TP-Link VR900: Slow LAN speeeds

Pentaxian · 21 Jun 2016 at 08:56

Hello

This is a first post, but I have been looking around the forum for a while.

I have recently changed from a Wi-Max system which required a cable router to Fibre after the village was connected. I chose to stick with TP-Link and got the VR900 as it seemed to get good reviews.

All is running well in terms of WAN connection it very rarely drops (we know there is a fault on the line but it needs BT to change boxes on poles etc which is a slow process given we are seeing speeds of 40Mb.)

LAN side of things however are causing concern, since the change over of router we have seen the following:

Errors to connect network drives via NETUSE, sometimes it takes three or four runs of a batch file that checks for the server and connects. The server is always found.
Slow browsing of network shares
Very slow opening and saving of office documents
Generally slow opening and closing of files

The firmware is the latest on the router.

The home network is a mixture of Win 7 laptops and Win 10 laptops and PC, the home server is a Win 10 Pro, so nothing fancy etc and as I say nothing changed apart from the endless windows updates. Also it makes no difference if used over Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

Currently getting a headache over it all and getting a lot of moans from the family so hoping it is something simple / stupid that I have overlooked.

Cheers

Paul

Steveocee · 21 Jun 2016 at 09:24

Sounds like it could be an IP conflict in your LAN. Do you use reserved IP's at all? HAs the router been updated with them?

Pentaxian · 21 Jun 2016 at 09:33

Steveocee said:
Sounds like it could be an IP conflict in your LAN. Do you use reserved IP's at all? HAs the router been updated with them?

Thanks, I do use reserved IP's.

They are always set via the Router and not via the Computers themselves. The IP's were all set by letting them choose their IP on first boot up with the router and then being reserved to that via their MAC Address. The server was the first to be booted as that had to be put on 192.168.1.108 as all the shortcuts and links I have point to that. So I booted that got is MAC address and reserved that IP address. Rebooted both the router and the server to let it take effect before any computer was turned on.

Could it be worth scrapping the reservations and redoing them?

DiscoDave · 21 Jun 2016 at 10:12

Put two devices on with static IP's and do some connectivity tests between them both and see if you can re-create the issue.

Pentaxian · 21 Jun 2016 at 10:19

DiscoDave said:
Put two devices on with static IP's and do some connectivity tests between them both and see if you can re-create the issue.

Will do again but in a way already done as it happens with just a single computer (either laptop or computer) on and the Server being on.

DragonQ · 21 Jun 2016 at 16:34

Hmm, I also get slow network browsing but that's because my server puts drives to sleep when they aren't in use. Hence it can take 10 seconds to open a network folder the first time. Other than that it's fast.

Saving Office files over a network is always horrendously slow IME, nothing specific to this router. Have you tried a network speed test? I'm not actually using the router's in-built switch (it's just connected to an external switch) so I can't compare but I used to use it and didn't have the issues you describe.

Stealthploit · 21 Jun 2016 at 19:13

uhm just ping all the routers and switches and see were are you having the issue 40mbs its just might be the drives ?

Sparx · 21 Jun 2016 at 19:28

Not that it should matter too much, but really when allocating static IPs, you should assign outside of the DHCP range.

Also, this is true saving files over a network can be dire. You've already had some good suggestions to try pin point where the issue is, if there is one...

Pentaxian · 22 Jun 2016 at 09:03

I have dug out the old router so whilst there was not WAN connection when it was connected the LAN problems did disappear so it is looking like it is the router that is at fault.

Sparx · 22 Jun 2016 at 21:17

Have you tried factory resetting the VR900, since upgrading to latest firmware?

bledd · 23 Jun 2016 at 08:46

Try this..

Control Panel
Internet Options
Connections
>LAN Settings
Untick Automatically detect settings

Do this on every machine, then try again.

Pentaxian · 5 Jul 2016 at 21:03

Hi All

Ok, so no luck with anything. Spoke with the company I purchased from and they sent out another one which arrived today and that is even worse. Wireless will not stay working for longer than 10 minutes before dropping and reconnecting so have swapped back to the original route for the time being. Better to have it working slow than not at all...

Therefore onto my next question:

What is a great replacement, there seem to be so many options and I have no ideas as not needed one in a longtime? Kinda gone off TP-Link at the moment.

The cabinet has the Huawei chipset in it according to Codelock

Sparx · 5 Jul 2016 at 22:19

Never ever heard of this issue, or anyone on here either that has one.

Either you are incredibly unlucky, or there is some form of interference at your house.

Pentaxian · 5 Jul 2016 at 22:34

I think unlucky, the old cable router was rock solid for years. No changes made so must be unlucky.

Looking at the Netgear D7000 at the moment, reviews look good or the Asus