@GRL Hi GRL, yes , the change in IP does not worry me since I know that it's dynamic. The significant decrease in bandwidth is the real issue, my ISP's connection is cable. A technician from the ISP will check the issue on Friday so I hope he'll nail it. In the meantime I'm still using the TL-R600VPN and bandwidth is perfect as expected. Thanks

Somnus wrote

You can try MAC clone function and copy the MAC address from your old R600VPN router‘s WAN port. MAC clone will make modem think you actually still use the "old router".

Hi Somnus, that sounds interesting, did not know such thing was possible. I will try that and post results

UPDATE: Found this relevant link (in my case I do have connectivity, but bandwidth decreases)

UPDATE1: I was able to successfully clone the old R600VPN WAN port MAC address onto the ER605 WAN port. However the issue still persists, i.e., the bandwidth decreases with the ER605 and when I revert back to the R600VPN the connection went back to normal. So it seems that cloning the MAC address at the software level was not enough to make the modem think that it was connecting to the old router, but this shouldn't be possible (unless there's something else that needs to be "spoofed" aside from the MAC), so I'm starting to think that maybe the ER605 is faulty.

UPDATE2: In the R600VPN admin panel, Network/Wan, there's a "Renew" and "Release" button. Is it possible that this is happening because first I have to "Release" the IP parameters from my ISP in the R600VPN and then "Renew" them in the ER605?

  @stealth23 

What speed have your internet?

shberge wrote

  @stealth23 

 

What speed have your internet?

  @shberge 

300Mbps, with the R600VPN I get about 330Mbps, with the ER605 around 60Mbps (up and ping are unaffected)

  @stealth23 

Ok, there have to be something wrong with the router, I would return this router and ask for a new one., it should easily manage 350Mbps, I have several ER605v1 on 350 and 500Mbps lines and they all max the line

  @stealth23 

I have an ER605 v1 and a ISP Fiber connection (500 Mbps Down and 500 Mbps Up) and I always get the advertised speeds when doing wired speed tests. Return you ER605 back to the default MAC address or Factory Reset it. Next, power down your ISP modem and ER605. Leave them powered off for 30 to 60 seconds. Power on your ISP modem but leave the ER605 off. Once the ISP modem has fully booted, turn on your ER605. Test your speeds again and see if it's any better. Also, on the ER605 check Transmission>Bandwidth Control and verify there are no bandwidth rules affecting you speeds. You should also make sure you have the most recent firmware loaded. If you are still having issues, return it and get a new one.

Mac Addresses:

Some ISPs will give you a specific MAC Address to use on your router. This is how they authorize your connection. If you ISP does this you would have been given a MAC address to use. If not they authorize you via the modem.

DHCP:

When a DHCP lease expires usually the same IP will be renewed as long as it's available at the time. Some routers will ask for the same IP again. Since most ISP connections are always on, it is common that even though you don't have a static IP, the IP will remain unchanged for a long time. If your router is offline for a while, your IP will likely get re-used somewhere else. New equipment will always get a new IP because the old IP still has a valid lease and has not expired yet.

HellBent wrote

  @stealth23 

 

I have an ER605 v1 and a ISP Fiber connection (500 Mbps Down and 500 Mbps Up) and I always get the advertised speeds when doing wired speed tests. Return you ER605 back to the default MAC address or Factory Reset it. Next, power down your ISP modem and ER605. Leave them powered off for 30 to 60 seconds. Power on your ISP modem but leave the ER605 off. Once the ISP modem has fully booted, turn on your ER605. Test your speeds again and see if it's any better. Also, on the ER605 check Transmission>Bandwidth Control and verify there are no bandwidth rules affecting you speeds. You should also make sure you have the most recent firmware loaded. If you are still having issues, return it and get a new one.

 

Mac Addresses:

Some ISPs will give you a specific MAC Address to use on your router. This is how they authorize your connection. If you ISP does this you would have been given a MAC address to use. If not they authorize you via the modem.

 

DHCP:

When a DHCP lease expires usually the same IP will be renewed as long as it's available at the time. Some routers will ask for the same IP again. Since most ISP connections are always on, it is common that even though you don't have a static IP, the IP will remain unchanged for a long time. If your router is offline for a while, your IP will likely get re-used somewhere else. New equipment will always get a new IP because the old IP still has a valid lease and has not expired yet.

  @HellBent 

Hi HellBent, nice suggestion to start from scratch.This is what I did:

1) Downloaded latest firmware for ER605 v1.6

2) I connected the ER605 as standalone directly to my PC via LAN port.

3) Even though I had already updated the firmware back in June when it was released, I decided to flash the ER605 with the latest firmware again

4) Once successfully flashed, I hard reset the ER605 by pin in the hole (factory reset)

5) I logged in the ER605 admin panel and made sure everything was factory default as it should, including Transmission>Bandwidth Control as you suggested, and all was fine

6) I then followed your suggestion: powered off both the ER605 and the ISP modem

7) With both units off, I made all pertinent ethernet cable connections to their respective ports in the ER605 and cablemodem

8) I then booted the ISP modem, followed by the ER605 as you suggested

9) ER605's WAN port detected the IP immediately as verified in the ER605 admin panel

10) When I tested bandwidth with Speedtest (as I usually do) I got 630Mbps download speed (ping and upload speed same as before, normal)

So my ISP service is 300Mbps and I'm now getting 630Mbps. Just to make sure Speedtest measurement was for real I went to Nvidia and downloaded a 830Mb driver and yes, it was downloading at close to 80 Mb/s.

Have no idea what's going on, but can't complain :-)

Fingers crossed, hope this bandwidth keeps like this. The only reason I can think of is that my ISP has doubled the bandwidth for free (my contract specifies 300Mbps and I was getting 320/340 usually and now I'm getting up to 640Mbps as seen below), something non related to the ER605. Most importantly, it seems that the ER605 is not faulty