Slow Speeds

[Billybob]

I have the pcWRT behind an AT&T router with IP Passthrough (att does not allow bridge mode). I have 1000/1000 service and get that if connected to the ATT router. When connecting devices through the pcWRT I am lucky to get 50 Mbps. This is using Ethernet only as I’m not using the WiFi at all.

Is there anything I could try to get gigabit speeds through the pcWRT? I’ve checked cables and everything else I could think of. Bandwidth control is turned off in the settings.

[support]

You should get speed close to 1000. In passthrough mode, the pcWRT router should get a public IP address. Did you check the Internet IP address on the pcWRT router?

If “Enforce Access Control” is checked on the profile, you may want to uncheck the box to see if you get better speed that way.

Also, you might want to compare the “Passthrough Mode” with router mode (i.e., double NAT scenario, the pcWRT gets a private IP address from the AT&T router).

[buddho72]

I’m also having the same issue. I’ve tried what was recommended but nothing except 15-20 Mbps on a 1000 Mbps line. I rolled back firmware for kicks but still nothing.

[Billybob]

I have confirmed that in my case, disabling “Enforce Access Control” brings the connection back to near Gigabit speeds. However, the access controls were the main reason I purchased this router.

Is there a way to have both Access Control and full speed?

[support]

@buddho72 Are you tunneling all your traffic through an OpenVPN connection? That’s the speed you’ll get if that’s the case. You may want to switch the VPN protocol to IKEv2 or WireGuard if your VPN service supports them. Both will bring your VPN speed up to the 100Mbps range. Normally that’s about the maximum speed you can get from your VPN service, even if you have a 1 Gbps ISP connection and infinite CPU power.

That said, not all your traffic needs to be through a VPN connection. The pcWRT router allows you to tunnel selected VLAN(s) through VPN while leaving other VLAN(s) on your ISP connection. You can utilize your full ISP speed that way.

If you have privacy concerns, you may want to enable DNS over HTTPS on the Internet Settings page.

[support]

@billybob The speed will be reduced when you “Enforce Access Control”, but it should still be more than 50 Mbps overall. However, not all your devices need to have Access Control enforced.

You may create multiple profiles, with “Enforce Access Control” checked for some and unchecked for others. DNS filtering, safe search, black/white listing and ad blocking will remain active even for profiles with “Enforce Access Control” unchecked.

The purpose for the “Enforce Access Control” flag is to block the various ways to bypass Access Control (e.g., via proxies, VPN, DNS over HTTPS etc.), and to enforce an Internet access calendar (i.e., to force shutdown of the Internet) for certain devices. You don’t need to check this flag unless there are attempts to bypass Access Control from some devices.

[Billybob]

Thanks, this helps a lot. I believe this will work for my needs.

[Author]

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