1100 slow speed

larnak

Hi,

Long time pfsense user, new Netgate appliance owner.

I bought a Netgate 1100 to do my home routing. Very small setup : 1 linux server, 1 desktop, 1 laptop, 1 wifi router in bridge mode, 3-4 IoT (lights), a ps4, a smart TV. Nothing crazy.

I have been using an old PC with pfsense for years.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2120 CPU @ 3.30GHz
4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s) x 2 hardware threads
8 gb of RAM
1tb SSD

With this PC as my router, I'm getting DL: 785.94 Mbit/s // UP 800.11 Mbit/s from speedtest-cli from my linux server. The rest of the post will only be about local network speed, I just wanted to give a context.

After watching some review like Lawrence video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bM3XqK5JzE) and the Netgate marketing, I figured the 1100 hardware will be enough for my needs.

Unfortunately, when I test locally with factory reseted box, I only get 400 Mbps from default install. I'm confused because Lawrence gets 700+ from same setup and he installed pfblocker (which I didn't).

I duplicated tests from his video and from this post : https://forum.netgate.com/topic/140100/sg-1100-throughput-test/

Same local setup I only replace a switch by the Netgate 1100 in default mode (NAT from LAN to WAN). Same 3 cables, same second switch.

Legend :
C1 = Cable 1
S1 = Good quality gigabit switch 1

Baseline : Windows laptop DHCP 10.0.0.78 <--C1--> <--S1--> <--C2--> <--S2--> <--C3--> <-- linux server 10.0.0.111 -->

On laptop :

iperf-3.1.3-win64> ./iperf3 -c 10.0.0.111 -p 6666

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   925 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   925 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf-3.1.3-win64> ./iperf3 -c 10.0.0.111 -p 6666 -R

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Retr
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   932 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   931 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Test with Netgate :

Laptop DHCP 192.168.1.100 <--C1--> <--Netgate 1100 LAN 192.168.1.1--> <--Netgate 1100 WAN 10.0.0.84--> <--C2--> <--S2--> <--C3--> Server 10.0.0.111

Netgate : 22.05 factory reset
Wizard : DNS : 1.1.1.1/8.8.8.8 + override DNS

iperf-3.1.3-win64> ./iperf3 -c 10.0.0.111 -p 6666

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec   559 MBytes   469 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec   559 MBytes   469 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf-3.1.3-win64> ./iperf3 -c 10.0.0.111 -p 6666 -R

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Retr
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec   495 MBytes   415 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec   494 MBytes   414 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Sometimes I will get 500 Mbits/sec in upload, but download is always low 400.

I tried also installing iperf3 on the appliance to test either sides (Laptop to Appliance's LAN IP and also Appliance's WAN IP to linux server) and I still get around 400Mits/sec.

I'm disappointed. I did my research before buying and I was expecting having around 700Mbps which covers my needs with my ISP internet speed.

Anything I could try to bump up my download speed from 400 to 700 ? I'm hopeful and pessimistic at the same time, I saw others with more speed, but I'm quite confident in my testing skills and setup.

Any help will be appreciated.

stephenw10

I believe the tests in the thread you linked to are routed between two local subnets. When you are NATing the connection, like outbound LAN to WAN the load on the firewall is increased and throughput reduced. ~500Mbps is about what I expect to see though an 1100.

Steve

larnak

@stephenw10

Sorry to disagree, but as far as I understand, the Lawrence video AND the setup from hbauer are the same as mine :

Test 2 is: client -> LANPORT sg1100 WANPORT - gigabitswitch - server

Which to me is clearly NATing.

Lawrence has the same setup (NAT'ing with pfblocker) and gets 700+ and hbauer gets 800+.

stephenw10

Yes, it certainly looks like that but those ports don't necessarily indicate it's actually NATing. Having tested it myself numerous times I would be very surprised to see 800Mbps with NAT and filtering enabled. There are a lot of variables but 500Mbps is around what I expect to see in a local iperf3 test between WAN and LAN.

Steve