Newfoundland

Did it Find an internet connection on setup?

That’s great. Use the rear pinhole to reset. Hold it in for 20 seconds, release and then allow it to fully boot up before setting up.

If the update went to plan you need to reset and do a fresh set up. once you have done that and it’s up and running then do a test to double check your lan speeds are working as intended.

Were you updating over WiFi? Is so double check the firmware version installed as the client doing the upgrade loses connection. If it’s not updating its best for Fraser or Liam to pop in as they’ve already started the procedure to get you up-to-date and I will just confuse the issue.

It’s under settings, you will see the WiFi tab. Take your time to explore the features so you get to know the layout if it’s now running ok. The chances are both 2.4 and 5Ghz are already on the correct settings but you can double check.

Set the 2.4ghz to 20Mhz and use this channel for IoT devices. Set the 5ghz to 80Mhz. if you are using both your isp and R2 WiFi at the same time insure they are not on the same channel to help with interference. Positioning is very important to obtain the best performance, you may get a tad more out of the R2’s WiFi. The best I’ve achieved on average is 450Mbps.

Ah sorry I looked at your profile and saw you had the XR500, that’s got the tick box but yes I believe you had it set to 160Mhz. Fingers crossed that’s fixed it.

That may not be related to preamble. What width is tour 5Ghz set you ie 80Mhz? don’t tick the 160Mhz, that will cause devices to drop that don’t support it. Run a WiFi scanner to see if the 5Ghz drops or is not showing when the problem cops up.

If you don’t have 802.11b devices I would try short, you may not notice any difference though.

To be fair to Bert I’ve seen some really awful fibre connections in the US where base pings were really poor. That boils down to the isp and that maybe why some try to source a way of finding a better connection but of course you can’t really sort out issues when the connection is poor to start with but if it helps to some extent that’s good news. If you post a vid it would be great showing the ER4 SQM. Always nice to compare when you have time to do so.

I think Netduma quote around the 350 mark that above does not require QoS depending on the network, Unifi quote 300, in fact they have it set on by default at 300 or below on the UDM range so you need to disable it if you don’t wish to use it. my rather low 57DL and 11UL benefits from it which is what it should be doing if it works correctly.

That depends on the environment and devices. Long is normally the default for compatibility for older devices. How are you testing your line?

Let me show you the UDM at work using FQ CoDel. Having cake or FQ CoDel means nothing unless it’s working correctly and yes there are bugs in Duma but they will get sorted on the NG side I hope. Any type of QoS must be implemented well but where Duma will acknowledge an issue you try getting Unifi to do the same. I’m posting about this issue for at least 2 previous firmwares and not one comment on their support forum. Notice it does not work on the upload and after several painful hours I’ve managed to get the upload to work but the download now has the issues. If I was to plug the R2 in, can’t on the UDM as there is no DMZ so you run into NAT issues I get a perfect latency connection. this vid is on their support forum and has been totally ignored. now unfortunately when it comes to routers none are perfect, they all have their faults but it then boils down to support. In your case you could raise the issue direct with NG support to egg them on, some times they listen and will work with you. Regarding the throughput on the ER4 no people still complained and saw poor results, you could whip it on and try it to see what you get then do a little video as I’m always interested to see how different routers perform. on a gig line you really should not require QoS on unless you have some huge household requirements. At that point you just hope your isp has great peering so you enjoy a nice connection. Auto congestion setting at 100% is probably correct as it’s not finding an issue.

Different line, the new style Unifi are pushing towards don’t offer much in the way of control compared to the edge series routers. I think you get roughly 200mbps throughput with smart queues on with the ER4 as it’s just a 1000mhz processor all be it quad. The edge router X is the same CPU as the R2, in fact they are roughly the same but that’s restricted even more than your ER4 when Smart queues is on. Edge series offers a lot, it’s getting old but as you say your unfamiliar with settings and there is the problem. For a market that’s based on home users as we move forward the end user wants a simple and easy way controlling their network. I’m guessing you find the settings in Duma far easier to understand which is the way forward. Duma is quite friendly when it comes to using APs, not so on the new Unifi stuff where if you used the XR as an AP on the UDM line you loss many of the benefits. Duma on the other hand treats all APs the same which is great and does not lock you down. Don’t forget with smart queues on the bottleneck using the ER4 with a WiFi 6 AP will really show its self regarding throughput. One benefit though while no routers are perfect Duma does cater for gamers and the understanding that the end users wants a no fuss easy to use interface where you don’t need to be a network pro to get great results. The auto setup in congestion control for example is a great way forward and a very clever way of making life easier. Click a button and let it do the work for you and yet with all the features running the network happily works away with no hint of constraints.

I don’t own the XR1000 but I’ve not seen any reports suggesting they both differ performance wise so both should be on par.

I suppose similar would be one way of putting it however it boils down to algorithms and where cake or fq CoDel are quite cpu intensive the QoS on Duma is much friendlier to hardware and works just as well if not better than others that use SQM as it boils down to how it’s implemented. When you see a router advertise SQM not all are equal through my findings of trying various routers. Most tend to have a very basic QoS where you simply set the bandwidth and that’s it and you hope it works. For example Unifi use SQM and it fq CoDel but it’s not as good as Duma for controlling network traffic and latency. Another example is the R2 can handle a good throughput with QoS on where other similar type routers that use other known SQM methods limit the throughput due to restraints of the CPU handling.

