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    Gigabit installed but speed tests are sub 300 Mbits, Verizon says it's pfsense but can't prove it's not.

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • JKnottJ
      JKnott @RyanDe
      last edited by

      @RyanDe said in Gigabit installed but speed tests are sub 300 Mbits, Verizon says it's pfsense but can't prove it's not.:

      I'll try the direct connection through pfsense before jumping and buying new hardware

      Why through pfSense? If you think it might be a problem just connect a PC directly to the modem, through an Ethernet cable. That will provide the best performance you can get. Then and only then, can you determine whether or not pfSense is the problem. When trying to resolve a problem, you must try to isolate things as much as possible.

      PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
      i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
      UniFi AC-Lite access point

      I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

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      • JKnottJ
        JKnott @johnpoz
        last edited by

        @johnpoz said in Gigabit installed but speed tests are sub 300 Mbits, Verizon says it's pfsense but can't prove it's not.:

        If the isp keeps blaming it on your gear - then tell them to send a tech to show you with their gear getting the speeds your suppose to be getting actually working.

        That's what I had to do when I had that IPv6 problem, a few months back. I finally got a senior tech out, where his own modem & computer failed. He then took them to the head end, where he tried with my CMTS and 3 others. Only mine failed. The network guys, instead of fixing a problem that had clearly been proven as their responsibility, continued to blame my network, even though my neighbour had the same problem and I had even identified the failing system by name.

        PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
        i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
        UniFi AC-Lite access point

        I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          300Mbps seems like a very familiar limit to be hitting. I seem to recall some ISPs limiting to that if you did not use the correct VLAN or priority tag. I'm not aware of Verizon being one though.

          Steve

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          • kiokomanK
            kiokoman LAYER 8
            last edited by

            could this be of any help?
            https://forum.netgate.com/topic/102195/fios-wan-dhcp-setup-for-g1100-fios-quantum-router-with-pfsense-no-bridging

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            • T
              tman222
              last edited by tman222

              I think we'll need to wait until the OP responds back with some more findings from his side. As a fellow user of Verizon gigabit FiOS, I just wanted to mention that there is nothing special that needs to be done on the WAN side to get the connection to work or to enable full speeds. One thing I would recommend looking into perhaps is tuning the NIC's on both the pfSense router and the end clients. Gigabit and higher WAN connections are still fairly new, and historically settings for Linux / FreeBSD have been somewhat conservative in the interest of conserving memory and efficient use of resources.

              Some useful links:

              https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=113496.0
              https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=132345

              https://calomel.org/freebsd_network_tuning.html

              https://bsdrp.net/documentation/technical_docs/performance#where_is_the_bottleneck

              Hope this helps.

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              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                last edited by johnpoz

                Yeah I would suggest you say your not giving me what I paid for - I was actually pretty happy with my isp response.. They came out Wed.. Warning me, if its on my end then there will be tech charge.. Yeah Yeah - I know its not my end ;)

                So guy came, yup levels a bit low, he took out a splitter that previous tech had put in - that didn't fix it.. Then started checking levels like where it came into the yard, etc.. He had to call in, they couldn't fix it - then hey came back the next day and changed out something at the edge of yard, still not fix and said there was a packet loss issue - which I had told him and showed him on my monitoring ;) Then on the way to work on friday saw too trucks on the street and as I drove buy could see working on the boxes at edge of yard... Looks like they were running new cable from one box to another box..

                Well later morning - I got notified that my line kept going up and down.. I have external monitoring setup.. So I get text messages whenever my line goes down, and then when back up..

                As you can see they fixed it, and now getting what I pay for 500/50

                fixed.png

                You can clearly see where I was having about 5% packet loss - which never went away.. While it didn't really have any major effect on my download.. I could still get 500 down.. And downloads from my server in the NL still hitting 60MBps without much issue.. But upload was just in the dirt like 2, and 10 was highest.. My friends and fam not happy ;) Since plex was down for them - hehehe

                I show 2 people streaming now - and not even breaking a sweat, serving them.
                2streaming.png

                So I would highly suggest you validate that its not your router, do a simple iperf test between wan and lan to validate what it can do.. And if can do your gig or real close to it - then yeah call and complain that their shit aint right..

                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

                  When I moved into this place in spring 2019 they had to pull a new coax from the curb to the house.

                  Sometimes it really is LAYER 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)

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

                    Yup sometimes it is.. But I doubt I can get an actual RFO from them ;)

                    But I bet they have some users that don't even bring it up, and just live with service that is well below par to what they are paying for..

                    There would be one thing if you were paying for gig and only seeing like 800.. You might be fine with that.. But if your paying for gig an only getting 300.. WTF!

                    When you say its 300, does it hard limit to that - say a "car" or does it fluctuate around that number?

                    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

                    DerelictD JKnottJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DerelictD
                      Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate @johnpoz
                      last edited by

                      @johnpoz said in Gigabit installed but speed tests are sub 300 Mbits, Verizon says it's pfsense but can't prove it's not.:

                      But I bet they have some users that don't even bring it up, and just live with service that is well below par to what they are paying for..

                      And they all blame the firewall.

                      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)

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

                        Yup! this is why you need to make sure you actually validate what your hardware/software can do - without the internet at play..

                        If your isp is blaming your hardware - then say fine, you bring your hardware and show me how the speed is what you say it should be.. Worse case you will get a tech charge... Which is why you should be sure its not your gear before you call them out on that ;)

                        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

                          I say "ISP's suck." I know what I'm talking about. I ran one for 15 years.

                          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

                            Hehehe ;) yeah they can for sure.. But sometimes you can get good service.. You might have to go through a few level 2 or even level 3 guys to find the guy that actually cares, etc. etc.

