[plug] Fwd: Router slow down

[gavinwc]

Here's an interesting twist on my home router issue:
Yes, it's been established that my router needs upgrading through
replacement to get better wifi and LAN performance. Thanks for all the
feedback in the past on that issue.

However, separate to that I'm seeing my connection speeds "clag up" and am
wondering whether to be complaining to my provider or to NBN? I have FTTP,
paying for 500 MBS plan. This drops to ~260Mbs passing through the router
(as previously reported), but regularly drops to as low as <2Mbs after a
day or two of uptime! That's outrageous!
I can't be precise about there being a pattern because I'm not living in my
primary home while I care for my ailing mother, and am responding to my
son's reports of the speeds being "terrible".
What I can confirm is that rebooting the router sees negligible improvement
in speed, but rebooting the NBN modem and the router together instantly
brings speed back to the three-figure realm expected and paid for.
Provider problem or NBN problem? Which is most likely?

Thanks people.
Gavin.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: gavinwc <gavin.chester at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2026, 18:24
Subject: Re: [plug] Router slow down
To: plug <plug at plug.org.au>


Thanks for your ideas and suggestions.

I was being lazy when typing, though I know it makes a big technical
difference - I have indeed run cat5e through my house, and have a cable
tester to check my cables, mostly because I tend to make my own most of the
time.

I've decided that I will be looking to update my router, anyway, because
even with the lan cable runs from time-to-time having better wifi in the
house wouldn't go astray.

Thanks.
Gav

On Sat, 29 Aug 2026 at 22:14, <chtan.chtassoc at tuta.io> wrote:

> Hi Gavin,
>
> I also have a VX220-G2v which I am using as a temporary wifi access point
> (and it is not really up to the task). Also, the release of this
> modem/router was in 2020 and it is quite old by these days standards.
> Out of curiousity, I just tested the LAN Ports and the ports can handle
> 500Mbps comfortably with cat5e cable.
>
> Just a couple of observations, which in case may help:
>
> 1. Is the router plugged into the NBN box via the "blue WAN" Port?
> 2. You mentioned cat5 - which is only rated for 100Mbps and you should
> ideally be using cat5e at the minimum and presumably the RJ45 ends have
> been tested.
>
> Hope you find a resolution and if you do need any cat5e cable, I might
> have some (still in the box) sitting around in my garage somewhere, but I
> cannot help regarding testing the RJ45 cable ends.
> Cheers,
> Choong
> --
> Secured with Tuta Mail:
> https://tuta.com/free-email
>
>
> 28 Aug 2026, 11:23 by plug at plug.org.au:
>
> Hi people,
>
> Longtime lurker (joined late-90s), but it's been a long time since posting
> :-)
>
> I have a TP-Link WiFi router model VX220-G2v that was standard issue when
> I signed up to iinet several years ago. The specs are still good by today's
> standards - or are they?
>
> I've always been fortunate to have FTTP since NBN upgraded my area to
> fibre several years ago. For a long time I've been on a 50Mbs plan, but
> recent price drops and a change of provider saw me upgrade to a 500Mbs plan
> for the same cost.
>
> I've run Cat5 cable through the ceiling to a few sockets in different
> rooms, so we're not talking about WiFi speeds here, only cable.
>
> Now, at first I wasn't getting the speeds advertised and discovered that
> the short leg of Cat6 from the NBN modem to the router was the problem, so
> I replaced that. Still I was getting only a max of 260-280 Mbs by cable to
> a room through the router. No other traffic on the network, just one PC.
>
> In my fault-finding I decided to connect directly to the NBN modem using
> the same short cable that went to the TP-Link router. Boom! Immediately
> 520Mbs. Then I connected the cat5 that ran to another room direct to the
> NBN modem - again 500+Mbs.
>
> So, the weakness is the TP-Link router that even with gigabit ports and
> even if running on cable, not WiFi, is robbing me of half my available
> speed with only one device on the network, including no WiFi activity at
> the time of testing from any other device.
> Seems a good idea to upgrade the router, but is this actually going to
> help and give me effectively a "straight-through" connection with no speed
> loss when a single device is connected?
>
> TIA,
> Gavin
>
>
>
>
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