[SOLVED] Great modem but bad router performance

Dec 28, 2019
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I have been having an issue since I moved and replaced a Comcast modem with a Netgear modem (listed below) as we have Wave Broadband service instead of Comcast at the new house. I seem to be getting close to my rated service out of the modem. I have 1 Gb/s down, 30 Mb/s up service and am getting ~850 Mb/s down and ~26 Mb/s up when connected directly to the modem. The problem is that I am only getting ~180 Mb/s down and ~8 Mb/s up when connected wired or wireless to the router. It seems like the router and modem are not playing well together. How do I get better service from my router?

A secondary question is that my modem supports port aggregation whereas I cant find a router that officially supports it. Is there one?

Checked or Tested
I have replaced all of the Ethernet cables involved twice with CAT5e or better cables (no difference)
I have reset the router to factory defaults and retested before setting anything else up (~5% improvement)
Made sure QOS and Access Controls are set to Off on the router (were never on)
Turned wireless access off and tested just the wired connection (no difference)

My setup
Modem: Netgear Nighthawk CM1200
Router: Netgear Nighthawk R7000
Port 1 on the modem is connected to the router WAN port with CAT6 cable
Testing wired workstation is connected to router port 1 with CAT5e cable
Testing wireless devices are a Note 10+ in the same room and a workstation in the next room via an Intel wireless card (both 2.4 and 5 Ghz tested)
In normal operation I have bout 30 devices connected at any given time. Testing is done with only the testing device connected when possible.
 
Solution
I've heard that screeching noise before from both a power supply and a router. If you've got another power supply with the right plug, voltage, ampage (more is fine), and polarity, I would try that first.

If you're still getting the screeching, I'd say some capacitors have failed and you need a new unit. If it's under warranty I'd try that approach first. Even if you need one now you can always sell the replacment as bnib.
I wouldn't mess with port aggregation as you're not in excess of 1Gbps. Plus, who knows how well it will work since no one really uses it.

As far as the speed issue, that's a bit of a puzzle since the r7000 should be able to handle those speeds in stock form. Have you changed the firmware on it from factory or tried upgrade/downgrading firmware?
 
The 8mb up is a very strange. The 180 number though is very common if your traffic is passing through the router CPU.

Modern routers have the ability to do the NAT in hardware bypassing the cpu chip. This allows even very inexpensive routers to run at gigabit speeds wan-lan.

The dirty secret is if you use almost any semi advanced feature it disabled this nat acceleration. Some as simple as traffic monitoring need the cpu to see the traffic.

So I would factory reset the router. Only set the admin and wifi passwords. Leave everything else on default. It should have the hardware accelerator enable by default. Not all routers have a obvious setting to turn this feature on and off but almost all have it on by default.
 
The 8mb up is a very strange. The 180 number though is very common if your traffic is passing through the router CPU.

Modern routers have the ability to do the NAT in hardware bypassing the cpu chip. This allows even very inexpensive routers to run at gigabit speeds wan-lan.

The dirty secret is if you use almost any semi advanced feature it disabled this nat acceleration. Some as simple as traffic monitoring need the cpu to see the traffic.

So I would factory reset the router. Only set the admin and wifi passwords. Leave everything else on default. It should have the hardware accelerator enable by default. Not all routers have a obvious setting to turn this feature on and off but almost all have it on by default.
OP already tried a factory reset. :(
 
Dec 28, 2019
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I tried setting NAT Filtering to open though that didn't affect the speeds.

I looked for a setting for Nat acceleration though didn't find one. Before doing a factory reset I looked for an update and was already up to date. When I did the reset I only setup what I needed to in order to run a speed test.

I will try setting the router to AP or Bridge mode tomorrow to see if that at least allows for better speeds. Sorry for my ignorance but won't that be less secure than Router mode?
 

TJ Hooker

Titan
Ambassador
My mistake, I assumed your modem was a combo modem/router because of the multiple ethernet ports. But it appears that those ports are for supporting multiple WAN IPs.

In this case you should leave your setup as is, i.e. leave the modem connected to the router WAN port and don't put the router into bridge/AP mode.
 
Dec 28, 2019
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Well, went through hours of settings, online forum suggestions and still no better. Was much worse at times. Thinking that my next option is to get a new router, see if it works better and return it if it doesn't.

I don't know why the bandwidth is being limited to or out of the router but I'm starting to think I have some other issues going on which I thought were bandwidth related originally. I have noticed that at times the router just drops random connections, looses connection to the modem, is inaccessible by a workstation directly connected to it. Because I am sitting next to it I have noticed that when this happens the noise coming from the router is like a flock of screeching birds. When the noise stops the issues resolve. Odd and frustrating, I just want it to work so I can stop wasting my time on this and get back to wood working.
 
I've heard that screeching noise before from both a power supply and a router. If you've got another power supply with the right plug, voltage, ampage (more is fine), and polarity, I would try that first.

If you're still getting the screeching, I'd say some capacitors have failed and you need a new unit. If it's under warranty I'd try that approach first. Even if you need one now you can always sell the replacment as bnib.
 
Solution

Wacabletech06

Reputable
Jul 4, 2019
91
11
4,615
I have been having an issue since I moved and replaced a Comcast modem with a Netgear modem (listed below) as we have Wave Broadband service instead of Comcast at the new house. I seem to be getting close to my rated service out of the modem. I have 1 Gb/s down, 30 Mb/s up service and am getting ~850 Mb/s down and ~26 Mb/s up when connected directly to the modem. The problem is that I am only getting ~180 Mb/s down and ~8 Mb/s up when connected wired or wireless to the router. It seems like the router and modem are not playing well together. How do I get better service from my router?

The speed difference may be computer limits, you generally need a specific device to reach the 960 Mb/s offers but for now, lets deal with the router.

My usual motus replace feeding ehternet first, second hold reset button down for 45 seconds to do factory reset and reconfigure it, and if it still has an issue, new router.
 
Dec 28, 2019
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I have done speed tests on 3 workstations via wireless as well as one physically connected by an Ethernet port (confirmed to be connected at Gigabit speeds). I have also tried 3 phones via wireless connection. I have tried both 2.4Ghz and 5 Ghz bands. All of these scenarios have resulted in the same results, <200 Mb/s. I considered that the router had the full 1 Gb/s available to it but was simply limiting each device to 200 Mb/s. I don't believe this to be the case as a Firestick streaming Netflix will noticeably effect the speed test of another device. If each device had 200 Mb/s available to it up to the accumulative 1 Gb/s I assume that this wouldn't be the case.

Complicating this is that my ISP (Wave) changed the password on my modem and will not give it to me. If I reset the modem they are telling me that a technician would need to come out and reconnect it on my dime ($60). The technician would be about a week out and I wouldn't have service for that duration. So frustrated with them.