Jump to content

Netduma R3 review

Killerelite06

By Killerelite06
in Netduma R3 Support

 Share

Recommended Posts

Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
Posted

I received my R3 this morning and I have to give DHL & Netduma credit for shipping the router in a single weekend (vacation days included). The box feel and design tell you this is a premium router. I can only admire the team's progress when I compare the R3 box to the early adopter R1 box.

Setup Wizard- I saw some users were having issues getting the setup wizard to work luckily I didn't encounter any problems configuring a Static IP. Even the $ wifi setup bug is fixed.

Geo filter-  Ping stabilizer is a Netduma dev team "big brain move" if you had to describe it. Mine stabilizes the ping but it still fluxutates by 1-3ms now and then another small bug is it stabilizing but failing to ping the server (Only tested on Warzone so far). The new ping assist is amazing especially if you want to target a very specific latency it is however hidden away in the settings tab 

Ping Heatmap- No complaints. I like how it shows you the best server, server stability, and spikes

SmartBoost- A set-and-forget QoS solution. No more allocating bandwidth or struggling with sliders day after day 

Network Activity - Easy to monitor how much bandwidth is getting used by what and who. All my devices show as connected so the offline device bug is fixed I presume.

Device Manager- Super easy to see network quality across devices

AdBlock- It's a hit or miss. I can see it blocking plenty of ads/tracking but it seems to struggle on iPhone.I can't see it stopping ads or popup ads. 

SpeedTest-  Accurately measured my speed on the first try

Ping Optimizer-  Ping Optimizer is currently bugged so I just manually set my values to 95%. Thank you for adding the low-latency-only mode

Wifi - It's a major improvement over the previous generation Netduma routers but it cannot provide stable service at longer distances. Is there a reason why WPA3 isn't supported?

RGB- I like the lights but is there a way to completely turn off the white LEDs also?

WAN-  I want the ability to specify an IPv6 DNS address and the recent change to DNS prevents me from forwarding DNS requests (ONT- AX88U with DNNSEC/DoT and the Netduma set to the Asus router IP). 

UPnP - This could be a one-time bug but it struggled to open port 3074 to achieve an Open Nat on CoD. 

Should port scan protection be off by default? 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Administrators
Netduma Fraser

Netduma Fraser

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted
2 hours ago, Killerelite06 said:

Geo filter-  Ping stabilizer is a Netduma dev team "big brain move" if you had to describe it. Mine stabilizes the ping but it still fluxutates by 1-3ms now and then another small bug is it stabilizing but failing to ping the server (Only tested on Warzone so far). The new ping assist is amazing especially if you want to target a very specific latency it is however hidden away in the settings tab 

AdBlock- It's a hit or miss. I can see it blocking plenty of ads/tracking but it seems to struggle on iPhone.I can't see it stopping ads or popup ads. 

Ping Optimizer-  Ping Optimizer is currently bugged so I just manually set my values to 95%. Thank you for adding the low-latency-only mode

Wifi - It's a major improvement over the previous generation Netduma routers but it cannot provide stable service at longer distances. Is there a reason why WPA3 isn't supported?

RGB- I like the lights but is there a way to completely turn off the white LEDs also?

WAN-  I want the ability to specify an IPv6 DNS address and the recent change to DNS prevents me from forwarding DNS requests (ONT- AX88U with DNNSEC/DoT and the Netduma set to the Asus router IP). 

UPnP - This could be a one-time bug but it struggled to open port 3074 to achieve an Open Nat on CoD. 

Should port scan protection be off by default? 

Thanks for the review, great to hear there is a lot you like about the router, to cover the issues/questions you mentioned.

  1. Ping Optimizer gives you the best results at that moment in time, as the day goes on more devices could be connected etc and the best value may change which could account for the small variance. We are looking into the Steady Ping/stabilizing not working all the time.
  2. What kind of ads is it not blocking on the phone?
  3. We're looking into that!
  4. Use a WiFi analyzer to find the least congested channels and experiment with the widths. Also antennae placement is important. With those changes you should see better results. I'm inquiring with the team about WPA3, it has been requested to be added.
  5. Not at the moment but that has been requested
  6. Thank you for the suggestion, I have added that to the list.
  7. Is it working now? We are looking into UPnP to see if we can make it more robust.
  8. I'm checking on that as I know they were both enabled by default on the R2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted
32 minutes ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Thanks for the review, great to hear there is a lot you like about the router, to cover the issues/questions you mentioned.

