XR300 QoS settings for only 24mbps Down / 1.7mbps Up

[!TIMMY!]

I have just got a XR300 and I am liking it so far.  I have watched a load of video's on Youtube about setting it up but all those people have really fast connections.  I am getting 24mbps down / 1.7mbps up and that's the fastest my Fibre line supports due to where I live.  What is the best QoS settings for a slower connection?  Is it still 70% Anti-Bufferbloat and assigning 20%ish download and upload bandwidth allocation to my gaming PC (which I have identified as a 'Playstation' for the Geo filtering)?  20% of 1.7mbps isn't much!  I don't game on a console and I want to be able to game smoothly on my PC when other people start watching Netflix and streaming video's from social media apps.

 

Also, do I want to enable ipv6?  My ISP supports it but I think it's disabled by default.

 

p.s. I am on the latest firmware.

 

Thanks in advance!

[!TIMMY!]

I have been testing with the different settings and I have found the only way to not have lag spikes is to disable 'share excess' on the download on QoS.  I would rather be able to control it with anti-bufferbloat if anyone can help.

At the recommended settings as above, my ping in cs:go (on my own rented server with only me connected) is around 27-29 (using net_graph 1) when not streaming Netflix on the Chromecast.  When I start a video on the Chromecast, my ping will shoot up to around 120 and then settle back down to around 30.  Every 5-10 seconds it will shoot up again to either 50/60/70/80 or sometimes 100+ when Netflix downloads a chunk of video.  Then it settles back down again when Netflix isn't downloading video.  The ping changes a lot at this setting.

Reducing the download anti-bufferbloat % helps and the ping spikes don't go as high, more around 50/60 with the occasional 100+ when set at 25%.  This is better but still causes noticeable spikes.

If I disable the download 'share excess' and set the Chromcast to 5mb (enough for HD video) and my PC to 6mb download, the ping spikes are more like 40/50 and only very occasionally it will go above 60.  The ping is a lot more stable and doesn't fluctuate as much in this settings.  This is the best setting I have so far found but it does mean I have to remember to go in and disable 'share excess' before gaming and enable it afterwards.  Ideally I would like the anti-bufferbloat to do this for me but it seems to allow the Chromecast to have enough download to cause the spikes.

I did test to check if the anti-bufferbloat was working and on my PC, if I run a speed test with no game running I get the full speeds (with 'When high priority detected' selected).  When I run a game and then run a speed test it capped my PC at the correct % of the anti-bufferbloat.  Also it seems to detect 'High priority traffic' correctly.  I also tried changing the upload settings, but that didn't seem to make a difference and on the network monitor, the Chromecast isn't uploading much at all.

So I don't know if the Chromecast is not following the rules correctly unless I force it to, by disabling the download 'share excess'.  Or if the XR300 is giving it too much bandwidth from the anti-bufferbloat thinking its available, or not reacting quickly enough when the Chromecast wants to download a big chunk of video.

[Netduma Admin]

Hi Timmy - I recommend you follow this guide to get you started on the best QoS settings:

http://support.netduma.com/support/solutions/articles/16000077073-dumaos-optimal-settings-guide-qos

In general, setting Anti-BB to about 70% will be good for most connections. 

Follow that guide and if you still have any questions, just let us know. 

[!TIMMY!]

Thanks for the reply.  I did use that guide as a base for when I started, along with all the other guides you have written which are very useful.

I have done so more testing today and I think I have come across a better setting.  First thing I tested today was changing the anti-bufferbloat from 'When high priority traffic detected' to 'Always on' and back on the default recommended 70% on the sliders and 'allows excess' enabled again.  'Always on' did reduce the amount of lag spikes in csgo when watching Netflix and also how bad they were.  Maybe the XR300 is a little slow in taking back the extra bandwidth it gave to the Chromcast when in 'When high priority traffic detected'? 