                            If you can not get satisfaction from them, hope your in an area where you have choices.

                            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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                            • JKnottJ
                              JKnott @Derelict
                              last edited by

                              @Derelict said in Gigabit installed but speed tests are sub 300 Mbits, Verizon says it's pfsense but can't prove it's not.:

                              When I moved into this place in spring 2019 they had to pull a new coax from the curb to the house.

                              Sometimes it really is LAYER 1.

                              Many years ago, I had a problem which affected my Internet connection and home phone, but not my TV. I wrote a shell script that pinged my ISP's gateway every minute and recorded the failures. I have 2 feeds from the utility room and moved my cable modem to the other one. It still failed. This proved the problem was not in my home. The cable company sent a tech out to my home who tried to tell me that the problem was the cable running from where the cable comes up from the utility room to my computer room and wanted to replace the nicely installed cable (by my cable company) with cable stapled to the moulding, around doors, etc. He couldn't explain why that cable would be bad, but not the one from downstairs, which was a few years older. I refused. They then sent out another tech, after I explained the problem was with both cables from the utility room. They then started testing down there and eventually worked back to a defective cable between my building and their trunk on the street. Yep, sometimes the problem is physical. A bigger problem is "techs" who want to come up with a quick fix, when they don't understand what the problem is.

                              PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                              i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                              UniFi AC-Lite access point

                              I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

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                              • JKnottJ
                                JKnott @johnpoz
                                last edited by

                                @johnpoz said in Gigabit installed but speed tests are sub 300 Mbits, Verizon says it's pfsense but can't prove it's not.:

                                But I bet they have some users that don't even bring it up, and just live with service that is well below par to what they are paying for..

                                That is something that bothers me. I've had a couple of problems where the biggest part of getting it resolved is trying to get past the first people who work on it. If it's not a common problem, they're likely lost. I have the telecom and network experience to get past them, but most customers don't.

                                PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                                i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                                UniFi AC-Lite access point

                                I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • JKnottJ
                                  JKnott @Derelict
                                  last edited by

                                  @Derelict said in Gigabit installed but speed tests are sub 300 Mbits, Verizon says it's pfsense but can't prove it's not.:

                                  And they all blame the firewall.

                                  That was certainly the case, when I had that IPv6 problem a few months ago, even though my neighbour had the exact same problem and even when I put my modem in gateway mode it still happened.

                                  PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                                  i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                                  UniFi AC-Lite access point

                                  I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

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

                                    It sucks. I don't know how mere mortals deal with shitty internet.

                                    honestly, if you don't know wtf is going on, your best bet is probably to hire a local tech who is carrier-neutral who can negotiate the ticket with your ISP for you.

                                    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)

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • kiokomanK
                                      kiokoman LAYER 8
                                      last edited by kiokoman

                                      it is not easy to find sufficiently expert local technicians at an affordable price for a home user
                                      an expert would probably ask you more money than what is needed to change isp
                                      so "mere mortals deal with shitty internet."
                                      non expert .. well .. they will probably blame the firewall too
                                      😂

                                      ̿' ̿'\̵͇̿̿\з=(◕_◕)=ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿
                                      Please do not use chat/PM to ask for help
                                      we must focus on silencing this @guest character. we must make up lies and alter the copyrights !
                                      Don't forget to Upvote with the 👍 button for any post you find to be helpful.

                                      DerelictD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • T
                                        tman222
                                        last edited by tman222

                                        I think one challenge with high speed connections these days (e.g. 1Gbit+) is finding a proper testing methodology. What speed tests does one trust? The one your ISP provides? Going to major speed test provider such speedtest.net or using something like Netflix's fast.com? Plus, as more people upgrade to gigabit connections, congestion and load to those test providers or servers will go up as well.

                                        For what it's worth, my go to method these days is to use a run a Flent (https://flent.org/) test between a client on my network and a cloud VM, preferably one hosted on a provider that I know will peer very well with the ISP (e.g. Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, etc.). The nice thing about Flent is that it does try to strain your connection and it is also full-duplex (i.e. testing both upload and download at the same time). Generally if I see around 1.7 - 1.8Gbit/s combined on a gigabit fiber connection with only slight latency increases during the test, I'm very happy and consider the connection, firewall/router, and client pretty robust.

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                                        • DerelictD
                                          Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate @kiokoman
                                          last edited by

                                          @kiokoman I don't understand the reluctance to pay a knowledgeable professional for something so important. I just don't.

                                          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)

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

                                            To some its users, they don't have any clue to what gig is.. They just got that package because it was the "hightest" Then they go about using it with some shit wifi client and router that can barely do 100mbps But they can tell their friends - we went with the gig package ;)

                                            As to paying someone, yeah I don't get it either.. You pay the guy to fix your car.. You might bitch about the price - but hey you could rebuild the transmission on your own if you wanted to ;) hehehe

                                            I pay the professionals to trim my back hedges.. I would be out there for 8 hours, if not the whole freaking weekend sweating my ass off and do a shitty job more than likely... When they can come and do it in an hour, and take away the leavings.. So yeah it cost a few hundred... Money well spent if you ask me ;)

                                            Paying someone to do a job that your not skilled at doing, or want to do is well worth it.. Do you really want to be on the phone with some isp level 1 trying to get them to fix your internet for hours - now can you reach this www.domain.tld - what part did you not understand that Im not getting an IP.. So no I can not get to www.domain.tld ;)

                                            Many a company are paying for "line management" - could be a thing maybe in the home consumer market as the connections get faster and more complex.

                                            I might be willing even to pay X$ a month for that ;) Just like how you pay a service to cut your grass and fertilize, etc. ;)

                                            Are you ripping into your havc when its not working - or do you get a professional to do it? What about the plumbing.

                                            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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