Help for Newbie with QoS/VOIP

[shelleyevans]

Hello all!

Apologies in advance for very rudimentary questions. I have searched and searched, and honestly can't find clear answers-- probably because most of these topics are much more advanced than I am. My background situation is that I run a small home network, off of an ASUS RT-AC68U, with four ROKUs, two OBI VOIP devices, two ethernet computers and many many wifi devices in and out of the house. I have a highspeed 250/10 internet service from COMCAST. Because we have had difficulties with VOIP quality (calls breaking up and occasionally getting cut off), I started researching and ended up installing Merlin firmware, in hopes of improving call quality. I am currently on Firmware 384.4_2. (Very cool, by the way!) I have made adjustments to the NAT passthrough settings based on a VOIP forum advice: PPTP, L2TP, IPSec Passthrough enabled, and RTSP, H.323, SIP and PPPoE disabled.

With the above settings, not too much improvement in VOIP quality, so I installed Merlin to try and reduce my buffer bloat. My settings: adaptive QoS on. Bandwidth Manual. Queue discipline fq_codel. Wan Packet overhead 18 (with ATM checked). Upload bandwidth 100 Mb/s; Download Bandwidth 900 Mb/s.

With those settings, I get very good reports on DSL speedtest-- buffer bloat is A, line quality A+. I'm happy, and curious to see if that improves my VOIP quality. But I have many questions:

1) Keeping all the above settings (fq_codel seems to be the most important), if I set bandwidth to automatic, my download and upload speeds increase, but my buffer bloat drops to an F. Also, something weird happens to my upload numbers-- they rise and fall in a kind of "saw" pattern, that I have seen described on another thread in this forum. I take this to mean that fq_codel doesn't play well with automatic bandwidth. Is that true?

2) When I manually limit my bandwidth, if I enter what I think are my proper numbers based on speedtest (10 Mb/s upload and 90 Mb/s download), my download speeds are drastically reduced, to 9 Mb/s. By fooling around with different numbers I arrived at the 100/900 set up I currently have. Is that the correct solution? And/or why don't the "correct" numbers seem to work?

3) I see that there is a cool script that helps prioritize VOIP traffic, but I think it is probably over my head. I went into the "custom" settings for adaptive QoS and put VOIP first, then streaming, then web surfing, then games (nobody plays games in our house). Is that a reasonable solution? (I realize that FreshJR wrote his script because VOIP traffic wasn't prioritized, but the bandwidth monitor does seem to recognize my dedicated VOIP devices and give them the highest priority....)

Thank you all so much in advance. This has been a real education, and I look forward to your input.

 

[Vexira]

Freshjr qos script

 

[Datalink]

Are you running a Arris 6190 modem or any other Intel Puma 6 modem? If your Voip phones use UDP, that would be a good starting point to look at due to the UDP losses thru a Puma 6 modem.

 

[JDB]

Freshjr qos script

+1

Made my VoIP experience much better.

I’m a Telecoms Consultant by trade so was getting embarrassing when I had choppy speech!


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[shelleyevans]

Thanks to both for your replies.

@Vexira: I am aware from reading the forum that the qos script is a good solution, but I was not able to find any install instructions that made sense to somebody with my level of experience. (The mention of "putty" made me feel pretty sure I would be getting over my head.) Perhaps I am wrong...? If there is a basic install/setup thread I would dedicate myself to understanding it, but I couldn't find one...

@Datalink: Modem is an Aris SB6183. Would this create the problems you mention? My service providers use UDP and TCP.

Would welcome some thoughts about my questions: why did the bandwidth numbers I posted (10/90) result in such low throughput? Are the numbers I chose (100/900) actually the correct format? Is there any hope of getting QoS working without a script?

 

[Datalink]

The 6183 uses a Broadcom BCM33843D CPU, which doesn't have any of the latency and UDP packet loss issues that Intel Puma 6 modems have. So, I wouldn't expect you to see any issues with Voip performance due to the 6183 itself.

 

[Sinner]

Thanks to both for your replies.

@Vexira: I am aware from reading the forum that the qos script is a good solution, but I was not able to find any install instructions that made sense to somebody with my level of experience. (The mention of "putty" made me feel pretty sure I would be getting over my head.) Perhaps I am wrong...? If there is a basic install/setup thread I would dedicate myself to understanding it, but I couldn't find one...

@Datalink: Modem is an Aris SB6183. Would this create the problems you mention? My service providers use UDP and TCP.

Would welcome some thoughts about my questions: why did the bandwidth numbers I posted (10/90) result in such low throughput? Are the numbers I chose (100/900) actually the correct format? Is there any hope of getting QoS working without a script?

900/100 isnt the correct format. You use the same format as your modem speen in mbits/sec. so if your modem is working well should be something like 90% lower than 250/10. With qos etc all off run a few speedtests and reduce those avg numbers by 5-10%

 

[FreshJR]

For your *dedicated* VOIP devices, go into Adaptive QOS -> bandwidth monitor and drag the red "highest" label and place it over the VOIP devices. Of course, don't forget to click apply.

By dedicated I mean only assign "highest" to the OBI devices.
Currently I do not recommend giving "highest" priority to cellular devices, even if they predominately use Wifi-Calling since that will provide poor bandwidth allocation for any non "highest" priority devices in regards to general traffic.

As @Vexira said, double check your bandwith limits. Everything is in mbps.

At 900/100 you would not need QOS.
So your numbers should be either 90/10, or 9/1.

--

It great that your VOIP is recognized but another drawback of stock QOS implementaion is that https traffic gets higher priority than your first assigned category. This is because HTTPS traffic is sorted into net control.

