Gigabit Throughput

stephenw10

You have a lot of retries on that first test. Try in the reverse direction. You probably don't need to specify the port, 5201 is the default:
iperf3 -c iperf.scottlinux.com -R

Run a test to that server from a client connected directly to the modem without pfSense in play. Make sure you can get a reasonable rate to that server over your WAN at all.

Steve

johnpoz

testing out to the internet for iperf not really going to be a valid test... Test from your lan to your wan network.. Put a box on your wan and a box on your lan and run iperf between them..

Once you go out to the internet you have to many variables to rule out just something on net is problem.. Rule out your local hardware first. By testing local!!

C:\tools\iperf3.6_64bit>iperf3.exe -c iperf.scottlinux.com -p 5201
Connecting to host iperf.scottlinux.com, port 5201
[  5] local 2001:470:<snipped>:7157:1522 port 54061 connected to 2600:3c01::f03c:91ff:fed5:ed33 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  1.50 MBytes  12.6 Mbits/sec
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  3.25 MBytes  27.2 Mbits/sec
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  2.50 MBytes  21.0 Mbits/sec
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  2.25 MBytes  18.9 Mbits/sec
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  2.12 MBytes  17.8 Mbits/sec
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec   640 KBytes  5.24 Mbits/sec
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec   896 KBytes  7.34 Mbits/sec
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec   896 KBytes  7.34 Mbits/sec
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  16.5 MBytes  13.8 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  5]   0.00-10.09  sec  15.7 MBytes  13.0 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

C:\tools\iperf3.6_64bit>

Just connected to that scott site you used and the speed was utter crap!!! but I know for a fact my hardware and internet connection are fine.. I see my full pipe all the time downloading and uploading.

johnpoz

see my edit... Put a box on your wan network of pfsense and do your testing...

As you can see from that edit - that site is not very reliable for what your speed is or should be..

Here just started download of file from one of my servers in the NL... I have a 500mbps connection seeing 53MBps down... My connection is fine - but that scott iperf showing junk..

barosso

Depend of your location you should try nearest public iperf3 server.
Choose it here: https://iperf.cc
And try to check your bandwidth again.

stephenw10

Yes, there are lots of public iperf servers you could use. The one you tested against does not appear to be particularly fast, at least not from where you are.

But the best test you can do is to run your own server locally on the WAN side.

Steve

rm-rf

My setup uses a nearly identical Core 2 Due E8500 CPU and I can reliably achieve 900Mbps+ throughput. The network cards make a difference. Also your PC should be fast. I have an older system based on Xeon W3550, and it never gets more than 600Mbps from Internet, testing with iperf or doing an ISP speed test.

TheQuank

Howdy all! So I did purchase a PCIe Intel NIC, but don't see a significant change. What is the best way to test the WAN port with iperf? Is a windows laptop ok?

stephenw10

It's probably fine.

Before you test the firewall throughput put both the iperf3 server and client machines on the same subnet and test between them directly. Make sure you can see gigabit line rate in both directions.

Then move the server machine into the WAN subet and test against it with the client on the LAN.

If you don't see >900Mbps both ways then look for errors on the interfaces. Try running top -aSH on the firewall during the test to see the cpu core loading. Be sure not to have the dashboard up in a browser as that can use significant CPU cycles depending on what widgets you have loaded.

Steve

Kartoff

This is my test :

0_1545093184825_3Gbit iPerf.PNG

I run pfSense on Cisco UCS C210 M2 with 2x X5650 CPU and BroadCom QLogic dual port 10G NIC... Maximum load I registered was 11%...
I am pretty sure this result is caused by a speed limitations between me and server instead of my pfSense box... After a few day I will have second 10G line from separate ISP and then I can test again... This machine was released in 2010 so almost 9 years old but works pretty well and I am happy with it ;)