Padavan's Custom Firmware

[Mat77]

Okay, here's one that I ran into that people seem to believe works to reduce bufferbloat. The rt-n66u sets txqueuelen up at 1000, and you can set that lower and play with this value by using this example command:

ifconfig eth0 txqueuelen 10

This is per-interface, can be done for eth0, eth1, and eth2, I believe. It is something to try.

You can display the current value with this:

ifconfig eth0

You should be able to put your command line into the "init-start" script, when you've determined the value that you want to use. Use some care when reducing this, as I'm sure that there is a minimum value where things may just fall apart, you don't want to be below that, and there may be dynamic effects that might cause that minimum value to change. So I'd just set a reasonable value, and see how it goes, maybe test with netalyzr and see what's been gained before changing it again.

If I use "ifconfig eth0" on the administration console I get this error Message

"ifconfig: eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found"
Is it also possible to do it on the RT-N56U? And do I need to do it for every eth port?

I have a RT-N56U. I would try to reduce the number from 1000 to 500. Then I should see on Netalyzr if it helps or not

 

[joegreat]

"ifconfig: eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found"
Is it also possible to do it on the RT-N56U? And do I need to do it for every eth port?

Hi,

Try only the command ifconfig | more (alone).
This should give all devices with the names and current configuration.

With kind regards
Joe

 

[Mat77]

Hi,

Try only the command ifconfig | more (alone).
This should give all devices with the names and current configuration.

With kind regards
Joe

Thank you very much

ok there I have:

br0
eth2
eth3
lo
rai0

how can I know what´s my computer and what´s my xbox for example?
On eth3 there is an IP adress (public IP Adress no internal IP adress).

If I set txquelen to 500 and restart the router will it be back to 1000?

 

[Shikami]

Last year when I ran Netalyzer on my old gaming machine, my uplink had 1200ms and a few days ago I tested it again on my current machine and it was once again 1200ms. It dropped down to 300 average when I ran TCP Optimizer, reduced NIC transmit buffers from 512 to 16 and changed Duplex from 1000 to 100 full duplex. I did all this before running the test again.

Netalyzer is not a perfect test for "buffer bloat." Also other factors can cause errant results, such as distance, and limited TX bandwidth. You can test within an hour of each other and get two different results even! The bloat issue is more with your ISP than it is with your hardware. The ISP needs to resolve it.

Also, the transmit buffers you want to keep at the preconfigured driver levels. They have nothing to due with buffer bloat with a Windows OS . To note, with Windows OS's some of the transmit buffers are not released properly so as to not cause bufferbloat and this is why you will always see a higher amount of TX buffers than RX buffers with Windows. Therefore, this setting does not matter with Windows.


Matt77, IIRC, your problem is that you are in Europe and also limited bandwidth? Careful with stating your configuration(s) and advice because your network is not a general "thing" if so. Networking is very, very relative. Remember: "A bloated buffer has an effect only when this buffer is actually used. In other words, over-sized buffers have a damaging effect only when the link they buffer for becomes a bottleneck." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bufferbloat)

 

[Shikami]

https://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/w...ng_network_interfaces_(transcript_naming_inte

What are the existing network interfaces (transcript naming interfaces)?
br0 = LAN + WLAN + AP-Client + WDS
eth2 = Ethernet interface GMAC1, that connected to the switch (trunk port).
eth2.1 = LAN (VLAN VID1)
eth2.2 = WAN (VLAN VID2)
ra0 = WLAN 5GHz
ra1 = WLAN 5GHz Guest
rai0 = WLAN 2.4GHz
rai1 = WLAN 2.4GHz Guest
apcli0 = AP-Client 5GHz
apclii0 = AP-Client 2.4GHz
wds0-wds3 = WDS 5GHz
wdsi0-wdsi3 = WDS 2.4GHz
In the no-VLAN firmware

eth2 = LAN
eth3 = WAN

 

[Mat77]

little feedback.

br0 is on txqueuelen 0 (default)

so I changed eth2 and eth3 to 500,100 and 10.
There is NO change on Netalyzr.

But I started my xbox and it feels so much better it´s unbelievable. It´s only the first impression so I have to check it over the weeks - bute games feel much better.

 

[Shikami]

little feedback.

br0 is on txqueuelen 0 (default)

so I changed eth2 and eth3 to 500,100 and 10.
There is NO change on Netalyzr.

But I started my xbox and it feels so much better it´s unbelievable. It´s only the first impression so I have to check it over the weeks - bute games feel much better.

Matt77, go to this video at the 20:46 mark and notice the slide he has up. Especially marked "I set the txqueuelen knob to 0 on the router and nothing happened..." And note, what he says in the next few minutes because if I recall again, your connection to your XBox is 802.x.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbIozKVz73g

 

[Mat77]

Matt77, go to this video at the 20:46 mark and notice the slide he has up. Especially marked "I set the txqueuelen knob to 0 on the router and nothing happened..." And note, what he says in the next few minutes because if I recall again, your connection to your XBox is 802.x.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbIozKVz73g

I can´t understand all (my english is not this good....)

