Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => FTTC and FTTP Issues => Topic started by: Eniqmatic on April 29, 2015, 10:31:10 PM
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Good evening!
Joined up as I've been looking here over the past couple of weeks for information, now I'm a little stuck!
I've seen some of the things you guys have been speaking about here and this kind of thing is way outside my basic knowledge of this area, I'll be honest!
Basic information:
BT Infinity 79/20 package
HG612 with latest unlocked firmware
PFSense 2.2.2
Essentially, I wanted to install a PFSense firewall to our network and to do this obviously couldn't do it properly whilst the HomeHub5 was acting as the modem. So I bought the Huawei HG612 3B version. Install went well, everything was working and saw some fantastic results, I believe due to the G.INP that started to work a few hours after install. Speeds before with the HH5 were 65Mbps and would fluctuate up and down quite highly, upload was OK at 18mbps. After install and the next day, running the same speed test saw it hit 75mbps almost instantly and would be pinned there for the whole test, barely any fluctuation and upload remained similar to before (I'm fine with that). It's been working as good as this for the past week or so.
However today I noted the network being a little slow, I ran a speed test and only getting around 20mpbs now - strange I thought, so restarted the firewall and HG612, came back and it was a little better but not much?
Looking on the traffic logs on the firewall and barely anything is going in or out so I'm fairly sure nothing else in the house is using up the bandwidth.
Any suggestions for what I could try? Could BT notice that the device they installed is no longer in use and be doing something? Or could it just be a bad day or some work going on?
Any more information required please ask, I know how to SSH to the modem and get some basic stats from it but that's about it, however I can get anything you need with your guidance!
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Any suggestions for what I could try? Could BT notice that the device they installed is no longer in use and be doing something? Or could it just be a bad day or some work going on?
It is highly unlikely that BT have intentionally done anything simply because you have swapped modems.
There is a current issue when using G.INP compatible modems when connected to ECI cabinet DSLAMS, but I wouldn't imagine that would be the cause of such a significant speed drop.
We would need to see your connection stats to even start suggesting anything.
Do you have any from before the speed dropped?
Any more information required please ask, I know how to SSH to the modem and get some basic stats from it but that's about it, however I can get anything you need with your guidance!
You could try the stats logging/graphing programs HG612 Modem Stats (Windows only) from here:-
http://www.freewarefiles.com/HG612-Modem-Stats_program_84567.html
or DSLStats (Windows or Linux) from here:-
http://www.s446074245.websitehome.co.uk/downloads.html
Alternatively, running these case-sensitive telnet commands once logged in to BusyBox would provide the minimum details we would need to see:-
xdslcmd info --stats
xdslcmd info --pbParams
xdslcmd info --vendor output data would confirm whether you are connected to a Huawei or ECI DSLAM.
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Have you got the HG612 configured as a modem and pfSense doing the PPPoE ?
What's pfSense running on?
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Thanks very much for the swift reply.
I believe I checked already and confirmed that I am on a Huawei cabinet, although there is a possibility I read it wrong. I did have the stats before when it was good but then lost them I'm afraid.
