A few queries about QoS

[inbox217]

Hi all,

After reading through numerous posts about other users QoS setups I have a few queries of my own.

Currently I am in a 4 person house share with 4 main devices (PC's) both for online gaming and downloading/general browsing.

My current setup with QoS Download follows the advice mentioned in another post where two classes exist:

Gaming - %BW 1 Bandwidth Min 5000 Bandwidth Max 0 MINRTT YES
Normal - %BW 99 Bandwidth Min 0 Bandwidth Max 0 MINRTT NO

ACC is Enabled and Manual Ping Limit set to 40

I currently have traffic from one online game (identified via port and UDP packets) directing successfully through to the Gaming class and all other PC traffic is being routed to Normal. This setup is mirrored on the QoS Upload screen as well.

Whilst I am having success with this setup, I am looking to make the solution more robust which leads me to the following queries:

1) Is there a better way to identify PC gaming traffic instead of using ports? My main concern here is the administration effort when new games are played.

2) A potential solution to 1) would be to classify each PC into its own rule covering any traffic coming from a particular device. For online gaming, however, it would be advantageous to have MINRTT enabled for each of the classes. The downside here is this would cause MINRTT to be active whenever the class is active regardless of online gaming traffic i.e. HTTP downloading. If my understanding is correct this would cause problems when all 4 classes are active simultaneously?

Ideally I am trying to brainstorm a solution that will most likely be somewhere between my current setup and 2).

Hardware is TP-Link WDR4300 on Gargoyle V1.5.11

Hoping you guys can offer me some advice. Thanks in advance for your help!

I'm currently at work, but I'm happy to post some screen shots when I get back home.

EDIT: Spelling.

[pbix]

What upload and download speed does your ISP provide?
Why did you decide that you needed to enter a manual ping limit?
Did you read the QoS configuration guide in the documentation section?

Regrading your question "1)". There is no general rule as there are millions of games out there and no way to know how to classify their traffic generally. You will have to go case by case and try and find something that works. You might consider the other end of the connection as well. If you are all using the same server then you can use that IP to classify traffic.

I cannot understand you question 2. There is no particular reason that all classes cannot be active.

[inbox217]

Thanks for your reply pbix,

20Mbits download and 0.50Mbits upload.

I decided to set a manual ping limit after I noticed occasional ping spikes when traffic was active from another PC. These spikes were roughly to 150ms when compared to normal pings of roughly 30ms. These spikes were experienced using my current QoS rules mentioned in my original post WITHOUT manual ping limit enabled. After manual ping limit was enabled pings seemed stable during the same conditions. I am more than happy, however, to listen to suggestions for turning it off and leaving it at default (AUTO)

I did read the QoS configuration guide. Between that guide and some posts on this forum I was able to get to my current iteration of QoS rules.

Regarding 1). Deep down I knew this would be the case. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't ruling out any other ways to identify specific traffic or better yet some more efficient ways of routing traffic.

Clarifying 2). Apologies, I may have not worded my example very well. All classes can be active, but the example i was trying to put across was that of 3 PC's gaming and 1 PC streaming. If all PC's are assigned to 4 separate rules via their assigned IP addresses and all have 4 have MINRTT enabled, how is the WAN utilization affected for the PC that is streaming or even normal traffic. My understanding, after reading the QoS configuration guide, was that WAN utilization is sacrificed in favor
of MINRTT. This leads me to the conclusion that only ping sensitive traffic should be routed into the MINRTT class to ensure MINRTT is not being triggered during non-ping sensitive traffic.

I hope this makes a bit more sense!

[pbix]

Given your experience level I would probably leave the ping time setting at AUTO. I am not sure if you understand how this setting works.

I would be interested to see what ping times are listed with and without this setting in AUTO. These are shown in the ACC status section and can be captured by screen shot.

I agree that having all classes as MinRTT is not optimal as described in the configuration guide.

I prefer your original QoS setup with the modification that you might just allow all UDP traffic into the Gaming class regardless of IP address or port number. There usually is not so much UDP traffic going through your router that is not ping time sensitive so you would then have a simple setup that works pretty well regardless of game type.

I am not sure what "streaming" means. I would interpret this to mean video streaming which is not ping time sensitive and usually not UDP.

Finally I did not see an actual question in your previous post and would suggest that if you have a question that you state it clearly.

[inbox217]

I have attached two files with manual ping limit both on and off.

Thanks for the advice, I have made the modification and will see how it goes.

My question relates to separate classes for each device. Is it possible to have both UDP traffic and 'other' traffic being routed to different classification rules for the same destination IP? i.e

Destination: 198.168.1.10 Transport Protocol: UDP classified to 'Gaming'
Destination: 198.168.1.10 classified to 'Normal'

Apologies if it sounds like a dumb question.

[pbix]

I
My question relates to separate classes for each device. Is it possible to have both UDP traffic and 'other' traffic being routed to different classification rules for the same destination IP?

Yes this is possible and quite easy. The two rules you listed would do the trick. The order of rule processing is covered in the configuration guide.

I think the automatic ping times shown in your screen shots should work well for you and I do recommend you give them a try. That is 63ms when a MINRTT class is active and 133 otherwise.

[inbox217]

Thanks for your help and advice pbix!

Will give those rules a shot and see how I go.