Several questions on how to connect to the router fast and prioritize my home devices (wired/wireless) over guest ones (wireless)

Coolio

Weaksauce
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Guys,

I want to setup my 2.4/5GHz router in such a way that my home devices have the fastest possible connection to it (both wired and wireless), and prioritized internet bandwidth over guest devices (wireless only).

  1. The thing that worries me the most is what I read in one article: "final connection speed for all devices (both wired and wireless!) will be equal to the connection speed of the slowest device". Am I right, that this principle applies only to those devices connected in a row? E.g. Router (2.5Gb/s) -> NAS (1Gb/s) -> PC (2.5Gb/s) wired connection will only push data at 1Gb/s speed. Can't imagine though how this principle may be valid for wireless connections. :-o
  2. My router allows to aggregate its 1x2.5Gb/s WAN port with one of 1Gb/s LAN ports to create a 3.5Gb/s connection (or aggregate 2x1Gb/s LAN ports for a 2Gb/s connection). Am I right, that it won't bring me any benefits unless I have at least 1 device (e.g., PC) with a 2.5Gb/s port to establish a high-speed wired connection with the router?
  3. I will set Guest SSID to work on 2.4GHz not to compete at 5GHz frequencies with them. Can I also limit their internet bandwidth to e.g. 2-3Mb/s? What is the best way to do it - via QoS or by prioritizing my home devices' MAC addresses?
I will gladly learn any other best practices relevant to my use case that you will kindly share. Thank you!
 
uhh maybe? its all theoretical unless you tell us what router/switches etc you have and provide a network diagram
 
"final connection speed for all devices (both wired and wireless!) will be equal to the connection speed of the slowest device".
This is worded poorly. Of course the slowest device in the handshake path will dictate the speeds of everything. Devices not in the handshake path will have no impact unless they all pull or send to the device at the same time.

  1. My router allows to aggregate its 1x2.5Gb/s WAN port with one of 1Gb/s LAN ports to create a 3.5Gb/s connection (or aggregate 2x1Gb/s LAN ports for a 2Gb/s connection). Am I right, that it won't bring me any benefits unless I have at least 1 device (e.g., PC) with a 2.5Gb/s port to establish a high-speed wired connection with the router?
Your speed will be limited to what your ISP is offering. How would creating a 3.5GB bundle benefit a 2.5gb interface? You would actually cause more load on the router having to handle the aggregate.
  1. I will set Guest SSID to work on 2.4GHz not to compete at 5GHz frequencies with them. Can I also limit their internet bandwidth to e.g. 2-3Mb/s? What is the best way to do it - via QoS or by prioritizing my home devices' MAC addresses?
Huh? 2.4g will not "compete" with 5g. The wireless device should negotiate to the highest its capable of running. Yes you can limit their speed but how to do that depends on the gear you have. You're talking about 2.5gb internet speeds for home. You could invite 20 people to your house, all streaming, and you wouldnt saturate that. Tell your guests to leave their wireless device farms at their home.
 
Honestly without knowing what hardware, ISP speed and pipe type(coax, fiber, ethernet etc..) you have its useless to provide advice. Here is what I recommend:

2 SSID's

1 For all your devices 2.4 and 5GHZ
1 for Guests and limited there speeds to useable speeds based on how much upload speed your ISP pipe has.
 
Thank you for your comments, guys!
Of course the slowest device in the handshake path will dictate the speeds of everything.
That's what I can't understand - in which configs does that handshake rule apply. For example, I have NAS with 2.5g LAN, router with 2.5g LAN and PC with 1g LAN. Both PC and NAS are connected (wired) to the router - each in a separate LAN port, i.e. not in a row, so PC's slower port doesn't drop the wired connection between 2.5g NAS and 2.5g router to 1g, right? However, slow device between 2 faster devices (wired) will slow down the speed of faster ones. If I understood everything correctly, how does that handshake rule work for wireless connections then, if there are no devices in between others there?

Your speed will be limited to what your ISP is offering.
I'm talking about connection speed (local), not bandwidth to/from ISP.

2.4g will not "compete" with 5g. The wireless device should negotiate to the highest its capable of running. Yes you can limit their speed but how to do that depends on the gear you have. You're talking about 2.5gb internet speeds for home. You could invite 20 people to your house, all streaming, and you wouldnt saturate that.
I will have a gaming console, which will probably consume 80% of my DL bandwidth, so limiting guests in netflixing when console is on makes perfect sense.

2 SSID's

1 For all your devices 2.4 and 5GHZ
1 for Guests and limited there speeds to useable speeds based on how much upload speed your ISP pipe has.
Got it, thank you! So the guest one should use both 2.4 and 5GHz, no need to restrict them to 2.4g - the noisy one (interference with neighbors' freqs), but with a better coverage vs. 5GHz?
Limiting guest bandwidth - should I use QoS for that or better somehow prioritize my own devices e.g., using their MAC addresses?
 
Thank you for your comments, guys!

