loss of speed with pfsense 2.5.1 using Intel(R) PRO/1000 PCI-Express Network Driver
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I am using a Bell simple DSL copper line out in the country. I get a whopping 5-6 megs down with a 0.65 almost - 3/4 meg up on a good day. Its all I got.
Anyway, I use pfsense with a quad gig card Intel(R) PRO/1000 PCI little mini PC that looks like a router using a dual CPU J1800 @ 2.41GHz intel Celeron.
The processor is always 90% idle, MBUF Usage at 0%, RAM is good and everything I can check is fine.
For those who know Bell, I use their white 1000 modem (I got two of them). If I have it connected directly, I can get close to 6 megs. IF I have it on a bridge mode using the pfsense router I loose 2 megs down. Tried this many times with both modems
Maybe this could be their modem on bridge? But bridge just passes the buck, I do not see how it could be unless it's a low-end modem.
I have reviewed the docs, looked at the settings for issues with Intel igb(4) and em(4) Cards
tried disable hardware offloading.. I feel it made a difference maybe, but nothing close to attaining my 6 megs directly from the Bell modem without pfsense.
I would really like to get my full bandwidth, but I can't get it through the pfsense router. I would conclude maybe its the hardware, but nothing shows me that the router is even having a problem processing or losing packets.
I'm wondering if anyone has any advice... I can try getting more info on the hardware with
dmesgif need be... -
@gstlouis Does Status/Interfaces show any errors? 1000baseT <full-duplex> ? Try changing patch cables, or putting a switch in between pfSense and the router.
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@gstlouis said in loss of speed with pfsense 2.5.1 using Intel(R) PRO/1000 PCI-Express Network Driver:
If I have it connected directly, I can get close to 6 megs.
Is that with the 'modem' in bridge mode or is it in router mode at that point?
If the latter try testing with it in bridge mode still using a directly connected client.
Steve
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@gstlouis said in loss of speed with pfsense 2.5.1 using Intel(R) PRO/1000 PCI-Express Network Driver:
The processor is always 90% idle, MBUF Usage at 0%, RAM is good and everything I can check is fine.
90% ? It is very possible that this is the problem
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No that's expected. 10Mbps is nothing for that CPU so 10% usage is probably just the dashboard code.
Steve
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@stephenw10, 90% usage or free?
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@stephenw10
you are correct, to eliminate if the bridge mode on that modem is the problem. I'll be doing this next -
@silence
really? I used top to get that view. but if I look at the dashboard it shows the CPU barely working a sweat. I didnt take the pic fast enough but its more along 10 to 11% peak then 3%
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@stephenw10
so I did pppoe directly from the modem to my mac and I can get the correct speeds. IT was flaying at close to my whopping 6 megs
This is around the speeds I want to try to attain.
It looks to be my router. Any idea or settings that would slow this down? Its a basic setup with a DDNS and some rules for incoming git repo, cams etc.
I do have another router with pfsense (do not remember if same hardware but I'll check). I'll try this router as well to see if the speeds are degraded as well... a full 2 megs degrade feels like a lot.
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@gstlouis
“ Any idea or settings that would slow this down?”That the modem needs to be configured to be a very dumb device and the PFSense router doing the heavy lifting.
Connecting directly the modem with your MAC just tells you the modem is still doing the heavy lifting.
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Might need to set MTU to 1492.
https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/use-router-with-dsl/
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The modem should be doing the same thing in both situations. The PPPoE client does the wrok and that's running either on the Mac or pfSense.
pfSense will set an MTU of 1492 automatically for a PPPoE link but it's worth checking that. If you are seeing packet fragmentation it could well lead to the sort of reduction you're seeing.Another thing you can test here is running the speedtest-cli client on pfSense itself. That would show up a LAN side issue, though that's very unlikely.
That is done at the command line like:[2.6.0-BETA][admin@cedev-3.stevew.lan]/root: pkg install py38-speedtest-cli Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue... pfSense-core repository is up to date. Updating pfSense repository catalogue... pfSense repository is up to date. All repositories are up to date. The following 1 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked): New packages to be INSTALLED: py38-speedtest-cli: 2.1.3 [pfSense] Number of packages to be installed: 1 38 KiB to be downloaded. Proceed with this action? [y/N]: y [1/1] Fetching py38-speedtest-cli-2.1.3.pkg: 100% 38 KiB 39.0kB/s 00:01 Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting) [1/1] Installing py38-speedtest-cli-2.1.3... [1/1] Extracting py38-speedtest-cli-2.1.3: 100% [2.6.0-BETA][admin@cedev-3.stevew.lan]/root: rehash [2.6.0-BETA][admin@cedev-3.stevew.lan]/root: speedtest-cli Retrieving speedtest.net configuration... Testing from Plusnet (xx.xx.xx.xx)... Retrieving speedtest.net server list... Selecting best server based on ping... Hosted by Vodafone UK (Manchester) [250.93 km]: 21.236 ms Testing download speed................................................................................ Download: 61.65 Mbit/s Testing upload speed..................................................................................................... .Upload: 18.89 Mbit/sSteve
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Thank you for your comments.
