Cheap QoS SQM home network setup

[Ishit Singh]

Whenever someone is downloading something or watching YouTube everyone ping over the network gets huge spikes and extremely low bandwidth. It's because of how cheap my home network has been setup. There are 2 routers, first one on ground and second one at the first floor. Ground floor router act as wireless access point and also the router where my PC is connected via ethernet and the first floor router is connected to fiber internet.

 

The router we are using is Tenda N301 which is really cheap.

 

To prevent ping spike and bandwidth issue I'm thinking about getting Ubiquiti Edgerouter X since it has QoS and SQM but here's the problem, I want to make my existing routers as AP but don't know whether they'll support SQM or not. Also since there's only one ethernet cable going in ground floor I can't use any standalone AP since they only have ethernet in port and no out port. I searched a lot in amazon but couldn't find any AP with ethernet out in my country.

 

If my current router doesn't support QoS SQM is there any cheap way to get this feature working with edgerouter?

[Falcon1986]

@Ishit Singh

 

Firstly, the ER-X's SQM works very well in my experience. Just make sure you update the firmware and activate hardware offloading after you've set it up through the wizard.

 

Secondly, your APs do not need to have SQM if they will be directly connected over ethernet to the ER-X. The ER-X will handle this as the primary router.

 

Thirdly, most dedicated AP's (notice, I didn't say wireless router) will only have a single ethernet port for direct connection to a switch/router because they're not meant to be "daisy-chained" to one another. I guess this is to prevent slowing down of the device altogether. I know for a fact that the Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Pro has a secondary port that you can wire to anything else that has ethernet, but after testing it myself, I found that it caused some degree of slowdown not only for the UAP-AC-Pro, but also to another AP daisy-chained off of it.

 

Now, if you need both wired and wireless connectivity for a particular area, you can consider the following:

1. Repurpose an old wireless router and activate AP mode. Assign it a static internal IP address outside of the ER-X's DHCP pool and use the ER-X's IP as the DNS/gateway. Connect it to the ER-X through the LAN port and you'll be able to utilize the other LAN ports for ethernet devices. Since I'm more comfortable with Ubiquiti products, I tend to use their airCube-AC for this purpose. Not only are they inexpensive (especially if you get them on eBay), but they're tiny and offer quite a bit of wireless coverage.
2. Install a Ubiquiti In-Wall device (the Pro version has more ports) and use the LAN ports for ethernet devices. Keep in mind that IW devices need PoE to at least power its AP.

[Ishit Singh]

50 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

@Ishit Singh

 

Firstly, the ER-X's SQM works very well in my experience. Just make sure you update the firmware and activate hardware offloading after you've set it up through the wizard.

 

Secondly, your APs do not need to have SQM if they will be directly connected over ethernet to the ER-X. The ER-X will handle this as the primary router.

 

Thirdly, most dedicated AP's (notice, I didn't say wireless router) will only have a single ethernet port for direct connection to a switch/router because they're not meant to be "daisy-chained" to one another. I guess this is to prevent slowing down of the device altogether. I know for a fact that the Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Pro has a secondary port that you can wire to anything else that has ethernet, but after testing it myself, I found that it caused some degree of slowdown not only for the UAP-AC-Pro, but also to another AP daisy-chained off of it.

 

Now, if you need both wired and wireless connectivity for a particular area, you can consider the following:

1. Repurpose an old wireless router and activate AP mode. Assign it a static internal IP address outside of the ER-X's DHCP pool and use the ER-X's IP as the DNS/gateway. Connect it to the ER-X through the LAN port and you'll be able to utilize the other LAN ports for ethernet devices. Since I'm more comfortable with Ubiquiti products, I tend to use their airCube-AC for this purpose. Not only are they inexpensive (especially if you get them on eBay), but they're tiny and offer quite a bit of wireless coverage.
2. Install a Ubiquiti In-Wall device (the Pro version has more ports) and use the LAN ports for ethernet devices. Keep in mind that IW devices need PoE to at least power its AP.

Someone told me for SQM to work I need AP that supports IEEE P802.1p in LTT Discord server. I hope it's not true and also sadly airCube isn't available in my country.

 

I hope my existing router work with SQM QoS

[Falcon1986]

5 minutes ago, Ishit Singh said:

Someone told me for SQM to work I need AP that supports IEEE P802.1p in LTT Discord server. Is it true?

I suppose you would if you wanted more granular control in an enterprise network. Ubiquiti's UniFi APs offer some degree of QoS support through the Controller, but I don't personally use it at the AP level because SQM seems to work perfectly fine at the router.

[Ishit Singh]

8 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

I suppose you would if you wanted more granular control in an enterprise network. Ubiquiti's UniFi APs offer some degree of QoS support through the Controller, but I don't personally use it at the AP level because SQM seems to work perfectly fine at the router.

Thanks for the help! So from what I understand all I need is to get Edgerouter and make my existing routers as AP since all I need this router is so everyone in our netweok could get less ping spikes and nothing else.

[Falcon1986]

43 minutes ago, Ishit Singh said:

Thanks for the help! So from what I understand all I need is to get Edgerouter and make my existing routers as AP since all I need this router is so everyone in our netweok could get less ping spikes and nothing else.

If the router is the cause.

 

You'll still need to optimize the wireless aspect at the APs.