Virgin Media Hub 3 and PlusNet Hub One slow internet

Hello

I have connected PlusNet One Hub (https://openwrt.org/toh/bt/homehub_v5a) OpenWrt 21.02
to Virgin Media Hub 3 in modem mode. All works OK except for a speed of the Internet connection.
Virgin Media fibre link speed is 200Mbps but in my above setup I can only get around 50/60Mbps.
(testing on wired connection to PlusNet Hub One).

Is there something I need to enable for this setup to enable full link speed?

Try enabling packet steering:

screen246

You can find this setting under: Network > Interfaces > Global network options.

But I doubt a 500 MHz CPU device will get 200 Mbps.

1 Like

Thanks but I already have this option enabled.

The BTHub5 isn't very fast as a router, enabling software flow-offloading should get you your desired throughput though.

Longer term I would suggest looking for a faster device though, as flow-offloading comes with its own set of quirks, it's always better to use a router that can cope with the required throughput without resorting to hacks like that.

Have you studied section 7.12 of the installation guide?
https://openwrt.ebilan.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=266

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c8cqmpc6cacs5n8/AAA2f8htk1uMitBckDW8Jq88a?dl=0

You will have to replace the HH5a if you wish to achieve 200 mbps WAN top LAN throughput.

Edit with corrections thanks to bill888
That's not exactly correct - I've been experimenting with one of my HH5As and these are the results between 2 OpenWRT routers as I only have a 100mbit contract:

Invalid results
root@OpenWrt:~# grep name /etc/board.json
                "name": "BT Home Hub 5A"
                        "name": "wifi",
                        "name": "dsl",
                        "name": "dimmed",
root@OpenWrt:~# iperf3 -c 192.168.1.1
Connecting to host 192.168.1.1, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.1.152 port 42600 connected to 192.168.1.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  23.7 MBytes   198 Mbits/sec    0    354 KBytes
[  5]   1.00-2.02   sec  24.1 MBytes   198 Mbits/sec    0    445 KBytes
[  5]   2.02-3.02   sec  24.9 MBytes   210 Mbits/sec    0    475 KBytes
[  5]   3.02-4.03   sec  24.5 MBytes   204 Mbits/sec    0    498 KBytes
[  5]   4.03-5.01   sec  24.4 MBytes   208 Mbits/sec    0    498 KBytes
[  5]   5.01-6.02   sec  25.5 MBytes   211 Mbits/sec    0    498 KBytes
[  5]   6.02-7.01   sec  24.4 MBytes   206 Mbits/sec    0    522 KBytes
[  5]   7.01-8.04   sec  24.8 MBytes   202 Mbits/sec    0    522 KBytes
[  5]   8.04-9.04   sec  24.8 MBytes   209 Mbits/sec    0    522 KBytes
[  5]   9.04-10.00  sec  25.5 MBytes   222 Mbits/sec    0    522 KBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   246 MBytes   207 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   246 MBytes   206 Mbits/sec                  receiver

The host on 192.168.1.1 that is facing the internet is a Linksys EA7500v1 (21.02.0) and the client HH5A is a snapshot build. I've enabled Software flow offloading and have added a custom script that I got from this post

Unless I have misread your newest test results reporting 200 Mbit/sec, I don't think you are actually testing the throughput (WAN to LAN) of the HH5a if 192.168.1.1 is your Linksys and the 192.168.1.152 is the interface of the HH5a wired to the Linksys.

You will indeed see 200+ mbits/sec speeds between the interfaces of those two routers using your 'incorrect' test method.

Try repeating the test with two computers running iperf3. One wired to WAN (you could use linksys instead of a PC), and other computer on LAN side of HH5a, for true measurement of throughput.

I see the errors in my ways then :slight_smile: Before the said patch was applied the results were abominable and I thought that it was just my connection that was capped and the iperf results looked great - here are the results from my laptop going to the Linksys through HH5a:

Connecting to host 192.168.1.1, port 5201
[  4] local 192.168.88.177 port 9046 connected to 192.168.1.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]   0.00-1.00   sec  10.1 MBytes  84.6 Mbits/sec
[  4]   1.00-2.00   sec  10.5 MBytes  88.2 Mbits/sec
[  4]   2.00-3.01   sec  11.0 MBytes  92.0 Mbits/sec
[  4]   3.01-4.00   sec  10.2 MBytes  86.4 Mbits/sec
[  4]   4.00-5.00   sec  10.5 MBytes  88.0 Mbits/sec
[  4]   5.00-6.00   sec  11.1 MBytes  93.3 Mbits/sec
[  4]   6.00-7.00   sec  10.4 MBytes  87.1 Mbits/sec
[  4]   7.00-8.00   sec  10.9 MBytes  91.0 Mbits/sec
[  4]   8.00-9.00   sec  10.9 MBytes  91.4 Mbits/sec
[  4]   9.00-10.00  sec  11.0 MBytes  92.2 Mbits/sec
[  4]  10.00-11.00  sec  10.8 MBytes  90.1 Mbits/sec
[  4]  11.00-12.00  sec  10.6 MBytes  88.9 Mbits/sec
[  4]  12.00-13.00  sec  11.2 MBytes  94.5 Mbits/sec
[  4]  13.00-14.01  sec  10.2 MBytes  85.6 Mbits/sec
[  4]  14.01-15.00  sec  10.8 MBytes  90.6 Mbits/sec
[  4]  15.00-16.00  sec  10.5 MBytes  88.0 Mbits/sec
[  4]  16.00-17.00  sec  10.1 MBytes  84.9 Mbits/sec
[  4]  17.00-18.01  sec  11.0 MBytes  91.9 Mbits/sec
[  4]  18.01-19.01  sec  11.5 MBytes  96.5 Mbits/sec
[  4]  19.01-20.00  sec  10.9 MBytes  91.9 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]   0.00-20.00  sec   214 MBytes  89.9 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  4]   0.00-20.00  sec   214 MBytes  89.8 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.