[SOLVED] R6700v3 Throttling Download Speeds on steam/battle.net

[outgoingjake]

My brand new router seems to be throttling my download speeds on steam and battle.net. I plugged directly into my modem and get 50 MB/s on steam, whereas through my router I get at most 18 MB/s. My old netgear router also gave me the full 50 MB/s.

I have:
-updated router firmware
-reset router
-enabled then disabled QoS settings
-looked for any settings related to throttling (the settings I could find were not enabled/throttling speeds)
-All ports are set to 1000M full duplex.


speedtest.net gives me the same speeds whether it is through my router or only modem. (~450 down 22 up)
-https://www.speedtest.net/result/8744036865.png

This has really stumped me. I am not sure if it may be a defect or if I'm missing something.

Any and all help is appreciated! Please let me know if there is other information you need.

 

[helpstar]

Did you connect to your router via cable or WIFI?

So in speedtest.net the router doesn´t throttle while testing?

Maybe some ports have to be configured in the firewall of the router. If the modem has a firewall as well, disable the router firewall

 

[outgoingjake]

I am hardwired with a Cat 6 cable.

Correct, speedtest.net test results are normal and match what I get when directly wired into the modem, so no throttling there.

If ports had to be configured, wouldn't I not be able to download at all?

 

[bill001g]

What happens if you say download a windows iso image from microsoft via the browser. Although this is a file transfer it is done via https unlike steam.

For it to only restrict data that is non web based would mean the router has some "feature" enabled. It is more common for the pc to cause this but since it works on the modem it means it is the router.

I would factory reset the router and only set the admin password and wifi passwords. By default all the rest of the crap should be disabled, thing like parental control or firewalls can easily cause issues like you see.

Lately some routers are coming with virus/firewall/mesh crap enabled. If yours is like that try to disable this....after first testing with the simple reset configuration.

 

[outgoingjake]

Downloading a windows iso image via google chrome showed a download speed that ranged from 22 MB/s to 31 MB/s (it bounced around a lot).

All I changed when I set the router up was the SSID. Parental controls are all disabled and I cannot find anything that directly says "Firewall," but no websites or ports are blocked. Still having the same issue.

 

[bill001g]

That is a pretty well received router. It is a little old so it is hard to find hard numbers but I am pretty sure it tested over 900mbps wan-lan so it "should" not be slowing you down.

The concern is if for some reason the traffic is passing the router CPU. To get high speed almost all modern routers have a method to allow the traffic to use a hardware assisted NAT function. Pretty much this is the only way for any router to get more that say 300mbps. The cpu even in the best routers is just too slow.

Any feature that forces the hardware assist to be not used bottlenecks the traffic again.

At this point you start getting desperate. I would try new cables especially between the router and modem. Not likely the issue but you are quickly getting to the point to you start to suspect a defective router which costs much more.

 

[outgoingjake]

The new router came with a Cat 6 cable for modem to router. I will try the old Cat 5 cable I was using with the old router and see if anything changes.

With the issue you are talking about wouldn't my speedtest results be throttled as well? That is what I am having trouble understanding. Why is it that speedtest would show my full speeds but when it comes to actually downloading something it's throttled?

As I said previously, this router is new so hopefully Netgear will offer a replacement if I cannot fix the issue. I attempted contacting them for support, but you apparently have to pay to even email them lol. I did post on the community forums over there though, but no response yet.

I really do appreciate your help though. I'm still very early on in my networking classes so much of the in depth stuff is quite new to me.

 

[bill001g]

Likely some detail being missed. Normally you would blame the pc since the router does not really care about different types of traffic when running in default mode. Since you tested directly to the modem it pretty much rules out the pc. So something is telling lies. Unless the pc somehow is figuring out when it connects to the modem and the router.

Generally since the pc will get a public IP when it is hooked directly to the modem the firewall sets itself to public network which greatly restricts the ports. You think it would have more issues
rather than less.

I really don't know. The way they test routers wan-lan is put a machine on the wan side and manually set ip addresses. A program like IPERF is then used to run traffic between the machines.
Almost all routers can get well over 900mbps doing this.

 

[outgoingjake]

Using the old cable didn't solve anything unfortunately.

I called Netgear support and they said I had to pay for 3 months of phone support in order to go through the troubleshooting steps and only if those did not work would they send me a replacement device. I told them I refused to pay money for a warranty I already had and after ~15 minutes of back and forth I got her to "talk to a manager" who then gave the OK to not charge me. Another hour and a half of useless troubleshooting (seriously like 10 speed tests between wireless and wired) she finally said they are going to send me a new one. Oh and on top of that I have to pay $17. I'm not even sure I will go through with the RMA. I might just plug in my old router and throw this one in the garbage where it belongs.

Netgear support is confirmed terrible and I'm not sure I will ever buy another Netgear product after that.

I appreciate all of your help and explaining. Hopefully the new router will work properly if I go that route.