I am in the process of selecting components for upgrading my network to Gigabit. I am mostly looking at chipset features and rejecting switches that don't do Jumbo frames, that don't have QoS support, etc. I wondered if you think that is overkill? I don't want to run managed switches (lazy) either. Do any of you consider certain features more valuable for streaming video? I also have a kid that games online, and another that surfs YouTube constantly, so I think QoS is important - what do you think?

QoS for home use? Forget about it, save your money, and buy a cheap gigabit switch. If it doesn't do the job, look up from there.

Considering both of the mentioned tasks are online, are you looking for traffic shaping for your internet connection?

 

Internal to your home, QoS and/or jumbos are non starters if you don't want managed. Either one is plenty of work.

I only use QoS for my Ooma. It seems to like having priority.

My router (D-Link DIR-655) supposedly has built-in QoS.  I haven't really noticed it working too well.  I still have to pause the torrents in order to use the internet from time to time.

My router (D-Link DIR-655) supposedly has built-in QoS.  I haven't really noticed it working too well.  I still have to pause the torrents in order to use the internet from time to time.

 

I limit my utorrent instance to use a max bandwidth of 250k upstream.  This leaves at least half available for other traffic. Works well. I never notice a slowdown.

The Boxee Box really needs QOS to function properly, particularly when there are multiple clients, more so than my laptops, phones, or tablets. The Asus RT-N56U automatically measures uplink speed...but is inaccurate. 

 

Setting to the actual uplink speed has greatly improved the reliability of streaming from the 'net - no more buffering. I didn't realize how much uplink speed impacts web streaming until the Boxee.  I had always allowed a large portion of uplink bandwidth to torrents from my Synology box.  Now I set a schedule torrents for full bandwidth during the AM hours, and limited (up/down) bandwidth during high usage periods.

C3- Well, perhaps my understanding of QoS is flawed-I just thought it allowed you to favor timing sensitive streams over bandwidth hogs. I am looking at OOMA for phone service, and just want to spend $$$ 1 time on my network. Managed switches are great until somebody with little experience has to maintain it.

 

Maybe it isn't worthwhile. Lots of folks here use Trendnet green switches, but their specs are low - I wouldn't pick one on specs but experience says they are OK. I am pondering Netgear JGS524 or Dlink DGS-1024 - one does QoS and one doesn't.

 

Specs are the beginning of knowledge - experience always wins the day.

My router (D-Link DIR-655) supposedly has built-in QoS.  I haven't really noticed it working too well.  I still have to pause the torrents in order to use the internet from time to time.

 

I limit my utorrent instance to use a max bandwidth of 250k upstream.  This leaves at least half available for other traffic. Works well. I never notice a slowdown.

 

Is that a router setting or a bandwidth cap in uTorrent?

My router (D-Link DIR-655) supposedly has built-in QoS.  I haven't really noticed it working too well.  I still have to pause the torrents in order to use the internet from time to time.

 

I limit my utorrent instance to use a max bandwidth of 250k upstream.  This leaves at least half available for other traffic. Works well. I never notice a slowdown.

 

Is that a router setting or a bandwidth cap in uTorrent?

 

bandwidth cap. I allocate 50% uplink bandwidth to torrents, the rest I leave open for other communication.

C3- Well, perhaps my understanding of QoS is flawed-I just thought it allowed you to favor timing sensitive streams over bandwidth hogs. I am looking at OOMA for phone service, and just want to spend $$$ 1 time on my network. Managed switches are great until somebody with little experience has to maintain it.

 

Maybe it isn't worthwhile. Lots of folks here use Trendnet green switches, but their specs are low - I wouldn't pick one on specs but experience says they are OK. I am pondering Netgear JGS524 or Dlink DGS-1024 - one does QoS and one doesn't.

 

Specs are the beginning of knowledge - experience always wins the day.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_service

Thanks, Weeb!

 

  Now, if I ever have trouble sleeping...I know where to go do some "light" reading.

They only time I have ever turned on qos is when i had a voip phone. I do throttle the bandwidth to certain computers on my network and I did that all through my dual wan router. I have bound the CM to ip for my servers and my own equipment and then a ip range that is open to other computers. That range will only have 1mb down and 256kbps upload.

Technically, QoS as it is used in the business world is not QoS as you know it for home use.  If you look for QoS on managed switches you are looking for the business implementation, home use QoS is not the same and more similar to firewall rate limiting.  QoS on  your switches will do next to nothing unless you also have a router that understands QoS tagged packets, cheap ones do not do QoS in this manner.

 

Buy a good unmanaged gigabit switch (8 port HP for $150).  If you are indeed pushing enough bandidth to worry about QoS then you will kill any cheapo switch, the cheap ones have small or no buffers and when you start loading up more then 1-2 ports with fast/bursty traffic you start getting buffer overflows.  If you are not pushing that much data and are worried about QoS 'just cause' then at least the more expensive switch will last a lot longer.

 

Youtube and online games are typically low bandwidth in comparison to the size of internet circuits today.  How big is your internet connection?

 

 

I wanted to thank everybody for their responses. I am still stewing about it. I plan to implement ooma (VOIP) in the future-that might bring more game to the table. Brian89gp's comments provide the most food for thought. I am getting download speed of 11.6 and upload of 4.5 on comcast. I think the problems in my network right now are caused by my 3 year old router and cable modem. Always something. Sucks that overseas these speeds are a joke...we're behind the times.