QoS with a repeater and an unstable ISP

[Djago]

Hi

I have setup a master/repeater setup with a TP-Link TL-WR841N/ND v8 (master) and a TP-Link TL-WR841N/ND v5 (repeater), both with with Gargoyle 1.8.0.

My first question is setting up QoS. Where should I configure it? Master or Master & Repeater?

The other problem is that my ISP is quite bad and my speed is variable. The maximum theoretical DL speed is 6mbps, UP speed is 1mbps but bad weather can lower it significantly (right now I have 4.5/0.75). How can I account this on my setup? (if there's a way)

My biggest problem is that I've reinstalled my PC and Google Photos is reuploading all my collection (more than 300gb) and that is thrashing my network (1 PC, 1 Notebook, 1 tablet, 2 phones). Also when my phone backup my photos/videos the network goes down. I'm trying to RDP to my work and it's not usable because of this backupers. I have to shut them down!

Regards,
FSO

[Volaris]

Hi

I have setup a master/repeater setup with a TP-Link TL-WR841N/ND v8 (master) and a TP-Link TL-WR841N/ND v5 (repeater), both with with Gargoyle 1.8.0.

My first question is setting up QoS. Where should I configure it? Master or Master & Repeater?

The other problem is that my ISP is quite bad and my speed is variable. The maximum theoretical DL speed is 6mbps, UP speed is 1mbps but bad weather can lower it significantly (right now I have 4.5/0.75). How can I account this on my setup? (if there's a way)

My biggest problem is that I've reinstalled my PC and Google Photos is reuploading all my collection (more than 300gb) and that is thrashing my network (1 PC, 1 Notebook, 1 tablet, 2 phones). Also when my phone backup my photos/videos the network goes down. I'm trying to RDP to my work and it's not usable because of this backupers. I have to shut them down!

Regards,
FSO

I'm not sure about repeaters so I'll let someone else help on that.

As for your network going down during uploads, that's generally what happens without QoS. So you need to turn on upload QoS. Unfortunately because of your fluctuating upload speeds, you're going to have to sacrifice upload speed. You need to set upload bandwidth at the slowest speed your upload becomes during congestion / bad weather. Not sure if that's 750Kbps or if it gets even lower than that. Once you do that, your Internet should remain usable for other devices while you upload.

As for download, you can turn on download QoS without hesitation as long as you use ACC / Congestion Control (towards the bottom of the Download QoS page). This will automatically adjust your download bandwidth. For your download bandwidth, you just need to set the max speed you get (6000kbps?) and it will automatically adjust up and down as needed.

[Djago]

I've tried as you said but it's still slow... Maybe the problem is the repeater. Can somebody tell me about the repeater and QoS?

[Lantis]

Only set QOS on the master.
The previous suggestions posted seem fine to me, what exactly is happening?

[Djago]

Sorry for the delay. The problem is that whenever Google Photos or my cell phone backups my photos the connection becomes slow as hell for downloading. Using Remote Desktop to connect to another computer is so slow that I can't use it and I have to suspend Photos

[Lantis]

Find out what how to identify this traffic and apply a rate limit to it using QOS.

[Djago]

Yes, that would be the logical solution, but I thought that out "out of the box" config (with ISP speed of course) for Gargoyle would handle the job nicely. What's more strange is that it's not an uncommon situation so I supposed that lots of peoples would be in the same boat...

[Volaris]

Yes, that would be the logical solution, but I thought that out "out of the box" config (with ISP speed of course) for Gargoyle would handle the job nicely. What's more strange is that it's not an uncommon situation so I supposed that lots of peoples would be in the same boat...

Even without a rule specifically for Google Photos, upload QoS would prevent this from happening because Gargoyle uses per IP sharing... so the available upload bandwidth is shared equally between devices.

The symptoms sound like your upload bandwidth (set in upload QoS page) is above what's actually available on your connection. So Gargoyle is trying to shove more upload capacity than available, which is basically the equivalent of having upload QoS off.

My advice, keep lowering your upload QoS bandwidth and see if this still occurs. Once your upload bandwidth is below what's available to your connection, Google Photos upload (or any upload, for that matter) shouldn't bring your connection to its knees. Unfortunately, because your connection speed fluctuates, this might be hard and require you to set it pretty low... in which case it might be best to make a rule that specifically targets Google Photos uploads (or device) and limit its upload to like 100 or 200kbps.

[Djago]

geee... doesn't seem to be the case.
I'll show you some uploads bandwidth graphs. Download is not needed because is almost null.
This is my computer starting to upload photos wihout QoS. It seems that speed is ok today maxing at aprox. 1mbps:

Then I turn on QoS trying with 1000kbps in upload limit and then 900kbps (the spaces are the moments that Gargoyle saves settings):

Then I changed to 600kbps (pay attention to the change of scale):

Then I tried at 300kbps... same graph, different scale... same results.
In any case above, RDP sucks... It's as if QoS is not working properly because download is suffering. Even web browsing is slow!

[Volaris]

In the 600kbps graph above (last one) it seems to show QoS working. Are you still experiencing slow downloads/browsing when QoS upload is limited to 600kbps?

The other question I had was, what kind of ISP do you have? Is it a small wireless ISP? DSL? Cable?

I only ask because there's always the possibility that (especially if they're a small wireless ISP) they're running their own QoS that treats all traffic (ie. depending on size, bandwidth utilization, content type, etc) differently. In that setup, it would make QoS almost impossible to use. Sometimes they also burst the first X amount of traffic then heavily throttle after X amount of traffic.

I only know that because I have family in Mexico with a small wireless ISP. I had great plans for Gargoyle QoS to work great with them, but then I discovered their ISP goes crazy with QoS of their own with everything I mentioned above, making any QoS completely useless.