8800NXL poor WiFi performance and Gateway lag

[steel_dog]

Hi all,

Hoping someone here will be able to crack this utterly confusing situation.
I purchased the router a few days ago and immediately noted poor WiFi signal strengths.
My previous router, a b/g Netgear DG834GT, worked like a champ. WiFi was perfect in the adjoining rooms.
The Billion isn't. It hovers between 3mbps and 104mbps in the adjoining rooms and sometimes drops off for a minute.
I have the very latest firmware 2.32d.dh66 installed however it's done nothing to rectify the issue.

After lots of testing I've found that pings to the gateway (192.168.1.254) are pretty erratic.

Code: Select all

Wireless pings to the router:
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.254:
    Packets: Sent = 24, Received = 24, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 227, Average = 52ms

Wired pings to the router: 
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.254:
    Packets: Sent = 24, Received = 24, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 2ms

I've performed a full firmware reset and have minimal config - DSL and Lan configured. Everything else is at the default.

I have pulled the following from the command line. There are 73 processes running; Avg load is generally > 0.7; about 50% of memory is used; df is showing 100% disk used. Not sure whether df is significant.

I have lodged a call with Billion distributor however it's me chasing them rather than them actively trying to help me resolve. Apparently they are awaiting a response from Billion in Taiwan.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
SD

[billion_fan]

Hi all,

Hoping someone here will be able to crack this utterly confusing situation.
I purchased the router a few days ago and immediately noted poor WiFi signal strengths.
My previous router, a b/g Netgear DG834GT, worked like a champ. WiFi was perfect in the adjoining rooms.
The Billion isn't. It hovers between 3mbps and 104mbps in the adjoining rooms and sometimes drops off for a minute.
I have the very latest firmware 2.32d.dh66 installed however it's done nothing to rectify the issue.

After lots of testing I've found that pings to the gateway (192.168.1.254) are pretty erratic.

Code: Select all

Wireless pings to the router:
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.254:
    Packets: Sent = 24, Received = 24, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 227, Average = 52ms

Wired pings to the router: 
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.254:
    Packets: Sent = 24, Received = 24, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 2ms

I've performed a full firmware reset and have minimal config - DSL and Lan configured. Everything else is at the default.

I have pulled the following from the command line. There are 73 processes running; Avg load is generally > 0.7; about 50% of memory is used; df is showing 100% disk used. Not sure whether df is significant.

I have lodged a call with Billion distributor however it's me chasing them rather than them actively trying to help me resolve. Apparently they are awaiting a response from Billion in Taiwan.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
SD

I can't really comment on the 8800NXL, as we have never sold this device within the UK.

I think you will have to wait for your distributor to reply or contact our global support on the attached link http://www.billion.com/support/support.php

[steel_dog]

Hi,
Thanks for the response. Will definitely contact global support. Thanks for that.
The NXL is the NL, with the addition of 3G/4G dongle support.
Was hoping that someone had seen similar on the NL and could advise some additional diagnostics.
Also was hoping that someone with the NL could comment on the sysinfo stats I pulled.
CPU load looked high but I wasn't sure.
Regards,
SD

[billion_fan]

Hi,
Thanks for the response. Will definitely contact global support. Thanks for that.
The NXL is the NL, with the addition of 3G/4G dongle support.
Was hoping that someone had seen similar on the NL and could advise some additional diagnostics.
Also was hoping that someone with the NL could comment on the sysinfo stats I pulled.
CPU load looked high but I wasn't sure.
Regards,
SD

Normally for wireless issues try the following

1. Try changing channels (1, 6 or 11)
2. Try changing the 'Bandwidth' to '20mhz'

[steel_dog]

I've tried changing channels with the same outcome.
I've also used Dell's DW Wlan util to select the least congested channel. The tool also has non-WiFi interference shown. Don't know how the card does it but neat .

I've subsequently swapped out the router for a new one.
The result is the same - erratic latency on the gateway hop.
So clearly hardware is not the issue - unless it's the whole batch (the new router has a serial number 80 higher than the last).
It's looking like a software issue - or perhaps my expectation.
Having come from Netgear, wireless pings to the router were always in the 1ms / 2ms mark. Never ever more in the 8 years I used my last router.
This one spikes into the hundred range and then back down again.

I'd greatly appreciate if someone with an 8800NL would post the results of a ping to their Gateway address. Mine's the default. Here's the command...

Code: Select all

ping -n 24 192.168.1.254

Please try from a device that's wirelessly connected.
If the wireless pings to your router gateway are consistently 1ms/2ms, then there's definitely a problem with my device.

Rgds,
SD

[steel_dog]

Okay I believed I have gotten to the root of the issues.
It might explain why some users have no issues and other do.

• The erratic latency appears to have been caused by the Dell Wireless cards. Both my machines are Dell. Completely removing and installing the latest drivers along with lots of fiddling with driver settings resolved the issue for the most part. Wireless latency to the gateway is now generally around 1ms to 3ms with the very occasional spike to 15ms. A darn heap better than the original reported.
• When I originally setup the router I used the Quick Start option. I believe this to be buggy. It causes two signals to be broadcast - it's reproducible. Will send configs to Billion for comment - although they've been unresponsive to my prior feedback . The workaround is to perform a Manual setup. This issue could have been contributing to the weird latency I'd noted.
• Bufferbloat is also a problem on the router. There's approx. 3second of buffer. Android uploads to Google caused my connection to crash and burn. Latency spikes to 3000ms. The only way to workaround (that I found) was to throttle the upload to 90% of linespeed. This has alleviated the issue however the fix is for Billion to sort out the packet queuing algorithms.
• WiFi coverage remains a problem. It's not as strong as the Netgear's I've tried. This is a known issue and is due to the internal antenna. Local Billion rep confirmed that the internal antenna devices weren't as powerful

Hope this helps someone.
The device is on the whole stable and very configurable. WiFi coverage is mediocre at best. If I had the option I'd go for an external antenna device. They aren't yet available in South Africa. So I might keep this one