[SOLVED] Blue Linky router deprecating speeds too much

[Simoneo]

Hi all! ... our cable connection recently got an upgrade, to 80 mb/s whereas before it was closer to 40. Oddly, if you connect ethernet directly from the (DOCSIS 3) Zoom modem to a laptop, you get speeds ranging from 55-85 mb/s. If I connect the Zoom via Ethernet to the Linky, and hardwire the Linky to my laptop, the speeds now drop from 80 to 40(!). And if I connect via wifi from the laptop to the Linky, speeds now run around 23 mb/s. The Linky is running dd-wrt.

I don't need this to run perfectly but a 50% drop in speeds even when the connection from the Zoom to the Linky and the Linky to the laptop is ethernet -- well, obviously something's not optimal about this! We don't need too much more in the way of speed, but 30-40 mb/s would be far better than 23, which is not quite enough. Would love some thoughts and recommendations for troubleshooting this -- thank you!

 

[gggplaya]

I'm assuming you mean LINKSYS router. What model do you have? Do you have QOS turned on? Your model may not have a very powerful processor, so QOS traffic shaping available on DDWRT may not have enough processing power to fully traffic shape your bandwidth with FQ_Codel or Cake.

Trying turning off QOS and see what happens.

If your Linksys router is super old, perhaps the processor is too slow to run Software NAT used on many DDWRT installs which can't run hardware NAT.

 

[Simoneo]

This sounds like the right territory. Thank you, gggplaya!

QoS is turned off and has been, it looks like. I'm going to see if I can find the processor speed of the router and post it. It's one of the newer manufacturings of the Linksys Blue, but they may have used the same processor as the oldest models.

 

[Simoneo]

OK, so it's a WRT54GL v 1.1. And it says 54 mbsp on the face of it! So I guess this would be the problem ... now to find a privacy-friendly router that will run DD-WRT at better speeds!

 

[gggplaya]

A slightly older version of that router as tested by smallnetbuilder using the factory firmware with hardware NAT can only do 20mbps WAN speed: https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir.../24609-linksyswrt54gwireless?showall=&start=2

So using DDWRT with a slightly newer revision of hardware doesn't surprise me with the speeds you're getting. It's simply too slow of a router.

When shopping for a router, if you're using VPN as you mentioned a privacy friendly router, you'll want to have the beefiest CPU possible to run VPN. Even high end expensive routers tend to top out at about 100mbps using OpenVPN.

An x86 router is your best choice, and I think they do have a version of DDWRT available for x86. If you have an older computer laying around all you need to do is buy a second gigabit ethernet connector for it and you can install DDWRT. Make sure the ethernet connector works with standard linux without drivers.

Or you can buy a prebuilt mini PC like this QOTOM and install DDWRT on it: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Ports-Advanced-Router-Firewall/dp/B07CL3JGXS

Even a cheap celeron J1900 will run circles around a $300 ARM processor router in terms of QOS and VPN speeds. Or even an old first gen intel core i3 will run circles around an expensive ARM router. So if you have some old computers laying around, you may want to consider turning it into a router. The only downfall is the high wattage a desktop computer from that era will use. So your electric bill may go up by $10/mo at 13 cents per KWH.

EDIT: DDWRT costs $22 because it's only available for professional license download with x86 routers: https://sites.fastspring.com/ddwrt/product/ddkk

 

[Simoneo]

unbelievably helpful information, I was just slogging through the universe of possible routers, reading far too many reviews on amazon and reddit, and not getting far -- thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge!

 

[SamirD]

OK, so it's a WRT54GL v 1.1. And it says 54 mbsp on the face of it! So I guess this would be the problem ... now to find a privacy-friendly router that will run DD-WRT at better speeds!

Yep, it's an older one. I would just get any of the TP-Link or Asus routers capable of 803.11ac wireless and you'll be set for a long time.