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    SG-3100 Slow Throughput

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Official Netgate® Hardware
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    • johnpozJ
      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
      last edited by johnpoz

      @sean-allen said in SG-3100 Slow Throughput:

      When it comes out the WAN port it seems to be traveling sub-100Mb.

      This is a good test and takes the isp and internet out of the equation.. You seeing sub 100 would point to maybe not negotiating gig in the first place or a duplex mismatch problem or etc..

      All I can say is I have 2 sg3100 in production and while they do not have gig connection they are doing full speed of the isp connection well above 100 and not even breaking a sweat.. So yes something is wrong - need to figure out what.

      Did you look under diag, limiter info? Does that show blank as well
      0_1543423467963_limiterinfo.png

      To be 100% sure you don't have something messed up since you were playing in that area.. Would be to wipe it and do your local test right out of the gate..

      After validating your cables and test machines by using the cables your going to use and just connect the 2 test boxes directly together and running your iperf test.

      If with your test you are showing good speeds and then putting a clean sg3100 in the middle your seeing low speeds then I would suggest you contact support.. Maybe there is something wrong with the hardware?

      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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      • S
        sean.allen @johnpoz
        last edited by

        @johnpoz I say that it seems to be traveling sub-100Mb because those are all the results I get from speedtest from multiple sources (iperf from laptop to cloud iperf server, ookla, att, dslreports). I do several of those speedtests going around the SG-3100 and get 900Mb.

        My Diag->Limiter Info looks the same as yours:

        Limiters:
        No limiters were found on this system.
        
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        • GrimsonG
          Grimson Banned
          last edited by

          Well the first thing to check would be the interface statistics to see if the link speed is fine and if there are any errors on the link, and then check with the most basic config on a fresh system if the interface looks good. But as you seem to like to ignore the basic steps and rather just whine around, I wish you good luck.

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            Yeah I am confused - you say you have had this for like a year... And say it was solid, but now your saying it can not do more than 70mbps?

            Sure sounds like you playing with say shaping or limiting messed up something.

            CLEAR IT!!! Do your local testing - if shows bad then call support.

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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            • DerelictD
              Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
              last edited by Derelict

              If you were to do anything I would put an iperf server on the WAN and an iperf client on the LAN and see what the performance is in both directions. You should see results similar to the ones I just tested below, which are very close to the theoretical maximum payload throughput for gig-e.

              There isn't really a setting other than shapers/limiters that can result in what you are seeing.

              Hardware generally either fails or doesn't. I wouldn't expect a hardware issue to result in a consistent flow at a slower speed. Anything like that should manifest itself in interface errors, a duplex mismatch, etc. That has all but been relegated to the ash-heap of history with 1000BaseT though.

              iperf3 server (i7 MacBook Pro) <-> WAN SG-3100 LAN <-> Switch <-> Proxmox <-> iperf3 client (2 cores allocated)

              server iperf3 -s

              client iperf3 -c 172.25.16.1 930Mbit/sec
              client iperf3 -R -c 172.25.16.1 934Mbit/sec

              Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
              A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
              DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
              Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                last edited by

                There you go - that is some screaming performance to be honest with 949 being pretty much max speed in theory, etc.

                An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                • S
                  sean.allen @johnpoz
                  last edited by

                  @johnpoz I have had the SG-3100 for a year, but my fiber line just got installed 10 days ago. Before that I had AT&T bonded 50Mb DSL that ran at about 40Mb with this SG-3100. That exact same config, when running through the new AT&T RG in "IP Passthrough mode" (poor-mans bridging) yielded sub-100Mb speed. I then implemented the netgraph-based RG bypass hoping the issue was double-natting or something else with the RG - but it didn't change the results. I haven't touched shaping/limiting in probably a year. Definitely not since I added fiber to the house. And I think we just saw that none of that still exists in my config.

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                  • S
                    sean.allen @Grimson
                    last edited by

                    @grimson In checking the interface statistics, hopefully correctly, I find that all are at 1000baseT or above with no errors or drops.

                    mvneta1 is the four-port switched LAN group
                    mvneta2 is the routed NIC that is plugged into the ONT
                    ngeth0 is the interface created by netgraph that tags traffic VLAN 0 so AT&T will work with it without the RG

                    0_1543428980594_7f97f360-7199-4ef9-9aec-b27bc4b98667-image.png

                    netstat -i shows zero errors or drops across all interfaces:

                    0_1543429028142_331129b9-f56e-4df7-a081-6750a6aba608-image.png

                    Apologies if that doesn't get the interface statistics you were talking about. The "basic steps" I've seen here are "buy a new switch, sniff the traffic, look for anything out of place" and "factory reset your SG-3100" - the reasons why they've been suggested don't make sense to me based on evidence. I'm not trying to argue with the superior hive mind here, I'm just trying to offer logic that says "there are no shapers or limiters in effect, how can it be that, so what does starting from scratch do?" and "I can buy a smart switch, but I can't read a packetcap or know what is out of place - and what are we hoping to learn as the problem persists whether I go through the AT&T RG or bypass it." Factory reset will take forever and I will likely screw something up trying to recreate everything I've done over the past five years to this install (across two hardware platforms for pfSense) without screwing it up. Certs, OpenVPN server and client, firewall rules, packages (and their configs), etc. If that comes across whiney, please forgive me. Not my intent. I appreciate any and all specific help that is being offered. Even when it comes with snark.