That's what I can't understand - in which configs does that handshake rule apply. For example, I have NAS with 2.5g LAN, router with 2.5g LAN and PC with 1g LAN. Both PC and NAS are connected (wired) to the router - each in a separate LAN port, i.e. not in a row, so PC's slower port doesn't drop the wired connection between 2.5g NAS and 2.5g router to 1g, right? However, slow device between 2 faster devices (wired) will slow down the speed of faster ones. If I understood everything correctly, how does that handshake rule work for wireless connections then, if there are no devices in between others there?
You're way over thinking this. The LAN port on the router is acting as a switch. All ports working in unison essentially. Router to NAS will always run at 2.5g, no matter what is connected. The speed will drop only when devices start using bandwidth to the NAS. Example: Your 1g PC will pull from the NAS at 1g if nothing else is using the NAS. If you have 3 1G PC's you will split the bandwidth into 1/3's. This is an assumptive statement assuming no priorities are put in place, sake of example essentially. So if you have 3 1g PC's pulling from the NAS it should max out the 2.5g capacity to the router and router will split the traffic resulting in likely your 3 1g PC's using a third/third/third of the 2.5g. If you have a 1g PC using the internet and another using the NAS, the NAS to PC traffic will be unaffected. Wireless is exact same way except obviously limited to the wifi version your using (g/n/ac/ax at 2g or 5g and so on).
I'm talking about connection speed (local), not bandwidth to/from ISP.
Thank you for your comments, guys!
Is this case, bridging a 1g and a 2.5g connection on the router together will serve no benefit as the NAS can only operate at 2.5g. Bridging will also increase load on the router, very little, but load is load.
I will have a gaming console, which will probably consume 80% of my DL bandwidth, so limiting guests in netflixing when console is on makes perfect sense.
This entirely depends on your bandwidth from the ISP. If you have a 100mb connection or higher, entirely not needed. Limiting netflix to 2-3mb will make it tough to even use and deliver a very compressed SD signal.
So the guest one should use both 2.4 and 5GHz ------ Yes
 
Thank you That_Sound_Guy - appreciate your help! The only question that is left:
2 SSID's

1 For all your devices 2.4 and 5GHZ
1 for Guests and limited there speeds to useable speeds based on how much upload speed your ISP pipe has.
[blue is mine] Vengance_01 So I want to bullet-proof secure UL/DL bandwidth for my home devices - what is the best way to do that: set QoS rules, prioritize my MAC addresses, etc.?

Thank you!
 
Thank you That_Sound_Guy - appreciate your help! The only question that is left:

[blue is mine] Vengance_01 So I want to bullet-proof secure UL/DL bandwidth for my home devices - what is the best way to do that: set QoS rules, prioritize my MAC addresses, etc.?

Thank you!
Honestly I would create a separate IoT network with vlans. But what equipment do you have. QoS usually sucks on most gear
 
Honestly I would create a separate IoT network with vlans. But what equipment do you have. QoS usually sucks on most gear
Mine is ASUS GT-AX6000. A very powerful thing with multiple positive reviews, but does its QoS suck? And what exactly do you mean (slow performance, low efficiency, etc.)?
 
Mine is ASUS GT-AX6000. A very powerful thing with multiple positive reviews, but does its QoS suck? And what exactly do you mean (slow performance, low efficiency, etc.)?
Are you able to create a separate network? If so segment your IoT devices and put QoS and limit there speed. Look guest or wifi isolation
 
Trunking or bonding two ports - I don’t understand the point of this in your case. Having 3.5 gig is only of use if your wan is 3.5 gig or you are serving up 3.5 gig to the rest of the network. Generally speaking this doesn’t happen.

Witeless craziness- what is the link speed you are trying to achieve? How many devices are you using? Most of the time you won’t need more than 100-150mbit to wireless devices unless you’re shunting files around. 15mbit is enough for 4K streaming

Bandwidth sharing - There is a much simpler way of solving this problem, it is SQM. Unfortunately your router does not support it. I recommend you look into routers that do. I like Mikrotik, some don’t, some do. The hex will do sqm up to 400mbps, and allow queue priority trees…
 
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Trunking or bonding two ports - I don’t understand the point of this in your case. Having 3.5 gig is only of use if your wan is 3.5 gig or you are serving up 3.5 gig to the rest of the network. Generally speaking this doesn’t happen.

Witeless craziness- what is the link speed you are trying to achieve? How many devices are you using? Most of the time you won’t need more than 100-150mbit to wireless devices unless you’re shunting files around. 15mbit is enough for 4K streaming

Bandwidth sharing - There is a much simpler way of solving this problem, it is SQM. Unfortunately your router does not support it. I recommend you look into routers that do. I like Mikrotik, some don’t, some do. The hex will do sqm up to 400mbps, and allow queue priority trees…
Based on OPs responses mikrotik is a bad recommendation.
 
Guys, I am eager to learn new things, and I'm also DIYish to the certain extent, but this router case is not my top priority, so I guess I will stay with GT-AX6000, just will update it to the Asus-WRT Merlin firmware, which seems to be more stable and a bit more extended than the default one.
 
Guys, I am eager to learn new things, and I'm also DIYish to the certain extent, but this router case is not my top priority, so I guess I will stay with GT-AX6000, just will update it to the Asus-WRT Merlin firmware, which seems to be more stable and a bit more extended than the default one.
Merlin has SQM from memory! https://github.com/ttgapers/cakeqos-merlin
 
Thank you! Am I right, that this add-on replaces (or complements to) the original QoS function of Merlin firmware and somehow makes it better?
yep - You should look into what SQM is - this gives you an idea https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/sqm -
Bufferbloat is most evident when the link is heavily loaded with downloads or uploads, and causes increased latency, or ping. It causes poor performance for VoIP and video chat, online games to lag, and generally makes people say, “the Internet is not responsive.” This lag is mitigated using SQM and a small trade-off to peak throughput. [/quote[
 
Limit guest? Easy! Use a separate AP with a 100Mb port and use a 10Mb hub in between it and your main switch--voila! Limits very well since you only have 10Mb of ethernet bandwidth. :D And no way to hack around that either, haha!
 
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