Router with a high degree of control

[euanp]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me with some advice. I'm looking to replace my home wifi router with one that allows me control over user bandwidth (QoS?). My son is a gamer who constantly maxes out our connection, making it difficult for the rest of us. Ideally, the router would offer good wif speeds, decent number of fast LAN ports and a user-friendly UI. Our home network is quite busy, with up to 15 devices connected at any one time.

Recommendations would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

 

[Ralston18]

What is your budget?

Start with the following links:

https://www.highgroundgaming.com/best-routers-for-gaming/

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-wifi-routers,review-2498.html

Select two routers that are within your budget and then focus your research on just those two routers for now.

Go to the manufacturer's website and find the applicable User Guide/Manual. Read the manual and be sure to read through the Section on QoS. Learn what QoS settings are available and the options within.

Also read the Forums, FAQs, and other product reviews by verified buyers and professional sites such as Tom's Hardware.

If neither router seems acceptable then select two other routers and repeat the process.

There will be trade-offs (e.g., more QoS settings, less user-friendly) and only you can make the decisions accordingly.

Main thing is that you will learn more as you go and end up with a router selection that meets your overall requirements along with any acceptable trade-offs.

 

[euanp]

Thanks Ralston18, excellent reply and very much appreciated.

 

[bill001g]

It is likely something else that is eating your bandwidth. Most times it is the gamer complaining someone else is eating the bandwidth. Other than downloading the game most online games run in the500kbps range of usage there are a couple that are closer to 1mbit but most are far less. Now this of course is constant unlike most other web traffic and it is both upload and download.

Still it should not be enough traffic to affect other users. Your problem is you can't really limit it to less than that. If you try to reduce it below the value the game needs it pretty much makes the game not work. Unlike some other applications that will just run a little slower a game will be completely unusable if you try to reduce it below the required levels. You might as well just completely block it.

 

[euanp]

Thanks Bill - that's really helpful. Still, I'm hoping that a more sophisticated router than the one provided by my ISP will help me to diagnose this and other problems, as and when they arise. And having a second, separate router will also allow me to remove him from the network whenever I overhear him shouting expletives at Fortnite without cutting everyone elses connection.

 

[bill001g]

Yes parental controls are very nice things to have at times. Both asus and tplink have fairly good QoS in factory firmware images and many asus routers you can load the merlin image which is closer to things like dd-wrt but much simpler to install and configure.

Be aware you need to keep the rules as simple as possible since the cpu in routers are not real powerful. I suspect you do not have a high speed internet connection...ie over 200mbps...but if you do you can not use QoS feature in the routers. They turn off the hardware nat acceleration and move all the traffic back to the cpu and most routers cap out at about 250mbps rather than being able to run gbit with the hardware acceleration.

 

[failboat]

Gaming uses less than 1Mbs. what speed are you paying for? It's unlikely the gaming is slowing you down.