speedtest-cli gives slower results than any device behind the unit. Why?

[Ellis Michael Lieberman]

I have the newest speedtest (py39-speedtest-cli-2.1.3) installed on my sfsense + Netgate pfSense Plus device running the current 23.01-RELEASE (amd64)
built on Fri Feb 10 20:06:33 UTC 2023
FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT

I also have speedtest-cli running on one Debian Linux workstation.
And
The newest (Speedtest by Ookla: Version: speedtest 1.2.0.84) speedtest command line code running on a Linux server.

Both the workstation and the server report speeds five times faster than does the pfsense device which is connected directly via PPoE to the ISP bridging device.

This makes no sense! Why does speedtest give me slow bogus numbers on the pfsense device?

[stephenw10]

Running a test from the firewall itself will almost always be slower than from a host behind it. This is because pfSense is not configured as a server it's optimised as a router. And also because the speedtest client itself uses significant CPU cycles which then cannot be used to move traffic.
However 5x faster on a host is unexpected. What hardware are you testing on?

Steve

[Ellis Michael Lieberman]

Hi @stephenw10

I tested on te Netgate and four other systems in multiple ways. This is a home/office:

The other systems:
(1) My one host server a Huananzhi X79 with an E5 Xeon processor (32GB ECC DRAMM) also supports three VM's but I tested on the actual host (while the VMs were running). I tested with the new Speedtest command line code. (Debian 11.7) wired Ethernet
(2) My workstation is a Haunanzhi X99 with an E5 Xeon and 64GB DRAMM. I tested three ways on this: (a) using the Speedtest ookla website; (b) the older Speedtest-cli and (c) then removing that and installing the new one. (Debian 11.7 with Backports) wired Ethernet
(3) I tested with a 2012 Dell laptop running a 3rd gen Core i7 16GB DRAMM using the new Speedtest code. (Debian Bookworm) wired Ethernet
(4) using my Samsung Galaxy A52 mobile phone using the Ookla app. (WiFi)

I was testing because after a ISP outage, it seems that they might have moved me to a different port as my speed is 50% of what it should be. I thought... maybe I should test from the first device in the chain.

The Netgate systems is:

CPU Type Intel(R) Celeron(R) N5105 @ 2.00GHz
Current: 2264 MHz, Max: 1996 MHz
4 CPUs : 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)
AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (inactive)
QAT Crypto: No

BIOS Vendor: Techvision, LLC.
Version: 5.19
Release Date: Wed Sep 7 2022

[stephenw10]

Not an unreasonable test.

What results are you actually seeing?

[Ellis Michael Lieberman]

@stephenw10
(1) mike@blackbox:~$ speedtest servers

Speedtest by Ookla

  Server: PLDT - Cebu City (id: 7293)
     ISP: Philippine Long Distance Telephone

Idle Latency: 16.51 ms (jitter: 0.05ms, low: 16.46ms, high: 16.61ms)
Download: 92.22 Mbps (data used: 78.4 MB)
29.83 ms (jitter: 1.01ms, low: 19.03ms, high: 32.93ms)
Upload: 93.35 Mbps (data used: 72.3 MB)
352.66 ms (jitter: 77.59ms, low: 22.65ms, high: 726.63ms)
Packet Loss: Not available.
Result URL: https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/725eaed8-67e7-4afe-be56-ae8e3ba9636b

(2)
mike@whitebox:~$ speedtest --server-id=7293

Speedtest by Ookla

  Server: PLDT - Cebu City (id: 7293)
     ISP: Philippine Long Distance Telephone

Idle Latency: 16.49 ms (jitter: 0.16ms, low: 16.36ms, high: 16.84ms)
Download: 93.44 Mbps (data used: 88.3 MB)
29.81 ms (jitter: 7.71ms, low: 19.68ms, high: 296.79ms)
Upload: 93.33 Mbps (data used: 72.3 MB)
17.36 ms (jitter: 0.23ms, low: 17.11ms, high: 21.98ms)
Packet Loss: Not available.
Result URL: https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/bc0e0a47-2210-43e2-86fc-6cfdab7b4dc9
mike@whitebox:~$

The pfsense was giving me under 20Mbps

But before I could run that test again for this post, a tech from the ISP arrived and now the problem is resolved.

mike@blackbox:~$ speedtest servers

Speedtest by Ookla

  Server: PLDT - Cebu City (id: 7293)
     ISP: Philippine Long Distance Telephone

Idle Latency: 16.52 ms (jitter: 0.24ms, low: 16.33ms, high: 16.91ms)
Download: 228.25 Mbps (data used: 401.2 MB)
16.66 ms (jitter: 2.17ms, low: 16.12ms, high: 253.57ms)
Upload: 214.09 Mbps (data used: 312.2 MB)
16.62 ms (jitter: 8.88ms, low: 16.13ms, high: 260.82ms)
Packet Loss: Not available.
Result URL: https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/f1a6efb0-3511-4279-8db7-8f33f86e2c79

And now with a fixed network, the pfsense gives me:
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from Philippine Long Distance Telephone (58.69.150.45)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by PLDT (Pasig City) [564.44 km]: 30.943 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 207.83 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 114.30 Mbit/s

[stephenw10]

Ah, nice! Ok the result from pfSense itself will always be lower but that's the sort of values I would expect. 207Mbps vs 228Mbps.