Nintendo Switch Slow Download Speed
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Hello Pfsense Community Members,
I tried to search for a similar post, but I couldn't find one of this nature, so I would like to ask for your help on the following topic.
I replaced an Asus router with a Topton hardware with Pfsense. I use a PPPoe connection with an optical router (pppoe passthrough) that is connected to the Pfsense "WAN" port. In addition to the basic firewall rules (RFC 1918 networks and Reserved Not assigned by IANA), two firewall rules are set up that block all incoming IPv4 and IPv6 traffic (I don't know if this is necessary at all, I came from the Linux world and always used it there). My Nintendo gets an IP with static dhcp but I have also tried a simple static IP. I have also played with the MTU and tried several DNS servers (provider's own, 1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8). Currently, the Nintendo Switch is connected to a USB LAN. So far, the NAT type was D, so I set a static port on the outbound, so the NAT type is now B. The error is that when downloading or updating larger games, the game starts downloading at high speed, then stops at around 10% and the estimated time goes from 1-3 minutes to hours. In the traffic status, I see that it starts downloading at high speed, then slows down to about 50kbytes/sec and stays that way. Phones, tablets, computers work flawlessly, on my machine the speed is 900/900 Mbps all the time. What should I do to make the speed like it used to be? I didn't have such a problem with the Asus router, and if I connect the Nintendo Switch to my phone's hotspot, everything works normally.
Even in the case of an internet test, the Nintendo Switch measures a maximum of 60/30 MBit, what is the maximum that can be achieved with a cable? However, in the case of continuous testing, this also changes, and the speed is usually getting weaker.
Thank you in advance for your help!
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@nbk333 Lots of people complain about slow download speeds on Nintendo Switch, but if it was ok with your ASUS router it should be ok with pfsense.
The one key difference that I can think of, except MTU (try 1500), is UPnP... Have you tried turning that on?
It's as simple as going to Services / UPnP & NAT-PMP and turning it on allowing both types, select WAN external and LAN internal. Then at the bottom section you add your Nintendo Switch to the list of allowed devices and block all other (unless you have other gaming devices that also need UPnP).
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/services/upnp.html -
@Gblenn First of all, thanks for your answer. I set UPnP and other things but it didn't help, but I found the problem. I'm using a fixed IP address on the Nintendo Switch and the MTU value was 1490 because according to tests this is the max that they used. But that was the problem. While I was using the Asus router, the download speed was good. I tried downloading via Wifi with PfSense, where the settings were the default, and the download went well. I checked the default settings and the default MTU value was 1400. I changed the MTU to 1400 on a wired connection, and then the download works fine again. I'm currently using three settings.
- Static port (for the Nintendo Switch fixed IP address)
- UPnP (applied to the Nintendo Switch only)
- MTU on the Nintendo Switch (1400 is the default)
Happy New Year!
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Yes… Set static port. Simply follow the Netgate doc guide for gaming systems to fix this, also for Nintendo switch you have to have STUN enabled to have voice chat in games like Fortnite if you are behind a optical modem and a firewall and a shared AP.
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https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/games.html#nintendo-switch
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@JonathanLee Thank you very much!
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@nbk333 Good that you got it to work. After applying UPnP do you still have only moderate (B) NAT?
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@Gblenn Yes. After setting the static port, the NAT type became B, but with UPnP it remains type B.
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@nbk333 I think only XBOX uses UPnP I have never seen a active connection from the Nintendo Switch only on the XBOX. Nintendo I think only needs static port. I also have NAT B it works fine for us like that gaming chat multi game over the internet everything
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@nbk333 said in Nintendo Switch Slow Download Speed:
@Gblenn Yes. After setting the static port, the NAT type became B, but with UPnP it remains type B.
Well NAT type B should be ok for most gaming. I suppose it may be like Moderate NAT on e.g. CoD which allows you to both host games and connect to others. Provided they also have equally good or better NAT. So unless there are other devices, PC, PS4/5 or Xboxes that need it, you might as well turn it back off...
@JonathanLee said in Nintendo Switch Slow Download Speed:
I have never seen a active connection from the Nintendo Switch only on the XBOX. Nintendo I think only needs static port.
It appears so yes, although other Nintendo devices have made use of it...
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@JonathanLee Yes, I turned off UPnP because it's unnecessary. I only had a problem with the download speed, but the MTU value of 1400 solved that.
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@Gblenn In the case of NAT type D, the download is also good with an MTU value of 1400. For me, the speed problem was clearly solved by changing the MTU. It has never been like yesterday, when in the speed test the download speed was 140MBit and the upload speed was 100MBit. My Nintendo is flying! :-)
Thanks to everyone for the help! -
@nbk333 said in Nintendo Switch Slow Download Speed:
@Gblenn In the case of NAT type D, the download is also good with an MTU value of 1400. For me, the speed problem was clearly solved by changing the MTU. It has never been like yesterday, when in the speed test the download speed was 140MBit and the upload speed was 100MBit. My Nintendo is flying! :-)
Thanks to everyone for the help!Correct, the download problem doesn't have anything to do with UPnP in this case, it's purely the MTU. But since you were mentioning NAT type, I thought it could be a goode idea to implement. But since switch doesn't make use of it, there is no point in having it enabled... I use it for CoD gaming on PC getting OpenNAT (Type A in nintendo lingo) 100% of the time.
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@Gblenn I would also like to add that I use Cloudflare's DNS servers for a good connection (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1). Without UPnP (nintendo switch really doesn't use it) with static port settings and manual DNS settings, the console flies. In the worst case, I measure 70/50 MBit on Nintendo's own test. I should note that I am connecting from a Telekom network and unfortunately there is a Telekom Vs Cloudflare problem in the world, I don't know how much this may affect my connection.
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@nbk333 So you are using the DNS forwarder in pfsense, not the resolver which is default??
Regardless, DNS is only used when you initiate a connection so whether you use CloudFlare, Google or pfsense resolver (which uses other servers by default) will not impact your dl/ul speed.
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@Gblenn I don't use a DNS forwarder under PFSense. I use manual DNS settings for the Nintendo Switch wired connection and they are from Cloudflare. Due to static DHCP, the console gets the reserved IP, which the static port is set to because of NAT type B.
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@nbk333 said in Nintendo Switch Slow Download Speed:
MTU on the Nintendo Switch (1400 is the default)
That seems moronic - the default mtu is 1500 everywhere else..
I would set the switches mtu to 1500 to match a typical network vs changing your network
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@johnpoz The MTU value cannot be 1500 if the network does not allow it. The optical router is also set to 1492. Based on testing, the maximum that the system can handle is 1464+28 headers, so I cannot set a value higher than 1492, because there is such packet loss that the connection can really be measured in bytes.
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@nbk333 the standard ethernet mtu is 1500.. If your internet connection is something that requires overhead like a pppoe connection or something ok.. Just wondering why the switch would default to 1400?
