[SOLVED] Netgear Nighthawk R7400 QOS Issues

[tarnished88]

Hey everyone. I’m pretty new at this networking stuff, but hoping someone can help me out.

I have been using an ISP provided modem/router for a couple years with a DSL connection. I am supposed to be getting 30mbps, but all my recent tests are showing 10-15mbps. Here’s my issue:

The devices we mainly use are my gaming pc, connected via Ethernet to a Netgear switch then to the modem/router, and an Apple TV 4K (for streaming) also connected to the same switch via Ethernet. The issue over the past year has been latency issues, packet loss and lag while I am gaming online while my wife is simultaneously streaming YouTube tv via the Apple TV. There is no lag or latency issues if there is no streaming. Also, obviously, if someone sends a picture/video message on their phone via WiFi while I am online gaming it creates major lag and gaming interruption.

I decided to finally solve this issue by purchasing my own router on Black Friday, one with QOS so that I could manually manage and prioritize connections. I grabbed a Netgear R7400 from Best Buy for a good deal, finally got it set up and working with the modem, set up a QOS rule (the only rule) to have the PC set as the highest device, but it has made no difference. Packet loss, high ping, and lag is still there while simultaneous streaming is happening.

Am I doing something wrong? Did I buy the wrong router, or not a good enough router for my purpose? Any other insight of how to solve my issue? Switching internet providers is not a viable solution. I live in Alaska where I pay $90/mo for my advertised as 30mbps unlimited data connection. The other company’s unlimited plan is $180/mo and I am not paying that.

Please help if you can, thanks.

 

[Ralston18]

QoS on most home use routers is fairly limited in scope.

Have you tried swapping out cables with known working cables?

DSL:

Somewhere along the incoming wire from your ISP there is likely a splitter (sometimes referred to as a filter) used to divide telephone service and internet service.

I.e., one wire in and two out: One wire out goes to the telephone and the second wire out goes to the router.

FYI:

https://internet-access-guide.com/how-to-use-a-dsl-filter/

You can google for more information and details as you deem necessary. Add "image" to your search criteria.

The splitters are made very cheaply and can become problematic and failure prone.

 

[bill001g]

But what does "highest" mean. Does it always go first or only some amount of packets. How does it divide the bandwidth up.

Pretty much this is a worthless QoS option.

The only way to make this work is if you have some method to reserve bandwidth for you machine or restrict other machines to some value that will guarantee some bandwidth left. How you do this varies greatly from router to router.

Even then most only do a good job on the upload bandwidth they attempt to limit download but it is actually silly since by the time the router see traffic from the ISP it has already used up the bandwidth. You can't tell the ISP to take the packet back and send something else.

So your first thing to determine is if you are using all your upload bandwidth. This tends to only be a concern on DSL connection because other media get at least say 10mbps and you can't use that much unless you live stream or backup data to the cloud

Some people barely get 1mbps on dsl and that will barely be enough for online games. The QoS will work but the end result on a connection that small will be to pretty much block all other traffic when you are playing the game.