                    @Derelict Got it. I think we've ruled out limiters/shapers in my config. ifconfig -a shows 1000BaseT or 2500BaseT full duplex. I'm reading your advice as replacing the WAN side of my network with a system running iperf and test. That makes sense. It isolates the SG-3100. If that's what was suggested prior by someone else, and I was too thick to see it, sorry. I was hoping to leave the ISP in the mix for convenience since it was proven to be 900Mb when going client->RG->ONT->speedtest server

                    GrimsonG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DerelictD
                      Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                      last edited by

                      You can back up the configuration, reset to defaults, and do a quick static WAN and test like I did there. Then maybe do a very basic configuration for the RG bypass and test that.

                      You're 2 minutes from being back where you were by simply restoring the configuration.

                      The object here is to isolate whether the hardware is bad or if it's something else in your environment.

                      AT&T is not doing anybody any favors with this arrangement. They are basically telling their customers to See Figure 1.

                      Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                      A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                      DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                      Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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                      • GrimsonG
                        Grimson Banned @sean.allen
                        last edited by

                        @sean-allen said in SG-3100 Slow Throughput:

                        Factory reset will take forever and I will likely screw something up trying to recreate everything I've done over the past five years to this install (across two hardware platforms for pfSense) without screwing it up.

                        Bullshit. Take a config backup, install a fresh 2.4.4 image, do the basic setup, test throughput. If you then get full speed you know something in your config is messed up, in that case restore the config section by section and check each time until it breaks again. If not restore the config backup and continue searching. That shouldn't take more than an hour.

                        Also if that config is five years old and spans multiple hardware platforms you might have at one point or the other added/changed system tunables that could negatively affect the performance on your current hardware. Also you experimented with fq_codel which before 2.4.4 required intervention in system files/the command line, there might still be remnant effects of that. So we need a known good baseline to start diagnosing from and that is a clean installation with a basic setup.

                        As it stands now your like a whining kid, expecting us to solve your problems while you are unwilling to put work into it. This is wasting the good will and time of the community.

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                        • DerelictD
                          Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                          last edited by

                          Yeah. While you're down a fresh install of 2.4.4 certainly wouldn't hurt. Only takes a few minutes and then you know.

                          https://www.netgate.com/docs/pfsense/solutions/sg-3100/reinstall-pfsense.html

                          Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                          A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                          DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                          Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                          S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • DerelictD
                            Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                            last edited by

                            And that ngeth is completely untested by anyone here as far as I know. It is not part of pfSense. I don't think anyone here has to suffer Uverse for their internet.

                            Any side effects or other issues are unknown. Anecdotal evidence suggests it is working for some people.

                            Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                            A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                            DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                            Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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                            • S
                              sean.allen @Derelict
                              last edited by

                              @derelict Ok. Interestingly, I had that exact URL up already (fresh install on SG-3100). Isolate the hardware, then isolate the bypass. Makes sense.

                              And totally agree on AT&T. Miserable and very AT&T of them.

                              ngeth0 is untested here, I agree. However, I was seeing the same slowdown issues when it was not in the mix and I was simply using mvneta2 and WAN and attaching the to AT&T RG in IP Passthrough. And I know of at least one other person that implemented this same exact bypass, on an SG-3100, and is seeing no slowdown.

                              @Grimson Are there any hacks to "restore the config section by section" - or just take really good notes on what you have and type it back in until things go bad?

                              Great points on rot being in the config over that time span. I don't recall doing tunables (except yesterday adding net.inet.ip.fastforwarding to try and speed up OpenVPN - but that was after these general speed problems). Thanks for the great reasoning on cruft that could be in my config over time.

                              I have kids. I hate it when they whine. Truly loathe it. However, I really love it when they ask questions, push back, and try to learn why they're being asked to do something. Shows me they're thinking - trying to learn so they don't need as much help in the future. And who knows, maybe someone else seeing/hearing the conversation that is afraid to ask the question (perhaps for fear of being flamed) learns from it, too.

                              Regardless, I sincerely appreciate y'all taking the time to help. I apologize that my approach rubs some the wrong way. Just trying to learn. I'm off to rebuild. Not afraid of the work, just want to know why I'm doing it.

