FlexQoS Best method to optimise flex for gaming

[BreakingDad]

Question for @dave14305 or indeed anyone who has sorted this issue.

I'll try and keep it straightforward to my aims

My internet is 500/30

I play overwatch, and usually get a ping around 30-45

When one of my kids is on steam for example, and they run an update, my ping jumps to 200-400, making the game unplayable. TV streaming does not effect the latency as much as a download.

I have installed flex, as per Git, with fq, and an order where Gaming is top priority, wfh, file sharing etc are low in the table

Gaming setting thing on router is on (as it comes on automatically with flex) , but with no devices configured on it, as per a previous suggestion.

Still I lag when someone is downloading.

I tried setting file share, web surfing etc to as low as 5% -10%, it made no difference.

What is the best way I can negate this lag, and force downloads to slow down.

Thanks for listening. Please keep it simple, as I am simple

 

[L&LD]

What computer/device do you use for gaming? Is it getting its connection wirelessly, wired, or via the PLAs?

 

[BreakingDad]

What computer/device do you use for gaming? Is it getting its connection wirelessly, wired, or via the PLAs?

pc , 5ghz 160hz @ 2402/1729 (fluctuates a bit) - going wired is not an option

 

[KingBravery]

Have you ever tried with no QOS ? I also tried my 800/200Mbps with FlexQOS or other type of QOS and the best result I get is with No QOS.. ( high bandwith, low latency spiking when downloading )..

If you use wifi, you must ensure that your kids connect to different wireless band..

 

[L&LD]

In addition to what @KingBravery offers, you may want to try different Control Channels too, if the results tank so badly with the one you're on.

 

[dave14305]

I tried setting file share, web surfing etc to as low as 5% -10%, it made no difference.

Hi Dad,

I have 2 ideas. 1) everything QoS is broken with the RT-AX86U, 2) this is a HTB quantum/cburst problem.

I pushed an update to the develop branch that reins in quantum and cburst as an experiment. Please give it a try with flexqos develop. If it doesn't work, revert with flexqos stable

 

[chris.at]

I can tell you that FlexQoS (not the latest develop branch, but the previous stable one) works flawlessly on my RT-AX86U. All I did was edit firewall-start and add "fc disable &" to it before the flexqos call because without it, it would not shape any traffic.

Tried it right now with setting "Web Surfing" to 20% max down/up. With 100% I get 90/20, with 20% I get 18/4 (used speedtest which is classified as web surfing in my setup). So no problem here with this combination, using "Automatic IP" WAN if this makes any difference.

 

[BreakingDad]

I can tell you that FlexQoS (not the latest develop branch, but the previous stable one) works flawlessly on my RT-AX86U. All I did was edit firewall-start and add "fc disable &" to it before the flexqos call because without it, it would not shape any traffic.

Tried it right now with setting "Web Surfing" to 20% max down/up. With 100% I get 90/20, with 20% I get 18/4 (used speedtest which is classified as web surfing in my setup). So no problem here with this combination, using "Automatic IP" WAN if this makes any difference.

I tried disabling flowcache, and I found it reduced my overall speed by about 150.

Please give it a try with flexqos develop.

Hi Son,

Will try this tonight. It all "appears" to work, but as I say as soon as my daughter hits the steam updates, here comes the lag. Is it possible that it is due to us both using 5ghz with fast AX cards?

Dad.

In addition to what @KingBravery offers, you may want to try different Control Channels too

Will experiment with non DFS. I don't really want to force my daughter onto 2.4ghz

 

[geobernd]

To chime in: If I don't disable Flowcache on my RT-AX86U FlexQoS (and adaptive QoS) is broken. With Flowcache disabled FlexQoS works beautifully and my pings and VoIP calls are stable no matter what else I do on my network including Steam updates, Microsoft updates, large FTP sessions etc...
I have Fiber provisioned at 209/209 and max bandwidth set at 200/200.

 

[L&LD]

Note that I did not state to disable DFS.

 

[BreakingDad]

To chime in: If I don't disable Flowcache on my RT-AX86U FlexQoS (and adaptive QoS) is broken. With Flowcache disabled FlexQoS works beautifully and my pings and VoIP calls are stable no matter what else I do on my network including Steam updates, Microsoft updates, large FTP sessions etc...
I have Fiber provisioned at 209/209 and max bandwidth set at 200/200.

Perhaps FC disable is ok at slower speeds, but at 500 it severely nerfs my download when disabled.

