Routers have built-in firewalls to protect your local network from security threats. However, sometimes firewalls can slow down a router’s performance.
If you have slow internet and suspect your router is the reason, you might wonder if the router’s firewall is the culprit.
In this post, we discuss whether your router’s firewall can cause slow internet speeds. We also examine whether router firewalls can increase latency in online games.
Here’s Whether Router Firewalls Slow Down The Internet Speed:
Router firewalls with default firewall rules won’t slow down the internet speed; default firewall rules only require minimal CPU processing. On the other hand, having many complex firewall rules can overload a router’s CPU and slow down fast internet connections.
Why Does Your Router Have A Firewall?
Your router has a firewall to protect your local network from security threats.
Router firewalls can block both incoming and outgoing traffic according to user-specified rules. So they can protect your network from unwanted traffic from the public internet and prevent malware and viruses on your computer from connecting to the public internet.
Unlike the firewall on your computer that protects only the computer itself, your router’s firewall protects all devices in your local network. So the firewall is an essential function of your router to create a secure home network.
Does Your Router’s Firewall Slow Down Your Internet Speed?
Whether your router’s firewall will slow down your internet speed depends on several factors.
If your router only has a slow CPU, the firewall can slow down the CPU and reduce your internet speed.
Router firewalls won’t slow down average internet connections, but they can slow down fast internet connections due to the limited processing power of the router CPUs.
The complexity of firewall rules can also affect your router’s overall performance. If you have many complex firewall rules, they can slow down your internet speeds.
However, most router firewalls with their default rules have a negligible impact on your internet speeds.
Does Your Router’s Firewall Affect Online Gaming?
Router firewalls add minimal latency with their default rules and won’t affect online gaming.
However, if you have many complex firewall rules on your router, they can increase the latency in online games. The router CPU will take longer to process complex firewall rules, delaying data packets and increasing latency.
Too many complex firewall rules can also slow down your router’s CPU and cause packet losses. Retransmissions due to such packet losses can further increase the latency in online games.
Some online gaming services may not also work with your router’s firewall. Typically, those are related to router NAT issues, and you have to change your router’s NAT settings by referring to each gaming service’s online manual.
How To Speed Up Your Router’s Firewall?
If your router’s firewall causes slow internet speeds, you can try a few things to fix it.
First, you should remove all redundant firewall rules and try to reduce the complexity of the remaining rules.
Newer router firmware can also speed up your router’s firewall. So upgrade the router firmware to the latest version.
You can also disable other router functions that you don’t need. For example, you can disable QoS and VPN if you don’t need them. Having fewer active functions can reduce the load on the router CPU and speed up the router firewall.
If your router’s firewall still struggles after you try all the above fixes, you might have to get a new router with a faster CPU and more RAM.
Is It Safe To Disable Your Router’s Firewall?
It is not safe to disable your router’s firewall. The router firewall protects your entire home network from security threats.
Under the default settings, router firewalls block all incoming traffic from the public internet while only allowing outgoing traffic. So no one on the public internet can access the devices on your local network because of your router’s firewall. Router firewalls can also protect your local network from DoS attacks.
You might already have a software firewall on your PC or laptop. However, it only protects the PC or laptop running the firewall software; it can’t protect other devices connected to your router. On the other hand, your router’s firewall protects all devices in your home network.
Final Thoughts
Router firewalls with default firewall rules won’t slow down your internet speeds. However, if you add too many complex firewall rules, they can overload the router’s CPU and slow down your internet speeds.
If your router’s firewall is slowing down your internet speeds, you can remove redundant firewall rules and reduce the complexity of the remaining rules.
The router firewall protects your home network from security threats, so you should never disable it.