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Author Topic: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput  (Read 3933 times)

Jon21

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Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« on: February 11, 2019, 05:52:04 PM »

Got a bit of an odd issue with only getting roughly 10Mb/s via ethernet or wifi. Setup is: Zyxel VMG1312-B10A > Pfsense router > TP-Link Gigabit POE 8 port switch > devices and a NanoHD AP. Pfsense is reporting 100BaseT from the Zyxel (100Mb port) and 1000BaseT to the switch. I've tried restarting everything, I've re-installed Pfsense (twice) and restored the config. At a bit of a loss as to what would be causing it. Dodgy port on the switch or the switch itself?
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j0hn

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2019, 05:58:48 PM »

Try without the switch?
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Jon21

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2019, 06:08:58 PM »

If I plug the PC direct in to the router, nothing happens, can't browse to any website despite Windows showing as everything being ok. Will admit I'm rushing, so probably missed something obvious. Will have a proper look when I'm back from work later. All suggestions welcome though.

Edit: Just noticed that I had this problem back in November. Multiple restarts of the router eventually sorted it. But I never found out what the problem was.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2019, 07:36:42 PM by Jon21 »
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Chrysalis

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2019, 07:39:28 PM »

Definitely need more info.

Hardware spec of pfsense please, in particular the networking part of it.

Also if anything is in a non default state, whether it be configuration, or installed packages, please also provide info thanks.
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Jon21

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2019, 08:00:20 PM »

Definitely need more info.

Hardware spec of pfsense please, in particular the networking part of it.

Also if anything is in a non default state, whether it be configuration, or installed packages, please also provide info thanks.

It’s a Qotom Q355G4, has 4x Intel LAN ports.

I have ntopng installed and QoS setup. I did try turning QoS off in case it was doing something strange but no change.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2019, 09:19:48 PM »

So the hardware shouldnt be the issue.

But I agree with John that isolating the switch is a plausible first course of action.  Pfsense itself is not designed to act as a switch, so trying the other ports wont work, you would need to to unplug the switch and use that for connection to the PC.

Also can you confirm the ethernet between the zyxel and pfsense is not stuck on a 10mbit connection?

Should be viewable from the dashboard top right.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2019, 09:25:38 PM by Chrysalis »
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Jon21

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2019, 09:52:03 PM »

So the hardware shouldnt be the issue.

But I agree with John that isolating the switch is a plausible first course of action.  Pfsense itself is not designed to act as a switch, so trying the other ports wont work, you would need to to unplug the switch and use that for connection to the PC.

Also can you confirm the ethernet between the zyxel and pfsense is not stuck on a 10mbit connection?

Should be viewable from the dashboard top right.

Thanks, will have a look when I get back. If needs be, I can always put the Asus router that I had before back in and just turn its wifi off.

Edit: Back home now. Zyxel is reporting 100Mb/Full for both LAN 1 and 2 (using the 2 cable method for access). Pfsense is reporting 100BaseTX Full Duplex on the WAN port and 1000BaseT Full Duplex on the LAN port. So would appear to be negotiating the correct rates.

Edit 2: Managed to fix it. It was down to the Zyxel LAN port being stuck at 10Mb. I swapped over to the Asus and was still maxing out at 10Mb/s, so had to restart the Zyxel. Is there a way of resetting the LAN ports on the Zyxel, without having to reboot it?
« Last Edit: February 12, 2019, 12:53:20 AM by Jon21 »
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Chrysalis

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2019, 09:49:21 AM »

I just noticed an older thread where you mentioned the same issue, and you resolved it by rebooting pfsense.

So you have seen this before and a while ago as well.

https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,22642.msg385726.html#new

But before I hit submit I see you have resolved it, so my theory was correct, but it would seem there is a bug pfsense side tho if its misreporting a 10mbit ethernet negotiation as 100/1000mbit.

If it happens again, the way to reset without a reboot would probably be to manually switch the mode of the ports.  So e.g. to 100mbit half duplex and then back again.

If it happens again please login to the shell on pfsense and run the 'ifconfig' command with no arguments, I want to see if that outputs the correct negotiation.

As a possible permanent fix I was going to suggest disabling ethernet power saving on the zyxel but there seems to be no option, given the low power requirements in place now days for consumer devices, I expect there is power saving enabled but sadly doesnt seem to be configurable.

--edit--

On my older zyxel power management is configurable, if it is on yours disable it for the ethernet ports.

An option might be a 8800nl revision 1, these perform very well as modems, the power saving can be configured on a granular level and in addition each ethernet port's negotiation as well.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2019, 10:01:56 AM by Chrysalis »
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Jon21

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2021, 07:46:00 PM »

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I've had this issue again today. There was a few power cuts this morning, which has caused a few resyncs (fully expect DLM to intervene again in the early hours). For whatever reason, the Zyxel ethernet port that links to the router (port 1) got stuck at 10mbit again. I think the last time it did this, a restart of the Zyxel got the port back to 100mbit. This time it hasn't. I've since put a Draytek Vigor 130 back in. I couldn't see anything that disabled ethernet power saving on the Zyxel. I can turn the port off but that's not particularly useful. Short of a factory reset, I'm not sure how I can easily get around the issue.
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2021, 08:52:29 PM »

Just out of curiosity, have you tried assigning the WAN to a different ethernet port on the router?  That would at least eliminate the potential that something is a little glitchy with that port.  Also trying a different ethernet cable, though less likely.

You could also try forcing the speed of the WAN port in the interface options which I see was already suggested above.

Gotta admit from what you said before though, sounds like a glitch on the Zyxel, though its odd pfSense was reporting the wrong speed in the UI before.  Is it still doing that?

You could also try using SSH to get into the command line and look at dmesg and ifconfig, to see if anything interesting is showing in there and what speed the interface is reporting there.
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Jon21

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Re: Pfsense - only getting 10Mb/s throughput
« Reply #10 on: June 03, 2021, 09:09:52 PM »

Just out of curiosity, have you tried assigning the WAN to a different ethernet port on the router?  That would at least eliminate the potential that something is a little glitchy with that port.  Also trying a different ethernet cable, though less likely.

You could also try forcing the speed of the WAN port in the interface options which I see was already suggested above.

Gotta admit from what you said before though, sounds like a glitch on the Zyxel, though its odd pfSense was reporting the wrong speed in the UI before.  Is it still doing that?

You could also try using SSH to get into the command line and look at dmesg and ifconfig, to see if anything interesting is showing in there and what speed the interface is reporting there.

Ah, should of mentioned, I've tried with an Asus router as well, to rule out pfSense and that was still only getting roughly 10Mbit. Still on the Asus at the moment. Tried another cable, no difference. pfSense was still reporting 100Mbit for the link between it and the Zyxel.

I've factory reset the Zyxel and that has resulted in getting the proper throughput for my connection. It's almost as though, if it doesn't get power cycled properly, as would of been the case with the power cuts, the link gets stuck at 10Mbit. Although it was off for 30 minutes when I tried earlier today, so I would of thought that would of been long enough  :shrug2:
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