0

This seems like a super basic question, but I've done a whole bunch of searching and haven't found anything even close to an answer.

I've noticed that whenever I have a youtube video buffering, the performance of online games severely suffers. As in, my ping jumps from 50ms to 500ms.

I've read extensively about QoS and how it can be used to re-prioritize the traffic. However, some routers do not support this, and even if they do, it's not very straightforward to configure at the very least.

I have a Motorola Surfboard, and AFAICT I can't configure QoS to prioritize the traffic to prioritize games over streaming video.

In lieu of that, is it possible for me to do implement something similar at the level of just my desktop? I have a feeling that for complicated reasons, it isn't. But I would like to know why.

Brian Gradin
  • 129
  • 5
  • Without QoS, all traffic has the same priority. QoS does not work over the Internet, and you can't really prioritize incoming traffic until it reaches you, having already used your incoming bandwidth. You can certainly prioritize traffic on you LAN, including outbound traffic. – Ron Maupin Feb 25 '17 at 01:45
  • There is also a rule about QoS, you have it everywhere or you have it no where... Meaning that once you throw in the Internet you lose all QoS anyway. Consumer and general commercial Internet service has no QoS applied and will no honor it. Applying QoS to your LAN will only help manage traffic that is completely inside of it, which in most consumer networks the internal network is not the problem if it is working correctly anyway. – acejavelin Feb 25 '17 at 01:58
  • I think i've heard of simple ways of doing QoS.. like easy software though I don't recall it off hand 'cos I never tried it. I think what you're asking for is QoS but at the computer level not at the router level. – barlop Feb 25 '17 at 02:08
  • How about looking up about controlling bandwidth or bandwidth throttling.. https://seriousbit.com/netbalancer/ I notice that raymond chen mentions netbalancer it's clearly one of his top ones in his list of free software for that https://www.raymond.cc/blog/restrict-or-limit-internet-download-and-upload-transfer-speed/ – barlop Feb 25 '17 at 02:09
  • I think that "QoS" is often thought of as referring to some specific popular implementations. You may want to consider other terms, like "network prioritization" or what @barlop mentioned in his comment (which ought to be an up-voted answer). – TOOGAM Feb 25 '17 at 03:18
  • this may be the same question though doesnt mention QoS in the title http://superuser.com/questions/135719/way-to-limit-bandwidth-of-programs-on-windows – barlop Feb 25 '17 at 03:49

0 Answers0