[SOLVED] Best VDSL Modem/Router for bandwidth control

[av-115]

I need to be able to set bandwidth limits for individual devices on my network. I know that download bandwidth control isn't effective in all cases, but in my situation it is multiple devices streaming video (mostly Netflix & YouTube) at high resolutions that is causing the most problems on my 30Mb/8Mb connection. I understand that if I set a download limit for these devices (say 5Mb), in most cases videos would just stream at a lower res and use less bandwidth. Which modem/router combo is best for this task? I previously bought a TP-Link Archer VR600 but it only had QoS which didn't seem to work very effectively. My budget is £80 - £100 and I don't care about any other features.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[nigelivey]

I thought the VR600 had bandwidth management under the advanced tab?

 

[bill001g]

VDSL greatly limits your choice and many times the ISP does not even support all VDSL devices,you need to check their lists.

Likely be simpler to buy another router and place it behind your current router. If running 2 routers causes you issues...mostly this related to hosting game servers...you could try to put the VDSL device into bridge mode or you could use the DMZ option.

There are a number of routers that have the ability to limit devices to fixed up and download bandwidths. Many of the tplink models have it and so does asus. It is a matter of looking through the online manuals. Be aware there is no dynamic method that says limit all clients to EACH have say 10mbps. You can limit groups of clients so the total is limited or you can limit each client individually by ip/mac. It works as long as you do not have a lot of devices to put rules in for. Most routers have a fairly small limit to the number of rules you can put in. The cpu/memory just is not big enough but again you can tell that limit by reading the manuals before you buy the router.

 

[blocker1]

TP-Link Talon AD7200
I need to know about this router/modem. As due to higher requirement i'am thinking of buying this one. Can someone clear me out on this issue.

 

[bill001g]

That router does not have a dsl modem in it.

Now sure what you like about this router there are other tplink models that have pretty much the same software. This router supports 802.11ad which almost no end devices support. The "new" standard is 802.11ax but that is not going to really be out until later this year and very few end devices support it. I would not even consider buying 802.11ax stuff until we see how much of the hype is true. It will likely be next summer before there is much good data and availability of end user devices like phones and tablets.

 

[Rob_57]

By far the most cost effective router I've come across is the Mikrotik range of devices. They don't actually have an ADSL/VDSL device so you use your ISP or existing router for that and daisy-chain it to the Mikrotik router. The reason for this suggestion is that every Mikrotik device runs their powerful RouterOS - I have never come across such functionality in such cheap devices. The functionality of RouterOS compares very well with routers costing thousands of pounds. I bought one of these tiny little devices for about £20 in the UK:

https://mikrotik.com/product/RB931-2nD

Even this little thing can do traffic shaping that leaves every other router under £100 standing.

The downside: you have to be ready to learn a lot about RouterOS to make the most of this. But these great tutorials give a great grounding for most tasks:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_vCR9AyLDxOlexICys6z4w

There is no hand holding with RouterOS ;-) It's akin to using Linux command line compared to Windows GUI. So for example, if you want to set-up a Guest network, you have to do lots of configuration but boy do you understand how routers work under the hood.

But it's worth the investment in time. I'm about to install one in a site whereby we want to control streaming on a per device basis. Only the Mikrotik can do this without breaking the bank.

 

[Rob_57]

BTW - most QOS functions on consumer routers are pretty brute force things. RouterOS does packet sniffing to determine the type of data in the packet and then throttle just that. So it means you can really throttle streaming back but still allow HTTP traffic through at a reasonable rate. I really am impressed - caveat; I've not done a big install - yet!

 

[Rob_57]

The device I bought to experiment with is just 2.4GHz (fine for use on VDSL in shared spaces) - this is the AC device: https://mikrotik.com/product/RB952Ui-5ac2nD

It's just £50 in the UK and they throw in a PoE port... it can also be powered by POE as well!

 

[jsmithepa]

A DSL modem+router combo box is probably not the best to expect to have a well-implemented QOS function

Like a WIFI router, I suggest this on a separate box and run a dumb modem. Another plus of this is, when u switch ISP, and we all do, sooner or later, the QOS box stays with you.

To the question then, what's a good QOS box... I dunno. I use pfsense that's all I know and have no complaint. U can throw pfsense (free) into any old PC box with 2 NICs, try it out see if u like it, then can always find another smaller box, more modern CPU if u decide to stay with it. Free trial, is all up sides to me.