Best router for bandwidth prioritization?

[RaddedMC]

Hi there!

I'm looking for advice as to which router I should buy for the best bandwidth prioritization software. Our family has a number of devices that use the internet at the same time. One of these is a laptop which does a lot of streaming, and we want a router than can set this laptop as an absolute priority number one, limiting the bandwidth on other devices to the point that if the laptop needs x mbps and the connection doesn't have any room for anything else, the laptop gets its x mbps and the other devices that want something don't get it unless the laptop slows down or more bandwidth becomes avaliable.

Which router models can we buy that will do this for us? Thanks for your help!

[LIGISTX]

19 minutes ago, RaddedMC said:

Hi there!

I'm looking for advice as to which router I should buy for the best bandwidth prioritization software. Our family has a number of devices that use the internet at the same time. One of these is a laptop which does a lot of streaming, and we want a router than can set this laptop as an absolute priority number one, limiting the bandwidth on other devices to the point that if the laptop needs x mbps and the connection doesn't have any room for anything else, the laptop gets its x mbps and the other devices that want something don't get it unless the laptop slows down or more bandwidth becomes avaliable.

Which router models can we buy that will do this for us? Thanks for your help!

This will be very hard to get in the consumer networking space. A few “have the feature”, but it doesn’t work very well. Hell, google WiFi’s implementation did the opposite for me. 

[kelvinhall05]

Maybe you should be looking for a "gaming" router. What's your budget?

[RaddedMC]

4 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

This will be very hard to get in the consumer networking space. A few “have the feature”, but it doesn’t work very well. Hell, google WiFi’s implementation did the opposite for me. 

I'd be willing to grab some cheaper enterprise hardware. I heard somewhere that the feature I'm looking for is called 'SQM', but apparently on higher-speed connections this requires more processing power. Our connection is 25 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up.

[RaddedMC]

5 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Maybe you should be looking for a "gaming" router. What's your budget?

Not really sure yet. I just wanna grab what I know will work for sure.

[LIGISTX]

Just now, RaddedMC said:

Not really sure yet. I just wanna grab what I know will work for sure.

Personally, I am not sure what will for sure work

[RaddedMC]

2 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Personally, I am not sure what will for sure work

Any suggestions to get me on the right track? I've heard a lot of praise for Ubiquity hardware in a few LTT videos

[kelvinhall05]

Just now, RaddedMC said:

Any suggestions to get my on the right track? I've heard a lot of praise for Ubiquity hardware in a few LTT videos

Yeah that's what I was seeing but that will get expensive real fast, hence why I suggested the (relatively) cheap g4ming routers.

[LIGISTX]

4 minutes ago, RaddedMC said:

Any suggestions to get me on the right track? I've heard a lot of praise for Ubiquity hardware in a few LTT videos

I’d have to assume ubiquity hardware would be able to handle this “well”. I am not sure lessee routers will, but maybe others will chime in and prove me wrong. Personally, I’d like to be proven wrong here. 

[Escapenz]

I believe asus has something along those line on its routers. QoS or something like that. Not a feature i can say i have used since i have a 1gbps connection.

[Falcon1986]

9 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Yeah that's what I was seeing but that will get expensive real fast, hence why I suggested the (relatively) cheap g4ming routers.

If you fall for the "gaming" router advertising, then you're likely going to overpay for features that could be had for less.

 

9 hours ago, RaddedMC said:

Any suggestions to get me on the right track? I've heard a lot of praise for Ubiquity hardware in a few LTT videos

Ubiquiti has many different products at different price points. Yes, some of their gear gets expensive but these are for applications with specific needs.

 

Please realize that if you choose to go with pro-sumer gear, setup is different than traditional consumer-grade hardware. Routers are separate from switches which are separate from wireless access points, because separation of functions allows for better hardware performance in busy network environments. Additionally, no longer is a single wireless access point sufficient for medium to large homes; you need to wire in multiple.

 

So, if you just want a good router that will handle QoS pretty well, I'd recommend the $60 EdgeRouter X. This device has a graphical interface, but a lot of advanced features can be accessed through the command line. Keep in mind that this is just a router. It does not have a wireless access point.

 

If you still want a single all-in-one device that has advanced features but an easy-to-use graphical interface, consider the Synology RT2600AC.

[Donut417]

58 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Synology RT2600AC.

I have this router, its great. 

 

@RaddedMC the router mentioned here does allow you to dedicate x amount of bandwidth to a device OR limit the total amount given. I personally dont use the feature because my internet connection supports all my devices pretty good. 

[RaddedMC]

Hey guys! Figure I'd update this thread. I've talked with the family and I think what we're going to do is check out an Edgerouter X, and change settings around on our current D-Link DIR-855L (which provides decent Wi-Fi perfomance given our 25 Mbps connection) so that it functions as an access point. If the D-Link router/ap doesn't work then we can upgrade and grab an AC-LITE AP. We have a seperate ISP which most of the Wi-Fi/IoT devices are connected to, so really we're only looking at 2 LAN clients and few WiFi devices connecting to the network the Edgerouter will be on.

Just to confirm though, does anyone have experience with Ubiquity's SQM QoS? How well does it work?

[Falcon1986]

20 minutes ago, RaddedMC said:

Hey guys! Figure I'd update this thread. I've talked with the family and I think what we're going to do is check out an Edgerouter X, and change settings around on our current D-Link DIR-855L (which provides decent Wi-Fi perfomance given our 25 Mbps connection) so that it functions as an access point. If the D-Link router/ap doesn't work then we can upgrade and grab an AC-LITE AP. We have a seperate ISP which most of the Wi-Fi/IoT devices are connected to, so really we're only looking at 2 LAN clients and few WiFi devices connecting to the network the Edgerouter will be on.

Just to confirm though, does anyone have experience with Ubiquity's SQM QoS? How well does it work?

Sounds good! Smart move, too. I found this in the DIR-855L manual regarding conversion to AP mode.

 

I previously mentioned setup and Smart Queue in this thread.

[RaddedMC]

5 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

I previously mentioned setup and Smart Queue in this thread.

That's awesome! I'll add the links you posted there to my notes. It's funny that two people made a post about similar issues on the same day

I'll make sure to check the thread out and see how it works for them!

6 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

I found this in the DIR-855L manual regarding conversion to AP mode.

That doesn't seem too difficult! I'll be sure to give that a try once the Edgerouter arrives.