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Forum Discussion
Should I define my internet bandwidth?
I have Comca$t business internet.
Support told me that any downloas speed above 150 upload speed above 20 will degrade performance. Is this true? Should I enable QoS and set download & upload bandwidths?
speedtest just showed download of 179.06Mbps and upload of 24.40Mbps
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There is 100% no downside to downloading faster than the subscribed speed, as many service providers will have some level of overprovisioning which can be seen when the ISP's networkis not under heavy congestion.
Only use the QOS if you are having noticeable congestion issues, especially with cable internet.
One issue with Comcast and many other cable providrs, is the inconsistent throughput. For example A friend of mine in upstate NY and is using comcast, will have large swings in throughput depending on time of day, with a 200Mbit package givinganywhere from 50-180Mbps depending on time of day.
The reason why this can be a problem for QOS is that the QOS will not dynamically adjust its thresholds. And with inconsistent speeds,it can be a double edge sword. If the throughput is consistent and you set it just right, then you can enjoy your fill connection speed, and get local throttling that you control to deal with congestion (e.g., prioritizing your netflix stream over a large file download)
On the other hand if you have inconsistent speeds, e.g., at the time you specify your speed, you are getting 180Mbps, but during peak usage hours, the speed drops to 50Mbps, then the QOS while not slowing anything down, it will allso not kick in to throttle a file download while you watch netflix because the peak speeds are below what is specified in the QOS.
Another downside is if you specify a speed, but during off-peak hours, the speeds increase above what is set in the QOS. In those cases, the QOS will cap your speeds, thus preventing you from enjoying the true full speed of the connection at the time.
The times when QOS works the best, is when throughput is consistent throughout the day.
Seem posts cannot be edited.
Anyway, the QOS setting on the router automatically reserved some throughput, for example, if you have a connection that is consistently 100Mbps with nio fluctuation, entering 100 into the QOS will result in you having slightly less.in real world throughput.
The goal there is to prevent 100% saturation of the connection, as that is when you will see latency increase. With cable the settings can require some trial and error as you figure out an optimal value based on how the speed fluctuates throughout the day, thus allowing a good margin of error to be used that won't sacrifice too much peek performance.
Razor512 wrote:
Only use the QOS if you are having noticeable congestion issues, especially with cable internet.
That's the key bit. As Razor512 says, avoid it unless you see the need. It seems to be something used by gamers who don't want the rest of the family getting in the way.
QoS is a dying animal as Internet speeds get faster. Anything above 300 Mbps and it is more likely to slow you down that speed things up. That's because the router's processor has to mess around with the traffic instead of just letting it waft through.
I just wish someone would dedelop a QOS method (not sure if possible) that could detect the signs of WAN congestion caused by a lack of throughput (and not the ISP's own network deciding to be comcastic and run slowly, respond slowly, and drop packets), and then automatically throttle and prioritize traffic according to the user's preferences.
Imagine a QOS system that works like the CPU priority function in windows task manager where it doesn't matter what IPC or clock speed the CPU has, priorities set adapt perfectly.
For my current connection (verizon fios) QOS can still offer a noticeable benefit, though that is only because my throughput remains consistentt throughput the day. I have the 100/100 package and downloads fluctuate between 100.8 and 101 Mbps, while uploads fluctuate between 119-120Mbps, even during the lockdown in NY where everyone is using their connections more.
Though LTE has taken a nosedive with speeds in the evening on t-mobile dropping to around 200Kbps download, but uploads will be around 50Mbps.
