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    Speed test is slow direct from my PC to PFSense

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • B
      billsecond
      last edited by

      I am new to PFSense.

      Currently I have a Lab that I am using to make sure that it can replace my SonicWall TZ500 (at my house).

      The biggest reason why I would like to replace it is so that I can upgrade my home internet speed from 1Gib to 3Gib. But here is where I am at...

      I have set up this Lab with using an 8 core Mini Computer with 32GB Ram. Its pretty spunky.
      4f1ae86d-5e23-40da-b1d7-3714aa40de4d-image.png

      I installed the HTML5 Speed Test tool on the device and I am getting very slow speeds directly to it.

      d714dab5-9ddb-4462-a46f-9e21d14c96d8-image.png

      I have used this software before on servers quite a bit, and get great speeds over a 10 Gbps network, however right now I am getting those slow speeds directly from my PC to the PFSense router.

      What am I doing wrong? I should be getting close to 1 Gbps speed here as this device is set up for 1 Gbps network cards.

      The internet trunk that I currently have set up to the device does have internet but its my slow internet that is 100mbps down, 15 up and I at least get those speeds when using speedtest.net.

      Please help direct me! I want to make sure that when I get back that I am OK with sticking a 10 Gbps network card in that I can get 10 Gbps speeds (with very little overhead).

      -William

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        pfsense is a router/firewall not a server - you need to test through pfsense, not too it..

        This is brought up every single time someone ask this same question.. The only time that speed to pfsense would come into play would be if using proxy.. And then even then you should test through via the proxy vs directly.

        Setup say iperf server on wan side of pfsense, and then from lan through to that server. Or whatever speedtest server side thing you want to do..

        Then you would test directly from client to server, and then route/firewall/nat it through pfsense to see what sort of performance you can expect with those features happening vs just what the server and client can do over wire.

        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 2.7.2, 24.11

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        • B
          billsecond
          last edited by

          Okay, thanks, this is good news. I will test it this way.

          But why can't I test to the router in this way? Why are the speeds slower?

          Also note, that when I do test this way, I look at the CPU and Ram during this test and everything remains low.

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by johnpoz

            pfsense is designed to route/firewall/nat - not serve up stuff ;)

            There is a big difference between routing a packet and sending it up the stack to process it and then send back an answer, etc.

            As to load remaining low, yeah why should a router spend all its cycles doing something that not its job - shit that is not its job is lower priority than what its suppose to do..

            Your testing method has zero to do with what pfsense is designed to do.. Its like testing your tractor for its quarter mile speed ;) Going to suck at it.. But hey it will plow that field like nobodies business.. While your mustang might have great 1/4 mile results, not going to plow your field worth shit... hehehehe

            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 2.7.2, 24.11

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Yeah, testing directly from or to the firewall is only really useful for fault locating. You can compare the results from two different interfaces for example but absolute values are almost always going to be lower that what can routed through it.

              That said those values do seem low.

              Also you will not see 10Gbps through that unless maybe you used jumbo packets etc. I would expect somewhere in the 3-4Gbps region but there are many variables.

              Steve

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              • B
                billsecond
                last edited by

                Yes, the values are very slow. If I hook up my home network to it and test to my web server through the PFSense Firewall, here is what I get:

                742395d6-fa07-45f3-bfa0-1ea35f0c3346-image.png

                Where as if I connect to it directly:
                c889aaf9-aa5b-474b-8608-1dd9a173e0c1-image.png
                (I am not sure why its not showing closer to 3-4gbps, but its a newer server, have not looked at mtu or anything)

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  I assume you are testing over a 1G link there. igb NICs?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • B
                    billsecond
                    last edited by

                    Yes, both are 1Gb NICs and a a short Cat5e cable between the two.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      But are they igb NICs as opposed to em or re etc?

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                      • B
                        billsecond
                        last edited by

                        I guess I don't know what IGB vs EM vs RE are.
                        But I do see that the nics are IGB

                        44573cfc-c8ca-4806-aa98-217f7bf3b646-image.png

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          Ok they're igb. They pretty much had to be unless you had added more since the C2758 has 4 igb NICs built into the SoC.

                          You should be seeing significantly more than that. I would check the output at the command line of top -aSH whilst testing.

                          Make sure you have all off loading disabled in Sys > Adv > Networking.

                          Check vmstat -i shows interrupt loading from each NIC spread across the cores.

                          Steve

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                          • DerelictD
                            Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                            last edited by

                            @billsecond said in Speed test is slow direct from my PC to PFSense:

                            I am not sure why its not showing closer to 3-4gbps

                            How do you expect to get more than 1Gb out of 1Gb NICs? You are going to need 10G to the ISP.

                            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)

                            B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • B
                              billsecond @Derelict
                              last edited by

                              @Derelict because when connected direct to the network I’m on 10gbps. Not through the router.

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

                                Non-trivial to set up a lab like that. is virtualization involved? What switches etc?

                                Going to need more information. Guarantee the C2758 is capable of forwarding faster than you are seeing there, barring some strange issue with your particular unit.

                                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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                                • B
                                  billsecond
                                  last edited by

                                  @Derelict
                                  No, Virtualization is not involved, I have the nic in my personal PC directly connected via a cat6 cable to the device.

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                                  • johnpozJ
                                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                    last edited by

                                    you happen to be doing any jumbo frames? Since your running 10ge and all.

                                    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 2.7.2, 24.11

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      The igb NICs are all 1G. You have 10G NICs in that firewall too?

                                      Steve

                                      B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • B
                                        billsecond @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 said in Speed test is slow direct from my PC to PFSense:

                                        The igb NICs are all 1G. You have 10G NICs in that firewall too?
                                        Steve

                                        Not on this one, this is my test device. But My point was that I was getting very slow speeds on this device. The device that I will be building is 10gb device. I was also explaining that if I hook up my PC direct to my existing non-test network (all 10gb), I do get a faster speed test.

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          Ok, so we are still looking at the ~250Mbps limit on a 1Gbps connection.

                                          So do the tests I asked about here and we can check the results.

                                          Steve

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                                          • C
                                            c0r3
                                            last edited by

                                            Any update to this thread? im having the same problem with the bandwidth speed when using pfsense.

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