  1. Ping Optimizer gives you the best results at that moment in time, as the day goes on more devices could be connected etc and the best value may change which could account for the small variance. We are looking into the Steady Ping/stabilizing not working all the time.
  2. What kind of ads is it not blocking on the phone?
  3. We're looking into that!
  4. Use a WiFi analyzer to find the least congested channels and experiment with the widths. Also antennae placement is important. With those changes you should see better results. I'm inquiring with the team about WPA3, it has been requested to be added.
  5. Not at the moment but that has been requested
  6. Thank you for the suggestion, I have added that to the list.
  7. Is it working now? We are looking into UPnP to see if we can make it more robust.
  8. I'm checking on that as I know they were both enabled by default on the R2

1. Sorry typo on my part Steady ping. This is where it's stuck currently (even when I'm in a match).  Earlier it did stabilize without the graph displaying

Screenshot2023-12-18at18_05_41.thumb.png.9b1795f4058288d6e447f29198664068.png

 

2.https://9animetv.to/ is an easy example. Navigating the site without some form of ad blocking is painful

7. I had to restart the router and console before UPnP started working 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted
2 minutes ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Is this CoD you're playing or another game?

If you add that website manually to the Adblocker blacklist does it work then?

1. Yes it's Cod: Warzone

2. Will test Ad-block now 

UPnP would open the port on the router but indicate moderate on the console or it won't open the 3074 port at all 

After a reboot at least it's showing stabilizing but still no graph 

Screenshot2023-12-18at18_43_23.thumb.png.963eb509bcb8ea14029a997e5e6752c9.png

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted
54 minutes ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Disable the Geo-Filter then reboot the game, does it appear open after that?

Are you playing over WiFi or ethernet?

Yes NAT is open 

Ethernet

2 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

If you add that website manually to the Adblocker blacklist does it work then?

The pop-up ads still happen and the redirect ads still happen. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Administrators
Netduma Fraser

Netduma Fraser

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted

Okay great, it'll just be a misreading caused by the Geo-Filter then, you can re-enable and ignore it as you'll have an open NAT.

It's likely then that it is using other places to serve ads that may not be in our list. Have a look online for some Adblock lists and then add them to Adblocker and if they're covered they should then be blocked

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Administrators
Netduma Fraser

Netduma Fraser

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted

The devs would like to organize a remote session to take a look at this issue with you further tomorrow, please follow these instructions:

  1. Download Anydesk from here: https://anydesk.com/en-gb/downloads/windows
  2. Ensure you are connected to the R3 and on the router interface and are able to attempt game searches at the same time at the session
  3. Let us know here when you're ready tomorrow
  4. Me or dev will ask you to PM them the Anydesk ID at the top of the program
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted
13 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

The devs would like to organize a remote session to take a look at this issue with you further tomorrow, please follow these instructions:

  1. Download Anydesk from here: https://anydesk.com/en-gb/downloads/windows
  2. Ensure you are connected to the R3 and on the router interface and are able to attempt game searches at the same time at the session
  3. Let us know here when you're ready tomorrow
  4. Me or dev will ask you to PM them the Anydesk ID at the top of the program

11:00 GMT? Feel free to PM me when you or a dev are ready.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Members
Netduma Greg

Netduma Greg

Posted
  • Members
Posted

Had a look, here is the list of issues. Some may end up being working as expected, but I mark the ones that are definitely bugs.

  • Siege not compatible with Steady Ping - this may be because Steady Ping doesn't provide any benefit to the game or we just don't support it yet, have to confirm this one.

  • Blocked servers can be hosts because of GeoLatency, but we ignore them for Host detection (to show ping) - I rewritten host detection since then but it has the same issue, this is a bug.

  • Geo-Filter Map stops working after a while (15 minues?) not showing any changes in connections - this is a bug (ofc) for front-end

  • Pinging can end up in trying to establishing a ping for a very long time showing the pulsating skeleton element - bug for back-end

  • Geo-Filter can't ping servers that Ping Heatmap can, especially Console devices in Geo-Filter - bug for back-end

  • Some servers block ping for periods of times, then allow it again - nothing we can do about this one but it probably looks confusing. Steady Ping status still displays in this case which is correct.

