Advice for upgrading Wired home network. Just purchased a new router.

[Ampedout]

Hello, Glad to be here. I hope this is the right area for this thread. I recently decided to upgrade my home network. I have been having some disconnection issues that take place every so often. My network is located in the basement and one day it flooded a bit from the dishwasher located above it. All of the parts were wet, except my modem, NAS and UPS. My switches and router were soaked, however. I unplugged them and sprayed all of the water out and dried them out. I put them back together and they have been running fine for the last year.

Here are some problems that I hope to correct by upgrading my network. As well as more wish-list hardware that I will upgrade soon.

1) While playing Diablo 3, or any other Blizzard game with my little brother, we will both disconnect every 5-10 minutes. While I am playing solo, and the "2nd computer located next to me" is off, I have no issues. Until, as of late. Now, even with one computer running, the game's disconnect often. Blizzard's error codes simply state that we have DC'd and that it was on my end. They have no reason as to why.

2) While watching YouTube or browsing the web, I lose internet connection for roughly 30 seconds. It then comes back on, then I lose it again for roughly 30 more seconds. After that, it is typically good for 30 minutes or longer.

3) Youtube seems to buffer and default to the lowest quality. The same as Twitch.tv. It is not at peak times and can be completely random.

4) Every other night, around 12-1 am, the internet goes down for 30 seconds, then back up for a few seconds, then back down for 30 seconds. It becomes available after that for the rest of the night.

Now, I know that some of these issues could be Comcast related. Nonetheless, if you have any suggestions regarding them, and the new hardware setup wont solve it, that is still helpful.

Future Upgrades:

• Replace the SB4161 modem with the newest version. Although, will I benefit much from the upgrade? Also, does Comcast offer the line bondings to allow that new router to benefit? I live in the Clearfield, UT area.

• Mikrotik Switch/ Switches. This is where I need help with my newer setup. I am not sure if it is best to use multiple small switches or if I should just opt for a larger unit, instead. Considering my usage and devices, of coarse.

• Cat6 cables instead of Cat5e. I have read that a lot of the Cat6 wire spools that you purchase is as slow or slower than some Cat5e cable. This is due to no regulation of the speed ratings, I guess. Perhaps, just several 1ft length of nice Cat6 wire between all of my devices and the patch panel that my home's Cat5e currently runs into.

Current setup and suggestion drawings:

Which option is better in layman terms? I want the main PC to have no issues uploading content to Twitch.tv at 3.5MB/s. I want the 2nd PC as well as my main to be able to game together without issues. Lastly, the NAS' throttled speed downloads things randomly at 14 MB/s out of my roughly 21-22MB/s total bandwidth from time to time.


This is my current setup.

Now, this is option #1

And this is option #2

Thanks for all of the help in advance! I need to know which option best suites my devices and usage so that I can purchase the switches to compliment the new router. I have read great things about Mikrotik and I would like to keep the network the same brand this time around.

 

[abailey]

I don't know too much about Mikrotik switches and routers but as far as design goes I like your #2 much more than your #1 design. I would not bother with replacing your Cat5e cables. I see no benefit in that at all. I don't know if a new modem would help you in your location. I have Xfinity and I have the same modem you currently have and it is rock solid.
As far as your problems with disconnects, buffering, etc., I assume your talking about a wired connection (if your talking wireless then that is a different story). So what I would do is start with your modem and connect a PC directly to your modem and see if you still have the problem. If you do, then the problem is probably your modem, or Comcast (if its not your PC). If it works fine plugged directly into your modem, then try plugging directly into the next piece, your router. By doing this you can trace where the problem lies. Anyway, nice network setup and I think your upgrades are a good idea.

 

[Ampedout]

Thank you. Yes, the buffering and disconnects are indeed on wired. I dont use wireless much in my house. I will try and narrow down whether or not the problem is router or modem side.

I wonder how important it is to have the same brand for the router and the switch(s)? The Mikrotik switches are a bit harder to get, so perhaps I can look at the best switches on the market a good price and throw those in. Although, that brings up another question. Mikrotik uses the RouterOS software, so I wonder if that would cause issues with any other consumer grade software. I wouldn't thinks so, as it is just a switch, but, you never know. That is why I just assumed make everything the same brand and the same software to avoid any potential issues.

 

[System Error Message]

For mikrotik switches it depends, they still need to sort out their switch chip stability for the CRS line, it does work well as a normal switch but at the moment it doesnt have STP on the switch chip till routerOS 7 so careful how you wire and avoid loops.

i would go with option 2 because of the central switch meaning the lack of bottleneck. Your proposed setup has bottlenecks and isnt very efficient. Its only good if you dont need that much LAN bandwidth and you're trying to reduce cabling.

As for your router choice it depends on what internet speeds you have. Mikrotik has recently released router with integrated wifi AC in the same form factor. You're going to need a decent routerboard CPU because you're looking at some QoS so some very fast MIPS or maybe even go for the RB850gx2.

For your QoS if you use mikrotik create a few simple rules for the root using priority based. Set your games to highest priority.

Essentially you will want to have priority like this:
7 gaming, latency sensitive stuff like NTP(you could also reserve bandwidth for this for both up and down)
6 latency sensitive stuff like VOIP
5 web browsing
4 streaming (you can also reserve download bandwidth for this)
3 other traffic
0 torrents, downloads (you will need to layer 7 hash to identify torrents properly)

This is assuming 7 is highest priority and 0 is lowest priority. Use a queing algorithm like sfq or mq bfifo and use seperate queues for each of the priorities, adjust the buffer size based on latency (lots for torrents/streaming, none or extremely little for gaming). Take a look at using the mangle firewall for identifying traffic. If using parallel queues arent working than you will need to create a simple que without any sort of buffer and make it a master que for all the others.