But my Router is behind a Motorola Surfboard Modem (bad Buffers like I read in the net and I can do nothing against it).

Is it possible that I get double buffered? Router and Modem? So the change really make a difference at the moment, because I get only buffered once? In two weeks I can say if it´s better or not - the first impression is good.

 

[Mat77]

ok I´m back.

Northing changed - it was a placebo.

To change txqueuelen to 10 changed nothing on my end. I think the Problem is not my router it is my Modem

 

[sekta]

You were right, NetAlyzer returned the same old 1200ms, even 3600ms and 4800ms after my changes. I already tried the txqueuelen on eth2 and eth3 before and it made no difference at all. I then flashed to the Asus firmware and everything is fixed. Bufferbloat is still there but with QoS I don't have to deal with it at all. I can upload to Youtube and watch 1080p at the same time or play Call of Duty. I couldn't even watch 480p with nothing else running on the network with the custom firmware. Also on the custom firmware, Youtube will drop to 0.1mbps upload after 5 minutes. I was constantly rebooting the router to keep full speed.

 

[sirlindqvist]

I'm using a N56U and I'm wondering how to proper setup connecting to my vpn provider via the router so all clients gets behind the vpn?

There's 2 options as i see. First i can configure the WAN to connect to a vpn provider. Tried this and it works. The clients gets behind the vpn ip but i cant choose OpenVPN as protocoll, just PPTP. Is this the correct method for this case?

Second, in latest firmware, theres a vpn client. tried this with PPTP and i get connected (according to the logs). But i dont get the vpn ip at my clients, still the original ip from ISP. Here its an option for OpenVPN but i cant figure out howto add certs etc. Any clue? and howto get my clients to use the vpn Connection when using this option?

Which one of these methods is the one to use for me? Any help plz!

 

[arul]

same question

hey guys, i have the exact same question as sirlindqvist, if someone know how to use the vpn client, please guide us. tq!

 

[xnor]

Switching from DSL to cable (IPoE) my QoS scripts stopped working.

Of course, there's no ppp0 anymore but traffic directly goes through eth2.2 (WAN) now ... or so I thought. I was half wrong, when someone in the LAN did something with the internet most of the traffic did not go through eth2.2!

Turns out the "Hardware offload NAT/Routing IPv4" feature was the problem. Only when this is disabled will the traffic go through eth2.2 and therefore netfilter in the kernel (iptables, tc ..).

 

[Madj4ck]

Latest Version 3.4.3.7-071 is available now

 

[xnor]

The RT-N65U build I'm using:

rt-nxxu


Just updated to 071, seems to work fine with QoS. I'm gonna share some snippets/scripts if you're interested.

For example: prioritize games so that you get a nice ping even though someone else is uploading at the same time, or spread download bandwidth evenly between different IPs (1 computer is downloading: max speed, 2 computers downloading: each gets half the max speed, and so on).

 

[ncfoster]

The RT-N65U build I'm using:

rt-nxxu


Just updated to 071, seems to work fine with QoS. I'm gonna share some snippets/scripts if you're interested.

For example: prioritize games so that you get a nice ping even though someone else is uploading at the same time, or spread download bandwidth evenly between different IPs (1 computer is downloading: max speed, 2 computers downloading: each gets half the max speed, and so on).

I just updated to 071, and I would love to have some sort of rudimentary QoS working on it. I'd like to prioritize Ooma VoIP and PS3 gaming over general traffic.

 

[xnor]

Great. I'm still cleaning up my script and trying to make it simpler to understand and modify. Will upload hopefully tomorrow.


edit: Simple guide and script here: rt-nxxu/qos/

Please let me know if you have any problems or need help.


edit2:
Even with this simple script you can reduce ping times a lot:
before:

after:

 

[arul]

new interesting changes

hey guys, check this out.
https://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/source/list
new support linux kernel 3.8 and 3.10. what do u guys think?

 

[xnor]

These tiny patches probably just make hw_nat and wifi_drivers to compile without errors with newer kernel versions.

As long as ASUS won't release or update iNIC_mii there won't even be Linux 3.4 support for RT-N65U.

 

[Mat77]

Great. I'm still cleaning up my script and trying to make it simpler to understand and modify. Will upload hopefully tomorrow.


edit: Simple guide and script here: rt-nxxu/qos/

Please let me know if you have any problems or need help.


edit2:
Even with this simple script you can reduce ping times a lot:
before:

after:

can it also been used for ASUS rt-n56u?

what are your results on the netalyzr site?