Which version of QoS to use for gaming

[Adoz]

I just recently bought an Asus 86U and was wondering what version of QoS I should use to get the best performance while gaming. I'm currently using the latest Merlin firmware.

My internet speeds are 350 down and 35. I've heard of Cake which seems to be pretty good but have no idea how to install it. I've also heard for my speeds I might just be better off not using QoS at all. I've tried Merlins adaptive QoS with fq_codel and using manual bandwidth settings but I noticed I got pretty high ping spikes in games.

I have multiple devices in my house using Netflix, browsing YouTube, spotify etc whilst also have a couple of devices playing online games. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[QuikSilver]

I just recently bought an Asus 86U and was wondering what version of QoS I should use to get the best performance while gaming. I'm currently using the latest Merlin firmware.

My internet speeds are 350 down and 35. I've heard of Cake which seems to be pretty good but have no idea how to install it. I've also heard for my speeds I might just be better off not using QoS at all. I've tried Merlins adaptive QoS with fq_codel and using manual bandwidth settings but I noticed I got pretty high ping spikes in games.

I have multiple devices in my house using Netflix, browsing YouTube, spotify etc whilst also have a couple of devices playing online games. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

If you want a "Set it and forget it" system then best effort with CakeQOS seems to work for most people. As for myself I use flexqos with a 250/20 setup. If gaming is your main thing and you go towards flexqos I'd suggest putting the gaming category higher in the priority list.

 

[Adoz]

If you want a "Set it and forget it" system then best effort with CakeQOS seems to work for most people. As for myself I use flexqos with a 250/20 setup. If gaming is your main thing and you go towards flexqos I'd suggest putting the gaming category higher in the priority list.

Are there any guides about how to install Cake? I have no idea about JFFS stuff. I've enabled the use of them in the admin settings but can't find how to add in scripts.

 

[QuikSilver]

Check out the CakeOS release thread. Has alot of valuable information such as how to install and what settings work for certain people. https://www.snbforums.com/threads/release-cakeqos-merlin.64800/

Edit: Github is a good place for information as well.
https://github.com/ttgapers/cakeqos-merlin

 

[L&LD]

@Adoz, to dip your toes into the script pool, you may want to have a look at the amtm Step-by-Step guide in the link in my signature below.

Just note that as long as you have RMerlin firmware 384.15_0 release final, or later installed, you don't need to install amtm so ignore that part of the guide.

HTH.

 

[Adoz]

@Adoz, to dip your toes into the script pool, you may want to have a look at the amtm Step-by-Step guide in the link in my signature below.

Just note that as long as you have RMerlin firmware 384.15_0 release final, or later installed, you don't need to install amtm so ignore that part of the guide.

HTH.

I managed to get amtm installed with Entware and then Cake-qos. Thanks for the help!

I'm now wondering what the best options are in Cake haha. What queue priority should I use and should I use any extra options? A the minute I'm just using the besteffort queue and the raw extra option as I think they are default? Not too sure though.

 

[jackiechun]

I'm now wondering what the best options are in Cake haha. What queue priority should I use and should I use any extra options? A the minute I'm just using the besteffort queue and the raw extra option as I think they are default? Not too sure though.

Simplest set-up is: 95% of your download/upload speeds + besteffort.

Do a speedtest on www.dslreports.com and www.speedtest.net, run a couple to get your actual line speeds, then calculate 95% of that and enter them as your download/upload speeds in cake-qos (e.g. for a 30/5 connection enter 28.5 and 4.75 Mbit).

Queue priority defaults to besteffort which is fine for most cases. The second most popular one seems to be diffserv4. besteffort = treats all traffic as the same, saves some CPU. diffserv4 categorizes traffic by type and prioritizes them by bulk, best effort, video, and voice. My AC86U + connection seems to like besteffort more.

