Geofilter Un-commanded Switch-Off

[Unfinished]

My geofilter has switched itself off again. I don't know when, but I know that it's happened as the ping is erratic and jumps up. It's a good demonstration actually of how good the R2 is, because there is a big difference in online gameplay when it's working.

I cannot determine if the QoS features are active still, as I cannot get into the interface when this happens to know for sure. The internet is still connected, for now.

I'm just mentioning this as a heads up that the R2 is still unstable, it's seems better with the latest firmware, but we have a way to go still.

[Unfinished]

Update.

I've just noticed that one of the Xboxes was downloading an update and hogging the bandwidth, which must mean that the QoS isn't working either, as when I paused the update on Xbox No.1, Xbox No.2 running Apex returned to its normal ping level. Geofilter still not working.

I can reset later when everyone else has turned in and no longer using the internet.

[Netduma Fraser]

When it happens, do you have to do a factory reset to restore proper functionality and have access to the interface again? It would be really useful to get the logs as an error was likely thrown.

[Unfinished]

Unfortunately there is never any prospect of getting the logs, as when it goes down, the interface goes down too.

A power cycle is all that is needed to get things back in order.

It does seem coincidental to large data downloads/ heavy internet load.

Later, when I'm done, I'll start a couple of game updates and leave the interface open on the logs page. I'll be able to do a screen grab if the R2 fails during this period.

[Netduma Fraser]

That would be great if you could thank you, hopefully that will give us an insight into what is happening.

[Unfinished]

I haven't managed to capture a drop-out yet, but have caught something conclusive.

I had removed my Xboxes from the Geofilter earlier today and was in the process of re-adding them, the first went ok, but when I tried to add the second Xbox, the geofilter Rapp hung at the applying settings phase and then I lost the GUI.

I still have internet connection at the moment though.

[Netduma Fraser]

Interesting, I assume they would have had the console service once added? Are the MAC and IP addresses of both consoles different? Have you setup any manual port forwarding rules?

[Unfinished]

No, no port forwarding and MAC addresses are different.

I was also wondering what the correct operation of the QoS function was in terms of throttling data transfers, I have "Duma Classified Games" selected and "Always", but I have to switch the QoS to "Never" to allow full download bandwidth on the Xboxes if they are updating. As far as I was aware, the QoS was for gaming traffic only, but maybe it is just a 'per device' setting? That would make adding individual devices redundant though.

With the current way the R2 seems to operate, I have to manually turn on/off the QoS to manage bandwidth when updating, as my internet is so slow an update can take 24 hours for a big game/season update if I don't turn QoS off.

[Netduma Fraser]

Can you reproduce the Geo-Filter issue each time?

Congestion Control on the whole will throttle the entire connection as it works for the home not just gaming. You shouldn't have to do that though, it could indicate Traffic Prio is prioritizing when it shouldn't be - is there a game open while downloading?

[Unfinished]

No game running, just game updates. I don't have the bandwidth to game and download at the same time, well, I can, but it usually results in a miserable gaming experience.

QoS needs to be turned off to allow the Xboxes full bandwidth so as to not need two or three days for an update. As for the Geofilter, it's very apparent when it fails, but which Geofilter issue do you mean?

The GUI is currently inaccessible, as it quite often is unless I power cycle the R2 two or three times a day.

[Netduma Fraser]

Okay I'll need to get the team to check this.

As in are you consistently able to make the Geo-Filter crash and cause the UI to be inaccessible but it sounds like you can. If you don't use the Geo-Filter does the issue still occur?

[Unfinished]

I'd need to have a play around with it and I'm going to be busy today, but maybe later I can try a few things and provoke it to fail.

 

 

[Unfinished]

I've managed to grab a log when I had an intermittent drop out. Do you want the log in a PM?

There looks to be a memory issue.

 

[Netduma Fraser]

Yes please, that would be good thanks.

[Unfinished]

Incoming.

Message sent with log as text.

 

[Netduma Fraser]

Great thanks, I'll check and pass on to the team.

[Netduma Adrian]

Hi @Unfinished, its Adrian from the dev team.

First, we are sorry for the error you are experimenting. The log you sent is very useful, and we have a couple of related questions:

• How often does the issue happens? Is it happening consistently once a week aprox?
• You mentioned in one of your comments about provoking it to fail. Have you found any set of steps that can help replicating it?
• Are you having this issue only on the latest firmware, or did you had it on previous ones too?

[Unfinished]

Firstly, the problems regarding connectivity are a long term issue and none of the firmware versions are free of problems. The latest firmware is the most stable, but I still experience drop outs and I would say daily rather than weekly. Given that children are now back to school, the drop outs might be no less frequent, but not noticed as much due to less use during the day.

The geofilter issue regarding it not working, doesn't appear to have any consistency. I haven't yet had the time to sit down and try to get the GUI to crash as it did before when adding devices to the geofilter.

There appear to be a number of issues that may or may not be connected.

1. Intermittent internet and/or GUI connectivity, usually a daily occurrence, sometimes it will auto correct, other times a power cycle is required.

2. Geofilter turning itself off, or simply not working, more a weekly issue, R2 needs a power cycle to resolve this.

3. QoS seemingly not working as described. I sometimes have to turn it off to get a reasonable download speed for game updates and if a game is updating on one Xbox, there is definitely a negative effect on latency noticed on another Xbox when gaming.