  • If there are no servers in your filter radius GeoLatency just adds more latency to the nearest server (like Apex) - expected, but confusing because the game has literally no choice but to connect to that server so you end up with higher pings.

 

Edit: Confirmed, Steady Ping is supposed to work with Siege as well. Now they know it isn't working.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Members
Netduma Greg

Netduma Greg

Posted
  • Members
Posted
Quote

If there are no servers in your filter radius GeoLatency just adds more latency to the nearest server (like Apex) - expected, but confusing because the game has literally no choice but to connect to that server so you end up with higher pings.

How GeoLatency works is if the server is outside your radius it elevates the ping to it's target value, so all servers end up with the same ping. In your case you ended up connecting to France instead of the closer Saudi Arabia server for Apex because to the game they appeared the same. This will be reviewed so this exact scenario does not happen (maybe it will add a fixed percentage to the existing ping instead, but it needs an internal discussion)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted

External buffer bloat tests- If I run a speed test on the router or speedtest.net I get the expected speeds but on sites like fast.com, waveform.com, and speed.cloudflare.com it limits the speed to around 25Mbps. The same result with speedtest bypass on or off 

Jitter-  What could potentially be causing this? I ruled out faulty LAN cables and would like feedback on what to test next

 ONT-PC: 0.4-0.8ms of jitter 

ONT-AX88U-PC: 0.4-0.8ms of jitter 

ONT-R3-PC: 1-4ms of jitter 

ONT-AX88U-R3-PC: 1-4ms of jitter 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted
8 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Speedtest bypass won't work with some of the sites and will then take account of your CC settings instead.

Where/how are you measuring the jitter exactly?

Screenshot2023-12-23at08_18_35.png.41670a704308961da260dd2ea6e7d252.png

If it takes into account the CC and adding a conservative bandwidth reservation shouldn't I get around 400-450Mbps when doing a speed test? 

I used the ping command, Pingplotter, and various sites to test the jitter. Unsure of how to accurately test this but the only way I can think of is using a local network to rule out congestion.

R3:

Screenshot2023-12-23at10_31_28.png.12dab32321c22fabaefa1fd7d6314a9d.png 

AX88U:

Screenshot2023-12-23at10_33_41.thumb.png.5cdd35c4a799d957154eda1ca03f5693.png

Pinging the AX88U though the R3:

Screenshot2023-12-23at09_37_45.png.e00ad1260db47579cbaf1f18da2ca550.png

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Administrators
Netduma Fraser

Netduma Fraser

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted
6 hours ago, Killerelite06 said:

Screenshot2023-12-23at08_18_35.png.41670a704308961da260dd2ea6e7d252.png

If it takes into account the CC and adding a conservative bandwidth reservation shouldn't I get around 400-450Mbps when doing a speed test? 

I used the ping command, Pingplotter, and various sites to test the jitter. Unsure of how to accurately test this but the only way I can think of is using a local network to rule out congestion.

R3:

AX88U:

Pinging the AX88U though the R3:

Yes those are the speeds you should get, what are you getting?

Could you disable Steady Ping on the Geo-Filter please then try again? Someone with a similar saw that was affecting it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted
2 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Yes those are the speeds you should get, what are you getting?

Could you disable Steady Ping on the Geo-Filter please then try again? Someone with a similar saw that was affecting it.

It was limited to 25-28Mbps download/upload. 

Edit: Trying to replicate it but I suspect Smartboost miscategorizing the test and limiting the speed

With Steady Ping disabled:

Screenshot2023-12-23at18_22_27.png.f0e6d33c567b76cdb946b567217ba319.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted
12 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Is any network traffic happening at the time when testing? If you disable all the priorities does it make a difference?

I disabled Smartboost, Adblock, and Steady Ping but the ping spikes still happen. It did fix my speed test issue when reenabling everything and it is now correctly applying the CC across sites.

Fast.com shows Video & Streaming

Waveform.com shows Cloudflare Speedtest

Speedtest.cloudflare.com shows Cloudflare Speedtest 

Speedtest.net shows Speedtest

Background traffic includes Twitch and my console gaming traffic 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Killerelite06

Killerelite06

Posted
  • Author
Posted
4 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Could you try with no background traffic whatsoever and see if it's stable? If so that's great and then just a case of fine tuning Congestion Control most likely

Tested it now with only the laptop on and nothing open. Still get ping spikes

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...