Archer C7 V5 throughput

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LostinArk
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Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2021 11:23 am

Archer C7 V5 throughput

Post by LostinArk »

I have a TP-Link Archer C7 V5 that I have been using for about a year. Internet speed from several sites has been in the range of 90 to 95 Mbps, which is what I pay for. After installing Gargoyle 1.12 on it, speeds have dropped to 30-32 Mbps. I have not changed any settings from the install. I swapped out to an older router and speeds were back so definitely the Tp-link is now the problem. Anyone else noticed this problem or does anyone have a fix? Thanks in advance.

Lantis
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Re: Archer C7 V5 throughput

Post by Lantis »

Depending on what features you have enabled, this can be expected.
QoS, quotas and enforce DHCP restrictions are the biggest bandwidth impacts.
http://lantisproject.com/downloads/gargoyle_ispyisail.php for the latest releases
Please be respectful when posting. I do this in my free time on a volunteer basis.

LostinArk
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2021 11:23 am

Re: Archer C7 V5 throughput

Post by LostinArk »

Thanks for your reply. Wow, that is a huge hit. Can the router be returned to stock firmware? if so, could you point me to a how-to? thanks for your help.

Lantis
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Re: Archer C7 V5 throughput

Post by Lantis »

According to the OpenWrt wiki, it should be as simple as flashing the OEM image over the top.
https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer_c7#installation

You may need to do it via the command line if it won't take via the GUI.


To the speed drop, the reason is that the stock firmware uses hardware acceleration which is not available in aftermarket firmware**. All packets must go through the CPU, which then becomes a bottleneck as it has to deal with everything (including wifi etc). Faster devices exist which can push up to ~2-300mbps with all features enabled, and even achieve line speed with features turned off. If you're pining for absolute raw speed with all the bells and whistles, a custom x86 solution is probably

All of this being said, your device should still do ~80-100mbps with most features on i would have thought. So if you have the time and patience you could explore what is on/off and what makes a difference. Otherwise see above for getting back to OEM image.

**There are a few devices which can leverage hardware offloading (very limited) and there is a software offloading available in more recent versions of OpenWrt. That being said, offloading will in general not be compatible with Gargoyle as it shortcuts the parts of the firewall responsible for filtering and mangling packets to enforce quotas and restrictions etc.
http://lantisproject.com/downloads/gargoyle_ispyisail.php for the latest releases
Please be respectful when posting. I do this in my free time on a volunteer basis.

LostinArk
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2021 11:23 am

Re: Archer C7 V5 throughput

Post by LostinArk »

Thanks for your response. I understood that performance would likely be dinged with all the extra functions of Gargoyle. However , with everything turned off or disabled, except DHCP, the speed dropped from around 92-94 to 35Mbps. Even the wireless was turned off. I was NOT expecting to see this big of a hit. Setting 5 static IPs and quotas for 3, and nothing else enabled, brought the speed down to 31-32Mbps. So, as much as I want to use Gargoyle, it will not be on this router. In your expert opinion, could you suggest a couple of routers to keep my throughput as fast as possible. 6 to 8 devices, streaming and zoom meetings, no gaming. wireless not important, as I would turn it off and use an external AP. Thanks for your help and expertise on this.

Lantis
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Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:33 am
Location: Australia

Re: Archer C7 V5 throughput

Post by Lantis »

If you don't care for wireless, the WRT3200ACM or WRT32X would be perfect. They're very fast devices (should do at least 300) and their wifi is plagued with issues but you'll have it disabled. They can be found quite cheap refurbed or being offloaded on eBay.
http://lantisproject.com/downloads/gargoyle_ispyisail.php for the latest releases
Please be respectful when posting. I do this in my free time on a volunteer basis.

reddily
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue May 28, 2013 5:02 am
Location: UK

Re: Archer C7 V5 throughput

Post by reddily »

Just to add some further observations to this thread.

I'd been running without issue on a Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H + Gargoyle 1.13.0 over an 80Mb/s VDSL line (sync'ing at 76-77Mb/s). iperf3 benchmarks to the router, and through it to remote iperf3 servers, confirmed operation at/close to the line rate.

I then 'sidegraded' to FTTP from my ISP with the same line rate, all OK. Simply swapped the WAN connection from VDSL modem to an ONT.

After an upgrade to the line rate for 115Mb/s (no need for full 990Mb/s just yet) the WZR couldn't cope with the increased line rate, it was max'ed out at 75-80MB/s.

I bought a C7 & installed Gargoyle 1.13.0 but its throughput was only comparable to the WZR, just under 80Mb/s. The C7 employs a 720MHz MIPS CPU, I concluded this is simply not fast enough.

The C7 went back to Amazon & was replaced with a Linksys WRT3200ACM (dual core ARM 1.7GHz CPU). The WRT3200ACM has been great, so far.

Great... once I understood that it wasn't a good idea to configure a 160MHz channel that spanned Band A-lower (no DFS) and Band A-upper (DFS). An 80MHz channel is delivering ~450MB/s between capable devices and the router. That's satisfactory.

My ISP had provided a 'Technicolor' router employing a 3 core 1.5GHz ARM CPU. While it runs OpenWrt 'under hood', the manufacturer locks out direct access to the shell, no good! Gargoyle/OpenWrt allows me to run iperf3, a VPN, etc.

It'd be useful to hook up a server running PPP on the WAN side of the routers and benchmark throughput with iperf3 (or whatever).

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