Slow USB tethering speed on GL-MT3000

Routers
1

Hi!

I’ve recently purchased a GL-MT3000 and really love its form factor.
After reading that this router can use usb-tethering to share a 5G connection from a smartphone I hooked up my Motorola G54 and to my surprise it worked out of the box. Nice job!

What I noticed however is that the speed that is available via the router is way slower than what I’m seeing on the smartphone directly.

Logged on to the router via SSH and running speedtest I’m seeing max of 300Mbps
On the smartphone directly I’m seeing up to 800Mbps

When troubleshooting the speed difference I soon discovered that the USB-3.0 port is actually recognized as USB-2.0 (if I’m not mistaken). Output of lsusb --tree shows:

root@GL-MT3000:~# lsusb -t
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-mtk/1p, 10000M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-mtk/1p, 480M

Two questions:

  1. Does the 480M explain the slow (in comparison) speed I’m seeing on the router itself?
  2. Why does the second port show up as USB-2.0? (or am I misreading the output)

Any help is greatly appreciated, since I really like the cute form factor and don’t want to have to send it back if not necessary.

Thanks!

2

Maybe related to USB port being set to USB2 instead of USB3 regarding 480M. Could be the carrier throttles or de-prioritized hotspot data, could be gremlins lol. What speed do you get using WiFi tethering instead of USB tethering?

3

You mean MT3000 setup as repeater? I read about the hotspot data throttling, does that also apply when using ethernet tethering? Tried that as well, and seeing < 200mbps results.

But why would the USB port be set to USB2?

4

Oh nevermind, I didn’t check properly, the Motorola G54 only has USB-C 2.0. Apologies.

1 Like
5

USB3 can interfere with wifi chips. I am not sure whether 2.0 or 3.0 is the default.