Setting up QoS on a wireless router

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flwolf

Limp Gawd
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Jun 13, 2003
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Even though I have a wireless-n router, my streaming videos that I play from a NAS drive will stutter and stop if I browse the web at the same time.

The router I have allows QoS to be setup on it but I don't know what settings I should use to give priority to the AVI files that I stream on my own network. Would any of you know how I would do this? It's a D-Link 655 router.

Thanks.
 
youll need to figure out what port is being used to stream the content.

then give that port priority.

or even easier is set web traffic (80, 443) to the lowest priority
 
Are you playing over a wireless connection? Or a wired?

I am going to assume you are playing over wired. With the D-Link DIR-655 you can only prioritize outgoing traffic, such as requests made to a web site, connections to your VoIP service provider, etc. You can also de-prioritize outgoing traffic (such as p2p requests) from a computer or certain ports. You can't prioritize incoming traffic.

Assign your NAS drive a static IP (DHCP Reservation) under the Setup -> Network Settings tab. Then create a QoS rule like my Vonage rule pictured below:



If you are streaming wirelessly, then your wireless sync speed may be the issue. In that case, look under Status -> Wireless to see your current sync speed. If it is less than 54Mbps, you might try changing your wireless channel under Setup -> Wireless Settings.
 
I'm streaming wirelessly. I'll check the sync speed when I get home, but my laptop tells me I'm connected at 130mbps. If I use the Apple Airport Extreme N router, I get a link speed of 300mbps. My machine is a brand new Macbook Pro with 4 gigs of ram.

It's funny how I can stream a video and also copy a 700mb file across the wireless network at the same time and have zero stutters or stops. But if I browse to one web page the problem starts.
 
KenF said:
Are you playing over a wireless connection? Or a wired?

I am going to assume you are playing over wired. With the D-Link DIR-655 you can only prioritize outgoing traffic, such as requests made to a web site, connections to your VoIP service provider, etc. You can also de-prioritize outgoing traffic (such as p2p requests) from a computer or certain ports. You can't prioritize incoming traffic.

Assign your NAS drive a static IP (DHCP Reservation) under the Setup -> Network Settings tab. Then create a QoS rule like my Vonage rule pictured below:



If you are streaming wirelessly, then your wireless sync speed may be the issue. In that case, look under Status -> Wireless to see your current sync speed. If it is less than 54Mbps, you might try changing your wireless channel under Setup -> Wireless Settings.
Click to expand...

I tried what you suggested but it made no difference. The 655 says my speed is 117. This is driving me nuts.
 
Ok, here's what you do:

By default, the DIR-655 uses 20MHz channels so as avoid any negative impact on nearby 802.11g networks, which is why you see that 117Mbs sync speed. To see higher speeds, you need to enable 40MHz mode. If all devices on your network are 802.11n compatible, then try the following:

Under Setup -> Wireless Settings -> Manual Wireless Setup ->
Choose 802.11n only
Channel Width: Auto 20/40MHz
Transmission Rate: Best

Even if all your devices are not 802.11n network compatible, still change the channel width to Auto 20/40MHz, although I'm not sure that 40MHz mode will work if you have legacy 802.11g devices on your network.

Under QoS engine, make sure Dynamic Fragmentation is disabled.
Under Advanced -> Firewall Settings, disable all Application Level Gateways (ALGs).

The current firmware has a bug that reduces throughput with WPA enabled, so you want to use WPA2 instead. Under Setup -> Wireless Settings, make sure you are using "WPA2 Only" with AES, and not WPA. For testing purposes, you can also try None.

Let me know how it goes.
 
The only thing I haven't done that is on your list is disable the ALG's. It was already on N only, WPA2 only, Auto 20/40, etc. I'm surprised this router doesn't have a 5ghz option.

One thing I have noticed is that when the video stutters or stops, the wireless traffic goes to zero and then starts up again. I don't think it's a specific router problem because it does it with both N routers I've tried.

I just looked at my rate speed and it now says 78 instead of 117. It seems to fluctuate. 78 for an N router sucks. The status shows it is using mode 11ng even though I have it set to N only.

I also upgraded to the new 1.04 firmware.

I'll disable the ALG's and see what happens.
 
Ok, I have determined it's a Mac OS problem. If I boot into Windows XP via Bootcamp, I have zero problems streaming the video.

Now the thing is, what on earth in OS X is causing this?
 
Adding more info in the hopes someone can help figure this out.

When the video is streaming and I click to bring up the next web page, the video completely stops. The web pages loads immediately and completely. Once the web page is completely done, the wireless traffic drops to zero. During this time the video has stopped. Sometimes it can take many seconds for the traffic to start and the video to start up again. When the video has stopped, I can still browse web pages normally, so it's not all traffic stopping. It's as if OS X is losing all connection to the NAS drive. Again, none of this happens if I run Windows XP under Bootcamp.

If the video has stopped for a longer than normal time, VLC will give me a pop up window telling me ffmpeg has dropped a bunch of frames and asking if my computer is too slow, which definitely isn't the case.

Is OS X not very good at dealing with multiple network streams?
 
flwolf said:
Ok, I have determined it's a Mac OS problem. If I boot into Windows XP via Bootcamp, I have zero problems streaming the video.

Now the thing is, what on earth in OS X is causing this?
Click to expand...
Is OS X not very good at dealing with multiple network streams?
Reply With Quote
Click to expand...
It could be a bug in the OS or it could be a driver issue.

A few months ago, you would see intermittent drops with a 802.11n connection on Windows when using the DIR-655 and Apple Airport Extreme. Some people blamed the router. However, the problem was actually the 802.11n driver on Windows. Atheros and others have since issued newer Windows drivers that resolved the problem.

That does sound like a slightly different issue than what you are experiencing with the Mac, since those drops would be random and intermittent (i.e. up to several times a day), whereas your issue occurs only when you stream media. Hopefully an OS update and/or driver update will address the problem on your Mac.
 
The connection doesn't drop and disconnect. Just the video stream from the NAS drive to the Mac stops. I can still access the drive even when the video stops. I can stream a video and copy a huge file from the same NAS drive at the same time and everything works perfectly. It's just the web surfing that kills it. This really is a strange one.
 
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