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Does Congestion Control Work?


ColonicBoom

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Just posting this up as I was testing my line with a new modem which arrived today.

Seen a few people talking about buffer bloat videos, dsl reports, the best settings to use, etc, and there's always a few saying things don't work...

I can't be bothered with repeated testing on dsl reports every time I want to play, what gives you the best result on there one day (or even 1 hour) seems to change the next. And one little spike on there makes it look like everything is wrong wrong wrong, when really it isn't.

But if you think it will give you the 'edge' have it at.

 

These ARE NOT suggested settings at all, I was just testing my network with this new modem.

 

I picked 85/85 for the sliders and the Pre-emptive algorithm to start.

I chose this number first because I didn't expect it to be able to cope with the spikes that I was going to cause and I fully intended to spend another 30 mins going up and down with the sliders until I found the numbers that worked best for pre-emptive and then I would do the same for Reactive.

Then I was going to compare spike suppression vs the spare bandwidth, etc. Proper scientificish.

The IP I was pinging is Twitter in the UK.

 

To fully saturate my connection I ran a few speed tests (speedtest.net) just to see how it compared to my ISP p.o.s modem/router combo.

Fully saturated connection = Buffer Bloat = Lag spikes.

 

post-7883-0-61305700-1483756577_thumb.png

 

The two big wide spikes at the far left of the graph are with congestion control set at 100/100.

Obviously there is no congestion control at 100/100, so there is no suppression of the spikes. I haven't bothered circling them because you can't miss them. The largest is 150-200ms of spike for about 10 seconds and that's going to ruin your kill streak every time.

 

Then I set the sliders at 85/85 and ran it again but it didn't seem to do much at all on the graph so I gave it a couple of minutes and ran it again.

The second and third speed tests are circled. I was also on a phone call over wifi at the time.

 

So does congestion control suppress the spikes / bb ?

Yes, it does. To the point that it's almost imperceptible. That's maybe 1ms or 2ms of wobble on a fully maxed-out connection.

 

I didn't bother running any other tests because I didn't need to, I just sacked off the testing and played Xbox instead.

 

So thanks to Netduma, Iain, and the rest, looking forward to Duma 2.0.

Thanks to Dr Rick as always for the sound advice.

And awaaaaay we go!

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each connection is different but if i am gaming i set my sliders to 30& on both and i get no jitter or spikes. i have tried many variations and this works well for me.

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each connection is different but if i am gaming i set my sliders to 30& on both and i get no jitter or spikes. i have tried many variations and this works well for me.

 

Exactly right, whatever gives best results for the individual is what everyone should use.

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Now if only you had took the advice when I first said to bin the TT router when you went live ;)

 

And this proves if a modem/router in the chain has a bad cpu or other issues you are fighting a losing battle until you remedy this.

 

I recommend never use a ISP free modem/router they are free because they are

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In less than 24 hours, since replacing the ISP modem/router combo with a standalone modem, my ping (to twitter) has gone down from 24ms to 7ms.

 

I've spent about 2 months asking my ISP "what's going on with my line?" and "why has my ping doubled/tripled?"

I got no sensible or useful response from them at all, they just kept ignoring my questions and saying "looks fine to me", and asking for trace-routes and pings, etc.

 

Good job Zen, you've sorted it. I'm well chuffed :)

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I have now run the full DSL Reports testing procedure that there are soooooooo many long videos about, just be thorough (anal).

After an hour of messing about, it turns out that my first random pick of 85/85 pre-emptive is the best (according to dsl reports) for my network anyway.

 

post-7883-0-98749200-1483813395_thumb.png

 

As I said before, these are not my 'suggested settings' for others to use. These are simply the best settings for me with my setup.

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Honestly I think the congestion control varies depending on your actual speeds. I have a 15mbit download and 1 upload and I never noticed a difference between 70% or above. I just do 95% and it all plays just the same to me regardless of percentage. I to did the same as you and replaced my modem with not much change sadly.

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Honestly I think the congestion control varies depending on your actual speeds. I have a 15mbit download and 1 upload and I never noticed a difference between 70% or above. I just do 95% and it all plays just the same to me regardless of percentage. I to did the same as you and replaced my modem with not much change sadly.

It will play the same at nearly all CC levels (to low will just spoil it)

 

The CC is to stop other users on your network from creating bufferbloat / jitter, not to change the way the game plays.

 

So while my son watches the latest league of legends vid on YouTube I game happily.

 

Booms tests were to find a good CC level so when others use his network he can game as if no one is using the net at all.

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Come on Boom you know when Yoda speaks, we listen, that's why he's Yoda... :D

 

And couldn't agree more as everyone's home network is different.Hopefully we have driven the "start with 70/70 cc and tweak from there"point home enough that people listen and they go on to find their optimal settings for their network.

 

I know a few of us have tried everything we saw on a video about how to "fix lag" to see if it actually had any merit to it,I know I have.And in my experience most of it has to me a placebo effect.

 

As Yoda and abc has taught me, make sure your ISP is solid, your using a quality equipment (modem, router,cables etc) and find what works for you for your given application.

 

But damn the duma is a fine piece of hardware for preventing saturation on your network... ;)

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