CakeQOS cuts download speed in half

[jbehrmusic]

Before I start, here's my specs/setup.
Router: AC86U
ISP: Comcast
Speeds: 400 down / 10 up
Firmware: Merlin 386.2_beta3

I originally installed FlexQoS, which worked great for my download, but I got massive bufferbloat on the upload. After installing CakeQoS, I'm getting the reverse scenario. Extreme latency/bufferbloat on the download, but almost ZERO bufferbloat on the upload.

The main issue I was having is ping spikes and packet loss in games. So I figured installing some sort of QoS would help. When I installed CakeQoS, it prompted, asking for my download speeds. The documentation said to give it around 90-95% of your speed, so I put 390 / 9. But when I run a speed test, my speeds are cut in half, all the way down to 200 (rather than 390). When using FlexQoS, I get 380 or so, but again, major bufferbloat (even when using the fq_codel).

 

[jbehrmusic]

Update: After uninstalling the normal CakeQoS, and installing the Alpha build( found HERE ), my bufferbloat on the download has gotten a little better. But maybe this is due to the instability of the site (dslreports). I am still confused as to why my download speed is cut in half when using CakeQoS. Is there a fix for that?

Update#2: It seems it may have been the instability of DSLReports. The download is still bad.

 

[dave14305]

The loss of maximum throughput due to disabling NAT acceleration is documented in the first post of the 386.2 beta thread. I have generally settled on 210 down when using Cake on my 400 Mb Comcast connection on an AC86U. And therefore, I don’t run Cake full-time. With FlexQoS, I set my download to 350 and get decent results on the has-been dslreport.com site.

 

[jbehrmusic]

The loss of maximum throughput due to disabling NAT acceleration is documented in the first post of the 386.2 beta thread. I have generally settled on 210 down when using Cake on my 400 Mb Comcast connection on an AC86U. And therefore, I don’t run Cake full-time. With FlexQoS, I set my download to 350 and get decent results on the has-been dslreport.com site.

Sorry for my lack of thoroughness. Can't believe I missed that, but I appreciate your insight. For FlexQoS, what do you set your upload to? Because when I use FlexQoS, I get really bad bufferbloat/latency on the upload. Thanks again for the help.

 

[pdc]

400 down and *10* up? Wow, that is heavily asymmetric! I am not sure how much bandwidth is needed for acks, but for sure I would suggest trying setting "Filter Duplicate TCP ACKs" to Yes on Upload (not needed for download). That's a setting for the Cake alpha, which you mentioned you have.

I'm probably stating the obvious, but 90-95% of 400 is 360-380 (not 390). I am not sure how much it matters, but you could try say 350 just to make sure you've got headroom. I don't think that's your problem, but always better to start low and then increase slowly.

I assume you've set WAN packet overhead appropriately. For cable/docsis it should be set to 18 / 64 / Normal.

dslreports has some challenges, I often see spikes in my download/upload that make the score worse even though they appear to be isolated problems. You could also try https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat, or even just comcast speed test (for raw bandwidth).

I have also seen people try lower rtt (ping) settings. You could try "regional" in the custom upload and download settings (default rtt of 30ms instead of 100ms). See https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/tc-cake.8.html for more details on the settings.

Good luck!

 

[dave14305]

Sorry for my lack of thoroughness. Can't believe I missed that, but I appreciate your insight. For FlexQoS, what do you set your upload to? Because when I use FlexQoS, I get really bad bufferbloat/latency on the upload. Thanks again for the help.

I set my upload to 24 out of 25.

 

[jbehrmusic]

Good luck!

thanks for the info! and I set the 90% based on my lowest speedtest result. I pay for 400/10, but when I run a speedtest, I get 450+ and 11-15+. I tried running the waveform test, and it said I get an A, although it put a caution on low latency gaming, saying I may experience issues due to bufferbloat (which is true, because I do experience ping spikes/lag sometimes in games).

 

[jbehrmusic]

I set my upload to 24 out of 25.

How do you get 25 up on comcast, with 400 down? The plans here are 400/10, then something like 600/25, 950/50.

 

[dave14305]

How do you get 25 up on comcast, with 400 down? The plans here are 400/10, then something like 600/25, 950/50.

Not sure, my package is X1 Preferred Plus Triple Play with Extreme Internet.

edit: they say 20, but I get close to 25 so I thought it was 25.