I just re-ran a speed test and got 30Mbps and 17 up which seems unaffected:
# xdslcmd info --stats
xdslcmd: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Last initialization procedure status: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 34899 Kbps, Downstream rate = 84648 Kbps
Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 20000 Kbps, Downstream rate = 79999 Kbps
Bearer: 1, Upstream rate = 0 Kbps, Downstream rate = 0 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: VDSL2 Annex B
VDSL2 Profile: Profile 17a
TPS-TC: PTM Mode(0x0)
Trellis: U:ON /D:ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.3 15.5
Attn(dB): 14.6 0.0
Pwr(dBm): 12.8 6.3
VDSL2 framing
Bearer 0
MSGc: -6 -6
B: 162 81
M: 1 1
T: 0 0
R: 8 8
S: 0.0647 0.1295
L: 21128 5560
D: 8 4
I: 171 90
N: 171 90
Q: 8 4
V: 2 1
RxQueue: 124 135
TxQueue: 31 27
G.INP Framing: 18 18
G.INP lookback: 31 27
RRC bits: 24 24
Bearer 1
MSGc: 186 58
B: 0 0
M: 2 2
T: 2 2
R: 16 16
S: 5.3333 16.0000
L: 48 16
D: 3 1
I: 32 32
N: 32 32
Q: 0 0
V: 0 0
RxQueue: 0 0
TxQueue: 0 0
G.INP Framing: 0 0
G.INP lookback: 0 0
RRC bits: 0 0
Counters
Bearer 0
OHF: 0 0
OHFErr: 0 0
RS: 436423216 49730
RSCorr: 354 53
RSUnCorr: 0 0
Bearer 1
OHF: 441587 443321
OHFErr: 0 0
RS: 5298304 1773286
RSCorr: 0 1
RSUnCorr: 0 0
Retransmit Counters
rtx_tx: 32134 17
rtx_c: 75 604
rtx_uc: 0 0
G.INP Counters
LEFTRS: 0 10
minEFTR: 79991 19995
errFreeBits: 8653611 190618899
Bearer 0
HEC: 0 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 1091171557 0
Data Cells: 84952281 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0
Bearer 1
HEC: 0 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 0 0
Data Cells: 0 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 23 23
AS: 7093
Bearer 0
INP: 47.00 55.00
INPRein: 1.00 1.00
delay: 0 0
PER: 0.00 0.00
OR: 0.01 0.01
AgR: 80244.76 20184.26
Bearer 1
INP: 4.00 4.00
INPRein: 4.00 4.00
delay: 3 0
PER: 16.06 16.06
OR: 95.62 31.87
AgR: 95.62 31.87
Bitswap: 4435/4435 17/17
Total time = 1 hours 58 min 36 sec
FEC: 354 53
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 23 23
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 13 min 36 sec
FEC: 29 3
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
FEC: 29 0
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Latest 1 day time = 1 hours 58 min 36 sec
FEC: 354 53
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 23 23
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
FEC: 0 0
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Since Link time = 1 hours 58 min 13 sec
FEC: 354 53
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
# xdslcmd info --pbParams
xdslcmd: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Last initialization procedure status: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 34918 Kbps, Downstream rate = 84872 Kbps
Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 20000 Kbps, Downstream rate = 79999 Kbps
Bearer: 1, Upstream rate = 0 Kbps, Downstream rate = 0 Kbps
Discovery Phase (Initial) Band Plan
US: (7,32) (871,1205) (1972,2782)
DS: (33,859) (1216,1961) (2793,3970)
Medley Phase (Final) Band Plan
US: (7,32) (871,1205) (1972,2782)
DS: (33,859) (1216,1961) (2793,3970)
VDSL Port Details Upstream Downstream
Attainable Net Data Rate: 34918 kbps 84872 kbps
Actual Aggregate Tx Power: 6.3 dBm 12.8 dBm
====================================================================================
VDSL Band Status U0 U1 U2 U3 U4 D1 D2 D3
Line Attenuation(dB): 3.7 17.9 27.7 N/A N/A 9.7 22.0 34.5
Signal Attenuation(dB): 3.7 16.8 26.6 N/A N/A 11.0 21.8 34.5
SNR Margin(dB): 15.4 15.5 15.6 N/A N/A 7.3 7.3 7.4
TX Power(dBm): -8.6 -25.6 6.2 N/A N/A 8.9 7.9 6.9
# xdslcmd info --vendor
xdslcmd: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Last initialization procedure status: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 34979 Kbps, Downstream rate = 84872 Kbps
Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 20000 Kbps, Downstream rate = 79999 Kbps
Bearer: 1, Upstream rate = 0 Kbps, Downstream rate = 0 Kbps
ChipSet Vendor Id: BDCM:0xa44f
ChipSet VersionNumber: 0xa44f
ChipSet SerialNumber:
I hope that is everything you were after for just now, I can do the Windows logs in the morning if you would like them also.
