Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

I just got a new business connection installed on the 200mb down/15mb up package with dynamic IP - I got a black Hitron router. Everything works fine but I noticed when in modem mode I only get around 150mb down. Ping and upload are fine, its just download thats slower that i expected.

In router mode and connected directly to the Hitron router I get around 205mb down. Is the download speed limited by the Draytek 2860 its connected to, modem mode or is there something wrong?

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

are you doing the tests connected via ethernet?

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Yes sorry I should have said, all tests were via Ethernet.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

The 2860 is good for 300mb/s so that shouldn't be an issue.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

I have the Hitron based 200 Mb/s business service , but with a block of 5 fixed IP addresses, so am unable to use modem mode. However in this config the Hitron doesn't carry out any NAT so I have used both a DrayteK 2960 & Draytek 2860 and get 202 Mb/s download with both Draytek devices.


You could test the device in Modem mode by connecting a PC to it directly in modem mode as opposed to using the Draytek.

Given that the Draytek shouldn't be a bottleneck I would expect to see the same performance.

Note in this config the PC is directly on the internet with no network based firewall....

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Thanks, I'll try this - I didn't test too many things at the time as I had to head out.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

But you can factually see that he gets full speed on the Hitron in router mode.

The Draytek devices tend to gain lots from firmware updates, so be sure to be on the latest firmware.

Make sure hardware acceleration is on, as per here:

https://www.draytek.com/en/faq/faq-c...-acceleration/

You of course can't use QoS, Traffic Graphs, etc with this on. I'd bet money that you have a feature turned on that is disabling NAT acceleration.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Spot on! As soon as I enabled hardware acceleration, I got the full 200mb down. Many thanks!

Will this break First Priority for VoIP SIP/RTP in QoS?

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Yes. :(

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Hmm ok, will have to monitor to see which option will be better - full bandwidth but no VOIP QoS or slighly less bandwidth with VOIP QoS.

Thanks!

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

You can perhaps mitigate by enabling acceleration only for specific hosts, but those hosts are therefore not subject to QoS and can therefore choke out your SIP devices.

Similarly, you can set acceleration only for UDP traffic, but this still risks UDP choking out SIP, as the accelerated traffic bypasses the router's CPU.

You could look to a router that can do 200mbit while still running QoS etc, but this gets expensive. I can tell you a Cisco ASA 5515X can do it, but that's a very expensive option. I route 1GB/sec through NAT with packet inspection and QoS for work with one of these.

I would think that if you rolled your own NAT machine with say, Sophos UTM or PFsense you could hit this sort of throughput with a decent CPU and use QoS etc. When I say decent CPU, any old i5/i7 box should be more than enough, but I wouldn't try using an Atom machine.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Thanks for the detailed reply, really appreciate it. I think for now I'll just disable acceleration - we only have a handful of users anyway. 150mb down is more than enough.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Interestingly the latest firmware release notes hint that hardware acceleration might need to be off to get the best performance!

I'd load 3.8.4.3BT for your Draytek 2860, which is the recommendation from Draytek. I get the full 200 Mb/s in this confirm without hardware acceleration turned on. This is with the Hitron in router (non NAT) mode

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Thanks for the tip, I already have 3.8.4.3BT installed. To summarise:

Hitron in modem mode and Draytek with acceleration OFF = 150mb
Hitron in modem mode and Draytek with acceleration ON = 200mb

I can't try in router mode as I only have a dynamic IP and want the Draytek to have the public IP. Unless there is something I'm misunderstanding?

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

I can only assume that the difference here is that he's using more features that load the CPU than you are then.

Without hardware acceleration traffic has to go via the CPU, so if using CPU for other things it will slow down.

You also have 5 IPs, so I assume at least some of your traffic is Non-NAT, which will be less load on it.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

The Hitron I have is not performing NAT but the Draytek is....

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

I didn't think I was using alot of features but maybe I am!
Idle CPU is at 4%, Memory at 78%
ADSL in WAN1, Virgin in WAN2
2 LAN ports connected to different switches
2 vlans, DHCP, DNS and LAN DNS and Open Ports (port forwarding)

I'll do some more tests when I can but to be honest 150mb download is more than enough. I didn't check anything on the Hitron web interface, just turned on modem mode and rebooted.

---------- Post added at 21:34 ---------- Previous post was at 21:06 ----------

Interestingly I just tried disabling WAN1 (ADSL) and removing the only route policy I have which makes WAN2 the default for all traffic with failover to WAN1. When I did this I got 170mb down with hardware acceleration off.

Looking back at the Draytek page when doing a speed test, CPU shoots up to over 80% from 4% on idle! The CPU is definitely the bottleneck.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Something like the Cisco RV320 should achieve everything you want, with a DSL modem on one WAN.

Not too bad price wise at ~£150, but of course no wireless so you'd need to use something else for WLAN, possibly your draytek with DHCP off etc.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00G3PFTTS/

Review here: https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...outer-reviewed

Rated for 900mbit of NAT throughput, so would be fine for a good while.

Re: Download speed in Hitron Modem Mode
 

Lets hope Cisco support the RV320 better than they did the RV220 - which had reboot bugs that they acknowledged and said they would not fix, and true to their word haven't! Their lack of support put me off this range from them.