[SOLVED] QOS for a nursing home

[johnwhelan3316]

The nursing home has 34 residents and a number of staff. Many residents have a phone but have difficulty hearing so using Skype with a headset would offer an advantage and lower costs to residents. ie get rid of 30 odd phone lines.

The internet connection is limited. Fine for 36 voice conversations using skype but not enough for 36 video connections.

Is there a simple way to limit the skype calls to voice only on the router. ASUS router based solutions please. The router has yet to be purchased.

Thanks John

 

[bill001g]

Going to be messy with that many devices. It would be nice if you could put a rules in that says sessions to skype can only be 30kbps per call.

Normal non high quality video calling is only 128kbps. Your 36 phones even if there where all active at the same time would use less than 5mbps.

To really do this you would have to put in a rules for each ip and limit it to say 30kbps up and down for traffic going to skype ip. Problem is most systems do not let you put in that many rules. The CPU is not very powerful in a router and when you consider it must scan the rule list for every packet that passes it does not take much to overload a router.

It is pretty easy to limit the bandwidth on a pc. Not sure if skype was being used from a cell phone what limitation on bandwidth you have.

Maybe just tell people not to use HD video calls and monitor the traffic. If someone does it give them a warning that if they keep it up you will block their ability to use skype. Firewall rules are much simpler than QoS traffic limiters.

 

[jsmithepa]

Am a bit surprised can't configure Skype for voice only but oh well.

There should be lots of other VOIP options to rid of dinosaur POTS. A coworker brags about Magic Jack and he's not a techie.