So why not try one Mike and see what it’s like. That’s the logical step forward.

All the XR routers are based of Netgear equivalent routers, Bert gave you an example in his post. The RAX50 uses NG firmware, the XR1000 uses NG firmware but has Netduma layered in to give you all the controls while NG uses various code from Broadcom and others to handle hardware and connectivity. Both have different model names which gives it away. There will be a price difference too. Broadcom did face some legal issues over WiFi 6 monopoly as reported if you do a search so most WiFi 6 routers are using their chipsets. Even with a quad core processor you can run into issues, again search for limitations but note those limitations don’t apply to any of the XR routers or R2. The biggest problem you face is the router only controls your network and only Duma has the option to show the servers and to select a server that offers the best connection. No other router gives you that option. do you know your isps peering contracts for example? Now when it comes to testing what type of lab would you use? What tolerance would you expect between 2 or more of the same type of router? All electrical devices have tolerances so no 2 devices will be the same if you are talking milliseconds. CPU has tolerance then add all the other chips and my past work was a calibration engineer of 13 years so the theory of finding the fastest possible electronic device kind of goes out of the window once you realise no 2 devices will be the same. I’ve yet to see any router company offer tolerance certification or show it and they don’t have yearly calibration tests so you don’t know how usage over time effects them, you can start to see it’s getting pretty silly when we talk about how quick a router can do it’s job and what’s the fastest. just to throw confusion into it, manufactures change chip suppliers on the quiet so it’s hard keeping up and most simply never worry or even know about changes and what if firmware changes it’s performance. At the end of the day you can go with another manufacturer that offers a quad core all bells and whistles yet for gaming it means nothing when you discover the server you are playing on is not the most optimum and don’t get carried away with CPU spec, it’s not just about raw power. Duma was designed by gamers for gamers. Fuzy suggested you try one, if you purchase from Amazon you have a nice return window and I believe there’s a return window on the R2 too plus you have this support forum to help you set the router up or need help. i have here the XR500, the R2, the RAX120 and a Unifi UDM. All the Duma routers handle the network traffic better than the UDM and RAX120. The R2 hammers the RAX120 when it comes to controlling your network on the QoS.

To be fair while the CPU can make a difference in routers that offer other aspects like IPS/IDS none of the Netduma routers offer this as they are aimed more at domestic use. The QoS has very little impact if used too as seen on the R2 unlike other CPU intensive QoS systems. This might be why you are questioning the performance possibly. With that in mind the next query is your network and as a network engineer I’m confident you know even though you don’t game over WiFi you understand the requirements for your network. At this point you can look at the various Routers and select the one which would offer the capacity and performance. The AX routers you mention are WiFi 6 so for example in the NG range none really use the CPU to its full extent as none offer complex QoS like cake or FQ CoDel and they are not designed to handle a huge number of clients like you see in commercial AP set ups from the like of Cisco. None offer inbuilt IPS or IDS, security is handled via the basic firewall and using a third party security option that’s available at an extra cost. It’s different in other manufactures that do use for example cake for QoS but Dumas QoS is very light on the CPU load and works nicely. It’s far better than the FQ CoDel on my Unifi for example and that’s purely down to how well the code and algorithm works so bear that in mind when you see others advertising these features. My RAX120 CPU a quad core 2.2 hardly ever raised its head no matter what I did and even with all the ram, flash and CPU it was not capable of controlling the network in the same level as the R2 I have. What it did though was it had a better WiFi coverage and throughput and even though it’s WiFi 6 it does not have all the standard features of this WiFi standard. This is advertised for gaming, any router can game let’s be honest but Duma offers features that gamers can benefit from. The R2 is great for modest client numbers and perfect for environments that don’t require WiFi to cover a large area.offers full 3.0 features. The XR500 can handle more clients and is a wave 2 WiFi 5 router so more throughput on WiFi and better coverage. Beta 3.0 available but not all features are there like VPN and Adblocker. The XR1000 is roughly the same client wise as the XR500 but offers better WiFi as it’s AX so throughput and connectivity are improved in dense environments when paired with an AX device. Offers official 3.0 but again no VPN or adblocker.

Yep that what I was suggesting. Well it kind of boils down to you can’t change the firmware. It’s a case of leaving it as it is or thinking it’s time for a replacement. https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash I’ve linked the above, it’s how some apply firmware on a corrupted NG router. Can’t hurt to try, ive never used it though but it’s popular.

If it were me I would be thinking it’s a hardware fault if only one firmware works and you can’t update or downgrade it without corruption. Another strange question but if say you left it off for say 12 to 24 hours I wonder if it would end up corrupted when you go to try it.

Was there an issue before hand as you stored the router? What happens if you downgrade the router to the previous version via manually downgrading, does this still crash it out?

Should not need to open up and flash that way, I can’t see it solving the issue to be honest. I take it any attempt to update it at the moment just ends up corrupting the router still?

If it’s not updating past that one you mention and no others stick it could be pointing to a hardware issue on the memory side. As it’s not a known issue and is unique that kind of points towards a fault sadly. by rights you should be able to update without corrupting the memory and if it’s a problem with low level code it’s pointing towards the NVram. Strange question but is the power supply the original one?

If there’s a problem in the software resetting from the UI may not clear it. To factory reset it’s always best to use the rear pinhole method which you hold in for around 20 seconds. Did you at any point point use the rear pinhole or have you only reset using the UI function?