StarTraveller
New Around Here
I have an ASUS RT-N56U, which appear to cause extreme buffering problems when I stream VODs from twitch. I can watch a VOD for an arbitrary number of minutes, but at some point (sometimes immediately) extreme buffering will occur - sometimes buffering for several minutes between a few seconds of playback. This can continue for minutes or hours before the next period of normal operation.
It appears as if the router rate limits throughput to 50-250 KB/s for certain network data (i.e. twitch streams) and I can't figure out what's going on. I hope that someone here can help...
Below are some detailed observations (apologies for the wall of text):
My Internet is provided through a residential network for the apartment complex where I live. The apartments share a 100/100 Mbit connection, which is never more than 50 % used (I checked the usage statistics because I first blamed our network, hehe). Each apartment is capped at 15/15 Mbit to prevent abuse.
I've observed the network utilization and when streaming works, I can see traffic bursts of 1.0-1.5 MB/s (around max bandwidth) whenever the buffer drops below 15-20 seconds. The bursts last until about 30 seconds have been buffered. This would appear to be normal behaviour providing smooth playback.
When the streaming problem manifests, throughput is limited to about 250 KB/s with speeds ranging between 50-250 KB/s, which is too little to sustain the 3.5-4.0 Mbit stream.
If I connect my computer directly to the residential network without a router, the problem goes away. This seems to indicate that the router is causing the problem.
If I connect through the router the problem comes and goes regardless of connection type. I've tried with wired as well as wirelessly using both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz.
If I connect through my smartphone's hotspot (4G connection), the problem goes away.
Playing the stream through the twitch app on my smartphone exhibits the same problems when going through my router while streaming flawlessly using mobile broadband.
I've run traceroutes to the hosting server and the connection appears stable even during problems. No signs of packet loss or lag spikes.
Speed tests confirm that 15/15 Mbit is always available (13+/17+ Mbit with <5 ms latency) - even while streaming is problematic...
Until a couple of days ago I was running stock firmware. A really old revision of 1.0.3.?-something. I tried updating the router to the most recent official non-beta (3.0.0.4.376.3879), which bricked the router. After some rescue attempts (including an attempt to install the latest beta revision 3.0.0.4.378.4850), I managed to get the router up and running with revision 3.0.0.4.374_979 (2013/10/11). Updating the firmware to a newer revision to solve the problem is still a possibility, but I'm a bit wary of bricking the router again.
The problem was not solved or alleviated by the firmware upgrade.
I've messed around with a bunch of settings in the router's configuration:
QoS settings appear to have little to no effect.
I've tried putting my computer in the DMZ, but the problem seems to persist. Maybe to a lesser degree, but that could just be "luck" or me wanting to see a solution...
I've tried disabling both wireless networks, but the problem persists.
I've tried disabling the firewall, but the problem persists.
Let me know if there is additional information that I can provide to help narrow the problem and possible solutions.
PS: The problem looks like it could be related to this one:
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-n56u-wifi-speed-was-great-out-of-the-box-but-now.10094/
Unfortunately, no solution is posted in the thread.
It appears as if the router rate limits throughput to 50-250 KB/s for certain network data (i.e. twitch streams) and I can't figure out what's going on. I hope that someone here can help...
Below are some detailed observations (apologies for the wall of text):
My Internet is provided through a residential network for the apartment complex where I live. The apartments share a 100/100 Mbit connection, which is never more than 50 % used (I checked the usage statistics because I first blamed our network, hehe). Each apartment is capped at 15/15 Mbit to prevent abuse.
I've observed the network utilization and when streaming works, I can see traffic bursts of 1.0-1.5 MB/s (around max bandwidth) whenever the buffer drops below 15-20 seconds. The bursts last until about 30 seconds have been buffered. This would appear to be normal behaviour providing smooth playback.
When the streaming problem manifests, throughput is limited to about 250 KB/s with speeds ranging between 50-250 KB/s, which is too little to sustain the 3.5-4.0 Mbit stream.
If I connect my computer directly to the residential network without a router, the problem goes away. This seems to indicate that the router is causing the problem.
If I connect through the router the problem comes and goes regardless of connection type. I've tried with wired as well as wirelessly using both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz.
If I connect through my smartphone's hotspot (4G connection), the problem goes away.
Playing the stream through the twitch app on my smartphone exhibits the same problems when going through my router while streaming flawlessly using mobile broadband.
I've run traceroutes to the hosting server and the connection appears stable even during problems. No signs of packet loss or lag spikes.
Speed tests confirm that 15/15 Mbit is always available (13+/17+ Mbit with <5 ms latency) - even while streaming is problematic...
Until a couple of days ago I was running stock firmware. A really old revision of 1.0.3.?-something. I tried updating the router to the most recent official non-beta (3.0.0.4.376.3879), which bricked the router. After some rescue attempts (including an attempt to install the latest beta revision 3.0.0.4.378.4850), I managed to get the router up and running with revision 3.0.0.4.374_979 (2013/10/11). Updating the firmware to a newer revision to solve the problem is still a possibility, but I'm a bit wary of bricking the router again.
The problem was not solved or alleviated by the firmware upgrade.I've messed around with a bunch of settings in the router's configuration:
QoS settings appear to have little to no effect.
I've tried putting my computer in the DMZ, but the problem seems to persist. Maybe to a lesser degree, but that could just be "luck" or me wanting to see a solution...
I've tried disabling both wireless networks, but the problem persists.
I've tried disabling the firewall, but the problem persists.
Let me know if there is additional information that I can provide to help narrow the problem and possible solutions.
PS: The problem looks like it could be related to this one:
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-n56u-wifi-speed-was-great-out-of-the-box-but-now.10094/
Unfortunately, no solution is posted in the thread.
