A Plea to Developers: Traffic Shaping, QoS, & Bufferbloat Handling

[fairalbion]

As of today (firmware v. 2.1.2.18), the QoS page in the configuration utility remains opaque, with only a Speedtest app available to tell me what my upload & download speeds look like.

For me, with the Orbi doing the routing, & the upstream modem in bridging mode, bufferbloat remains a problem. I suspect many other Orbi users see the same thing: http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest.

Other manufacturers address this in their home/SOHO market routers; I suspect under the hood they're using something like codel/fq_codel. It's not rocket science.

Netgear needs to address this in the Orbi. If it doesn't, it will drive its customers into the arms of its competitors.

[Joechang]

Netgear is really slow on software development. Had high expectations about Orbi but really upset now.

[fairalbion]

Update. I relegated the Orbi & satellite to access point duties and installed a firewall/router box running IPFire. It's doing routing, NAT, DHCP & DNS and, crucially, advanced queue management using fq_codel.

Judging from the speed tests, buffer bloat is no longer a problem. Things are much better - no stuttering watching streaming TV, faster uploads etc.