# Belkin N+ Router & 50/50Mbit FTTB connection



## Black Hades (Aug 19, 2009)

I just recently bought myself a Belkin N+ router since because I got tired of ICS-ing to another PC i have in my house.

The router gets high grades in reviews, especially for environments where many fast connections are needed (bittorrent as an example). Noticed a drop in top speed (especially upload). With direct connection to pc I got average speeds of 6,2Mbytes/sec (down) and symmetrical upload. Through the router I now get a max top speed of 5Mbytes/sec (up+down). If I reach say 4,4MB/s upload goes to ~0,5MB/s.

Since I use PPPoE I browsed through the settings and noticed that the router's MTU was set 1500+ (above recomended). Thought that could be the issue since one of the 1st symptoms of this value being set wrong is subpar/faulty/choking upload connection.

I've read on many forums that you need to set your MTU to 1492 (for PPPoE) and even found sites that guide you how to determine your optimal MTU size.
Opening a CMD type in ping www.google.com -f -l xxxx (use whatever site, xxxx= MTU size)

Here's my question, after setting the MTU in the router to 1492 (PPPoE max recomended) I used the above described method to determine optimal MTU size. On each suboptimal setting the window prompts "Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set". If it doesnt say that it means you've hit the sweet spot.

 Okay, now by lowering the value in 10 unit increments I found out that the packets don't fragment at 1362. Set my router to that value, reset, ran CMD: ping www.google.com -f -l 1362 , then notice the packets are getting fragmented again. I began to question my method.

Should I have connected the pc directly to the internet try to determine packet size and set it then to my router? or was it ok this way through.

Also is this related to my speed bottleneck? The router has all ports Gbit LAN including the wan and is touted to handle 200+ connections and that's kind of the top (for a home router) from what I read in reviews.

1.I will take steps in troubleshooting but I'm hoping a senior member may guide me through the correct order of steps.

2.Could it be possible that my 50/50Mbit connection is chocking the router (even though it's one of the best at non-industrial class)

Thanks


*Solution:
There was a firmware problem
Updated firmware from 1.01.19 to 1.01.24BETA
Getting better throughput now.*


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## Mussels (Aug 19, 2009)

number of connections is not the same as bandwidth - fiber is not something most routers are made for.


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## Black Hades (Aug 19, 2009)

So by reducing my number of max total connections in the application will it theoretically up the speed?


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## Mussels (Aug 19, 2009)

it could, but it wont do squat if the router has a bandwidth limitation as opposed to a connections limit.


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## Black Hades (Aug 19, 2009)

According to reviews it should do these speeds (Mbps) tested wit IxChariot:
WAN -> LAN				125.5
LAN -> WAN				131.5
Total Simultaneous			128.7
Maximum Simultaneous Connections	200+

But I dont know how the bandwith is distributed between the 4 LAN ports, It doesnt have changeable advanced settings like QoS, bandwith manager or syslog:shadedshu

I'll try and see what happens if I reduce the no. of connections.
On second thought on a speedtest.net I did get 49Mbps on download through the router. This is my normal speed reported by a direct link as well.


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## Mussels (Aug 19, 2009)

well obviously those numbers are false, outright.

Gigabits theoretical max is 125MB/s - there is no way it could EVER do 131.5MB/s

bandwidth is not distributed, its first come first served.


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## Black Hades (Aug 19, 2009)

I dont know where he pulled out those numbers from or how his test setup interprets the data but here's the screenshot


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## Mussels (Aug 19, 2009)

perhaps those are megabit, not megabyte? It does say Mbps not MBps

that could well be a speedtest of his internet speed, and unrelated to the network throughput


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## Black Hades (Aug 19, 2009)

Well yes it is Mbps, not MB/s I stated that right before the table. Srry

Anyway no, it's not his internet speed test he used the following method:
"One computer running an IxChariot endpoint connected to the router WAN port and a second computer running the IxChariot console and endpoint connected to a router LAN port."

