Advice on Latency/bandwidth QOS

[edC]

Hi,

I've been using the XR500 router and bought it partly to help control network traffic a bit more.
I play games on a computer that is plugged into my XR500 via a powerline wallplug. This runs with acceptable latency the majority of the time. 
I would get latency where our TV (plugged in via the same powerline) would use streaming services - which makes total sense being a bottleneck.
I tried to use the QOS settings on the router to fix this problem originally without success, but since the Wifi was now strong enough with this router I decided that should avoid that issue.

However, today our Apple TV was streaming over Wifi and I was trying to play and I again was getting the latency. It looked from the monitor like it was using up to about 70mbps of data to stream.
My game should use minimal bandwidth and I receive around 400mbps download 35 mbps upload from the isp. From what I understand that means I have plenty of spare bandwidth and if there was some collision somewhere the various QOS settings should help with that.

Thanks if you can help in anyway!

[Netduma Fraser]

Hey, welcome to the forum!

I would recommend following this optimal settings guide for QoS: http://support.netduma.com/en/support/solutions/articles/16000077073-dumaos-optimal-settings-guide-qos

That should resolve your issue but if not let us know and we'll be happy to help further.

[edC]

Hi,

I've tried all those steps already that's why I was puzzled. More specifically I set UDP prioritisation for ports  27000 - 27960 on my PC. I tried Anti-Bufferbloat to 70%. And various amounts of data on the diagrams.

What I was seeing when testing was that every time the data peaked, it would also lag directly in the game., Regardless of which QoS options I was using.

Thanks

[Netduma Fraser]

What is your exact physical setup e.g. ISP modem/router (some wired/wireless devices) > powerline > XR > console

70% is a good starting point but isn't perfect for every network. Are those the only ports you're prioritizing as it's unlikely they're the only ones used for the game. What game/platform are you using?

[edC]

It goes:
ISP ONT > XR500 > Powerline > PC

ISP ONT > XR500 > Wifi > AppleTV or TV.

When testing there is basically no other internet activity going on.

I understand its a guideline at 70% but I did try a few others as well. As my traffic was reaching 70mbps, I'd assume that I'm not even at high traffic at this point due to my overall speed.
For port prioritisation, I first tried allowing the entire port range (1-65535) to the PC through. I then tried the more specific prioritisation, which are the most commonly used ports in Quake Live.

[Bert]

In some cases your ISP has QoS running on video streaming and that can conflict with your router's QoS. Ie when your router tries to choke the video stream, their QoS in turn knows that you have 400 mbps available so chokes your other packets. Especially all in one ISP's that provide IPTV and VoIP can have a habit of doing this. A lot of them are getting in bed with various streaming services as well and for a gamer this makes matters worse. 

 

Also the way that streaming works is that it doesn't send you a single stream, but rather high bandwidth bursts. That is the issue when gaming at the same time. You can't really QoS much on incoming traffic other than limit the amount of bandwidth coming in. The way around it is to turn off share excess and limit it at device level. Apple TV for example just give it 20 Mbit or so and it should be sufficient. If you just use PC and appleTV/TV then you can live with that.

 

If you poke around the forum there is lots of issues with video streaming hugging too much bandwidth while gaming. 

 

Also the traffic meter on DumaOS is not really accurate when dealing with video streams and data bursts, the peaks are much higher in reality. 

 

I would not use powerline adapters for gaming but if you have no alternative, make sure the throughput (tested, not theoretical this is often a huge difference) on those is higher than what your ISP provides otherwise you will create a bottleneck in there.

[edC]

Hi,  thanks that makes sense, I will try and run with a more strict cap on the streaming devices then. It definitely shows that burst behaviour you talk about.

I've actually found the powerline fine for gaming for years now, I have ones rated 1200mbps which I know to this location will give me around 75mbps bandwidth in reality which is fine for gaming and latency has not been an issue - and I dont have the alternative of running a cable.

[Netduma Alex]

2 hours ago, edC said:

Hi,  thanks that makes sense, I will try and run with a more strict cap on the streaming devices then. It definitely shows that burst behaviour you talk about.

I've actually found the powerline fine for gaming for years now, I have ones rated 1200mbps which I know to this location will give me around 75mbps bandwidth in reality which is fine for gaming and latency has not been an issue - and I dont have the alternative of running a cable.

For gaming, powerline adapters are pretty good, I agree. Yeah the maximum bandwidth isn't fantastic but gaming hardly uses any bandwidth once all the patches are downloaded. It's all about that ping.