FlexQoS FlexQoS - Setting up a Multicast IPTV box

[poolbeetse7en]

Hi folks,

I'm just getting started with FlexQoS, so appreciate your patience with me

I am having issues with streaming multicast channels on my IPTV box. More specifically, it is EE TV (formerly BT TV) in the UK. The channels are working fine, but every so soften, I get freezing or stutterring. This is almost certainly caused by latency when there is traffic on my network. FlexQoS seems like a good solution, but I'm not too sure how to prioritise the traffic for my EE TV box specifically. Can you prioritise traffic based on IP address? I'd really appreciate any advice. Thank you!

 

[dave14305]

It depends on your router model and ISP bandwidth. Newer routers cannot use iptables rules to override Adaptive QoS classifications, unless Broadcom flowcache is disabled.

 

[poolbeetse7en]

It depends on your router model and ISP bandwidth. Newer routers cannot use iptables rules to override Adaptive QoS classifications, unless Broadcom flowcache is disabled.

Thanks. It's an Asus AX-56U, so one of the older Merlin capable routers. I'm also on 900/110 Mbps. I have set the manual QoS Speed to 90% of this as roughly advised on the setup instructions. Thanks.

 

[poolbeetse7en]

It looks as if the IPTV box traffic is being tagged as web traffic, though I could very well be wrong. I haven't actually tested the box yet to see if default settings would resolve it, but if it is being tagged as web traffic then I doubt it.

 

[dave14305]

You should be able to create an iptables rule in the GUI for the local IP of the TV box, and set the Class as “Streaming”.

Then make sure Streaming is prioritized on the main QoS tab above most other categories.

 

[poolbeetse7en]

You should be able to create an iptables rule in the GUI for the local IP of the TV box, and set the Class as “Streaming”.

Then make sure Streaming is prioritized on the main QoS tab above most other categories.

Thank you for that! Very helpful. I'm just tinkering with the iptables now. I can test it easily by running a Speedtest which causes the picture to freeze and stutter, so I should know if I get it resolved

 

[Crimliar]

You are going to get no benefit from using QoS when your connection is 900/100 - FlexQoS won't be able to keep up with it!
Now normally your DNS is going to have no effect on throughput, but in this case it just might! If you are with BT or EE (not just supplied by OpenReach), then the media servers can be within the BT/EE network within one of the reserved IPv4 ranges. If you are using the BT/EE default DNS servers then try a different DNS, and if not then switch back to the BT/EE DNS.
BT/EE's use of 172.x and 10.x addresses is none-standard, weird and confusing!

 

[poolbeetse7en]

You are going to get no benefit from using QoS when your connection is 900/100 - FlexQoS won't be able to keep up with it!
Now normally your DNS is going to have no effect on throughput, but in this case it just might! If you are with BT or EE (not just supplied by OpenReach), then the media servers can be within the BT/EE network within one of the reserved IPv4 ranges. If you are using the BT/EE default DNS servers then try a different DNS, and if not then switch back to the BT/EE DNS.
BT/EE's use of 172.x and 10.x addresses is none-standard, weird and confusing!

Funny you should say that, but I actually have AdGuard running too, and I always use Quad9. I'd rather not use BT's DNS servers if at all possible, but you're saying I'm better using that it should automatically priorituse IPTV traffic? I just assumed the SmartHub (ISP router) was using some sort of QoS for IPTV. I don't actually know how they prioritise it on their own equipment.

Yes, it's BT I'm using but as you may know, the IPTV was recently re-branded to EE, but I doubt anything on the backend has changed. Thanks!

 

[poolbeetse7en]

I wonder should I try DNS Director first before messing with QoS settings? It looks like it will allow me to set a specific DNS server for LAN clients.

 

[poolbeetse7en]

I think it's solved now. It seems that applying QoS to a multicast stream is not going to work however, I found settings from another thread here posted by @brummygit and now the streaming is working perfectly fine. I maxed out my connection and switched to the BT 4K channel for ultimate bandwidth pain and it didn't freeze or skip once. I'll post a screenshot here incase it helps someone else. Thanks for the pointers suggested here! Much appreciated.