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109 Comments
- a3r0, on 11/28/2007, -3/+85Well, at least they didn't call it a "router hack".
- Paulish, on 11/28/2007, -3/+59But then my roommates will sue me for prioritizing my web surfing over their bit torrent traffic. :P
- platipuz, on 11/28/2007, -4/+47From the Description:
"Today I'll show you how."
HA! I bookmarked this, you're showing me how to do this tomorrow. - deadbob, on 11/28/2007, -2/+44As long as all your hardware can do QoS, it is a great thing.
- Corneileus, on 11/28/2007, -5/+41get dumber roommates next time.
- livejamie, on 11/28/2007, -4/+34Because you touch yourself at night.
- 89vision, on 11/28/2007, -0/+29Just deny it like Comcast does
- greenlight2001, on 11/28/2007, -3/+20Reply function, bitch! Use it!
- Eleo, on 11/28/2007, -0/+14I have a WRT54GL and it I can say I've tried QoS multiple times and it has never even sort of worked. I made threads on the DD-WRT forum about it and no one's suggestions helped me out. All it takes is for one of my family members to get on YouTube and my game will lag for as long as that video is loading. It's actually pretty frustrating.
- aywwts4, on 11/28/2007, -0/+12I used DD-wrt for a year, it sucks, its better than the stock configuration, but QOS is absolutely broken, not to mention tomato's interface wins in a landlslide.
Try tomato instead, it's QOS works much better, and it is being actively upgraded. http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato
http://www.decimation.com/markw/2007/10/02/dd-wrt- ...
And if memory serves this is a handy script which sets up your qos rules automatically http://www.hyperwrt.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=200 ... (I cant test it though since I am not running windows anymore) - ZenFountain, on 11/28/2007, -2/+11WRT54GL is the best and most compatible router for DD-WRT and Tomato, both of which have QoS implementation. There are a slew of other compatible routers, mainly other WRT54* Linksys and Buffalo models, but the GL model is guaranteed to be compatible, whereas the other Linksys models have a myriad of versions that may or may not work and the Buffalo models are generally more difficult to flash.
- Erowid, on 11/28/2007, -2/+10http://www.dd-wrt.com :)
*edit* Whoa, I posted that before reading the article... - inactive, on 11/28/2007, -0/+8Some people need a little common sense help.
- Ulaire, on 11/28/2007, -0/+8I hate you
- linagee, on 11/28/2007, -1/+8As long as your SOFTWARE can do QoS. Nothing to do with hardware.
- inactive, on 11/28/2007, -1/+8Qos is great, especially if have voip on your line, and want to insure good call quality. This will also keep torrents from eating all your bandwidth so you can still browse the web without stalling
- theholyraptor, on 04/07/2008, -1/+7what college dorm uses a traditional ISP (let alone Comcast)? I've never seen a college that wasn't up higher in the tier chain.
- jerryparid, on 11/28/2007, -0/+6Not really; Buffalo is equally as good; WRT54GL is hands down the most popular DDWRT model
- LordSeth, on 11/28/2007, -8/+13Is this news? QOS has been around for quite a while.
- inactive, on 11/28/2007, -0/+5Alright guys. Do not confuse router QoS with windows QoS. Yes, they do do the same thing, but do you REALLY trust Microsoft's quasi-implementation?
Judging by the comments above, I will take a couple seconds to explain in loserman terms how typical QoS functions. It does not slow or speed up a connection at all. It prioritizes what packets come in and go out. What this means is lets say you have some p2p traffic, and some web browsing. In a normal router, all traffic is routed as it is received, and you just have to sit and wait until all the data go in and out before your request processes. On a high load, the queue going in and out starts to back up, and after awhile you notice a very large slowdown. Using QoS to prioritize the packets would mean that even though your connection is totally bogged down, assuming you put p2p to bulk and web to normal, the router will automatically send and receive all web traffic BEFORE the p2p traffic. This actually does not slow down your connection at all(unless you specifically limit bandwidth) and allows your p2p to run full force while you still maintain good ping times in your trigger happy games.
Lets do a example:
Bittorrent(1) traffic and CounterStrike(2).
Lets say your pipe is 1 meg up and down.
You startup the bittorrent traffic, and take all your available bandwidth. You then try to start your CounterStrike game.
If we imagine the pipe was the game numbers, it would look like this going out:
221111111112111111211111111111 =pipe out=
You can see that the counterstrike traffic is tossed in that marching line, and it will process as soon as the other traffic processes. Once it reaches the end of the pipe, it will travel just as fast as anything else on your connection does (so do not confuse latency with kb/s speeds). The example above might cause your latency in counterstrike to shoot up to 300-600ms becuase you are sitting there waiting in line for the data to leave the box.