For extra options these are purely optional. This page goes into more detail on advanced settings: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user...pe_without_a_safety_net_aka_advanced_features

You can change and test various settings over time without needing to reboot your router. A handy test site is https://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

More discussion can be found in the CakeQOS-Merlin thread https://www.snbforums.com/threads/release-cakeqos-merlin.64800/

I recently shared my settings here: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/release-cakeqos-merlin.64800/page-42#post-599576

 

[Adoz]

For extra options these are purely optional. This page goes into more detail on advanced settings: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user...pe_without_a_safety_net_aka_advanced_features

Thanks heaps for all the useful information! I'm a bit of a noob though and I'm still having a bit of a hard time figuring out what to enter here or if I should put anything at all. If I wanted to leave this blank should I just use a space and enter? Or leave it as raw? Or is there an option I should use for fibre 350/35 connection that you might recommend?

Queue priority defaults to besteffort which is fine for most cases. The second most popular one seems to be diffserv4.

As for the queue priority I did a test on besteffort and got an A on bufferbloat and got an A+ whilst on diffserv4 but it does seems to have different results at times. My house has multiple devices playing YouTube/Netflix/Spotify most times whilst also having a couple of devices playing online games. So maybe diffserv4 might be best?

Thanks again for all the information, slowly learning!

 

[jackiechun]

Or is there an option I should use for fibre 350/35 connection that you might recommend?

I'd suggest trying:

Download: 332.5
Upload: 33.25
Queue Priority: besteffort
Extra Download Options: dual-dsthost
Extra Upload Options: dual-srchost ack-filter

Do a couple of bufferbloat tests with these settings and then change Queue Priority to diffserv4 to compare and see which your individual set-up likes better As I said in the main CakeQOS thread, my AC86U/connection seems to like besteffort more.

The dual-dsthost/dual-srchost (dst for download, src for upload) options override the default triple-isolate option. triple-isolate generally works well but I've personally found the dual-xhost options provide more consistent results.

You can also try also adding ack-filter to the Extra Download Options (so it reads: dual-dsthost ack-filter) to see if that helps.

 

[Adoz]

I'd suggest trying:

Download: 332.5
Upload: 33.25
Queue Priority: besteffort
Extra Download Options: dual-dsthost
Extra Upload Options: dual-srchost ack-filter

Do a couple of bufferbloat tests with these settings and then change Queue Priority to diffserv4 to compare and see which your individual set-up likes better

You can also try also adding ack-filter to the Extra Download Options (so it reads: dual-dsthost ack-filter) to see if that helps.

Thanks I'll try this now and see how it goes over the next few days. Greatly appreciate the help!

 

[Mikeyy]

Thanks for all answers here, but is it needed to use any scripts or I can stick to default adaptive qos or something else?

I'm a light gamer, nothing fancy, usually on weekends. But when I game I need to pause all my seeds on Synology NAS device. Also, that device connects to internet with openVPN, so all traffic from it is encrypted. My goal is to place that device as last in line for priority and it would be good if I could also keep all wireless devices also close to end of list.

Any suggestions on what's the easiest and quickest way to achieve this?

Thank you.

 

[reerden]

The default adaptive Qos is fine for most people and doesn't require any scripts. Just make sure you use manual bandwidth and set it to 90-95% of a speedtest result (use an actual speedtest and not the advertised speed). Auto bandwidth doesn't work. Use fq_codel as the queing discipline.

FlexQos is a script that allows you to customise the adaptive qos traffic classification, as well as trying to improve the default category configuration. Allowing you for instance, to categorise unrecognized games, or treating all traffic from a game console as gaming traffic. It doesn't require too much work to install, aside from logging in on the terminal and running a command.

CakeQos is an entirely different approach to Qos, and focuses more on preventing clients from oversaturating your connection, rather than prioritising traffic. (While it can categorise traffic, it's support is currently limited). In other words, it prevents your ping from spiking when someone is downloading something for example. While adaptive Qos will also prevent this, CakeQos does a better job at it. The downside is that it isn't compatible with hardware acceleration, so it can't handle speeds higher than 360mbps.

Thanks for all answers here, but is it needed to use any scripts or I can stick to default adaptive qos or something else?

I'm a light gamer, nothing fancy, usually on weekends. But when I game I need to pause all my seeds on Synology NAS device. Also, that device connects to internet with openVPN, so all traffic from it is encrypted. My goal is to place that device as last in line for priority and it would be good if I could also keep all wireless devices also close to end of list.

Any suggestions on what's the easiest and quickest way to achieve this?

