I have a cable internet connection and yesterday upgraded from a 75 Mbps to a 160 Mbps service level. As part of the upgrade I purchased a new ARRIS SB6141 Cable Modem and installed it. If I connect my computer directly to the modem, I get download speeds consistently in the 160-170 Mbps range. When I hook up my Pepwave Surf SOHO MK3 to the modem and test through it I consistently get in the range of 50-57 Mbps, nothing higher.
The Surf SOHO MK3 is running Firmware 7.1.0 build 1284. I’ve tried 7.0.3 build 1260 and had the same result. I have the port speed set at 1000Mbps duplex with Advertise set to off, but I’ve tried Auto with the same result. The cable modem activity light color confirms that the Ethernet connection is operating at 1000Base-T mode (light blinking blue). Upload and download bandwidth of the SOHO MK3 is set at 1 Gbps.
With my previous 75 Mbps service I used the Surfboard SB6121 and got 60-90 Mbps through the SOHO router, so I was surprised to see the throughput drop as soon as I swapped the SB6121 modem out for the SB6141.
Here are my questions:
Are there any other settings I need to look at that are limiting the download speed to 50-57 Mbps?
The modem compatibility list only shows 3G/4G modems, is there one for cable modems.
Edit 3/8: I’ve entered a support ticket, but if anyone has already solved this problem i’d like to know.
Thanks Rexymav, I’m connecting via Cat 5e LAN cable so the limitations of WiFi do not influence the results. I’ve swapped the modems back and forth a couple times with the same results, With the computer connected via cable directly to the CATV modem I get well over 100Mbps with either modem. Connecting via cable to the Surf SOHO I get the numbers above. I’m beginning to think I’m asking too much of a router with an advertised aggregate throughput of 120Mbps. One of the support engineers is going to log into the router to take a look at it.
The problem has disappeared, I am now reliably getting between 115 and 121 Mbps download tests on a 150 Mbps cable service that reliably gives 170 to 180 Mbps (all download speeds). I haven’t made any changes to it and although I gave Peplink support remote access to it they say they didn’t do anything either.
A guess: when the router boots up its busy at first with assorted housekeeping. You can see the CPU usage on the home page. Perhaps if you run a speed test immediately after it boots, the speed is impacted by this initial housekeeping, whereas if you wait a minute and cpu usage falls to single digits, you will get the expected speeds. Again, just a guess.
All the tests were done well after the router booted up. I’ve replaced the SOHO with a Balance One that I bought used on eBay and I’m much happier now. In addition to the better throughput I’m able to set up four VLANs with 2 Ethernet ports each (and an SSID assigned to one of the VLANs) to separate my trusted network (desktops, workstations, cell phone) from the A/V devices, IOT devices, and the security devices.
FWIW, I tested the throughput of my Surf SOHO behind a Cisco entry level commercial router that resulted in ~50 Mbps. By removing the Cisco router and linking direct to the TP-Link modem the throughput was over 100+ Mbps. I also noted that the speed varied some from both the ISP and the test location.
The Balance One has a significantly higher throughput rating than the Surf SOHO MK3, 120Mbps vs. 600Mbps. It sounds like maybe the Balance One is a better choice for your needs.