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    1 gigabit WAN speed

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Virtualization
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    • L
      LostnIL
      last edited by

      Hi All,
      I am running pfsense in a Proxmox VM (Host 4 vcores CPU i7 7770k 4.9ghz, 8GB RAM). I have gigabit intel NICs bridged.

      Cat6 cabling into gigabit switches.

      I have a 1000/30 mbps connection from Comcast. Speed tests with Speedtest.net cli never exceed 670mbps.

      I can't figure out how to get my full WAN speed. I don't have any IDS running or any additional services. CPU isn't maxed, RAM is good.

      Has anyone had any luck getting gigabit WAN via Proxmox VMs running pfsense?

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      • bmeeksB
        bmeeks
        last edited by

        You need to isolate the various parts of your setup so you can determine where the slowdown actually exists.

        First, connect a physical machine (desktop PC or laptop) directly to the Comcast cable modem's LAN port and test that way. If you don't get Gigabit speeds, then it's your Comcast connection or it's a problem with their system being loaded down.

        Not sure how the internals of your network are plumbed since you were not specific. I assume you have a pfSense virtual machine in Proxmox and have it wired in such that it is an edge firewall for your network.

        Have you enabled PCI passthrough for the NICs assigned to the pfSense VM? If you don't do that, you will be working with the virtual NIC drivers and suffer some speed penality there potentially.

        And finally, exactly how are you running your speed test? Do not run the test from the pfSense firewall. Always run speed tests "through" the firewall. When you run a speed test client on the firewall the overhead associated with that will slow down the measured speed. That's because pfSense is optimized for routing traffic from one interface to the other, it is not optimized to run applications directly on the firewall.

        L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • L
          LostnIL @bmeeks
          last edited by

          @bmeeks said in 1 gigabit WAN speed:

          You need to isolate the various parts of your setup so you can determine where the slowdown actually exists.

          First, connect a physical machine (desktop PC or laptop) directly to the Comcast cable modem's LAN port and test that way. If you don't get Gigabit speeds, then it's your Comcast connection or it's a problem with their system being loaded down.

          Not sure how the internals of your network are plumbed since you were not specific. I assume you have a pfSense virtual machine in Proxmox and have it wired in such that it is an edge firewall for your network.

          Have you enabled PCI passthrough for the NICs assigned to the pfSense VM? If you don't do that, you will be working with the virtual NIC drivers and suffer some speed penality there potentially.

          And finally, exactly how are you running your speed test? Do not run the test from the pfSense firewall. Always run speed tests "through" the firewall. When you run a speed test client on the firewall the overhead associated with that will slow down the measured speed. That's because pfSense is optimized for routing traffic from one interface to the other, it is not optimized to run applications directly on the firewall.

          Thank you for the reply! It had not occurred to me NOT to do the speed test from the pfsense VM. I will try the test from another device/vm.

          Thanks!

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          • T
            tibere86
            last edited by

            @lostnil Have any update on your Proxmox throughput issue? Were you ever able to determine if you could route gigabit traffic through your pfSense VM?

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