NBG334W - speed issues

NBG334W - speed issues
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nwrickert @ 16th Oct 05:40PM:
NBG334W - speed issues

This summarizes an issue originally discussed in another thread, though most of that other thread is on different issues.

I have the AT&T Uverse service. The incoming line is handled by a 2Wire 3800 Residential Gateway (called an RG), which is itself a router. I have an NBG334W behind that. The NBG334W is setup in DMZ+ mode, meaning that the RG places it in the DMZ and shares the public IP with it.

My Internet service supposedly is at 6 mb/s downstream. Apparently I should be expected to get around 5.7 mb/s on speed tests. However, what I actually see is about 4.3 mb/s downstream. However, if I connect my laptop directly to the RG (so that it is not using the NBG334W), I then see a download speed of 5.7 mb/s on speed tests. It looks as if there is a significant loss of speed due to using the NBG334W.

Has anyone else seen this? Is there an explanation? Is there a solution?

Note that I am not using any bandwidth management in the NBG334W, and the speeds described above were all with wired connections.
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AT&T Uverse; Zyxel NBG334W router (behind the 2wire gateway); openSuSE 11.0; firefox 3.0.14
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jbibe @ 17th Oct 06:09PM:
Re: NBG334W - speed issues

I only use my NBG334W as an access point behind a ZyWALL 2+. As a result, I have performed only a few speed tests with the device configured as a gateway.

Based on tests using similar ZyNOS-based home devices, I would test the following cases:

1. Changing MAC address of the WAN port to match the MAC address of a LAN device can reduce the maximum WAN-port speed in some devices. If you clone the MAC address of a LAN computer, turn that computer off and then run the speed test again using a different LAN computer.

2. If you are using the speakeasy.net speed test, try using FTP to download a large file to see if the speed improves. The speakeasy test causes mischief in some ZyXEL devices.

3. Logging causes a significant slowdown in some devices. Turn off all logging, including the log settings on the firewall screen and the logging selections on the log setting screen. If these changes help, try adding back the log settings one at a time to identify the problem.

4. If the logging changes don't help, leave logging disabled, and then disable the firewall and run your speed test again.

If you continue to have trouble, let me know. I will reconfigure my NBG334W and run some tests.
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nwrickert @ 17th Oct 06:24PM:
Re: NBG334W - speed issues

There's no MAC cloning. I had previously tried turning off the firewall, and that did not help.

I tried turning off logging. And that made a large difference. Now I'll try turning on again to see which logging affects it.

Thanks for the suggestion.
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AT&T Uverse; Zyxel NBG334W router (behind the 2wire gateway); openSuSE 11.0; firefox 3.0.14
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nwrickert @ 17th Oct 06:45PM:
Re: NBG334W - speed issues

I turned back on the same logging as before, with the exception of PPP, CDR, Access. I'm not using PPP anyway. I haven't a clue what CDR stands for. And I haven't seen any logs labelled "Access". Still, with the logging on other than those, I am no longer seeing speed issues.

Thanks again for the help.
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AT&T Uverse; Zyxel NBG334W router (behind the 2wire gateway); openSuSE 11.0; firefox 3.0.14
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jbibe @ 17th Oct 07:32PM:
Re: NBG334W - speed issues

I am glad that I was able to help.

Access Control logging occurs when you enable "WAN to LAN", or "LAN to WAN", or ... on the Firewall General screen. For example, when I want to see the incoming WAN port scans, I turn "WAN to LAN" and Access Control logging on.
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nwrickert @ 17th Oct 09:21PM:
Re: NBG334W - speed issues

Thanks. I essentially had the firewall at defaults, except for forwarding a couple of ports. And nothing was ever logged under access. But I guess it was checking and using processor cycles that slowed things down.
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AT&T Uverse; Zyxel NBG334W router (behind the 2wire gateway); openSuSE 11.0; firefox 3.0.14
reply