So I did change the MTU, even though Steve says it'll change itself. There was no difference from when I did the speed test. I even tried 1450 MTU just for giggles with no diff.
I installed speedtest-cli, super cool, thanks for the
rehashcommand, didn't know that!!What was very interesting is while downloading the speedtest pkg it was pulling at around 7megs!!
speedtestcli
Hosted by Convergia Networks Inc (Pointe-Claire, QC) [196.32 km]: 52.136 ms Testing download speed................................................................................ Download: 5.77 Mbit/s Testing upload speed......................................................................... Upload: 0.94 Mbit/sNow that is awesome. A little hard to beleive because I do not think Bell has me a profile that is 7/1 megs but from the cli it says it was downloading at that speed when installing speedtest cli
This being said, there has to be something going on from the LAN perspective? I know Steve mentioned this... I don't know how I would start getting into that, but I will start searching online while I can breath and kids are sleeping and my drink has ice.
some say this could be HD read write speed. Im on an ssd 16gig
[2.5.1-RELEASE][root@router.home]/root: egrep 'da[0-9]|cd[0-9]' /var/run/dmesg.boot ada0 at ahcich0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0 ada0: <Kston 16GB Q0927A> ACS-2 ATA SATA 3.x device ada0: Serial Number 201906280650 ada0: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA6, PIO 512bytes) ada0: Command Queueing enabled ada0: 15272MB (31277232 512 byte sectors)@stephenw10
i wasnt sure about packet fragmentation comment. I do not see packet loss but if i should be looking somewhere else do lmk -
Just making sure, your tests that show speeds being slow, are you doing so via a wireless device?
I wish I could give you some of my bandwidth.
Everything I’ve read on DSL Modems when attaching a separate router is the modem needs to be in Transparent Bridge Mode.
https://johnpoelstra.com/centurylink-actiontec-c1000a-transparent-bridging/
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@jsmiddleton4
reading that article nowyes, I do the test via WIFI, but I've tried wired to my switch. But now that I'm doubting it, I'm going to plug my mac into the router port itself to make sure.
Also something I found cool. I removed the Bell modem, called HH1000 modem, from bridge mode for testing to speed again. Then I plugged my router into it and it authenticated. I literally have two WIFI, the bell modem broadcasting and one of my access points fed from my router. So basically two internal networks... weird, but cool because I can play in both. lol
I have the same speeds after plugging my mac wired into the router yes.
haha thanks for the offer. They say fibe will arrive within 2022, so fingers crossed. loosing 2 megs on a 50 meg line is neglegiable, but I do like to understand things and understanidng why a 2 meg loss for pfsense is a good Tshooting practice. while my time permits of course...
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G gstlouis referenced this topic on
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Wifi won’t be as fast as wired due to the way wifi works.
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-normal-for-a-WiFi-modem-connection-to-give-half-the-download-speed-of-a-wired-connection?share=1
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@jsmiddleton4
regardless, I've tried wired, more than once. Even my torrents files do not peak to what the router can hit on speed. -
At <10Mbps I wouldn't expect wifi to make a noticeable difference. Unless it's 802.11b maybe!
Might be time to grab a packet capture and see if there are retransmissions or fragments.
Speedtest-cli has never been the most accurate thing IMO. It averages the output. You might want to check the traffic graphs at the same time you're testing.
Although the total throughput isn't an issue here you might also try setting net.isr.dispatch to deferred. See: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/hardware/tune.html#pppoe-with-multi-queue-nics
Steve
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I fixed it! This is thanks to another thread on this forum you replied to Steve. Man, I wish I had you on speed dial!
You had mentioned to some dude online who was having LAN to WAN speed issues
slow-lan-speeds-but-correct-wan-speedFor giggles I said what the hell, in case I fiddled with rules or config that caused this slow speed. I setup a LAN2, copy pasted some rules so LAN2 can hit WAN, or LAN2 to really, setup dhcp on it and speed test are now at par with the WAN. I got 2 more megs in my network. lol I'm pumped.
I need to understand why my LAN1 is loosing my 2 megs. Slowly, I'll apply my rule sets and see if anything degrades and go from there. I'm very curious and will paste info for anybody out there
Anyway, thanks for your time and Happy New Year.
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Congrats.