                              GrimsonG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • GrimsonG
                                Grimson Banned @sean.allen
                                last edited by

                                @sean-allen said in SG-3100 Slow Throughput:

                                @Grimson Are there any hacks to "restore the config section by section" - or just take really good notes on what you have and type it back in until things go bad?

                                After 5 years you never looked at the backup and restore page of pfSense?
                                0_1543434093275_restore.png

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                                • S
                                  sean.allen @Grimson
                                  last edited by

                                  @grimson Uhm, shit, can we forget I said that part? Wow, I just earned every bit of your frustration/angst right there. Yep, I've been there several times. And double yep, I totally forgot that you could do it in sections...making my objection to rebuilding seem petty. Got it.

                                  Mea culpa. Quite sorry.

                                  It was worthwhile and helpful to know all the different bits of cruft that can be cleared out with this approach, but the process is nothing. I've already downloaded and created a USB drive of the fresh 2.4.4 image. Off I go.

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                                  • A
                                    aus
                                    last edited by aus

                                    FWIW, I'm running a Dell R210 II via Xeon E31220 @ 3.10GHz on pfSense 2.4.4. Here's a recent speedtest from a server within my LAN:

                                    SpeedTest++ version 1.14
                                    Speedtest.net command line interface
                                    Info: https://github.com/taganaka/SpeedTest
                                    Author: Francesco Laurita <francesco.laurita@gmail.com>
                                    
                                    IP: 
                                    Finding fastest server... 7727 Servers online
                                    ............
                                    Server: speedtest: 2 ms
                                    Ping: 2 ms.
                                    Jitter: 0 ms.
                                    Determine line type (2) ........................
                                    Fiber / Lan line type detected: profile selected fiber
                                    
                                    Testing download speed (32) ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
                                    Download: 954.57 Mbit/s
                                    Testing upload speed (12) .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
                                    Upload: 799.39 Mbit/s
                                    

                                    I've seen a few other reports of performance differences between pfatt.sh, IP-Passthrough and no bypass. In the past, I haven't been convinced the problem is with pfatt.sh due to a variety of discrepancies with reported testing methodologies.

                                    That being said, I've never been able to push my upload past ~820 Mbit/s with pfatt.sh. It's very possible there is a subtle issue here. Unfortunately, there are a lot of moving pieces between AT&T, speed test methodology, pfSense, configurations, and hardware. Troubleshooting requires downtime, and like you, I signed a 99.999% uptime SLA with my family. ☺

                                    I'll keep following this thread. Curious to see how your testing goes.

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                                    • S
                                      sean.allen
                                      last edited by sean.allen

                                      Well...that sucked. It was faaar from "simply rebuild, then restore section by section" - but I did land on a much better result. A sincere thank you @torred @Grimson @Derelict @johnpoz @gsmornot @aus for your help. I spent a bunch of time in the config.xml file comparing my old config to a clean new one. Amazing how much rot develops over five years trying to learn pfSense and eek out better speed from AT&T.

                                      I am now between 600-700Mb down and 850-935Mb up. That is not a typo. My upload screams past my download. I can finally host that p0rn server I've always wanted to. Kidding aside, anything jump out as a reason for that difference? BTW - speed testing is a non-deterministic pile of poo.

                                      Side note: OpenVPN client performance on a gig line with a SG-3100 is thoroughly disappointing. Did a bunch of reading on that and no matter the link speed, seems that people are maxing the 3100 out at 100-150Mb. I thought about trying to set up IPSec instead, but I've had about as much fun as I can take right now.

                                      When I recover, I am probably going to rebuild this from complete scratch. Manually reenter everything - no restore. Kill cruft. Trying to figure out how to do that while also pounding some bourbon. What could go wrong?

                                      Any advice on upload outpacing download or OpenVPN client performance is appreciated.

                                      Y'all rock.

                                      0_1543520315595_bf61b7d5-a89e-4ca7-b7a9-665e34f408d3-image.png

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                                      • DerelictD
                                        Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                                        last edited by

                                        Great to hear. Without seeing what you changed, no. I don't have any ideas what it could have been.

                                        OpenVPN is just....slow. It spends more time context switching between user and kernel modes that it does doing anything else.

                                        Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                                        A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                                        DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                                        Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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                                        • RicoR
                                          Rico LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance
                                          last edited by

                                          OpenVPN VS IPsec forever and a day Flexibility VS Speed. 😶

                                          -Rico

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                                          • S
                                            sean.allen @Rico
                                            last edited by

                                            @rico Interesting. You'd sacrifice 80-90% of the links speed to get the flexibility OpenVPN offers? That really says something...like I'm going to hate it if I try IPSec.

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