determining bottlenecks

J

jslater25

Limp Gawd
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Dec 8, 2006
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Hey guys - I suck at networking but I understand basic computing. So I'd appreciate a little assistance. I don't understand how to determine network bottlenecks.

I recently moved into a new house that has Cat 5e (supposedly... I haven't verified if it is 5 or 5e) throughout. My internet connection is through a company called GVTC and I believe I signed up for the 12Mbps service. They run fiber up to the house. My router is an older Apple Airport Exteme. Because it doesn't have enough ports, the AE is connected to a 8 port gigabit switch. All wired ports in the house come back to the switch.

I have several devices that use the AE wireless (the family's cell phones, iPad, laptops, etc.). But other devices use the wired connection. I have a PC (in signature) that uses wired networking, plus all the 'smart' tvs/bluray players are wired.

My kids are both heavy Netflix watchers, so they tend to have Netflix streaming in their rooms any time they are home. I'd venture a guess Netflix is setup for HD.

If I am trying to play FPS games on the desktop, is anything limiting me in terms of networking?

If I upped my internet speed, would I get what I want (faster service)? Or is there a bottleneck somewhere in my house?
 
12mbit for two Netflix streams in HD (roughly 8-10mbit) should be fine for gaming, what's your upload? Anything less than 1mbit will most likely need some shaping/qos outbound.
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
12mbit for two Netflix streams in HD (roughly 8-10mbit) should be fine for gaming, what's your upload? Anything less than 1mbit will most likely need some shaping/qos outbound.
//Danne
Click to expand...


Based on the link provided I'd say 12/1.5Mbps which is pretty decent these days and shouldn't be a problem gaming wise even with a member streaming Netflix. Now if they're all on at the same time or multiple Netflix streams are going it could impact everyone without some kind of QoS.

The exact wireless router model would probably give us a clearer picture, but I have a hard time imagining it not being able to provide 25Mbps throughput like my 2004 Linksys WRT54G could (maxed out actually). You could safely bump up to the second tier 20/3 to give yourself some room to breath.

Gaming doesn't matter much regarding bandwidth. 1Mbps up/down would be more than any game would ever possibly need. When others are using the Internet connection traffic becomes congested, which is why gaming can suck if you are downloading massive files without QoS or application level rate limiting.
 
I have a DSL service that yields 2.5M down/ 512k up. I have had 6 players at the same table playing World of Tanks (a FPS disguised as a tank simulator) and had only a 10ms increase in ping times over only 1 player. With 6 players, normal ping times were under 100ms. What would drive ping times to the 999 level was a seventh PC running Boinc starting a download or upload. Limiting the Boinc client to 10% of bandwidth fixed the problem. If your Netflix streams are approaching 100% of your bandwidth, your gaming response is probably going to suck.

Another problem will be all of the 'smart' devices randomly phoning home for updates and sending reports on your usage. If you can, adjust their settings so they get updates and such during times you are not likely to be gaming.

If your router or switch can provide reports on port usage, do some tests to get actual numbers on how much bandwidth each netflix stream uses.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys.
Both kids tend to use Netflix at the same time. For some reason neither watches normal TV or any of the ~300 bluray dvd's we own.

Doing a quick search, it doesn't look like Apple's products have any type of QoS support. So I might need to swap out for a different router.
 
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