WAN to LAN - Data flows from the WAN-side IxChariot endpoint to the LAN-side endpoint. This is a test of router download speed. 
LAN to WAN - Data flows from the LAN-side IxChariot endpoint to the WAN-side endpoint. This is a test of router upload speed. 
Simultaneous - A combination of the previous two tests. This test is run to see how the router handles simultaneous traffic. Also, many current-generation routers have routing speeds in excess of 100Mbps, but do not have gigabit Ethernet ports. This test ensures that we find the limits of the routing engine without being limited by 100Mbps Ethernet.


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## Mussels (Aug 19, 2009)

well his test system is a bit out anyway, since its gone beyond what gigabit can do.


I'm not entirely sure about why you get your speeds limited to 5MB/s via the router, but hey - if it happens through the router and not when directly connected, it kinda has to be the router.


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 19, 2009)

I borrowed a Linksys RVS4000 from work for my 50/50 connection. It's quite a buggy POS but it works fine now. The main issue was all kinds of DoS protection and whatnot. Turning all those fancy features off fixed my connection. I still have trouble with passive FTP connections though. 

See if you have any fancy security features and turn them off.


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## Black Hades (Aug 19, 2009)

Yeah, I'll get to the bottom of this. I didnt get to test LAN to LAN bandwith, I received the router a few hours ago and fiddled with it for an hour or so testing mostly the performance from WAN to my main pc. I'll get to do the rest when I get home from work.


@DanTheBanjoman, 1st thing I did was disable firewall altogether (while I tested). Hell I even disabled the N+ mimo and the stupid usb lan share port (can connect fat32/ntfs hdd&nand as network storage) to cut all unecesary processing.


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## Black Hades (Aug 20, 2009)

Connected 2 pc-s to the gbit lan ports of the router and send data through from one to the other using several traffic simulators (to remove any possible hdd bottleneck) and got something like 55Mbytes/sec average speed (about 48% of the max speed). Is this normal for a gbit connection?


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 20, 2009)

Black Hades said:


> Connected 2 pc-s to the gbit lan ports of the router and send data through from one to the other using several traffic simulators (to remove any possible hdd bottleneck) and got something like 55Mbytes/sec average speed (about 48% of the max speed). Is this normal for a gbit connection?
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/090820/Netcps-test.png



It's fair. What kind of NIC's are you using?

I can't access the webinterface of my router anymore for some reason, rebooted it, no change. I'm not buying an RVS4000 I think, too buggy. Still looking for a good 50/50 capable router myself.


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## Black Hades (Aug 20, 2009)

Realtek RTL8168C/8111C on main PC
nVIDIA nForce 6100-400/405/420/430 (MCP61) on guest pc
both integrated

@DanTheBanjoman: Could you pls post me a speedtest.net to compare to mine (if you can spare the time) since we both have 50/50 connection I'm curious...

If you're looking for 50/50  router you try a D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme my choice was between it and my current one.. both good with high speed multiple connections at least in reviews. There are others with more features like the D-Link DIR-685 but it's quite expensive for a home router.


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 20, 2009)

Doesn't seem to matter much if I run some torrents or not (currently do), upload tends to stick between 20-30 on speedtest, down between 40-50. Without the router performance was the same.


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## Black Hades (Aug 20, 2009)

I think I'm having some ISP problems these days (with the upload) it's usually around 25Mbps on speedtest.net

However in my router I'm getting a choke running torrents. Since I have no QoS on router I'll have to set it up in the application.

Without router I get 6.3MBytes/s average down speed without it's 1Mbyte lower right now.

I'm using uTorrent 1.8.3 set:
Global max connections 190
Per torrent connections 80
upload slots per torrent 40

Without router I could carelessly set them too:
1000
200
80
...and still browse without problems


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 20, 2009)

I checked that DIR 655 btw, its only 80 euros. Might give it a try.

As for LAN speeds, I transfer about 80-90MB/s on average between PC's, though I use Intel NICs.


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## Black Hades (Aug 20, 2009)

I'm going to try running that bandwith test with a direct pc-to pc connection to see what's what.
And I think I could lend one intel NIC or two to test if you're right about that performance thing.

As for that Dlink 655 it's routing is faster than mine, also a bit older. Mine was just good in the price/performance category. I couldnt care less about anything but it not chocking my internet connection really.

