QoS locking speeds down

[Volaris]

Well I've read the guide on acc and yeah it's either that or aggressive ping targets. I've tried different ping targets and it still happens.

I'm not sure if it is congestion though, never had issues like that with my current ISP (internode). When I was with optus I was definitely suffering from congestion years ago. But my connection has always been rock solid with internode.


How can I tell for sure if it is my ISP that is the problem?

I'm no expert but the easiest thing for me to do that would be to shut of QoS completely (when the ACC link slowdown happens) then do a speed test. If your speed is fine with QoS off, maybe there's something fishy going with pings. In which case you can change your ping target (did the default also cause this?) or turn off ACC completely and just stick to your manual bandwidth capacity.

[pkm]

I really dont think my ISP is throttling me. When i was just using the modem my speeds were always normal even on peak hours. I turned off ACC when the slowdowns happen and the speeds return to normal. As for RTT, i tried turning it off. My pings were going crazy when the connection was saturated. So i got no choice there.

Ping targets, what else can i try? Was using 8.8.8.8 and still happens. Is that other one any different?

Ok just realised something, i tried a ping test and 8.8.8.8 returns 150ms back at me... normally lower than that. At the same time i tried pinging somewhere else and it was fine. So is this the problem here then?

My connection to those dns servers are at times, screwy. Is this my ISP having problems with routing?

Here is a trace route after my speed went to shit with ACC

http://imgur.com/gPn1BnZ

[Volaris]

I really dont think my ISP is throttling me. When i was just using the modem my speeds were always normal even on peak hours. I turned off ACC when the slowdowns happen and the speeds return to normal. As for RTT, i tried turning it off. My pings were going crazy when the connection was saturated. So i got no choice there.

Ping targets, what else can i try? Was using 8.8.8.8 and still happens. Is that other one any different?

Ok just realised something, i tried a ping test and 8.8.8.8 returns 150ms back at me... normally lower than that. At the same time i tried pinging somewhere else and it was fine. So is this the problem here then?

My connection to those dns servers are at times, screwy. Is this my ISP having problems with routing?

Here is a trace route after my speed went to shit with ACC

http://imgur.com/gPn1BnZ

Told you there was something fishy going on with your pings! Haha. My family in Mexico on a WISP have the same problem so they can't use ACC at all.

You can try another one like 208.67.222.222 (that's openDNS). If not keep looking until you find a server to ping that's rock stable... maybe 4.2.2.1 to 4.2.2.6 (Level 3).

If your pings are high with ACC off, that means your download bandwidth is set too high.

[pkm]

Will do thanks.

[pkm]

Ping The round trip time of the last ping.
Filtered Ping The round trip time filtered.
Ping Time Limit The point at which the controller will act to maintain fairness.

Can you help me understand how these interact with each other, and why it makes ACC bring my speeds down?

[Volaris]

Ping The round trip time of the last ping.
Filtered Ping The round trip time filtered.
Ping Time Limit The point at which the controller will act to maintain fairness.

Can you help me understand how these interact with each other, and why it makes ACC bring my speeds down?

Ping is like saying Hi to a server and the server replying Hi. When there's no congestion on your Internet, that happens really quick. When congestion is present on your connection (ie, you're maxing out your Internet bandwidth) it takes longer for that ping to come and go, so ACC is designed to go... oh, this connection must be congested so let me lower the bandwidth limit until ping times return back to normal.

{If that didn't make sense, think of this analogy. Imagine you have to deliver pizza but the highway is very crowded. It's going to take you longer to deliver that pizza and return to the restaurant due to heavy traffic. That's the ping. The highway is your available bandwidth, and the cars are the amount of bandwidth being used/link limit. When you cut the number of cars being shoved into the highway (reducing the link limit) traffic will flow faster for everyone even when the highway is full.}

Ping time limit is the max ping time that's considered normal. If it's taking longer than time, bandwidth is cut because there's congestion. ACC determines this limit by testing ping times when there's no bandwidth load on your connection.

[pkm]

I might be looking at it the wrong way, but don't you WANT to increase bandwidth instead of reduce? How does cutting speed make pings better?

[Volaris]

I might be looking at it the wrong way, but don't you WANT to increase bandwidth instead of reduce? How does cutting speed make pings better?

You can't increase bandwidth (add more lanes to a highway) because that is set by your ISP/Internet plan. So the next best option is to limit the amount of bandwidth on your connection so it's not oversaturated, therefore keeping everything flowing smoothly/fast for everyone (pings remain low/normal).

Think of it as: using QoS/ACC = only allowing enough bandwidth/traffic that a 3 lane highway can handle, so everyone is able to drive at full normal speed. Pings normal/low. Not using QoS/ACC = trying to shove 5 lanes worth of traffic into a 3 lane highway, so everything gets saturated and results in laggy/slow performance = high pings.

[pkm]

Ok so what if you have people watching videos, link gets congested. Now the ACC is lowering the link limit slowly because of interaction with pings. And that link just keeps going down and down, fully bottlenecking and choking everyone still trying to use the Internet.

Now with such very very little bandwidth and wiggle room pings would soar 10x than what they were while the link limit stays down and no one can load their videos anymore. Only fix is to reset ACC to get back to max link limit.

This is just ongoing basis for me, I fix one problem another one comes right behind it.

[Lantis]

The priority class should always get through.
The other people lose and their videos may drop. That's how QOS works. Someone has to lose.

Much like fun, QOS is a zero sum game. If you're having fun, someone else isn't.

Even if the link limit gets very low, if pings return to normal and someone demands bandwidth, the limit will increase back to where it should be.
(Good highway analogy too).