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Have you got the HG612 configured as a modem and pfSense doing the PPPoE ?
What's pfSense running on?
PFSense is making the connection through PPPoE yes that's correct. PFSense is running on a dual-core server spec mini-ITX build with 4GB of ECC, 2 Intel NIC's and an SSD.
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Did you kill BTAgent on the HG612?
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I believe the BT Agent is killed by default on the GUI version of the latest firmware but could be wrong? How would I go about checking?
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You will need to log into the HG612 BusyBox shell via Telnet and use the following command
ATP>sh
# killall -KILL start btagent
Then do it again
# killall -KILL start btagent
It should be obvious from the 2nd time that it is killed
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OK, did it there and first time nothing came back, second time it said nothing to kill. Does that mean it wasn't killed in the first place? I re-did a speed test and it climbed quite slowly to 52. Coincidence?
Edit: Nevermind, got 39 after
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I hope that is everything you were after for just now, I can do the Windows logs in the morning if you would like them also.
Yes. Those logs with a few more hours worth of stats would be useful.
One or two of the stats you have posted give rise to some concern, but as the connection had only been up for around 2 hours when you obtained them, it's probably too soon to provide much in the way of meaningful comment.
The good news is that you are connected to a Huawei DSLAM & that G.INP is active.
The connection is also in sync at 79999 Kbps / 20000 Kbps with a little SNRM to spare.
The Bearer 0 & Bearer 1 INPRein values do suggest a 'noisy' line though, as does the Bearer 1 delay value.
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OK so shall I give it till the morning and post the stats again? It's my mistake really for immediately restarting it I guess, habbit!
Forgive me for being a noob but what does the bearer values mean? How would you resolve a "noisy" line?
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I re-did a speed test and it climbed quite slowly to 52. Coincidence?
Edit: Nevermind, got 39 after
Are the speed tests being conducted wirelessly?
If so, they won't really be truly reflective of the connection's capabilities.
Speed tests should be done via a wired connection for more accurate results.
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Yes the first time it was active and you killed it.
The second time it wasn't active so there was nothing to kill.
You will have to kill it again after a resync.
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No I'm wired 1000mbps to the firewall. I do have a fair amount of knowledge of networking, just literally zero on the broadband side of things with terminology etc so forgive my ignorance. Thanks very much for the help so far both, much appreciated.
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Did you also disable TR069?
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OK so shall I give it till the morning and post the stats again? It's my mistake really for immediately restarting it I guess, habbit!
Forgive me for being a noob but what does the bearer values mean? How would you resolve a "noisy" line?
Providing the stats tomorrow will be fine.
I'm off to bed now (early start for work tomorrow).
I'll attempt to explain things in some detail tomorrow.
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Whereabouts are you?
Can you trace route bbc.co.uk for my amusement? :)
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Good morning, OK speed is still the same as of now.