A quick comparison between Belkin N+ and D-link 655:



Belkin N+ - (Mbps)
WAN	->	LAN 125.5
LAN	->	WAN 131.5
Maximum Simultaneous Connections 200+


D-Link 655 - (Mbps)
WAN	->	LAN	231
LAN	->	WAN	245
Maximum Simultaneous Connections 200+


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## Black Hades (Aug 20, 2009)

Oh no... I cant believe this. I went through Belkin suport and there's the original firmware + a beta one.

 And guess what it says in the change log for the beta firmware 1.01.24:
[...]
Fixed: A throughput problem on fast PPPoE connections of over 40 Mbps has been corrected.


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 20, 2009)

Just ordered that 655 for 80 euros, see how well it works. I guess I'll know by next week.

I doubt the Realtek chip is doing anything to screw your internet though, just LAN speeds.


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## Black Hades (Aug 20, 2009)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Just ordered that 655 for 80 euros, see how well it works. I guess I'll know by next week.
> 
> *I doubt the Realtek chip is doing anything to screw your internet *though, just LAN speeds.



I agree since before using my router, the internet connection was straight into one of the two realtek gbit ports with no problem whatsoever.

From what I heard/experienced realtek is only problematic when used on certain server or similar setups.
Like when I installed one on a m0n0wall machine i brewed up, it did not recognize it... forced me to turn back to an old 3com nic I had lying around.

Share your experience with the 655 once you get it I'm curious myself. 

Thanks


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## rx7cosmo (Dec 30, 2009)

*Sorry for re-activating the thread*

Hi i apologise for reactivating this thread but i seem to be having similar troubles. I just bought a Belkin N+ router to replace a dodgey old siemens that droped out all the time. 

I am no Computer genius but i understand how it works and can follow instructions very well, it seems my router is limiting my bandwidth allowance on wireless and when i plug into the router, for example i use utorrent to download pretty much all the time, i have a 16mbit connection and from my part of the world i can usualy get up to 1-1.5 meg download speeds, ever since i upgraded the router i will open up my torrents and the speed sky rockets to 800 or 1.2 meg or whatever depending on the connections and ports but after about maybe 30 seconds - 5 minutes (i have no idea why this varies) it shoots all the way down to 50kb maybe 100kb for a short time, i realise torrents can be unstable but if i plug my crappy old router back in i get high speeds on the same torrents and it doesnt drop in speed.

I have disabled all the firewall and WPS etc, i have spoken to techinical support on the phone who were no help at all and also had my fathers companies IT/Network administrator look at it but he simple and doesnt think outside the box.

Also for some reason it seems to block out facebook when it feels like it and if i restart the router then it lets me back on just fine.

I realy am stuck as to a solution, i have gone through the complete configuration and settings of the modem and dont see anything i can change or disable to get the modem to give me full access to all bandwidth, ports and priorty position as nobody else uses it except myself.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards Jack


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## Mussels (Dec 31, 2009)

jack/cosmo: all things considered, you might need to replace the router.


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## rx7cosmo (Dec 31, 2009)

ok so if i replace the router what would be in your opinion the best possible router for A) range because in my apartment we have seriously thick concrete walls (one of the reasons i chose the belkin was for the range capabilities) B) best possible download speeds and consistency using torrents to download C) i play world of warcraft sometimes and want a stable ping when i play.

could u inform me of which router to buy and the cost of it and also it needs have a WAN input as i dont use the dsl phone line because my building is all fibre optic and i run it through the ISP's "junction" box.

Thanks for the help mate

Regards, Jack


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## Mussels (Dec 31, 2009)

rx7cosmo said:


> ok so if i replace the router what would be in your opinion the best possible router for A) range because in my apartment we have seriously thick concrete walls (one of the reasons i chose the belkin was for the range capabilities) B) best possible download speeds and consistency using torrents to download C) i play world of warcraft sometimes and want a stable ping when i play.
> 
> could u inform me of which router to buy and the cost of it and also it needs have a WAN input as i dont use the dsl phone line because my building is all fibre optic and i run it through the ISP's "junction" box.
> 
> ...




no idea from me, we have a totally different range of routers here in Au, since everyone uses ADSL and cable is basically nonexistent.


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