You would gain further improvements by using my script, as I relocate any HTTPS traffic into Web Browsing, which then truly allows VOIP to be first. Another thing that is changed is that I removed Snapchat traffic away from being identified as VOIP. I found it to be a bandwidth monster and besides their live video chat feature, their most common traffic is not really VOIP in my eyes and should NOT be alloted VOIP priority.

Putty is simply a computer program used to interface with the router.
My post gives a link where to download putty, what folder to drag the application into, and step by step instructions of what to type into it while using it.

Instructions are pretty simple, even for novices, and I am sure lots of people will offer help if you get stuck along the way.

 

[shelleyevans]

A quick and VERY heart-felt thank you to all who posted. I have been taken away by work issues, and then Comcast has been wonky in my neighborhood for weeks, so it seemed like a bad time to troubleshoot. Interestingly, I THOUGHT my numbers should be 90/10, but whenever I entered them in my QoS settings, my speeds just crashed. Once I turn in my project I'm going to follow FreshJR's instructions and try and learn putty and start from scratch. I'd love to finally get this VOIP stuff under control. I'm finally starting to realize that it might be cheap, but it's DEFINITELY not plug and play.

 

[shelleyevans]

Hi again! I turned my project in, and am beginning the process of educating myself so that I can install @FreshJR's script. In doing so, I am realizing how incredibly generous people are on this forum. First I want to say thank you. And now I wonder: all of our computers are OSX, we no longer use Windows. Can I execute the Putty commands using Terminal? If so, what program would I use instead of Putty, which doesn't seem to be available for Mac? Thank you!

 

[JDB]

Just open the Mac terminal and ssh to the router. No app required.


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[Mobz]

Just open the Mac terminal and ssh to the router. No app required.


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What are the commands to execute script installation with Mac?

 

[JDB]

What are the commands to execute script installation with Mac?

No different as once you have ash’s to the router it’s the same as having used putty to ssh to the router.


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[shelleyevans]

Wow! So speedy! I have just been reading about the mac's native SSH on the internet, which seemed to imply what you just confirmed, but since I am new, and basically just following instructions closely, I'm not totally sure how to "SSH into the router" or to translate the commands in the @FreshJR's tutorial. So, for example, how exactly would I do this:

cd C:\putty\
pscp -scp C:\Putty\FreshJR_QOS_compat_v370.txt admin@192.168.1.1:/jffs/scripts/FreshJR_QOS​

I appreciate your patience, and hope that perhaps your instructions might prove useful to other newcomers as well.

 

[JDB]

I recommend cyberduck to transfer files rather than scp (pay in the Mac App Store or free direct from their website). It’s a much simpler drag/drop affair.

To ssh to it just type into terminal;
ssh admin@your-router-ip

Assuming your username is still admin. Password is the same as the web gui.

Once there all other commands are the same.



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[quant88]

Found an old thread might help you with cyberduck setup
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/cyberduck-sftp-to-asus-merlin-router.35364/

You may also want to check router Administration->System->Enable SSH->LAN Only

 

[shelleyevans]

HAH! Part 1 accomplished! Thank you! I downloaded Cyberduck but actually couldn't make it work. However, I got into the router using terminal. (I did get this message:

The authenticity of host '192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:W6bipxJT9afxllo9g7ZqOhPQ3xzWQrDYc7P7nDspwmE.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
​

To which I replied yes.)

I am not planning to install the script until a later time, when my family isn't using the internet. But if you can bear with me, I have a couple of questions:

Once there all other commands are the same.

Isn't pscp.exe another windows program? In order to execute the script, what would be the command in terminal? My guess, from reading the @FreshJR thread, would be: "FOLDER/FreshJR_QOS -install" where "FOLDER" is the directory where I ultimately decide to store the script...?

I noticed also that you said that you are a Telecoms consultant, so perhaps you might also have advice about general router settings for optimal VOIP. Currently I have all my NAT passthrough settings at "Enabled + NAT Helper", because in some other threads I read, that seemed to be the preferred setting. I have (per @FreshJR's advice) set both of my dedicated ATA's to highest priority in "Bandwidth Monitor", and I have QoS enabled with automatic settings. For some reason I can't get the manual bandwidth to work correctly, but I'm going to keep fiddling with that.

Thanks so much, again! Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

[shelleyevans]

@quant88 I will check that thread. Thanks!

FURTHER UPDATES: I just scanned the thread you suggested, which describes the exact problem I encountered. SFTP not supported unless I install something ELSE. I think I will try, if possible, to implement the script just using Terminal. It sounds like it might be, if I get the commands right....?

 

[JDB]

Pscp is the windows version of scp, and cyber duck is the app rather than terminal version of the same. All 3 simply allow you to transfer files to/from another Linux/Unix based device.

My only advice for useful VoIP with these routers is to use Fresh’s QOS script. Everything else seems to work.

As a personal preference I disabled the router based NAT helper and rely on the VoIP client and server to work it out. Have the router in the middle of them trying to be ‘clever’ as well can sometimes over complicate it. But only play with NAT stuff if you have problems with one way voice (voice not reaching you as you are behind NAT) or if you have random failing incoming calls (usually as no keep-alives are enabled so the NAT session expires before the SIP registration does).


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[JDB]

@quant88 I will check that thread. Thanks!

FURTHER UPDATES: I just scanned the thread you suggested, which describes the exact problem I encountered. SFTP not supported unless I install something ELSE. I think I will try, if possible, to implement the script just using Terminal. It sounds like it might be, if I get the commands right....?

Use SCP rather than SFTP


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