Latest stats if someone would be so kind to decipher them:
# xdslcmd info --stats
xdslcmd: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Last initialization procedure status: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 34887 Kbps, Downstream rate = 84872 Kbps
Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 20000 Kbps, Downstream rate = 79999 Kbps
Bearer: 1, Upstream rate = 0 Kbps, Downstream rate = 0 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: VDSL2 Annex B
VDSL2 Profile: Profile 17a
TPS-TC: PTM Mode(0x0)
Trellis: U:ON /D:ON
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 7.3 15.5
Attn(dB): 14.6 0.0
Pwr(dBm): 12.8 6.3
VDSL2 framing
Bearer 0
MSGc: -6 -6
B: 162 81
M: 1 1
T: 0 0
R: 8 8
S: 0.0647 0.1295
L: 21128 5560
D: 8 4
I: 171 90
N: 171 90
Q: 8 4
V: 2 1
RxQueue: 124 135
TxQueue: 31 27
G.INP Framing: 18 18
G.INP lookback: 31 27
RRC bits: 24 24
Bearer 1
MSGc: 186 58
B: 0 0
M: 2 2
T: 2 2
R: 16 16
S: 5.3333 16.0000
L: 48 16
D: 3 1
I: 32 32
N: 32 32
Q: 0 0
V: 0 0
RxQueue: 0 0
TxQueue: 0 0
G.INP Framing: 0 0
G.INP lookback: 0 0
RRC bits: 0 0
Counters
Bearer 0
OHF: 0 0
OHFErr: 0 0
RS: 2682476680 2178136
RSCorr: 3398 315
RSUnCorr: 0 0
Bearer 1
OHF: 2713898 627415
OHFErr: 0 0
RS: 32566039 2308334
RSCorr: 0 2
RSUnCorr: 0 0
Retransmit Counters
rtx_tx: 32356 74
rtx_c: 297 661
rtx_uc: 0 0
G.INP Counters
LEFTRS: 0 10
minEFTR: 80001 20000
errFreeBits: 53183170 201751091
Bearer 0
HEC: 0 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 2411333421 0
Data Cells: 141699894 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0
Bearer 1
HEC: 0 0
OCD: 0 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 0 0
Data Cells: 0 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 23 23
AS: 43593
Bearer 0
INP: 47.00 55.00
INPRein: 1.00 1.00
delay: 0 0
PER: 0.00 0.00
OR: 0.01 0.01
AgR: 80244.76 20184.26
Bearer 1
INP: 4.00 4.00
INPRein: 4.00 4.00
delay: 3 0
PER: 16.06 16.06
OR: 95.62 31.87
AgR: 95.62 31.87
Bitswap: 21200/21200 62/62
Total time = 12 hours 6 min 56 sec
FEC: 3398 315
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 23 23
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Latest 15 minutes time = 6 min 56 sec
FEC: 0 0
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
FEC: 74 10
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Latest 1 day time = 12 hours 6 min 56 sec
FEC: 3398 315
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 23 23
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Previous 1 day time = 0 sec
FEC: 0 0
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
Since Link time = 12 hours 6 min 33 sec
FEC: 3398 315
CRC: 0 0
ES: 0 0
SES: 0 0
UAS: 0 0
LOS: 0 0
LOF: 0 0
LOM: 0 0
# xdslcmd info --pbParams
xdslcmd: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: Showtime
Retrain Reason: 0
Last initialization procedure status: 0
Max: Upstream rate = 34887 Kbps, Downstream rate = 84872 Kbps
Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 20000 Kbps, Downstream rate = 79999 Kbps
Bearer: 1, Upstream rate = 0 Kbps, Downstream rate = 0 Kbps
Discovery Phase (Initial) Band Plan
US: (7,32) (871,1205) (1972,2782)
DS: (33,859) (1216,1961) (2793,3970)
Medley Phase (Final) Band Plan
US: (7,32) (871,1205) (1972,2782)
DS: (33,859) (1216,1961) (2793,3970)
VDSL Port Details Upstream Downstream
Attainable Net Data Rate: 34887 kbps 84872 kbps
Actual Aggregate Tx Power: 6.3 dBm 12.8 dBm
====================================================================================
VDSL Band Status U0 U1 U2 U3 U4 D1 D2 D3
Line Attenuation(dB): 3.7 17.9 27.7 N/A N/A 9.7 22.0 34.5
Signal Attenuation(dB): 3.7 16.9 26.6 N/A N/A 11.0 21.8 34.5
SNR Margin(dB): 15.4 15.5 15.5 N/A N/A 7.3 7.3 7.3
TX Power(dBm): -8.6 -25.6 6.2 N/A N/A 8.9 7.9 6.9
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I wonder if the pfSense machine has enough horsepower to do the PPPoE as well as routing.
Does a PC directly connected to the modem and doing the PPPoE improve the speed?
or if the modem is connected to the HH5 does that improve the speed?
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Might not even be a local problem.
Traceroute...