I then started to reduce the download % slider and the more I reduced it the more stable my ping was.  When I hit 30% it was very stable.  I then started to do the same with the upload % but it didn't get better, if anything it got a little worse.  I ended up at 85% on the upload.  I have only tested with Netflix on the Chromecast and also browsing Facebook and watching video's on my phone at the same time while in my csgo server; but my ping was really stable at 27 and only ever increased to about 35 occasionally and then settled back down to 27.  It does mean I have to either change the anti-bufferbloat setting in the router everytime I start and finish gaming, or leave it 'Always on' and my speeds capped at 7mbps download and 1.4mbps upload.

I'll do some more testing with different loads on the download and upload while in csgo.

[Klesk Reaver]

How does the CPU usage on the router look like @!TIMMY!? when playing CS:GO and streaming Netflix, do you have a 2nd monitor to keep an eye on it? I have been curious about the XR300 as I have seen some issues focused on that model

[!TIMMY!]

I played a few games last night while someone else was watching Youtube on the Chromcast and I didn't notice any lagging and it didn't affect my game at all.  My ping did increase by about 10ms occasionally but that was it.

15 hours ago, Klesk Reaver said:

How does the CPU usage on the router look like @!TIMMY!? when playing CS:GO and streaming Netflix, do you have a 2nd monitor to keep an eye on it? I have been curious about the XR300 as I have seen some issues focused on that model

I have just played 5 minutes to check for you, this is watching Netflix on the Chromecast and also streaming the radio as well as playing csgo.  The CPU usage mostly stayed in the 20-40% range with spikes to 50-60% occasionally.  So nothing to worry about on that front.

[Netduma Fraser]

Now that you found that percentage for download that works well does it continue to work as well with High Priority Traffic detected?

[!TIMMY!]

I changed the way I had my Billion modem/router and the XR300 set up as per my other thread so it's more optimally set up now.  I have started testing the Anti-bufferbloat 'When High Priority Traffic detected' setting.  When I tested it before I was just checking the red light came on when I joined a server and then I played a game (full screen).  I now tried playing games in windowed mode so I could keep an eye on the red light.  My conclusion is that the red light keeps coming on and then going off throughout the gaming session at certain settings.  When it's on and I perform a speed test, the speeds are limited to what I set on the Anti-bufferbloat.  When the light is off the speed test is not limited and goes to my max bandwidth.  So the Anti-bufferbloat functionality is working, it is detection of high priority traffic that is not working correctly on some settings.  I think this is one reason I was getting lag spikes, if the Netflix stream wants to download a chunk of data when the red light is off, the XR300 gives it the extra bandwidth and then my game lags. 

I tried with various different traffic prioritisation settings with CSGO:

Just 'DumaOS classified games' ticked

The red light kept going on and off; the high priority traffic packets consistently increased on both the upload and download.

'DumaOS classified games' un-ticked, Source profile selected for my PC

The red light rarely turned on and was mostly off; the high priority traffic packets only increased on both the upload and download when the light was on which wasn't very often.

'DumaOS classified games' un-ticked, Games Console profile selected for my PC

This was the same as just 'DumaOS classified games' ticked.

'DumaOS classified games' un-ticked, CSGO ports manually added (no other profile selected)

The red light stayed on; the high priority traffic packets consistently increased on both the upload and download at a lower rate than with just 'DumaOS classified games' ticked.

So the best setting seemed to be the last one, but I do have that issue where the red light stays on sometimes even after stopping playing, closing steam and also shutting down my PC (the high priority packets don't move at all).  Only rebooting the router clears it.

Therefore the best option I have at the moment is to manually set the Anti-bufferbloat to 'Always' and 'Never' when I am gaming/not gaming and having the 'DumaOS Classified Games' ticked.  Then I know all other traffic is consistently limited to my Anti-bufferbloat percentage and my game traffic is always being identified as 'high priority'.

[Netduma Fraser]

We are aware of some issues with Traffic Prio on the XR300 so sounds like that is what you are experiencing. We will fix that for the next version.