Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Comcast Gigabit - SG-3100 (not getting gig speed)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Official Netgate® Hardware
    31 Posts 7 Posters 4.1k Views 7 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • C Offline
      Calltech101
      last edited by stephenw10

      The SG-3100 does not have the hardware specs to support gigabit WAN speed. You will need a SG-5100. Sorry.

      This is what i run with my Comcast Gig connection.

      Firewall Micro Appliance with 4X Intel Gigabit Ports, Intel Atom E3845, AES-NI

      chrismacmahonC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • C Offline
        cparkervt
        last edited by

        Curious. Because I have seen reports of others getting a gig to route through it. My old R210 was getting similar speeds as well with a hefty Xeon.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • J Offline
          JohnKaul
          last edited by JohnKaul

          Fair warning: I am not a pfSense user; I am currently only a potential customer of a Netgate device.

          From all my reading and research I've been doing lateley I'd say the 3100 has got the chops to do gigabit (pushing it's limits with all the bells wistles running at the same time) but it should be able to keep up (that also depends on your network design too but...).

          Have you run any testing on your network? iperf is failry popular (or you can use tcpbench if you're an OpenBSD guy); I have iperf2 on my home server which I use to test internally--every time I get extremely bored or want to kill 10 seconds of free time-.

          Could be Comcast (when I had them, my speeds would bounce all over the place); test again in a bit. And actually I just had a--probably worthless--though; does Comcast still use the MAC on your device (I had to specify the same MAC as the Comcast router when wanted to use my own router); dbl check your Comcast settings again.

          *shrug*

          C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • chrismacmahonC Offline
            chrismacmahon @Calltech101
            last edited by

            @Calltech101 I'm not sure where you are getting those numbers.

            Perhaps you are confused with the SG-1100?

            Need help fast? Our support is available 24/7 https://www.netgate.com/support/

            Do Not PM For Help!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • johnpozJ Offline
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
              last edited by

              Simple google for sg3100 benchmarks on google shows multiple videos of it doing gig without any issues.. Even with ips on, etc.

              So no clue to where he is coming from..

              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 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

              C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • C Offline
                cparkervt @johnpoz
                last edited by

                @johnpoz Oh I'm very well aware it can do gig, that's what lead me to purchase the SG-3100 however something is gumming up the works and I'm grasping at straws.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • johnpozJ Offline
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by

                  I would suggest you take internet out of the equation to validate.. Simple iperf from something on wan to lan, versa.

                  I have seen isp throuttle newer connections.. Connect some PC to your modem - can it do gig? This will have different mac than your previous router as well.

                  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 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

                  C A 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • C Offline
                    cparkervt @JohnKaul
                    last edited by

                    @JohnKaul I've been running iperf against the LAN IP of the pfSense and I'm getting roughly the same speeds so I don't suspect it's so much the routing part, but something else. I've been a user of pfSense since v1.2.3 and I've always loved it. This is just one of those gremlins... I used to be able to iperf to the old Dell running pfSense before at gig speeds, and through it (just not out to the internet) I can iperf through the Cisco SG200-26P switch at gig speeds minus overhead just fine.

                    J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • johnpozJ Offline
                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                      last edited by

                      testing to pfsense is not valid test of its routing/firewalling speed.

                      You need to test "THROUGH" pfsense..

                      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 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • J Offline
                        JohnKaul @cparkervt
                        last edited by

                        @cparkervt, Ah. cool. Thanks for the recommendation. I'm still on the fence to be honest. I've never used pfSense so I'm still reading (a lot) about it and the hardware. Thanks again though. I appreciate the recommendation.

                        About the testing: iperf is a nice tool but read what @johnpoz just said.

                        C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • C Offline
                          cparkervt @JohnKaul
                          last edited by

                          @JohnKaul @johnpoz I understand the logic about testing through the routing portion of pfSense but is there a specific reason why that's not a fair test? (not trying to be snarky; genuinely curious to learn why)

                          J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • C Offline
                            cparkervt @johnpoz
                            last edited by

                            @johnpoz said in Comcast Gigabit - SG-3100 (not getting gig speed):

                            I would suggest you take internet out of the equation to validate.. Simple iperf from something on wan to lan, versa.

                            I have seen isp throuttle newer connections.. Connect some PC to your modem - can it do gig? This will have different mac than your previous router as well.

                            I should have included this in my previous message. I have connected my MacBook to the modem directly, and set one of the IPs from my /29 public subnet AND tested with the DHCP lease received from the router portion of my modem. Both ways shows gig speed.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • johnpozJ Offline
                              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                              last edited by

                              because pfsense stack for tcp is not meant to answer stuff asked of it, its meant to route it and firewall it... So no its not a fair test of what it can do.. Its not a server - its firewall/router.

                              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 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • J Offline
                                JohnKaul @cparkervt
                                last edited by JohnKaul

                                @cparkervt, testing from a iperf client (laptop) to an iperf server (the 3100) would only be testing the cable/wifi signal (there's nothing in the way). The iperf server should be after the router so you test the throughput of the router.

                                After re-reading your posts, I think I misunderstood your last question. I apologize for the "lesson" (you already understand what I said above). Sorry.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • A Offline
                                  akuma1x @johnpoz
                                  last edited by

                                  @johnpoz said in Comcast Gigabit - SG-3100 (not getting gig speed):

                                  I would suggest you take internet out of the equation to validate.. Simple iperf from something on wan to lan, versa.

                                  Are there any instructions anywhere on how to do this? All the talk of testing the routing THRU a pfsense box has me curious to setup this test.

                                  I'm assuming it's a computer on the WAN port with some IP address, pfsense in the middle, and a machine on the LAN side. Run an iperf test and see the numbers. Anything more complicated than that?

                                  Jeff

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • johnpozJ Offline
                                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                    last edited by johnpoz

                                    When you tested the speed of your switch, did you test through the switch or did you run iperf on the switch and talk to an SVI on the switch?

                                    Nope thats it -

                                    computer (iperf -s) --- pfsense ---- (iperf -c) computer

                                    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 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

                                    C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • C Offline
                                      cparkervt @johnpoz
                                      last edited by

                                      @johnpoz said in Comcast Gigabit - SG-3100 (not getting gig speed):

                                      When you tested the speed of your switch, did you test through the switch or did you run iperf on the switch and talk to an SVI on the switch?

                                      Nope thats it -

                                      computer (iperf -s) --- pfsense ---- (iperf -c) computer

                                      I will test PC -- OPT1 -- pfSense -- LAN1 -- PC ... later this evening.
                                      Also on the agenda is testing a loaner SG-3100 with a virgin config.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • johnpozJ Offline
                                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                        last edited by

                                        I would make sure you setup say opt1 to look like wan so its doing nat.. Since that could be a performance hit.. So you want to validate your speed is with natting being done.

                                        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 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • johnpozJ Offline
                                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                          last edited by

                                          lan by default is part of the switch right.. Possible you could have flood of broadcast traffic causing you issues on the switch?

                                          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 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

                                          C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • C Offline
                                            cparkervt @johnpoz
                                            last edited by

                                            @johnpoz I'll isolate the pfSense from the rest of my network during testing. Just for grins, I tested from a LAN PC using iperf3 to an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter's WAN IP in that same /29 and I was getting ~300m but that could be that it's a cheap ER-X and not able to handle being an iperf server as I know those have potatoes for CPUs in them. 😉

                                            I appreciate all the help so far. I really hope it's something simple like "hey you missed this one thing" actually kind of enjoying the challenge (good thing this is my home office/ home lab)

                                            J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.