Worth buying a new router for QoS?

[Drystoner]

In my home network there is usually about 6 active devices. The download speed is 40 mbps and upload 5 mbps.

While gaming even with ethernet, I get major ping spikes. On average I usually get 30 to 40 ms depending on the server. But when there is more traffic I get spikes anywhere from 100 ms to 500 ms.

Would buying a third party router that offers QoS be worth it in this scenario?

I'm planning to allocate 4 mpbs down and 0.2 mpbs upload per device. It is limited bandwidth to work with, but that's the fastest offered in this area.

[76561198343548661]

Getting a wi-fi router improved my Internet connection and has enabled me to play on-line multiplayers (racing games) . Whithout it , the connection often broke and i was losing and got screwed up . But you hope by changing the router to get the things better , it would hardly happen . Who knows .

[Drystoner]

Messaggio originale di smallcat:

Getting a wi-fi router improved my Internet connection and has enabled me to play on-line multiplayers (racing games) . Whithout it , the connection often broke and i was losing and got screwed up . But you hope by changing the router to get the things better , it would hardly happen .

Hopefully, as the one provided just has limited options on the admin panel, and doesn't handle traffic too well. It also does suck that we get such low bandwidth, but many parts of the UK are very far behind in network infrastructure.

[76561198343548661]

if your connection over the cable is ,for instance , 80Mbit/s and the router is capable of 1200Mbit per sec , the speed would not exceed 80Mbit /s in total . If the router is better and handles better the connections , perhaps it could help but it is unlikely to happen .

[Drystoner]

Messaggio originale di smallcat:

if yoru connection over the cable is ,for instance , 80Mbit/s and the router is capable of 1200Mbit per sec , the speed would not exceed 80Mbit /s . If the router is better and handles better the connections , perhaps it could help but it is unlikely to happen .

Yeah, I'm not expecting a difference in speed, just removal of ping spikes using QoS controls.

Bufferbloat is a very big problem for gamers with a family!

[76561198343548661]

They re not too expensive .Might give it a try . 50 euro or less

edit
Our router is Dual Band TP-LINK AC1200 Archer C50 v4 , 4 antennas. Works great but i cant tell whether it has the features you re looking for . It is standing there , no one touches it .

[Drystoner]

Messaggio originale di smallcat:

They re not too expensive .Might give it a try . 50 euro or less

edit
Our router is Dual Band TP-LINK AC1200 Archer C50 . Works great but i cant tell whether it has the features you re looking for . It standing there , no one touches it .

Can you limit download and upload per device on the TP Link admin panel?

[76561198343548661]

Cant tell , the menu is so long . And i am scared of changing something in the wrong way . It is very unpleasant job fiddling there in the menu

[Drystoner]

Messaggio originale di smallcat:

Cant tell , the menu is so long . And i am scared of changing something in the wrong way . It is very unpleasant job fiddling there in the menu

If you do mess up you should be able to factory reset to default settings.

[emoticorpse]

Definitely worth it yes for that reason. I've pretty much always used the manual QOS settings in my ASUS router.

[Azza ☠]

No and yes...

If you really need Wifi for gaming purposes or streaming 4K movies like Netflix, etc, in which a ethernet cable can't reach, then what you want is a Mesh Router with a Wifi 6 or 6E backend.

A Mesh Router will cost a bit, but give you one or more Satellites to place in other areas of your house. Ideal if you have quite a large house. Position a Satellite nearby the devices requiring high bandwidth via the Wifi. Then rather connecting those devices via Wifi, get short Ethernet cable(s), ideally CAT 5E or 6 cable type, to plug them into the back of the Satellite. You now won't need to go purchase multiple Wifi 6 adapters for each device to make full usage of the Router wifi faster bandwidth, as the Satellite will have a perm connection to the Router.

That will also reduce the amount of other devices on the actual Wifi, reducing traffic on the other Wifi channels.

Consider the devices plugged into the Satellite(s) as the highest priority, rather than even bothering to setup QoS. You still have that option available too, but likely won't need it.

Tip: If you are bothering to buy a third party router, make sure it's one of the very highest end ones and your Wifi receivers match what it can support, if not wired in a Mesh. There's no point getting a quality router, while your devices wifi adapter can't support it's new features, such as Wifi 6, beamforming, duel channel, or dead zone avoidance, etc.

[Drystoner]

Messaggio originale di Azza ☠:

No and yes...

If you really need Wifi for gaming purposes or streaming 4K movies like Netflix, etc, then what you want is a Mesh Router with a Wifi 6 or 6E backend.

A Mesh Router will cost a bit, but give you one or more Satellites to place in other areas of your house. Ideal if you have quite a large house. Position a Satellite nearby the devices requiring high bandwidth via the Wifi. Then rather connecting those devices via Wifi, get short Ethernet cable(s), ideally CAT 5E or 6 cable type, to plug them into the back of the Satellite. You now won't need to go purchase multiple Wifi 6 adapters for each device to make full usage of the Router wifi faster bandwidth, as the Satellite will have a perm connection to the Router.

That will also reduce the amount of other devices on the actual Wifi, reducing traffic on the other Wifi channels.