 

[BreakingDad]

Note that I did not state to disable DFS.

Noted,

Just a quick question would having CN blocked on skynet effect Flex ? (if it gets its info from trend)

Also dev mode activated

 

[Kingp1n]

Noted,

Just a quick question would having CN blocked on skynet effect Flex ? (if it gets its info from trend)

Also dev mode activated

Let us know how the beta Flex script is working for u.

 

[BreakingDad]

Let us know how the beta Flex script is working for u.

Last nights gaming was fine, had a brief spike to 90ms that dropped quickly down, not much rubberbanding, whole spike lasted seconds.

I don't know if this is because my kids were not hitting the internet hard.

Tonight three of the blighters are online, will let you know how it goes.

 

[BreakingDad]

asusrunshot said:
Hello BreakingDad,

Can you give me the output of

tc qdisc show

I had a similar spike as yours but before I recommend this I want to confirm that the source of the problem is the same.

qdisc htb 1: dev eth0 root refcnt 2 r2q 10 default 0 direct_packets_stat 116 direct_qlen 1000
qdisc fq_codel 102: dev eth0 parent 1:2 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 110: dev eth0 parent 1:10 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 300 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 111: dev eth0 parent 1:11 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 300 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 112: dev eth0 parent 1:12 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 300 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 113: dev eth0 parent 1:13 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 300 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 114: dev eth0 parent 1:14 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 300 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 115: dev eth0 parent 1:15 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 300 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 116: dev eth0 parent 1:16 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 300 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 117: dev eth0 parent 1:17 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 300 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev eth1 root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev eth2 root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev eth3 root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev eth4 root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev eth5 root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev spu_us_dummy root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev spu_ds_dummy root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev eth6 root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev eth7 root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
qdisc htb 1: dev br0 root refcnt 2 r2q 10 default 0 direct_packets_stat 3235 direct_qlen 2
qdisc fq_codel 102: dev br0 parent 1:2 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms
qdisc fq_codel 110: dev br0 parent 1:10 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms ecn
qdisc fq_codel 111: dev br0 parent 1:11 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms ecn
qdisc fq_codel 112: dev br0 parent 1:12 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms ecn
qdisc fq_codel 113: dev br0 parent 1:13 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms ecn
qdisc fq_codel 114: dev br0 parent 1:14 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms ecn
qdisc fq_codel 115: dev br0 parent 1:15 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms ecn
qdisc fq_codel 116: dev br0 parent 1:16 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms ecn
qdisc fq_codel 117: dev br0 parent 1:17 limit 1000p flows 1024 quantum 1514 target 5ms interval 100ms ecn
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: dev wl0.1 root refcnt 2 bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

@asusrunshot



Last night was ok, perhaps because my kids were not downloading.

 

[BreakingDad]

Sunday, couple of rubber bands, lasting a few seconds, could have been server lag, had about an 8 hour session, so not bad.

Awaiting response from @asusrunshot

 

[asusrunshot]

@BreakingDad

@dave14305

qdisc htb 1: dev eth0 root refcnt 2 r2q 10 default 0 direct_packets_stat 116 direct_qlen 1000

qdisc htb 1: dev br0 root refcnt 2 r2q 10 default 0 direct_packets_stat 3235 direct_qlen 2

How can we test if packets are being dropped under load?

 

[Paliv]

Sunday, couple of rubber bands, lasting a few seconds, could have been server lag, had about an 8 hour session, so not bad.

Awaiting response from @asusrunshot

8 hours? Is there really hope for free time when they get older?

 

[BreakingDad]

8 hours? Is there really hope for free time when they get older?

a)we went out all day saturday, in the real world, with trees and plants (good graphics, gameplay sucked)
b)we're a family of gamers - all five of us
c)my daughter was at theatre
d)one son was at work
e)the other one was in wow
f)the mrs likes the peace to watch columbo
g)dont judge we're happy
h)12 hours gaming on a sunday is not uncommon

 

[Paliv]

a)we went out all day saturday, in the real world, with trees and plants (good graphics, gameplay sucked)
b)we're a family of gamers - all five of us
c)my daughter was at theatre
d)one son was at work
e)the other one was in wow
f)the mrs likes the peace to watch columbo
g)dont judge we're happy
h)12 hours gaming on a sunday is not uncommon

No judgement from me. Just jealousy, my kids are still small. But, my son (5) is already obsessed with my SNES Classic.