QoS, slow CPU, fast WAN

[ysy]

Hi All,

Just wondering, if router's CPU speed is the constraint and WAN speed is not the bottleneck, will QoS help in any way?

Cheers

[d3fz]

What's your router model?

Enabling QoS will put more strain on the router, so it will actually make your internet speed "slightly" slower.

Although, if you don't use Quotas at all, disabling the Bandwidth Monitor will actually help significantly at reaching higher download speeds, even with QoS enabled.

[ysy]

What's your router model?

Enabling QoS will put more strain on the router, so it will actually make your internet speed "slightly" slower.

Although, if you don't use Quotas at all, disabling the Bandwidth Monitor will actually help significantly at reaching higher download speeds, even with QoS enabled.

My router is TP-Link WDR3600 v1.4 with a rather slow CPU (560Mhz I think）, running Tor relay, transmission, SMB etc. WAN speed is 100Mbps.

And thanks for the tips. Disable Bandwidth Monitor, does it mean Bandwidth Usage or Web Monitor?

[d3fz]

Bandwidth Monitor. The one responsible for generating the good-looking real-time bandwidth graphs (e.g. pie charts, line charts), also tracking/logging of total consumed bandwidth data along the way, and last but not least, Quotas.

So if you're not using any of those features described, disabling Bandwidth Monitor might be a good alternate solution to make better use of all that available/misused bandwidth.

For the steps on how to disable/enable BW Monitor, and a more detailed discussion on the subject, checkout this thread.

[pbix]

In answer to the OP.

All routers have a maximum processing speed for the WAN link. If you lower your total WAN bandwidth (upload plus download) to below this maximum on the Gargoyle QoS screens then Gargoyle will throttle your throughput and all your Gargoyle functions will work properly. This may result in you not being able to utilize the full bandwidth your ISP provides you but you will have stable and predictable performance.

Selecting a router that has enough horsepower to handle your full bandwidth is important if you really want to use all your available bandwidth. Stock firmware which comes with your modem will usually provide higher throughput than Gargoyle. The reason for this is simple. The stock firmware does not have the advanced features of Gargoyle. Especially QoS and Bandwidth monitoring. These are the features that require CPU horsepower. If you turn them off in Gargoyle you will also see a high throughput capability.

Like a car top-end speed is not the only desirable feature. The many other features that you use everyday are usually what you should concentrate on and these are what Gargoyle provides.

If would be great if we had a database on this site which listed the maximum WAN speed of each router supported by Gargoyle assuming all features are enabled. This would be a great task for the user community to undertake. Unfortunately as of this date we do not so you will have to test yourself to find out or ask others on the forum about a specific model and see what you can learn.

[d3fz]

In answer to the OP.

All routers have a maximum processing speed for the WAN link. If you lower your total WAN bandwidth (upload plus download) to below this maximum on the Gargoyle QoS screens then Gargoyle will throttle your throughput and all your Gargoyle functions will work properly. This may result in you not being able to utilize the full bandwidth your ISP provides you but you will have stable and predictable performance.

Selecting a router that has enough horsepower to handle your full bandwidth is important if you really want to use all your available bandwidth. Stock firmware which comes with your modem will usually provide higher throughput than Gargoyle. The reason for this is simple. The stock firmware does not have the advanced features of Gargoyle. Especially QoS and Bandwidth monitoring. These are the features that require CPU horsepower. If you turn them off in Gargoyle you will also see a high throughput capability.

Like a car top-end speed is not the only desirable feature. The many other features that you use everyday are usually what you should concentrate on and these are what Gargoyle provides.

That's some valuable information. Maybe it could be added as a complement to Gargoyle QoS Wiki?

If would be great if we had a database on this site which listed the maximum WAN speed of each router supported by Gargoyle assuming all features are enabled. This would be a great task for the user community to undertake. Unfortunately as of this date we do not so you will have to test yourself to find out or ask others on the forum about a specific model and see what you can learn.

Totally agree.

Currently, we already have a Router speed test thread, but not too many people jumped in, unfortunately.

It would be nice if users with >100Mb connections posted their results, as it seems the common scenario is people with fast connections and rather slow routers. A different scenario in my case, as it's definitely easier to buy a better/faster router than to upgrade my current connection speed (25Mb DL/2Mb UL).

[ysy]

Big thanks to all for the info. Yes will most likely upgrade to a faster router (eg. Linksys wrt ac1200 or anything that our experienced users suggest here) to match my WAN speed (100mbps up/down) and use case (Tor relay, NAS, VPN, transmission). Cheers

[ispyisail]

That's some valuable information. Maybe it could be added as a complement to Gargoyle QoS Wiki?

Done