Linksys WRV200 - QOS Doesn't work well with Roku Player

[halastrion]

I have had problems with my Linksys WRV-200 Router's QOS settings. I tried several methods of implementing QOS and none of them seem to work well.

Right now I'm using "Bandwidth Allocation" and have set up a custom bandwidth allocation by IP address. When I turn on my new Netflix Roku player, then the network has lots of problems. It seems that the Vonage Phone will work when the Roku player is on (which is a big plus), but even the most basic traffic grinds to a halt on the rest of the network. Any suggestions on better methods to implement QOS...

I also set up a router rule to turn off all access to the IP that the ROKU player is on during the day, so I can work, and an optional one to turn it off at other times (I even have a short cut on my wife's web browser so she can make router changes to this parameter which she is not normally very inclined to do).

It is pretty annoying to have to go to these lengths to make my network work when I bought a high end business class router.

John.

 

[thiggins]

If you have the option to use priority-based QoS, try that, which is want you want anyway, i.e. to give higher priority to media streaming when it is being used.

Bandwidth allocation is generally used to reduce bandwidth for bandwidth hogs.

 

[halastrion]

Thanks,

I do have a "Priority Queue" option, but when I looked at the Roku player, it seems to put all its traffic on port 80. I read some people talking on their forums about it working around their company firewalls. I wasn't sure how to prioritize its traffic without lumping it together with all other internet traffic.

The player itself works fine, it just causes problems with other services when it is on. If it could limit its bandwidth, that would be great, but I didn't understand how to do that based on what Linksys has as options. If I use "bandwidth allocation", then you have the choice of "Guaranteed" and "Spare." I left the Roku player out and didn't dedicate any BW to it, but put my other computers and phone on Guaranteed BW for a percentage say 25%.

With those settings the phone always works, the roku player always works but I loose the ability to get to the internet on any of my computers when the roku player is active.

What do you think?

John

 

[thiggins]

If the Roku player is indeed using port 80, then you need intelligent QoS like you get with Ubicom-based routers from D-Link. It actually looks at the traffic, not just the port.

What happens if you just turn off all the QoS?

What are your downlink / uplink speeds and are you trying to watch standard def or HD Roku content?

 

[halastrion]

I just tried turning off QoS and I still lost the ability of my PC's to connect to the internet. My Vonage phone still worked but there was a bit more jitter in the call.

Right now I'm on a small DSL line with 1.5 down and 384 up. Funny thing is that the movies look great this way and for some reason the router respects the QoS for the phone which is really a plus.

I can watch movies on a web browser from Netflix and they don't cause this problem. I think that if I could get my router to limit the bandwidth of the roku player, that the only problem would be the innitial setup time (normally 20 or 30 seconds to buffer the movie). I can't even send pings across my permanent IPSEC tunnel to work when the player is on, it is that drastic.

I did some searches and found a Roku forum which had some articles on their networking parameters. All their complaints were about it not working, mine seems to be different, but I'll check and see if they have any answers. I did verify that the only ports they are using are HTTP, HTTPS, DHCP and IMCP. It's pretty hard to filter.

Here is a link to the post I read there.

http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=16859

Thanks for the help so far,

John.

 

[halastrion]

PS...

I was thinking about the phone working and tried giving priority to port 80 as high to see if it would enable browsing as well as the roku player and it didn't work any better... Also, this config made the phone still sound jittery where the other at least let the phone work.

John...

 

[thiggins]

Sounds like Application-based QoS isn't going to work since that is application port based.

Try using (physical) port-based QoS and set the ingress and egress rate for the physical port that the Roku is attached to. You may need to experiment with different rates since sometimes the listed rates are not what you actually get.

But with only 1.5 Mbps down, I think you're expecting too much. I found I had to upgrade to a 3 Mbps down DSL connection to get satisfactory Netflix quality with my Roku box. And it still won't stream HD content (that requires 5 Mbps down, I think).

The link you provided says you'll get only 2 dot quality if you limit bandwidth to 1 Mbps and you need 1.6 Mbps for 3 dot.

 

[halastrion]

I'll try what you are suggesting when I get home tonight. I was thinking about hooking the Roku or the computer directly to the network ports instead of letting them go over the wireless. I keep wondering why my vonage always works and the only difference I can think of is that it is physically connected to an ethernet port.

Here is a link to the post I put over in their forum if you are interested, I did learn some things about the Roku player, specifically that there is a hidden menu you can access to limit the bandwidth. I set it to .3mbps and it still shuts down the network.

http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewtopic.php?p=154322#154322