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As I say it had been running stable for a week, and looking at the stats on PFSense, it's under no stress at all. I'm fairly certain it's managing to keep up.
I could check this later when home!
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Here's the tracert, couple of timeouts which is odd!
Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.244.18]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ##firewall##
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * 23 ms 23 ms 31.55.185.133
4 25 ms 25 ms 25 ms 31.55.185.140
5 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms 195.99.127.132
6 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms vhsaccess2-pos1-0.faraday.fixed.bt.net [195.99.127.9]
7 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms 195.99.127.23
8 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms 194.74.65.42
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 25 ms 23 ms 23 ms ae0.er01.telhc.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.109]
12 24 ms 24 ms 25 ms 132.185.255.149
13 25 ms 26 ms 25 ms fmt-vip72.telhc.bbc.co.uk [212.58.244.18]
Trace complete.[/code]
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I noticed a slowdown when I restricted the CPU on the virtual machine running pfSense, so I removed the restriction which solved it. I suppose you would see the CPU maxing out, so it's maybe not that.
What username do you have for the PPPoE session - bthomehub@btbroadband.com?
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vhsaccess2 = aint seen that one before?
Are you doing any PPPoE MTU magic? :)
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It's on a physical box as had one around. CPU isn't stressed at all, SSD is fast enough and the NIC's are intel so hoping that should keep it from throttling.
Yeah using that username.
vhsaccess2? It will just be standard MTU default of 1500 I think, that's all I've set.
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So, I suggest you try a direct connection to the modem to rule out pfSense as the problem.
Try the HH5 instead of the modem to rule out the modem.
Try the modem plugged into the HH5 plugged into pfSense.
Otherwise I suppose it's congestion.
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SSD on your pfsense box? That's pretty flash :D
I last used pf at version 1.2.3 so can't contribute anything of worth on that front. If it worked for several days as is, that would imply it probably aint pfsense.
PPPoE MTU is 1492 standard, I think. There's been some talk of pushing 1500 through PPPoE but no black and white on it. Try and see what exactly the current setting appears to be and verify it's actually in place at the shell, too.
It might be worth going back to the HH5 to see if there's any change in speed or obvious changes in routing.
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I had one about ;) :D
OK I'll check it out and maybe try the HH5 whilst I'm at it to see in the meantime.
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SSD on your pfsense box? That's pretty flash :D
I have an ssd in my smoothwall. Low power and noise :)
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Exactly! Super inexpensive for a small disk which is all you need!
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It's hard to be certain without logging the stats & calculating delta values every minute as some of the stats are not reset to zero following a resync or a modem reboot.
However, using your stats from this morning, see the attached comparison graph.
Your stats are the ones shown in orange.
Some of the values do seem very high in comparison to the stats from other users but the values used could be skewed/inaccurate, as mentioned above.
It does appear that your connection is affected by constant background interference (Rein/crosstalk) & to some extent, impulse noise (INP).
However, I don't think the stats explain the loss of throughput speed.
Possible explanations could be congestion (I think that is unlikely to cause such a loss), external network routing issues (maybe) or pfsense (TBH, I have no idea about that - what exactly is pfsense?).
I would recommend that you start logging your stats every minute using HG612 Modem Stats or DSLStats.
Either of those might identify patterns of interference, general noise etc.
If the connection ends up to be reasonably stable stats-wise (which I suspect it might), you'd have to look for other possible causes.
Would it be possible, even if only for a few hours, to run the HG612 as the modem with the HH5 operating as a router?
That way, pfsense could be eliminated or confirmed as the bottleneck.
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pfSense is a software router. It was originally a fork of Smoothwall I think.
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what exactly is pfsense?).
routing firewall OS, it turns an x86 pc into a hardware firewall
pfSense is a software router. It was originally a fork of Smoothwall I think.
it's a routing firewall OS, not a router. Routing is a secondary function, firewalling is the primary function.
You're right that it was forked from smoothwall though.
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Here it's a router ;)