Now, lets say we put a BULK QoS setting on all BT traffic. This means it will handle the BT LAST and everything else will be shoved in front of it. In this example the pipe would look like this:
111111111111111111111222222 =pipe out=
Notice how all the Counterstrike traffic is instantly put to the front of the line? This means that even though your BT is still taking the entire 1 meg pipe you have of bandwidth, QoS routing has prioritized your counterstrike in such a way that you will still maintain that 35ms ping, and not lose any speed in downloading your BTs. Since the counterstrike traffic leaves the connection without having to wait, the latency (time it waits to send out and get a response back) acts like there is not even a BT going on.
So, now for some tricks. By default, all traffic in a QoS is set to "normal". What you need to do is set anything that does not need a fast LATENCY response to bulk. Any kind of downloading applications, p2p, or 512k+ web traffic can be set to bulk as it relies on transfer speed, not latency speed and QoS prioritizes latency speeds. If you are downloading a movie off BT and you have it set to bulk, it will not know the difference between 1ms and 400ms latency as it relies on how fast your connection transfer speed is.
Some of you may still be a little confused between connection bandwidth speed, and latency. These two are NOT the same thing.
Latency: The time it takes for a packet to leave your computer, reach its destination, and receive a reply back.
Connection speed: How fast in kbs/mbs you can send data
Imagine these in car terms. connection speed is your cars MPH, and latency is the drivers reaction time.
So there you go, I hope this clears up a few of the stupid things being said above... and remember, when setting the QoS limits, ONLY use 75% of the total available bandwidth. This leave 25% for overhead to ensure that your connection/router can keep up with the amoutn of data going out. - myt29, on 11/28/2007, -0/+5http://www.speedtest.net/result/206615961.png
/fail - commiecat, on 11/28/2007, -1/+6But when you read it, the statement will still be true!
- inactive, on 11/28/2007, -0/+5The router is running software. Some routers, such as my Linksys, have 3rd party firmware available. Third party firmware often add features over the stock firmware.
- FortyCaliber, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4Actually I don't think DD-WRT guarantees anything... But, if you want, I'll take a ***** in a box and slap a guarantee on it.
- bdbr, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4This is likely to be hit-or-miss. It looks like this just does bandwidth shaping, so it doesn't do anything to keep voice packets from getting in line behind big data packets (that would require prioritization). And you really can only control outgoing bandwidth; you can't control the packets coming your way. Also, it only works if your outbound link is congested - if you have a lot of upstream bandwidth, this QoS won't even kick in. If L7 (meaning it looks for strings in the packets) isn't reliable (as the article says), then you really need to understand what TCP/UDP ports your application is using, otherwise the software will just use some default setting (which could very likely be wrong for P2P and VoIP).
QoS can help if you have an upstream bandwidth problem, but only if you know what the problem is, and understand how to solve it. I would strongly recommend keeping it very simple. In my experience (implementing QoS on about 300 routers), the more applications you try to set up, the more they just stomp all over each other. I can say that D-Links "gamefuel" QoS (which is basic priority queuing) worked well when I had a 128kbps DSL uplink. - FortyCaliber, on 11/28/2007, -2/+6You the Router Hack I just Hacked about. Now I can hack my hack to hack my hacks when I hack.
- bdbr, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4Do you have a clue of what you're recommending to people?
1. CTCP only works for the packets you're sending. If you do a lot of uploading and have a lot of upstream bandwidth, this 'might' help.
2. ECN only works if the sender, receiver, and the routers in transit support ECN. Most likely they won't. And even if they did, this would do nothing for downloads.
3. Autotuning is great, but all you're doing is setting it to what's already the DEFAULT! You're not doing anything there.
...oh, and these only work in Vista. I have verified in a lab, if you have a lot of bandwidth and high latency (e.g. ping times of 100+ milliseconds), this can increase your throughput by several times. If you're just downloading, then the only feature you're using is autoscaling, which is already set as you're recommended. - inactive, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4Have you tried Tomato?
- D3koy, on 11/28/2007, -2/+6Other than if you're having problems or for fun, why else would you do it?
