RV042 Packet Loss

[soesed]

I've recently upgraded from DSL 3M/384K to Cable "up to"  28M/2M.  I've been using and RV042 for years.  With the new service, I now show 28% small and large packet loss and 15% at the router WAN IP.  If I connect the Cable Modem directly to the computer, all is "perfect".  I did turn off Statefull Packet Inspection as has been suggested in some other areas to improve speed, but that did not help.  The connection between the computer and RV042 is a 10/100 3COM NIC running at 100 full.  Any thoughts are appreciated.

[David Carr]

How about manually configuring the mtu's on the wan?  You Can run the following command:

ping 4.2.2.2 -f -l 1492.  You can lower the mtu size from 1492 to anything amount that is not fragmenting.  If it is fragmenting it will say packet needs to be fragmented but df set.  Lower it till you get success in passing traffic.  Once you figure out this value, you can manually configure the wan's mtu's to this value.  Hopefully this will help you out.

[soesed]

Can't say that this is accurate or ideal, but per cox, the mtu should be 1500.  My RV042 is set to automatic which is 1500, my NIC is set to 1500.  I can ping non-fragmented at 1472.  Supposedly MaxMTU is non-fragmented packet size plus 28 = 1500 and with 1500 MTU, MSS should be 1460, which it is.  If I've got any of this wrong, I'm certainly open to further thoughts regarding Router WAN or NIC MTU settings for testing and/or optimal performance.  I realize that bigger is not always better if ISP is breaking up the packets, but as big as possible, otherwise, likely preferred.

[David Carr]

Did you try lowering the mtu's to possibly the 1472 or 1460 and see if that improves your speed?

[soesed]

Thanks for your reply.  I did try and it was either the same or a bit worse.  As you know, speed tests vary a lot.  Everything I read says that for Cox Cable Internet, the MTU should be 1500, but I'll put it anywhere to fix the problem.  Here's some more information, maybe.  With the RV042 in place, here's what my Line Quality test reports:

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/964bcc4b8b49/2689257

Here's the report with the computer connected, directly:

http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/b442539a4829/2689360

and performance is about 50% faster.   MTU of NIC is 1500.

[davbarre]

Hi Robert,

Normally SPI is the cause of bandwidth issues in regards to the RV0xx lineup of routers.  By disabling we usually see the speed increase greatly.

Another item to check/change would be under the System Management --> Bandwidth Managemt page.  You will see options for WAN 1 and WAN 2 for upstream and downstream.  Please match those to what your ISP is advertising.  Please take note those values are in Kbps/Sec

Thanks!

Dave

[soesed]

Hello Dave and thank you for your reply.

SPI had already been disabled and bandwidth for WAN1 (only connection) already set to 2mbps up / 28mps down which is the "up to" speeds advertised by Cox for my service level.  I've verified with Cox that I am properly provisioned and had Motorola (and Cox) look at my modem.  They both indicate that signal and power are possibly the best they've ever seen.  I'm actually getting almost 3mbps up.  As you can see on the line quality tests above, everything is clean without the RV042, but some "crazy" packet loss with it in place.  I have another system on another Cox line/RV042 configured identically and it too gives similar results when the RV042 is put between the modem and system.

Any further thoughts?

Again, thanks very much,

Robert

[soesed]

Is it possible/has anyone gotten greater than close to 10mb/sec download speeds with the RV042?  I'm getting much better than expected upload at about 3.5mb, but should be seeing 28mb down.  I've tested here: http://nitro.ucsc.edu and there's a comment about limited by 10mb subnet.  Reading some comments about the test, some say to ignore that as it's coming from some algorithm more related to actual performance.  My RV Wan and Lan ports are indicating 100mb speeds as is my NIC.

I'm really at a loss, no pun intended, as to what else to do/try.

Thanks for any input.

- Robert

[soesed]

Anyone have further thoughts?  I'm sure that the RV042 when connected to a full duplex 100M NIC should be able to get 28Mbit down/3mbit up.  I'm not sure why I get loss with small packets when connected through it, but everything fine when connected directly to cable modem.

Thanks,

Robert

[David Carr]

Mr. Stern,

Have you tried another speed test utility other than the one you have tried to see if they are relevant and produce pretty much the same output?

And your running the latest firmware on the rv042?

[soesed]

Hello.  Thanks for replying.

Yes, I've tried all sorts of tests and they produce similar results.  When the system is connected directly into the Motorola Cable Modem, I get full download and upload speeds.  I'm only concerned with WAN results, at present, not tunnels.  When connected through the RV042 my download speed is significantly degraded.  I've used dlsreports tweak test which is indicating loss with small packets seen and when using their line quality test which looks for packet loss, it shows about 28% loss at first hop, the router, but none when not using the RV042.  I have several RV042 and several other locations where I'm having the same issue.  The firmware is 1.3.12.19.  Systems are running Windows XP Pro SP3 with 100mb  full-duplex NIC.