SG-3100 Internet Throughput Issue
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[Cross-posted on reddit.com/r/PFSENSE]
I'm a long-time pfsense user. Originally, I used a Soekris box. As my cable internet speeds have increased over time, I outgrew the 100Mbps ports on the Soekris box and upgraded to an SG-3100. Until recently, I had Spectrum 200/10Mbps (down/up) internet that would regularly test out (via various speedtest.net servers) at 220+/12+. More recently, the download speed was less, but I didn't think too much of it.
I'd been toying with the idea of upgrading to Spectrum Ultra, mainly for the increased upload speed to support our new Covid-19 work/learn from home lifestyle that often involves multiple simultaneous video chats. I proceeded with that upgrade about a week ago. Spectrum needed to send me a new modem since they indicated my current modem was not capable of more than 300Mbps. The modem arrived earlier this week, and I swapped it into service.
Upon activation, I immediately ran a few speed tests with various speedtest.net servers. Upload speeds increased to 20-25 Mbps, as expected. My download speeds, however, varied from about 30Mpbs to 130Mbps, oftentimes peaking early in the test and then decreasing as the test progressed. Nowhere near the 400Mbps advertised. I started to think that something might have been wrong even before I upgraded.
Since then, I've performed extensive troubleshooting, and am fairly certain something either with the SG-3100 or pfsense itself is the problem. Here's what I've done:
I run modern Ubiquiti WIFI hardware, which hadn't been a bottleneck with the previous 200/10 speed tests. Nevertheless, I tried disabling Wifi on my laptop and connecting directly to a LAN port on the SG-3100 with an Ethernet cable (all other LAN and OPT connections removed so only my laptop was on the network). No improvement in speed test results.
Reboot SG-3100. No improvement.
Connect laptop directly to Spectrum modem. Get ~ 500/25. Woah...Now I'm not suspecting Spectrum is the problem. Start googling.
Check speed and duplex on WAN interface of SG-3100. No issue.
Try a different Ethernet cable between modem and SG-3100. No improvement.
Try using the same MAC address on the WAN interface of the SG-3100 as my laptop Ethernet port so that I get the same IP address on the SG-3100 as my laptop. Confirmed the same IP issued. No improvement.
Backed up pfsense settings. Reset SG-3100 to factory defaults. Did NOT restore settings. No improvement.
Contacted pfsense support to get the SG-3100 image. Re-flahsed SG-3100 with factory image and default settings. No improvement. Note I was using version 2.4.5-p1 before reflashing, and that is the version provided by pfsense support that I reflashed to.
Got brave and upgraded to the dev firmware version 2.5.x. No improvement.
All the while, searching google, reviewing hardware specs, etc. Seeing a number of results that say that the box should support near 1Gbps throughput.
I've run out of ideas and am looking for any help the community can provide.
Thanks.
M
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Mmm, it should be able to pass that in a speedtest no problem.
What sort of WAN connection is it?
Are you passing the public IP directly to pfSense?
Are there any errors shown on the WAN in Status > Interfaces?
Steve
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Is PowreD enabled?
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powerd should not make any significant difference here. There is no cpufreq driver for the Marvell 88F6820, it cannot change the running frequency.
Steve
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Hi,
I've just run into a similar issue today. I've also been using an SG3100 for quite a few years with Virgin Media's 350Mbps/35Mbps service and it's worked very well. I also upgraded my service and have gone for 1Gbit/50Mbps and I'm finding that the SG3100 is bottling out at about 425Mbps down but OK up. It's hitting over 90% CPU utilisation testing downlink.
I'm not doing anything very clever with mine - switching both pfblocker and DNSBL off hasn't helped. What does confuse me is that someone else within these forums has managed to get the SG3100 running at Gbit line speed but didn't share the configuration. I think the fault he reported was a wonky Gbit switch that wasn't performing under load. I guess you have iperfed the links....
Cheers,
Richard
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Try switching ntopng off - it's helped in my user scenario. Now at line speed.
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My Inet got 1000/50 to, but with limiter (codel) and no negativ ping issue, i got 600-700MBit off it.
If i drop the Limiter, i got round 800MBit but no cpu Limit reached at any time.
Cabel connections are shared and if you go for max speed you depend on the segement load. If this is to high, your ping go up in the sky.
