Slow internet on Mac using RV082

[cerebralentropy]

I've been having trouble with the internet connection speed on my Mac. I originally noticed the problem when my mail kept timing out whenever I sent an attachment, I went to different forums trying to find the solution but nothing really worked, so I found work arounds for the email and lived with it. Recently the company I work for moved offices and I was no longer behind the RV082 and my internet ran better dispite the slower connection. Once we finished moving, I needed to use the Dual Wan Load Balance feature of th RV082 so I set it up in the new office and my internet was slow again. Unfortunatly in the new office there are several more Macs than just mine so I really need to get it working. Currently we have 2 seperate networks for PC and Mac and I really need to get them on 1. Is there a setting I may have overlooked or is it not going to work with Mac. I'm wondering if it a problem with just my router cause I can't find anythign about it online.

[cerebralentropy]

Does anyone have any experience with the new RV082 or RV042. Do they have the same issue? I'm looking into buying a new router and I miss the dual wan option.

[troutsflyfishing]

We wound up switching to OpenDNS for both wan connections, then flushing DNS caches on every workstation.  Also cycled every other IP device - switches, phones, cc terminal, printers, everything.

Been running for the last 3 1/2 weeks without a single hiccup at any device or the router.

[makotocole5]

I am experincing the same problem as the original poster.

I have:  RV082 V2 (latest firmware: 2.0.2.01).

My Mac machines are all experincing very slow internet.  A lot of the times it just times out completely and the page wont load.  My windows machines have no problems at all, perform very well.  I think this is related towards DNS.  I have tried using my ISP's DNS servers and Google DNS Servers 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4

All my clients are configured through DHCP.  I have tried with static addresses on the mac, but still have the same problem.

I need this router because of the Dual Wan Feature, and the PPTP server VPN feature.  I thought my unit was defective so I bought a second unit.  Same issues on both units.  I have two ISP's (Cable and DSL).  Happens on both ISP's.

Cisco, can you release a new firmware or offer some more troubleshooting advice please? 

[netpathinc]

Hi Makoto

Unfortunately, I've made no progress with our RV082 problems.  I'm still running a WRT160Nv2 as a "temporary" replacement for the RV082 which is poison for Macs with the current firmware.  I think we're going to drop Cisco and look for another small business solution.  We're running 5 Macs and 3 PCs and, like you, the RV082 crippled the Macs but seemed to work OK with the windows machines.

Thanks for your post.

- Sheldon

[makotocole5]

Hi Sheldon,

After a full day of trying different firmwares, reseting the router to factory defaults, and switching them out between the two units that I have, I have finally decided to scrap the routers as well.  Too bad too, because they can be great units (when they work).

I am currently using a $60 D-Link Router which I have flashed with a DD-WRT Firmware.  I am now at least able to have my users connect to the network through PPTP VPN.  I have lost the Dual Wan feature though.  I am looking into getting a replacement.

I wonder if the RV082 Hardware version 3 also has this issue?

Instead of take the risk, I might go with another vendor.  If you happen to remember this post, could you let me know with what you decide to go with?  Thanks!

[netpathinc]

Hi Makoto

I installed an RV220W-A V01 router running latest v1.0.3.5 firmware and a SLM2024T V02 switch running latest 1.1.2.0 firmware.  So far - so good.  I'm not pleased about having to buy new hardware but it did give me a chance to upgrade to dual-stack ipv4/ipv6 gigabit. :-)  We're upgrading the WAN to fiber in 2 weeks. 

Unfortunately, this is not the answer for mac users needing a dual-WAN VPN solution.

Best regards,

Sheldon

[makotocole5]

That is good that things eventually worked out for you.  I also think the 100Mbps is a limitation that I should eventually address on our network.

In the end, the small D-Link router running DD-WRT did not have enough memory to make the PPTP speeds on par with the RV082.  So I am using the DD-WRT as my main router and DHCP server, and have used my second WAN to filter my VPN traffic through with the RV082 on a seperate subnet.  Not the answer I was looking for, but it does allow business to continue as usual (for now).

Thanks for letting me know your hardware decisions. I'll look into them for my office needs.  Aloha

[dondersconsulting]

I can confirm from an office with 75% macs and another with 100% PCs that this is not a mac-only problem.  The second was not even using router DNS, so while it is DNS-related, using external DNS did not fix for me.  I upgraded both offices to v3 hardware and no problems since.  Also v3 has new GUI that is 10 times better.  Lately been having problems at home, too  Decided to downgrade my v1 hardware units to v 1.3.98 firmware and seems to be good so far but will need a week or two to really test.  not sure the other v2 hardware unit I have will allow the FW downgrade, checking on that.

[pickens46929]

Purchased an RV082 within the past couple of months to address an issue with redundancy for my ISP connection as well as add VPN capabilities. I too have been hit with a slow internet issue and not just on Mac's either.

There seems to be an issue once we get several people connected. If I am the first one in on Monday, it seems to work fine. However, by 10am or so when most people are using the internet, it slows down more than our older router did.

I've got v3 hardware so I was hoping to avoid this issue.

[dondersconsulting]

how many of your computers are using wireless, and what model is your access point?

how many total users, wired and wireless?

[pickens46929]

Total devices is about 18 if you include absolutely everything such as printers, tablets, phones, etc.

Half of these are wireless via a Cisco Linksys AP. Not sure what model.

Does not make any difference whether it's wired or wireless. Speedtest.net and Speakeasy both show degraded performance.

Latest version of firmware is installed.

IPv6 is turned off as is uPNP.

Discovery-Bonjour is ENABLED

Firewall is ON

SPI is ON

DoS protection is ON

Block WAN Request is ON

Multicast is DISABLED

Latest symptom is that the DHCP Status is no longer updating Client Names but rather showing "new-host1", "new-host2". Even for things that I know advertise their client names such as iPhones, Apple Macs or newer Windows PCs in the office.

Right now I show 10 devices on the network. All 100Mbps, all auto-neg. 4 via wired and 6 via wireless. 2 via hard IPs and 8 via DHCP.

I have 2 showing "new-host1" and "new-host2" respectively. Both of which are Apple's. One iPad and one laptop. The other iPad and Mac laptop both correctly show their names.

[dondersconsulting]

any chance one of your users has torrent or p2p software running?  (just a shot in the dark)

seriously, you may just have a bad unit.  The problem with this RV0xx series is that when they go bad, they don't just die (well, maybe sometimes).  I've had several go bad on me over the years, and they all appeared to work fine, but somewhere in the background they had crossed a threshold that affected speed and reliability. This would understandably make quality control difficult, so it's possible you just have a lemon.

I've got one in service right now that is borderline, my final test will be to copy its config to a matching unit and see if that one has any issues.  (annoying)   Lucky for me I have spares...