- Firehed, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3Only if you either install idiotic software or let the hackers on your network. UPnP is far too convenient for me to be the slightest bit bothered by the minimal risk (especially as I live in the middle of nowhere, have WAP2 encryption, and know better than to run porn_that_will_screw_up_your_computer.exe)
- dave98, on 11/28/2007, -2/+5Tomato's QoS > DD-WRT's QoS
- SoundScape, on 11/28/2007, -2/+5This is obvious to all of us IT guys, but a lot of people aren't aware of these sorts of settings on their router, or are too afraid to play with them.
I'd encourage everyone with a router to have a play with the different settings. First make a backup of your configuration (most home routers will have this option), or at the very least write down your current configuration. Then go nuts. You'll find some great gems, just like QoS. There are a ton of others. Consumer routers have become quite a powerful device.
And as a security note, I strongly suggest not to enable UPnP (Universal Plug n Play). There are some unique circumstances where this may need to be enabled, but there are usually much more secure workarounds. Enabling UPnP opens up your router quite substantially to attackers from the outside. - FortyCaliber, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3To create problems to satisfy the aforementioned problem... problem?
- gldfshnpcklejar, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3Tomato owns DD-WRT, i just spent about 1/10th of the time configureing and installing it compared to DD-WRT, and so far I've had 0 of the same problems. Not to mention it is about 100x faster...
- inactive, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3Looks like my post explaining it is over your head too... no really, its above you :P
- Veni_Vidi_Vici, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3I love you.
- polywaffle, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3From what i understand, QOS would work better because it will always be saturating your connection if it needs to, not using 80% all the time.
- mrogi, on 11/28/2007, -1/+4First, I removed that QoS ***** from my Vista Ultimate connection properties settings. Second, I enabled my TCP/IP settings to use ECN & CTCP. Third, I configured my router for port triggering and port forwarding whatever P2P client I wanna use. My network is now more potent than Dirk Diggler on viagra. I could download American Gangster in 20 minutes if I were not an honest man of the highest moral character.
- rickst13, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2While I have not tried the QoS on Tomato, I am using Tomato, and it feels much quicker than dd-wrt (maybe I'm imagining it).
Also, its interface is much cleaner in my opinion. - Hoogs, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2Man, I really wish I understood this stuff, reading that article went right over my head. Sometimes I don't see how you people know all this stuff.
- inactive, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2If you do, then just set high priority to your pcs mac address. This will ensure no matter what they do on their end, you will have priority, and while downloads may still be slow, at least browsing and gaming will still be fast.
- aywwts4, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2Yes, I tried both, I was on DD-wrt for over a year before giving up on it and finding out about tomato, now I would never go back.
Look over here http://www.decimation.com/markw/2007/10/02/dd-wrt- ... and take a look at the pretty screenshots before flashing your router with something you will regret, Especially if you are interested in QOS, because DD-Wrts qos was broken, turning it on made absolutely Every service as ***** and flaky as possible, even what it was supposed to not be touching, tomato works like a dream.
The interface is great, its easy to map every MAC address on the network to a static (DHCP controlled) IP address, and give them a resolvable name on the network (for example to go to my xbox media center's web control page i just type Xbox or type FTP://Xbox and there I am.
It does everything with more style and grace and usability than DDWRT ever did, at least take a look at it before going with what seems to be inexplicably the most popular option. - firedude328, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2for campus housing, the school has two sections, one directly on campus directly near all the labs/libraries/classrooms that uses some powerful connection(T3 maybe), then the school offers campus housing in a residential type area and made a deal with comcrap like 4 years ago
- ynggrsshppr, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2But at least it is tech related.
- ColorBlind, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2Burn! Nicely done sir.
- misterRobot, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1damn it - "damn it"
- xtc46, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1if it doesnt help you are doing it wrong. QoS makes available bandwidth guaranteed for the App that you give priority, so unless your total bandwidth is lower than that required by the app/device then it should work.
- b0rg, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1QoS is fairly managable when you're looking at your outbound connection - for example, giving priority to packets from my VOIP adapter over packets from my desktop PC. Also, if you're using some p2p app, set it's max speeds lower than your internet connection - usually no more than 75% of your up and down speeds. This allows the application to negotiate the speed of connections and will reduce the chance of your connection getting hammered by one peer, making others time out and mark you "down". It will also let other apps - web browsing, voip, whatever - work much better.
the "auto-speed" in some apps is better than nothing, but none of them respond fast enough to avoid turning a VOIP call into a garbled nightmare or make a big web page choke. - misterRobot, on 11/29/2007, -0/+1I think what the article is talking about is giving priority to skype or xbox live to reapportion the bandwidth your provider is already giving you
- chsbrgr, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1http://www.speedtest.net/result/206693789.png
FiOS is available here too, but I don't see any reason to switch yet. -
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