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    Pfsense is slowing my internet down

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    speed slow fios
    16 Posts 7 Posters 6.9k Views
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    • T
      tman904
      last edited by

      It may be the PF(Packet Filter) firewall inside of pfSense causing it. I remember reading that using a stateful firewall can slow down throughput vs a pure stateless router. Although Netgates appliances can route and firewall at speeds much higher than 80mbps.

      What is the CPU usage on your pfSense while performing the speed test?

      I know you said you didn't change anything but the LAN IP but just to double check.

      1. Are your CPU/RAM and state table resource usages high?
      2. Are you using any add on packages?
      3. Do you have a lot of firewall rules configured?
      4. Did you change PF(Packet Filters) ruleset optimization setting?
      5. You said you didn't have to forward any ports so did you enable UPNP?
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      • T
        tman904
        last edited by

        This post is deleted!
        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • J
          jakehaas
          last edited by

          I tried disabling packet filtering but it also disabled NAT which I need since I am coming directly from the ONT.

          Not using any add-on packages.

          Only firewall rules that are set are whatever the default are.

          No, I haven't touched the optimization setting - I'll look into that.

          I also did not enable UPNP, so I really do not know how the FIOS router is working for the TVs. It is also connected over coax - so maybe it just needs any internet connection for in/out traffic and then the rest is handled through coax.

          Basically this is a fresh install.

          What is the best way to monitor system recourses? I was looking at the top output in System Activity.

          It basically stays like this the entire time - even when running speed tests.

          last pid: 19177;  load averages:  0.22,  0.16,  0.15  up 1+04:44:56    04:30:20
          162 processes: 5 running, 137 sleeping, 20 waiting
          
          Mem: 36M Active, 112M Inact, 243M Wired, 18M Buf, 7506M Free
          Swap: 3656M Total, 3656M Free
          
          
            PID USERNAME   PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE   C   TIME    WCPU COMMAND
             11 root       155 ki31     0K    64K CPU3    3  28.7H 100.00% [idle{idle: cpu3}]
             11 root       155 ki31     0K    64K CPU2    2  28.7H 100.00% [idle{idle: cpu2}]
             11 root       155 ki31     0K    64K RUN     0  28.7H 100.00% [idle{idle: cpu0}]
             11 root       155 ki31     0K    64K CPU1    1  28.7H  99.46% [idle{idle: cpu1}]
          

          Thanks for your help with this!

          T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • chpalmerC
            chpalmer
            last edited by

            I easily see full speed on my internet 250+mbps using my pfsense box.. Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU G1820 @ 2.70GHz

            Yours- ??
            https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/53401/intel-xeon-processor-e3-1220l-3m-cache-2-20-ghz.html

            Id be more interested in what the actual motherboard and ethernet options are..

            Triggering snowflakes one by one..
            Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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            • T
              tman904 @jakehaas
              last edited by tman904

              @jakehaas Are you using the onboard ethernet nic? If so its driver may having very poor hardware interrupt handling, meaning that NIC can slow the system down a tremendous amount. When higher speeds/throughput are pushed through it.

              ssh or console in and run "systat vmstat" Then keep that command running while running your speed test. If the Interrupt CPU usage is high and the amount left idle is low that could confirm what the problem is.

              Here's my firewall with no problems as a baseline.
              systat-vmstat.PNG

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                60Mbps is woefully bad on that hardware. There is something significantly wrong.

                Check the Status > Interfaces page for errors/collisions.

                What NICs do you have there? Dell Broadcom multiport cards? bgeX?

                Steve

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                • provelsP
                  provels
                  last edited by provels

                  Seriously slow. I get 300/25 with the tiny VM in my sig on a 12 year old PC.
                  Try changing cables and switch ports first, then a new/used i345/i350 NIC if no help.

                  Peder

                  MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
                  BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

                  T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • T
                    Tzvia @provels
                    last edited by

                    Did I miss- what NICs you have... STATUS/INTERFACES - verify the WAN mtu is in the neighborhood of 1500 and media is 1000 T FULL. Can't hurt to check all INTERFACES. If it's coming up 100 you aren't going to get faster than that...

                    Tzvia

                    Current build:
                    Hunsn/CWWK Pentium Gold 8505, 6x i226v 'micro firewall'
                    16 gigs ram
                    500gig WD Blue nvme
                    Using modded BIOS (enabled CSTATES)
                    PFSense 2.72-RELEASE
                    Enabled Intel SpeedShift
                    Snort
                    PFBlockerNG
                    LAN and 5 VLANS

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                    • T
                      tman904
                      last edited by tman904

                      @jakehaas said in Pfsense is slowing my internet down:

                      dell r210 ii.

                      I've got a feeling they are broadcom based on that machines specs.
                      Taken from here:
                      https://www.dell.com/tc/business/p/poweredge-r210-2/pd
                      Network Controller
                      -One Dual port Broadcom BCM 5716

                      I've personally had horrible performance with broadcom in the past. Now I use intel based gig nics.

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Most Broadcom NICs should be fine in pfSense but if you are seeing issue check the tuning guide options:
                        https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/hardware/tune.html#broadcom-bce-4-cards

                        Steve

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                        • T
                          tman904 @stephenw10
                          last edited by tman904

                          @stephenw10 I was referring to the fact his hardware has broadcom NICs in order to rule those out as a possible problem maybe he should try other NICs,

                          I personally haven't had those type of driver interrupt problems in years.

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                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Nope me either. I would not expect to see any issues with Broadcom in most setups.

                            The 60Mbps the OP is seeing here is so low it must be something pretty fundamental like the NICs linked at half duplex or a bad cable etc.

                            Steve

                            T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • T
                              tman904 @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10 Could be a fault with the switch it's connected to as well.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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