the settings of the router once again.

I have not installed Diversion and WireGuard yet, but at the moment I am able to attain the full speed of my connection once again.

Will experiment later by installing these 2 modules to see if they could be the cause.

You may well be on to something here - specific to the RT-AX86U. I'm not a coder - but logic is my "game" .
Several folk have encountered difficulties in getting a full and proper "factory reset" on this router model [and I did too] - regardless of whether using the GUI and tick box for initialise - or the WPS button reset method. They may "appear" to have worked - yet certain problems persist after again setting up manually.

I got through my issues by doing repeated resets and alternating between GUI and WPS methods - never had this problem with any other router models. The command you found and applied may well be the solution - but I leave it to the coders to figure out why that works better than the other methods .

 

[L&LD]

@Arvn, instead of issuing that command you posted above, you may want to try using the appropriate method in the link below to fully reset your router instead.

[Wireless] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset | Official Support | ASUS Global

 

[DiGz_Au]

@Arvn, instead of issuing that command you posted above, you may want to try using the appropriate method in the link below to fully reset your router instead.

[Wireless] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset | Official Support | ASUS Global

Even using the official methods I've had issues with factory resetting my ax86u, I use nvram erase my self with the power button method toether and it works.

 

[L&LD]

That's interesting to note, @DiGz_Au.

Maybe doing a 'nuclear' reset may help? It has helped get more than a handful of routers working as expected for my customers. Even the infamous 2018 RT-AC86U models too. I'm not sure why it works and not the one that originally suggested doing so, but resetting the router in multiple ways (and doing it again, if necessary) has been proven to work for some models that were not in a 'good/known state'.

Fully Reset Router and Network

 

[Arvn]

Hey guys, i think i found the culprit.

Installed WireGuard and then noticed that my WAN speed on NZBGet dropped to 3x MB/s. This is without any devices connected to the router via VPN.

Uninstalled WireGuard and my speed went back to 6x MB/s.

I've installed WireGuard on my raspberry PI for now.

 

[ajp2k14]

Hey guys, i think i found the culprit.

Installed WireGuard and then noticed that my WAN speed on NZBGet dropped to 3x MB/s. This is without any devices connected to the router via VPN.

Uninstalled WireGuard and my speed went back to 6x MB/s.

I've installed WireGuard on my raspberry PI for now.

Probably because Wireguard disables flow cache?

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC3-3 public beta for IPv6 DDNS and IPv6 VPN server

I'm running the RC3-3 on my ET8 pair. Today I find that my wired xbox one no longer receives an IP from DHCP. I've rebooted the xbox and router and still the same. Why would this break out of the blue after days of stability? No issues with RC3-3 on my ET8 pair with my Xbox One so far. Will...

www.snbforums.com

 

[archiel]

Probably because Wireguard disables flow cache?

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC3-3 public beta for IPv6 DDNS and IPv6 VPN server

I'm running the RC3-3 on my ET8 pair. Today I find that my wired xbox one no longer receives an IP from DHCP. I've rebooted the xbox and router and still the same. Why would this break out of the blue after days of stability? No issues with RC3-3 on my ET8 pair with my Xbox One so far. Will...

www.snbforums.com

From what I have read, the fact that flow cache is disabled seems an unlikely cause on its own. As I understand it Wireguard has a smaller overhead than OpenVPN, and AFAIK an RT-AX86U can achieve well above 3x MB/s on OpenVPN with flow cache off. I get around 7x MB/s on my RT-AX88U on a 80 MB/s connection with cake enabled (and hardware acceleration disabled)

 

[JGrana]

You can re-enable flow cache briefly on the AX86U and see if that is the culprit.
Your speeds in the display above appear to be in MB/sec not Mb/sec. So, with Wireguard on (flow cache off) its ~280 Mb/sec versus 480 Mb/sec.

If your willing to put up with a bunch of warnings in syslog you can re-enable fc just for a quick test:
(you will need to ssh into the AX86U)

$ fc enable
$ fc flush

When testing is done, re-disable flow cache (assuming you still want Wireguard active):

$ fc disable
$ fc flush