Can the AR750s v3.203 handle 1gbps WAN speed?

fluid · 2021-08-16T06:26:06.048Z

My firewall died and we are in the middle of a lockdown where I live, so my IT people are not able to come and replace it. So I turned to my AR750s to step in temporarily but I am having a big problem with my WAN speed.

I have 1gbps business Fiber (this is a residence, the way it is here the consumer ISP service is really awful but a business line is like getting service from a different company) and was getting around 800-900mbps on the WAN with no issues with my previous firewall.

When I installed my AR750s it was running v3.104 and I was getting around 300mbps speeds. So I updated it hoping to get faster speeds (and that was a battle this: GL-iNet AR750S: FIrmware Verification Fail - Failed! Error: Incorrect firmware format! post finally helped me fix) to v3.203 and I am getting only around 100mpbs! I don’t think they are related to be clear, it doesn’t make sense an update would slow down WAN speeds, but I post it here to note my observation.

I am measuring WAN speed with speedtest.net to my ISP’s node which is actually less than half a km from my house. I think this is the most ISP friendly way to measure speed but I would be happy to try other ways.

So I have connected a laptop directly to the ISP’s modem and consistently get very near 1gbps speeds. I moved the laptop to a switch, directly connected to the ISP’s modem, and plugged the AR750s into this switch too. This way I can use that laptop for most of my high bandwidth work stuff. However, this morning my IT people freaked out about security, so I had to put it back behind the AR750s terribly slow speeds.

Over the last few days I’ve reset my AR750s a couple times and went to speedtest.net to test speed through the vanilla config AR750s (even down to the default IP address). I can’t get faster than 150mbps no matter what I do.

This post became far longer than I intended. I don’t have to get full 1gbps speeds but I really need to get more speed as I work with large data sets that take forever to download and upload over the AR750s connection. I just need to decide now if:

I must shell out a bunch of money (in a time when I am trying to save money) to buy a temporary consumer grade router, till lockdown lifts and my IT people can come to my house and install a new firewall appliance.
Or if my AR750s on v3.203 can actually handle faster speeds and I am doing something wrong, and if so please help?

Thanks!

smiths · 2021-08-17T10:38:07.072Z

1GB Virgin Media router was switching at 960MB but like its predecessor had lousy Wifi, and you cannot turn off the wifi - just turn it into Modem mode. So put a router behind it

I tried a AR750S and MT1300 in this role, my AR750s speed about the same as yours, the MT1300 higher. The MT1300 was a bit faster, still not as good as the Virgin Media Router.

I shelled out for a Cisco RV260 in the end.

Hopefully OpenWrt 21 will help. I would not use the MT1300 f/w yet, wireless is dismal, an it loses config after reboot. I have not tried the AR750S F/w yet, as I only have one of these devices. After 21 stabilizes, hopefully one of the routers will have software or hardware handoff, which is the secret to supporting 1GB speeds. Hopefully the vendor drivers that GL.Inet fuse with openwrt will allow this.

However you must remember both of these routers are travel routers. Its about sharing a connection in a hotel room between devices imply and elegantly, with VPN back home. They are not designed for raw speed.

The D-Link DIR 2600 with openwrt 21 seems to be the best pure OpenWrt router for GB @ £120. I will try one when 21 Candidate 5 comes out, and I have some money.

I found Which Router is best for OpenWrt in 2021? - YouTube useful for GB speed.

Simon

alzhao · 2021-08-18T06:19:48.916Z

Can you check your AR750s’ client list and make sure the data statistics is turned off.

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fluid · 2021-08-28T23:56:14.192Z

@smiths Thank you!

@alzhao yes that options is turned off. As I said I tried the AR750s speed after factory reset, so only defaults including LAN IP, and it didn’t help much.

Sorry I forgot about this. After I wrote this I was already falling almost a day behind and it was clear this router couldn’t handle the speed I needed. So I bit the bullet and threw away some money and bought a temporary router. Even it could only handle about 800mbps, but it was enough.

beniamin · 2021-09-01T14:32:21.667Z

Curious, What speeds were you getting with the mt1300? I have a 200mb line, and it push that all day, even with stats turned on.
I was in a similar situation where my old FW died, so I went with the mt1300, then upgraded to the mv1000 for VPN speed.