Forwarding Advice

[JimmyP]

Hey all,

So, bit of a weird situation.

I have my Netduma R3 connected to the ONT box directly through PPPoE. This is fine as I have a 1GB business fiber connection that has a static IP and the login details sent as standard.

However, I have a Lynksys router connected to the Netduma through an ethernet port from ExpressVPN. I paid for it to be shipped from the US to the UK and every single router I have had apart from the Netduma, it will let me connect to both ends of my network.

A bit of context:

My main connection runs on a .0 network. This is all accessible when connected to the Netduma

My VPN connection runs on the .1 network. Once I switch over to the VPN router, I lose all connections to my servers and any other services running on the .0 network.

This has never happened before, I do not want to ditch the VPN router as it was very expensive and worked perfectly well before.

Please help me out as I'm a bit stumped 😕 

James.

[JimmyP]

I seem to have fixed this via resetting the servers NIC’s and power cycled my switches. 

However, is there a reason why the WiFi range is abysmal in the middle range? I also have an issue where internal services take forever to respond. Is there any way to make the internal DNS server perform these actions quicker? Are we able to cache them on the router at all? 

I also only get half of my advertised speed on the router, have you got an R3 guide on how to optimise your download/upload throughput? I pay for 900/120mbps. I only got 534/99 in the best Speedtest out of 3. 

[Netduma Fraser]

Glad to hear you were able to get your initial issue sorted. Is it the .219 firmware you're on? For WiFi:

• Split the bands, give 2.4/5GHz different names and apply - you'll want to connect to 5GHz specifically for speeds
• Use a WiFi analyzer to find the least congested channel and change to that
• Experiment with the widths to see what gives better results
• Ensure it's in an elevated position - not on a metal surface
• Ensure there aren't any electrical / wireless devices e.g headphones etc within close proximity ~3 feet if possible
• Set the antennae to this position _ | | _

No not specifically, we're aware in some cases it can take devices a little longer than expected to connect and we'll be resolving that.

Where are you testing the speeds, on speedtest.net? If the R3 is handling PPPoE it'll be due to that, it's something we're hoping to improve.

[JimmyP]

Hey Fraser,

I did some testing with the Wi-Fi antennas and positioning. It still drops down to 8-9 mbps throughput at the furthest part of my house. It will be acceptable for now and I will tweak the bands when I get a chance. In fairness, where I live, there are way too many bands to contend with. I promise I won't use any saturation devices out of spite

I am on firmware .219 at the moment, but you have added me to the beta group. So once there is another one to play around with, I will be the first to let you know if there are any improvements.

I have noticed it takes around 3-4 seconds before it will start loading the pages.

I have tested the speeds on speedtest.net and fast.com. They both gave roughly the same reading. I was told by a BT engineer that I should perform 3 tests and then take the best out of the 3 as my most reliable reading.

I am hoping that the PPPoE situation does improve in future as I am really loving the functionality of the R3. Do you have an ETA on when the next update will occur?

On a side note to this, have you got any guides for the R3 on how to optimise settings to get the most out of the device? I do a lot of file sharing, P2P and unfortunately Teams meetings

[Netduma Fraser]

If you change to a DNS such as 1.1.1.1 do you notice the pages improving at all? We try not to give out ETAs generally if we can help it but we'll put one out as soon as we can. 

No guides currently as the interface/features are still fluid at the moment but that will be changing. Make sure you're utilizing Congestion Control in Ping Optimizer > Advanced and setup priorities for what you care about in SmartBOOST to prevent file sharing etc causing issues for other devices or prioritize it if you prefer.

[JimmyP]

Hey Fraser,

Sorry for not replying earlier it’s been a mad week! 
So, I’m still on PPPoE for the moment, but I have changed my DNS to OpenDNS as I have an account from before they were bought by Cisco. 

I haven’t changed any optimisers, only messed around with WiFi rotation. Seems I have found the sweet spot. 
 

Attached are 2 network tests a week apart. 
Also, it’s correctly 2am here and I am getting amazing throughput from the router. I wonder if because I live in a densely populated road, I’m never going to get great throughput in the daytime. 

Please help me work out why the WiFi throughput drops so slow when I am downstairs? Even the BT router has better signal than this  

Btw, faster speed is now, slower was 6pm last week.

 

[Netduma Fraser]

Good to hear! For the WiFi:

• Split the bands, give 2.4/5GHz different names and apply - you'll want to connect to 5GHz specifically for speeds
• Use a WiFi analyzer to find the least congested channel and change to that
• Experiment with the widths to see what gives better results
• Ensure it's in an elevated position - not on a metal surface
• Ensure there aren't any electrical / wireless devices e.g headphones etc within close proximity ~3 feet if possible
• Set the antennae to this position _ | | _