4. Sometimes after a power cycle, the GUI shows the startup tips for setting QoS and Geofilter, but the settings are still intact.

I'll try to get time to play around with settings later.

[Unfinished]

This is what I have just tried, some of which should be as expected operation...

1. Congestion Control set to "Always" - Xboxes Off - Devices removed and re-added to Geofilter without issue.

2. Congestion Control set to "Always" - Xbox-Lounge on, running Apex and showing 25-39ms to London server with 0%PL

                                        - Xbox-Snug on and idle, but updating games with approx 3mbps download showing on Xbox update screen

                                        - Geofilter is off - Congestion Control has "Work from home" and each Xbox set as an independent device in TP and switched on, DumaOS classified games set to off

3. As above, but Xbox-Lounge TP set to off, running Apex and showing 26-42ms to London server with 0%PL

4. Xbox-Lounge TP back on, running Apex and showing 26-37ms to London server with 0%PL

5. Congestion Control set to "Never" - Xbox-Lounge on, running Apex and showing 49-84ms to London server with 12%PL

                                        - Xbox-Snug on and idle, but updating games with approx 2mbps download showing on Xbox update screen

                                        - Geofilter is off - TP has "Work from home" and each Xbox set as an independent device in TP and switched on, DumaOS classified games set to off

6. Congestion Control set to "Always" - Xbox-Lounge on, running Apex and showing 26-35ms to London server with 0%PL, Xbox-Snug is updating

                                        - Xbox-Lounge on, running Apex and showing 25-31ms to London server with 0%PL, Xbox-Snug updating paused

                                        - Geofilter is on

7. Congestion Control set to "Always" - TP switched off, Xboxes update at the max bandwidth that the network will allow, but with a limited bandwidth one device might hog the network.

This mainly shows that Congestion Control has a big impact on gaming latency, with Traffic Priority having a lesser effect. I don't know exactly the interaction between TP and Congestion Control, but expect that this is working as described, but it seems that latency increases caused by devices updating are not entirely eliminated by Congestion Control and/or TP and a rise in latency can be seen when a game is updating vs when updating is paused. Interestingly, there also seems to be a drop in latency when Geofilter is turned on as well.

I haven't yet been able to make the GUI fail and have yet to see the Geofilter switch off today. The problem with the Geofilter though, is that when it does stop working, the GUI is usually inaccessible  too.

 

[Netduma Adrian]

Hi again @Unfinished,

Really appreciate the effort you took into explaining all your issues. The steps to replicate the problems with QoS are very helpful! As for the other issues, we are going to try to replicate/analyze them independently and work on solutions for them.

One thing that would be useful for us is to have access to your unit, could you enable the option "Remote access to tech support", which can be found in "Network Settings" > "WAN"? We would like to grab some more verbose logs which could help us with some of the issues described.

[Unfinished]

It's done.

[Netduma Adrian]

Many thanks, its working and I have access. Please let us know of any issues you experience, we are going to work on what you reported so far for the moment.

We'll keep you updated about our progress and if we have any more questions.

[Netduma Jack B]

Hi @Unfinished
All those steps you've described above regarding Congestion Control and Traffic Prio seem normal. If you need to download and game at the same time take the XBOX that is downloading out of traffic prio - this will ensure that all the gaming XBOX will be getting all the bandwidth it needs whilst the other will get whats left over. Also try setting Congestion Control to auto-enable this means that the R2 will only throttle when a High Priority Traffic rule is triggered.

[Unfinished]

Thanks for the response. The steps listed were more for the record as to what troubleshooting steps I had taken so far. Things seem to be more or less working as I would have expected

The setup FAQ on the website suggests using "Always" for a busy household, so I leave it at that. Is "Auto" the better option?

Regarding the switching in and out of TP for various Xboxes, is this not rather impractical, as games are updated frequently and there would be a need to constantly monitor for game updates? 

Does a game update/download not get filtered out as something other than gaming traffic if the device is listed under an individual TP rule or with DumaOS classified games enabled? It's this bit that I'm not sure about, as an Xbox is primarily a gaming device, but was also conceived as a multimedia platform, so users could run into bandwidth problems if congestion control isn't setup accordingly. For example, if I have three xboxes in the network and one is updating downloading/streaming a movie, I would have expected the other two to be allocated a proportion of the allotted bandwidth setup in congestion control and not be impacted by any other device, irrespective of its TP status. eg I have CC set to 75%, so 25% allocated for filtered devices, lets say 4.5mbps for three xboxes/1.5mbps each if shared equally. Is this 1.5mbps for gaming traffic, or is it the entire amount that the device could use for any purpose and is therefore limited to? If so, then any TP'd device running a bandwidth hungry application would need to be removed from TP for sure (for my meagre internet service anyway).

[Netduma Fraser]

I would suggest Always if you do have a busy household and auto if maybe you don't/you want full speeds when you're not gaming. 

That is what I believe it did early on, whether this has changed over time due to updates etc and it hasn't been noticed I'm not sure. I already tasked Alex with testing it when you first mentioned so we'll find out soon enough.