Slower Internet Speeds when connected to Peplink Balance One

#1

Hi Guys,

I just recently bought a Peplink Balance One and have spent the last couple of days setting it up. I have two wan connections:

WAN 1: CenturyLink Fiber/GPON (1000mbps/1000mbps) Modem/Router: Actiontec CA2000A, in ‘Transparent Bridging’ Mode (there are also ‘transparent Bridging untagged’ or ‘transparent bridging - tagged 0’ option.

WAN 2: Comcast Cable Connection (a back up only, usually disconnected)

One issue that I have is that when we are running the WAN 1 Connection through the Peplink Balance One our download/upload speeds drop from 500mbps/500mbps to 300mbps/300mbps. Is there a setting that we have not set up properly?

Under Physical Interface Settings I changed Speed from Auto to 1000Mbps Full Dulplex, but it does not help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

#2

Hello,

I would also set MTU to Auto under WAN connection settings.

Is the PC that you are testing from:

  1. Directly connected to the Balance ? (Wired or Wireless?)
  2. Windows XP OS or lower?
#3

Thank you very much for the reply.

I just changed MTU to Auto, then I see the ‘Detecting MTU’ message during the re-connection. The MTU now is 1492 (instead of 1440). The speed goes up from 300 to 320Mbps but still much lower than 500Mbps.

PC directly connected (wired). But there are some other wireless/wired clients connecting to Balance One. Shall I disable all these clients before the testing? There is no internet traffic initiated from these clients though.

Windows 7 64 bits. Actually I use the same PC for the speed testing (500Mbps directly connected to the router integrated modem) in the link http://internethelp.centurylink.com/internethelp/speedtest-q2.html

Any other recommendations? Thanks.

#4

Hello,

If you could create a support ticket for our technical team to take a closer look:
http://cs.peplink.com/contact/support/

Otherwise I would try putting a un-managed switch in between the ISP modem and the Balance just to eliminate HW incompatibility

#5

Thank you very much for your reply.

I will create a support ticket next Monday and continue the observation meanwhile.

Could you please explain why an unmanaged switch between the ISP modem and Balance one can solve the problem? Any pros and cons network performance wise? Thanks.

#6

Hi Jason,

We suspect this is problem of port negotiation between Balance One and modem. Thus put an unmanaged switch to confirm whether will help.

Basically not much different if put an unmanaged switch in between.

#7

Does this port negotiation issue happen often between Balance One and modem? And how effective it is to add an un-managed switch based on other customers’ expediences? Thanks.

#8

Hi Jason,

This problem not so often. Basically add an un-managed switch is a troubleshooting approah, not a solution. Alternatively you may fix 1000Mbps Full Duplex on modem and Balance router WAN port to confirm this will help.

#9

Thanks again for your reply. Two follow up questions:

  1. So the un-managed switch is just a troubleshooting approach, then what shall we do if it does solves the problem? And what shall we do if it does not?

  2. What do you mean ‘alternatively you may fix …’? Could you please illustrate a little bit more?

Thanks!

#10

Hi Jason,

  1. Please open ticket for us to investigate further on your tested result.

  2. Since we suspect this is problem of port negotiation, this is a way to avoid negotiation between modem and Balance’s WAN port. Please set fixed the speed and duplex mode on both ports.

#11

What is the general responding time from the support team? I sent an update on Tue night as below and haven’t heard from them yet. Thanks.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Ticket #749171] Peplink Balance One
To: support@peplink.com