Should I be concerned about packets sent?

[Aiien79]

Hello, my internet (I'm Australian) has been really laggy for the past few months since switching to NBN FFTC. I am using the TP-Link Archer VR1600v and even entering 192.168.1.1 is REALLY slow. Navigation on the settings page takes minutes to load even on a wired connection. However I have been able to find what may be causing my wifi to lag and that is the large amount of wireless light-bulbs and power switches we have connected to our guest network. I notice they are receiving quite a few packets and sending a lot of packets. The image I have attached shows a few of these devices compared to my Galaxy Note 9 which is connected to the normal 5GHz network. I haven't been able to use the wifi on my device properly which is probably why it has such low numbers, but in comparison the random light-bulbs and power switches are sending more packets than my phone.

Should I be concerned about them sending out so many packets? Also when I do disable the guest network my wifi connection on my phone is very good and can actually load reddit images.

[Samfisher]

Looks like your devices may be part of a botnet....

[Oshino Shinobu]

That definitely doesn't look normal. I'd recommend either disabling the guest network for a bit to see if performance improves, or disable internet access for the guest network. 

 

If the light bulbs for some reason require internet access, find out what ports they require and only allow those ports. Even better, if you know what addresses they need to be communicating with, only allow communication to those addresses over specific ports. 

 

As @Samfisher said, they could be part of a botnet, they really shouldn't require much bandwidth. 

[Aiien79]

24 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

Looks like your devices may be part of a botnet....

 

21 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

That definitely doesn't look normal. I'd recommend either disabling the guest network for a bit to see if performance improves, or disable internet access for the guest network. 

 

If the light bulbs for some reason require internet access, find out what ports they require and only allow those ports. Even better, if you know what addresses they need to be communicating with, only allow communication to those addresses over specific ports. 

 

As @Samfisher said, they could be part of a botnet, they really shouldn't require much bandwidth. 

Thanks for your answers! I just disabled the guest network for the past 20 minutes and so far my wifi has improved noticeably. However, accessing my routers settings page is still really slow and we actually have a few uses for the light-bulbs and power switches. If it is a botnet is there anyway I could detect or get rid of it? Not sure if factory resetting every IOT device would help.

[Kilrah]

Did you actually reboot the router yet? 

[Oshino Shinobu]

21 minutes ago, Aiien79 said:

 

Thanks for your answers! I just disabled the guest network for the past 20 minutes and so far my wifi has improved noticeably. However, accessing my routers settings page is still really slow and we actually have a few uses for the light-bulbs and power switches. If it is a botnet is there anyway I could detect or get rid of it? Not sure if factory resetting every IOT device would help.

If you disconnect the router from the internet does accessing the settings page speed up? If the IOT devices are compromised, could be that the router is as well, or was the first point exploited to gain entry. 

 

If it speeds up after disconnecting from the internet, I'd advise factory resetting all the IOT devices and the router, then upgrading to the latest firmware and software for each of the devices and router before connecting them back to the internet. 

 

Afraid I can't help with detecting if they are indeed compromised, It's beyond my knowledge of IOT devices. 

[Aiien79]

Yeah I've rebooted router a lot throughout the pass few months, it makes no difference to the load times  

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

Did you actually reboot the router yet? 

[Samfisher]

14 hours ago, Aiien79 said:

Yeah I've rebooted router a lot throughout the pass few months, it makes no difference to the load times  

Have you disconnected from the internet?  Just unplug the ethernet that goes from modem to router.

[Alex Atkin UK]

21 hours ago, Aiien79 said:

Hello, my internet (I'm Australian) has been really laggy for the past few months since switching to NBN FFTC. I am using the TP-Link Archer VR1600v and even entering 192.168.1.1 is REALLY slow. Navigation on the settings page takes minutes to load even on a wired connection. However I have been able to find what may be causing my wifi to lag and that is the large amount of wireless light-bulbs and power switches we have connected to our guest network. I notice they are receiving quite a few packets and sending a lot of packets. The image I have attached shows a few of these devices compared to my Galaxy Note 9 which is connected to the normal 5GHz network. I haven't been able to use the wifi on my device properly which is probably why it has such low numbers, but in comparison the random light-bulbs and power switches are sending more packets than my phone.

Should I be concerned about them sending out so many packets? Also when I do disable the guest network my wifi connection on my phone is very good and can actually load reddit images.

Be aware that if this is from the WiFi page then "sent" probably means from the router TO the wireless device.