Improve My Network

[Henrus]

Hi,

I've laid out my current topology of my home network, which is a mix of ethernet and wifi based connections. My wifi and DHCP duties are all handled by my Amplifi Mesh Router, which also has QoS setup to give priority to my streaming and gaming devices. However, the QoS feature does not work on Amplifi's LAN ports, so I purchased a few TP-Link smart switches that have QoS features built-in (though I haven't configured that yet). This setup so far as vastly improved my streaming performance, and overall Wifi performance has stopped being so flaky (drop-outs, latency problems, throughput issues, etc.). However, my PS4 is still exhibits significant lag during COD WWII multi-player battles. So I put it back on ethernet, hoping that the switch might do a better job of QoS on it.

My three primary questions are these:

1) Is this overall the best topology for my network? There are so many different ways I could place the switches and the router if kind of makes my head spin so I wanted to see other people's approaches to building optimal networks.

2) What's the best way to reduce lag on the PS4?

3) Will turning on QoS on the switches work if I have them connected to each other?

4) My NAS is mostly acting as a Time Machine server for my iMac, which is connected via Wifi. Backups seem to severely impact the overall network. Should I wire it up to the same switch that the NAS is connected to and set QoS?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[thiggins]

All the switch does is pass QoS tags through. It does not prioritize traffic.

For lowest lag, keep the PS4 on Ethernet.

Your topology is reasonable, but you should check to see if you are saturating any of the links on the 8 port switches.

If you are eating up a lot of wireless airtime due to backups, just schedule them for overnight hours.
Also, try to have the MacBook close to the root router, vs. the extenders.

 

[degrub]

2- direct connect to the top router. The mesh router may have high lag. You will have to check.
3- yes
4- put them on the same switch

Put all the gigabit devices that need to talk to each other on the same switch to reduce lag. Put the devices that need low lag to the internet closest to the modem. If the other devices will work double nat, then take the netgear out of bridge and put the ps4 and the Fing box there.

 

[Henrus]

Awesome. Thanks, folks.

 

[st3v3n]

Good morning Henrus and gentlemen, very nice map: I concur with thiggns and degrub. I hung a left at the mini and wound up in the woods, still tracing my way back. I know that some of us old guys are stuck in the hard-wired-zone; I solved all latency issues with Cat7 and a gigabit switch. It was only a bit more work than I usually care for (unless crisp green is waved) done by running CAT7 throughout; results, no lag anywhere with a tiny AP mounted in each room. It wasn't expensive, and now the neighbors are shut out , coverage is seamless.

I snagged quality Cat7 during one of amazon's seasonal sale bashes (no endorsements there). Regardless of the never-ending debate over virtues of Cat5/6/7, I went with it several years ago and never looked back. For the wee bit of extra $s, I love snappy 4K video is with no lag anywhere in the building. I'm happy with hard-lining, as long as I don't have to drill through bricks to do it; the extra labor was negligible (a $20 case for a friend who helped with snaking the C7). Seriously, great map, Cheers

 

[Henrus]

Thanks, st3v3n. Appreciate the kind words. Would love to do cat7 but I think that would require rewiring the entire house on 3 floors, so not sure I'd be up to that challenge.

 

[st3v3n]

You betcha, that's only for young, spry folks or their paid contractors 5e is plenty good. When you get older, there's only so much future proofing anyone should consider, and at the time, I was up to it; no longer, so congrats, I wish I could generate as nice a map, but I'm stuck with dragging things and using stick figures