Thank you.

It sounds like either cakeQos or FlexQos would allow you to achieve this, with FlexQos being easier to install. Keep in mind that Qos only works on Lan<->Wan traffic, not Lan<->Lan traffic.

 

[Mikeyy]

FlexQos is a script that allows you to customise the adaptive qos traffic classification, as well as trying to improve the default category configuration. Allowing you for instance, to categorise unrecognized games, or treating all traffic from a game console as gaming traffic. It doesn't require too much work to install, aside from logging in on the terminal and running a command.

This sounds like categorizing by IP?
If that's true, then I could place as top priority my gaming PC, Synology NAS as lowest priority, and that would solve 90% of issues in my network.

 

[Adoz]

The downside is that it isn't compatible with hardware acceleration, so it can't handle speeds higher than 360mbps.

I can hit up to 380mbps speeds when no-one else is using the internet in my house, so would I be better off with FlexQos over Cake in my case? Or does that just mean I wont be able to get over 360mbps with cake enabled?

 

[reerden]

This sounds like categorizing by IP?
If that's true, then I could place as top priority my gaming PC, Synology NAS as lowest priority, and that would solve 90% of issues in my network.

It's not exactly categorising by IP. The way adaptive QoS works is by looking up the connection characteristics in a signature file and assign a priority to it based on its category. The problem is not all games are present in this signature, so FlexQos allows you to put everything that's unrecognised from a certain device into a certain category.

In your case, you can put your gaming PC in the gaming rule, and everything not already categorised will end up in gaming. This is great because you wouldn't want a download on the gaming PC to have gaming priority. But it won't because most http traffic already ends up in the web browsing category. And any file sharing protocol ends up in file downloading.

 

[reerden]

I can hit up to 380mbps speeds when no-one else is using the internet in my house, so would I be better off with FlexQos over Cake in my case? Or does that just mean I wont be able to get over 360mbps with cake enabled?

It just means you won't get more than 360mbps because the routers CPU is maxing out. Aside from that, the connection will work fine.

Keep in mind cake only works on the newer HND routers (AC86u, AX88U), as it requires newer kernels.

 

[Prodeje79]

Long time 68u user and just got my 86u. Was planning on trying cake. Now I can't decide!
I'm on a 400/20 spectrum cable connection. My gaming sucks when my family streaming that Disney+ 4k hdr.

Any opinions on Merlin version and QoS to try first? I won't be using WiFi. I can also return it if this wasn't a good move . I don't have a complex setup. I just add a few port forwarding rules for a game or two .

 

[Kingp1n]

Long time 68u user and just got my 86u. Was planning on trying cake. Now I can't decide!
I'm on a 400/20 spectrum cable connection. My gaming sucks when my family streaming that Disney+ 4k hdr.

Any opinions on Merlin version and QoS to try first? I won't be using WiFi. I can also return it if this wasn't a good move . I don't have a complex setup. I just add a few port forwarding rules for a game or two .

You're already in a good place since your gaming device is wired. I would honestly try FlexQoS first due to your speeds. Cake is recommended to be used for speeds below 250mbps, however they're has been testing done and working on higher speeds so test and keep an eye out for any issues.

The AC86u is a great device...i used for almost a year, sold it and got the AX88U. Both are great in my opinion!

 

[Adoz]

You're already in a good place since your gaming device is wired. I would honestly try FlexQoS first due to your speeds. Cake is recommended to be used for speeds below 250mbps, however they're has been testing done and working on higher speeds so test and keep an eye out for any issues.

The AC86u is a great device...i used for almost a year, sold it and got the AX88U. Both are great in my opinion!

I'm kinda tempted to try FlexQoS just to compare it to Cake with my speeds. Is there a recommended order for the traffic priority list for gaming? Or is the Gaming preset good enough?

 

[Kingp1n]

I'm kinda tempted to try FlexQoS just to compare it to Cake with my speeds. Is there a recommended order for the traffic priority list for gaming? Or is the Gaming preset good enough?

Just assigned a static IP address to your console(s) and match them up under "Gaming" rule thru the GUI inside the FlexQoS tab. This will ensure all traffic within gaming is recognized! How many gaming devices do you have?