Consider the devices plugged into the Satellite(s) as the highest priority, rather than even bothering to setup QoS. You still have that option available too, but likely won't need it.

WiFi reception for all devices are fine and I use CAT 5e cables for gaming devices.

However, due to the bandwidth capping out it causes games to get ping spikes as games still need a tiny bit of download speed and upload to maintain low ping.

QoS or anything similar should ensure there is no bufferbloat.

So really, any cheap WIFI router with QoS should do the trick. Of course ideally I'd want it to have decent specs so it doesn't die when all devices are in use or cause me to have to reset it daily to clear the cache.

[Drystoner]

Messaggio originale di emoticorpse:

Definitely worth it yes for that reason. I've pretty much always used the manual QOS settings in my ASUS router.

Yeah, I've wasted time replacing cables and doing all sorts to realise my issue was actually bufferbloat.

But I'm glad my knowledge of home networking is improving! I think QOS should be a standard for any router as most people also have families with devices. I guess it's more so important for stuff like gaming or anything that needs a consistent ping.

[Azza ☠]

Messaggio originale di Kim Wexler:

Messaggio originale di Azza ☠:

No and yes...

If you really need Wifi for gaming purposes or streaming 4K movies like Netflix, etc, then what you want is a Mesh Router with a Wifi 6 or 6E backend.

A Mesh Router will cost a bit, but give you one or more Satellites to place in other areas of your house. Ideal if you have quite a large house. Position a Satellite nearby the devices requiring high bandwidth via the Wifi. Then rather connecting those devices via Wifi, get short Ethernet cable(s), ideally CAT 5E or 6 cable type, to plug them into the back of the Satellite. You now won't need to go purchase multiple Wifi 6 adapters for each device to make full usage of the Router wifi faster bandwidth, as the Satellite will have a perm connection to the Router.

That will also reduce the amount of other devices on the actual Wifi, reducing traffic on the other Wifi channels.

Consider the devices plugged into the Satellite(s) as the highest priority, rather than even bothering to setup QoS. You still have that option available too, but likely won't need it.

WiFi reception for all devices are fine and I use CAT 5e cables for gaming devices.

However, due to the bandwidth capping out it causes games to get ping spikes as games still need a tiny bit of download speed and upload to maintain low ping.

QoS or anything similar should ensure there is no bufferbloat.

So really, any cheap WIFI router with QoS should do the trick. Of course ideally I'd want it to have decent specs so it doesn't die when all devices are in use or cause me to have to reset it daily to clear the cache.

Wifi signal quality depends on many factors, that QoS won't be able to fix.

However, what is your ISP connection type? Cable? Fibre? VDSL? ADSL?

What are your current Wifi adapters for the devices or at least the main one?

How many users are normally on the network at a time? What type of activities do they mostly do? Web-browsing? Gaming? Streaming?

[Drystoner]

Messaggio originale di Azza ☠:

Messaggio originale di Kim Wexler:

WiFi reception for all devices are fine and I use CAT 5e cables for gaming devices.

However, due to the bandwidth capping out it causes games to get ping spikes as games still need a tiny bit of download speed and upload to maintain low ping.

QoS or anything similar should ensure there is no bufferbloat.

So really, any cheap WIFI router with QoS should do the trick. Of course ideally I'd want it to have decent specs so it doesn't die when all devices are in use or cause me to have to reset it daily to clear the cache.

Wifi signal quality depends on many factors, that QoS won't be able to fix.

However, what is your ISP connection type? Cable? Fibre? VDSL? ADSL?

What are your current Wifi adapters for the devices or at least the main one?

How many users are normally on the network at a time? What type of activities do they mostly do? Web-browsing? Gaming? Streaming?

I'm not looking to improve the wireless devices signal. The QoS is purely to put a cap on the other devices. Normally there is 6 users connected at the same time, streaming, using apps like tiktok etc. I need to split up the download and upload sizes equally between all the devices while still leaving a small amount for when I'm gaming. That way I don't get those ping spikes due to having download and uploads capped out because someone is watching 4k Netflix. Instead they'll be limited to SD or HD. Which is fine.

But really I want it set up so that the gaming wired devices are the priority and always get low ping with no spikes no matter what. Even if all devices are being used.

[Drystoner]

Messaggio originale di Azza ☠:

Messaggio originale di Kim Wexler:

WiFi reception for all devices are fine and I use CAT 5e cables for gaming devices.

However, due to the bandwidth capping out it causes games to get ping spikes as games still need a tiny bit of download speed and upload to maintain low ping.

QoS or anything similar should ensure there is no bufferbloat.

So really, any cheap WIFI router with QoS should do the trick. Of course ideally I'd want it to have decent specs so it doesn't die when all devices are in use or cause me to have to reset it daily to clear the cache.

Wifi signal quality depends on many factors, that QoS won't be able to fix.

However, what is your ISP connection type? Cable? Fibre? VDSL? ADSL?

What are your current Wifi adapters for the devices or at least the main one?

How many users are normally on the network at a time? What type of activities do they mostly do? Web-browsing? Gaming? Streaming?

Also I'm going to assume my ISP connection type is VDSL, even though my socket is ADSL. I still get 40 mbps which is much more than the 24 mbps limit of ADSL.