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dillyhammer
START me up
Premium Member
join:2010-01-09
Scarborough, ON

dillyhammer to alpovs

Premium Member

to alpovs

Re: Asus RT-AC66U + shibby = WAN limited to 100M?

said by alpovs:

P.S. My RT-N66U and RT-AC66U with various versions of Shibby Tomato had no problem negotiating 1000M on the WAN port when connected to a DCM476 (cable modem) via a short cable.

Ditto with my RT-N66U running shibby, showing 1000M Full on a DCM476.

Mike

Datalink
@99.224.154.x

Datalink to alpovs

Anon

to alpovs
"It's a Cat6 cable from the ISP's switch (in the basement) and it does a direct run (straight up a pipe) into my server room."

Food for thought. Test the cable to ensure that all 4 wire pairs connect end to end. If you can't get beyond 100 Mb/s it sounds like either the cable is connected to only provide max 100 Mb/s (pins 1,2,3 and 6) or possibly the connectors are set for all wire pairs but possibly one or two connection points have failed, causing equipment at both ends to auto-negotiate down to some point where both ends can operate. You will need a LAN cable tester to see what is going on, but that will take all of 5 min or less to confirm.
iamhere
join:2013-01-26
canada

iamhere to theboyk

Member

to theboyk
Well OP, any luck resolving this?

Inquiring minds want to know! Especially those using that same router with that same f/w.

theboyk
join:2004-10-04
Toronto, ON

theboyk

Member

Well, I was waiting until I was up and running at 1000Mb, but still working on it, so I'll post a small update. Over the weekend I flashed a second RT-N66U with Victek's build. As the demo on his site had the ability to select 1000M (full & half) from the WAN Port Speed drop down, the actual version I flashed (the latest) didn't actually have that option (once again, it was limited to 10M, 100M and AUTO).

So, after a bunch of searching/reading, I came to the following "conclusions" (or, better..."assumptions"):

- I'm unable to hard-set the WAN port speed to 1000M, though the hardware/software does support 1000M connections (confirmed this by testing—more, below).

- Apparently, the option to hard-set the speed is not available because hard-setting breaks 802.3ab spec (in that 1000M needs to be auto-negotiated).

- So, to get running 1000M connection, both the switch (you) and the router (me) need to be set to auto-negotiate with the advertised rate on the port (on the switch-level) allowing for the full 1000M.

To test to see if the above "works" with my hardware/software, I did the following:

- I plugged the router into my gigabit switch, logged into the router and set the WAN port speed to AUTO and the port immediately lit up at 1000M Full-Duplex (which is what I had the port on the switch advertising).

- I then logged into the switch and, keeping negotiation set to AUTO, I lowered the advertised rate on the port the router is connected to to 100M. Checking back on the router, the WAN port matched the switch and dropped to 100M Full-Duplex (after about 10-15 seconds).

- I did the same, again, but this time, dropped the advertised speed down to 10M. Again, within 10-15 seconds, the WAN port reported 10M Full-Duplex.

- Back to the switch, I set the advertised speed back to "max capacity" (1000M, in my case), and back on the router, WAN reported 1000M Full-Duplex.

At no point, in the above, did I need to hard-set any values. Auto-negotiating handled everything (with a minor delay). Also, at not point did the WAN port, on the router, report being "unplugged"—it just jumped from 1000M > 100M > 10M > 1000M.

So, both hardware/software are capable of 1000M, but, for whatever reason, you just can't hard set 1000M in the WAN Port Speed settings.

Also, as an additional note, I tested on both RT-N66U and RT-AC66U hardware, using Victek, Shibby and Toastman builds (and all combinations seemed to work the same).

At this point, I'm going to run another test with the ISP on Friday, and if that doesn't work, then they're going to send in a technical to run some tests on their hardware and lines (pre-demarc).

Also—as a further note—I'm not expecting the hardware to be able to push through full 1000M speeds. I'll be happy if I can get 500M and anything beyond that will be a bonus. Thing is, our ISP just began offering 1000M packages (with unlimited transfers) for $100 less than the current 100M (1TB transfers) we currently have. So, I figured, *any* speed increase + unlimited transfers (for $100 less) is a good deal. And, eventually, I'll switch out the router to higher end hardware that can handle the full 1000M, down the road.

Anyway, I'll update again once everything is resolved.
k.
iamhere
join:2013-01-26
canada

iamhere

Member

Brilliant, thanks for such a detailed update.

Immensely useful!

I would be interested in how much speed you do get once everything is resolved.

theboyk
join:2004-10-04
Toronto, ON

theboyk

Member

said by iamhere:

I would be interested in how much speed you do get once everything is resolved.

I'll definitely update the thread once I get the 1000M line working. Like I said, I'm guessing 500M, but who knows.
alpovs
join:2009-08-08

alpovs to theboyk

Member

to theboyk
said by theboyk:

Apparently, the option to hard-set the speed is not available because hard-setting breaks 802.3ab spec (in that 1000M needs to be auto-negotiated).

I think this answers all the questions. The firmware actually complies with the standard.

shwatkin
Premium Member
join:2007-10-02
Newcastle, ON
Asus XT8
Asus RT-AX92U
Nokia XS-010X-Q

1 edit

shwatkin to theboyk

Premium Member

to theboyk
said by theboyk:

I'll definitely update the thread once I get the 1000M line working. Like I said, I'm guessing 500M, but who knows.

You won't get anywhere near those speeds for WAN-to-LAN transfer speeds if you aren't running either the original ASUS firmware or the Merlin version due to the lack of Cut-Through Forwarding and, to a lesser degree, BCM_NAT (which is Broadcom's proprietary H/W FastNAT driver). According to SmallNetBuilder with the factory firmware the RT-AC66U maxes out at 836 Mbps. Merlin firmware should provide near identical performance for WAN-to-LAN speeds. Shibby's last firmware with "acceleration" was v114 and I wouldn't recommend this one because it was released before shibby patched the OpenSSL Heartbleed bug. Even then shibby himself states that with BCM_NAT enabled in his v114 firmware you can only achieve 320 Mbps WAN-to-LAN speed vs 242 Mbps without BCM_NAT driver. So unless you use either ASUS' or Merlin's firmware you are only going to achieve about 30% of the WAN-to-LAN capability of the router.

That I am aware of no custom firmware for any router offers anywhere near the FastNAT WAN-to-LAN performance that you can get from many of today's routers running on their original factory firmware. SmallNetBuilder currently lists over a dozen models with greater then 800 Mbps WAN-to-LAN speeds, including the RT-AC66U.

edit: remove link

theboyk
join:2004-10-04
Toronto, ON

theboyk

Member

Yea, like I said, I was just guessing with the 500M. But, even if I get 300M, that's 200M more than the 100M I'm currently getting (and I'll be paying $100 less/month and will be getting unlimited transfers).

And then, over time, I can switch back to a SonicWALL commercial-grade device to get the full speeds. But, for now, I have a couple RT-N66U devices doing the job (primary & backup) with the 100M line, so they *should* do the job with the 1000M line (even if they're only able to get 300M) until I have budget for router upgrades (which I'll have via the $100/month savings I get from upgrading from my 100M package to the 1000M package. 8)

Eagles1221
join:2009-04-29
Vincentown, NJ

Eagles1221 to alpovs

Member

to alpovs
IIRC the correct Gbit spec is FDX only. That might be why you don't see that dropdown.