Originally posted by: JToxic
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Originally posted by: sheik124
its VoIP, it'll bog down TCP/IP, and yes, it'll use your B/W. tis the main reason we're staying away from VoIP, crappy Road Runner upload speed (384kbps)
I have even less upload than that
<--currently downloading Torrents @ 200KB/s
(most of them are uploading two...a few seeders as well)
<--currently chatting on an international VoIP call via vonage
<--currently posting this
<--currrently researching c++ dynamic arrays
<---currently hosting a PPTP VPN conenction...
Not even a hiccup.
If you know how to use QoS, everything will run smoothly
<---finally figured out what was causing problems for me before
I looked up QoS and figured out what it was. Does the router handle this fucntion?
QoS is handled, or rather, can be handled by a varitable menagerie of devices. Layer 3 switches can do it, and are usually relegated to that duty for LAN based traffic. Routers do their own QoS when interlinking LANs, and having it on WAN routers is CRUCIAL.
Basically QoS is the addition and recognition of metrics to packets. prioritization, reliability, and a host of other characteristics are recognized and acted upon when needed.
For example, when I just made my VoIP call, the upload from my torrent dropped DRAMATICALLY to clear space
I have something a little more sophisticated than a consumer router

I am using a soekris 4801+1641 embedded pc with an AMB 266mhz Geode Processor with 128MB of RAM that runs m0n0wall, a php web administration suite that runs on FreeBSD 4.x
Some consumer routers defintiely have it but are rather limited. The Linksys WRT54G/GS series are firmware flashable to support basic QoS. The reason I label it as basic is because it only works on ports, and not on port ranges...for example bit torrent uses the local port of 6881 by default, but answers tracker info on packets ranging from 6881-6999 or even other obscure ones depending on who runs the torrent/tracker.
Don't fret though, netgear has a new $150 Prosafe rotuer that does QoS on port ranges and everything

In addition, it allows for two WAN (internet in this case) connections and allows you to bond them or use them for fail over. Keep in mind that you annot 'double' your bandwidth with it. It can only route complete conenctions over one line and cannot split them up. That said, you can use one line for serving or gaming and the other for bitttorrent for example
In addition, I have a Cisco 2610 which works wonders too

. I am not using though since I only have one interface on it...I need to buy another one.

$$$$ It will eventually be my gateway router