You can also use some hardware NAT instead of the traffic going through que, for example you can set gaming traffic and streaming to be hardware accelerated as they use connections and once a connection is established and accelerated it will bypass all other rules. Using hardware acceleration for latency sensitive traffic instead of QoS rules for it gives it the highest priority without buffering.

You need to buffer upload for non latency sensitive stuff but for download not much buffering is needed, only for helping the device (like your streaming devices) to keep up if they lack processing of network speeds.

when using a mikrotik CRS with another router, make sure to disable switching on the port of the router it attaches to. It helps to avoid the creation of a loop and do the same for the wireless AP (or at least get STP enabled on it). Once routerOS 7 is out mikrotik CRS should have STP. You wont find STP on other mikrotik switches.

You can still use the current switches you have if you want to. your upload speeds dont support 3.5MB/s of traffic. If it is 3.5Mb/s than you could just reserve the bandwidth (but keep the same priority for streaming). Your download speeds could be throttled by ISPs. Some ISPs do throttle downloads, p2p, torrents. Did you mean 22Mb/s? 22MB/s is 176Mb/s. For twitch i use 2Mb/s instead at 720p as twitch streaming only allows 3.5Mb/s if you have partnered up and are popular and such.

The CRS is both a fully managed switch and slow router. Still you can use any brand switch you like with no issue. The only reason to pair 2 mikrotik devices together is if you wish to use specific features such as compression, tunneling, etc.

 

[Ampedout]

Okay, and all of the streaming is completed the NFS and that should require less network overhead for buffering, etc.
Someone on another forum stated that that Mikrotik router is not compatible with my Arris 6141 Modem, do you know if that is true? I tried to cancel the order when I read that, but Amazon was not able to and it is currently en-route. I just needed to know if I should refuse that delivery and return it for another router? Also, another member stated to use Paessler PRTG to try and trace down the culprit device. I am trying to learn to set that up to scan my activity and devices right now. Perhaps the modem or one of the switches is the issue and I would need to start with that instead of the router. What do you think?

 

[System Error Message]

Okay, and all of the streaming is completed the NFS and that should require less network overhead for buffering, etc.
Someone on another forum stated that that Mikrotik router is not compatible with my Arris 6141 Modem, do you know if that is true? I tried to cancel the order when I read that, but Amazon was not able to and it is currently en-route. I just needed to know if I should refuse that delivery and return it for another router? Also, another member stated to use Paessler PRTG to try and trace down the culprit device. I am trying to learn to set that up to scan my activity and devices right now. Perhaps the modem or one of the switches is the issue and I would need to start with that instead of the router. What do you think?

Firstly before ordering mikrotik, check the suppliers as they usually have it cheaper than amazon (the supplier i buy from sells on amazon at almost double the price). Compatibility issues are only with usb. If however you need something specific like PPPOA than that mikrotik doesnt have.

If your modem has a management interface it can show you your sync speeds, if not just perform a speed test. If you get full speeds your modem/line isnt an issue but that can change as copper is vulnerable to the elements as they can cause issues like extreme heat for example. Simply plug your PC into the modem directly, connect to ISP and try a speed test. I still would replace that vpn router as they are based on an aging and outdated platform.

switch if it is an issue means you get either less than 1Mb/s or no traffic at all. Dlink switches arent as sturdy as you think, in the past rebooting a dlink switch usually solves problems, not sure if they've improved their hardware quality.

The fault could also lie with your ISP as they could be the usual greedy cable ISP throttling and managing your traffic.

 

[Ampedout]

It may be the ISP for sure. I am also not happy with the Dlink switches. I figured that the VPN router was aging as I have had it for a long time now. I'm still excited to see how I upgrade the network for the next 5-8 years of operation. I get that Mikrotik router tomorrow, so we will see how it fairs. I will connect the computer to the modem for some speed benchmarks first. I'll come back here with some updates and what I should buy for switches.

 

[Ampedout]

Well, everything is installed. I am getting better download speeds of 180-190 through testmy.net. My uploads are also up to around 13 instead of 9-10 before. That is with the Mikrotek router and its updated firmware, and the NETGEAR ProSAFE GS716T 16-Portswitch. I only had enough time to test the computer clients and refresh their IP info. I will be testing all of the Amazon Fire TV connections tonight and head to sleep. I will then test out some blizzard.net games with my little brother when I have some time to see if they are good. Just testing for stability altogether.

 

[sfx2000]

For your QoS if you use mikrotik create a few simple rules for the root using priority based. Set your games to highest priority.

Essentially you will want to have priority like this:
7 gaming, latency sensitive stuff like NTP(you could also reserve bandwidth for this for both up and down)
6 latency sensitive stuff like VOIP
5 web browsing
4 streaming (you can also reserve download bandwidth for this)
3 other traffic
0 torrents, downloads (you will need to layer 7 hash to identify torrents properly)

Here's something that might help align QoS mappings - I'll ask @thiggins to make a sticky/note of it, as some of the mappings are not intuitive between WiFi/Ethernet/HPAV/MOCA/Applications...