Question Router for Streaming Videos and Downloading Simultaneously without Image Quality degredation

[Dave3000]

I have a U-Verse modem/router and I'm on a 100 mb/s download plan. Whenever I download games through Steam or download something at full speed while streaming a TV Show on my Apple TV through my iTunes library, the image quality is very pixelated and stays that way. If I'm streaming while downloading a game through Steam, the only workaround is to throttle my Steam download speed to 1000 KB/s, that's about 1/12th the full download speed I get on my connection. I bought a managed 1Gb ethernet switch that had a QOS feature and I set the priority to High for the port on the switch that my Apple TV 4k is connected to. However, that did not fix the issue. My network setup is: internet > modem/router > ethernet switch > 2 PCs/Apple TV 4k/printer. I thought that QOS was suppose to get rid of this issue. My U-Verse modem/router does not have a QOS feature but I thought that a managed ethernet switch with QOS would get rid of this issue and I could save more money buying a managed switch with QOS instead of a router with QOS if the modem already has an integrated router. Basically what I want to do is have my Apple TV 4k get it's required share of the bandwidth required for what I'm streaming and the rest of the bandwidth allocated for downloading my games when done at the same time. I did return my managed switch for a refund. Would replacing my current ethernet switch with a router that has QOS do what I'm asking here? So instead of the the network configuration I mentioned above, it would be internet > modem/router > router (with QOS feature) > 2 PCs/Apple TV 4k/printer if I do get a router that has a QOS feature.

 

[Tech Junky]

Streaming in the sense from something like Hulu or Netflix shouldn't require much bandwidth. OTA recordings only use 10-25mbps for raw video.

What you're really looking to do is reserve bandwidth for video or in this case s specific device. Now, 1000KB/s and 1000kbps are different. 8 bits to a Byte.

Most of the rate limiting though will be command line. A switch or router can do this. Att though is more likely the issue with limited bandwidth. Usually the IPTV has a vlan assignment to keep it segregated from other traffic to ensure it works. So, there's a couple of things to manage or mark for qos.

 

[Dave3000]

What I'm basically asking is if I get a router that support QOS, will it then distribute than bandwidth to what the device connected to the router requires provided that I configure the port priority on the router? For example if Steam is downloading at the maximum speed of my internet connection (100 mbps but then I start streaming a TV show on my Apple TV at around 15 mbps, shouldn't QOS provide that 15 mbps to my Apple TV and 85 mbps to my PC that is downloading a game through Steam if I set my QOS port priority to High for my Apple TV 4k even if I started downloading on my PC the game a minute before I started streaming a TV show using my Apple TV 4k? I didn't seem like the QOS port priority feature was kicking in on that manage switch that I returned because even when set to High priority for Port 4 (Apple TV 4k connected to) of the managed switch the image quality looked like 2 mbps. A router is much more expensive than a managed switch and I didn't think I needed a router if my ISP's provided modem has an integrated router and I thought that I could just get a managed switch with QOS.

 

[mxnerd]

see if this helps

 

[Dave3000]

That video wasn't the anything like the issue I'm having. Steam always downloads my games at my full internet connection capacity unless I set it not to in the Steam settings. I just want it to have my Apple TV 4k to have priority over my PC when my PC is download and I'm streaming a TV Show on my Apple TV 4k at the same time, especially if a 100 mb/s connection should theoretically have no issue streaming a 1080P through my Apple TV 4k and downloading a game through my PC at the same time.

 

[Tech Junky]

@Dave3000

Then if you have 100mbps down that's about 10MB/s.

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According to this 8000KB/s should leave you 20% for streaming. Now, if att is using more bandwidth for IPTV adjust lower until you find a happy medium where both work at the same time.

 

[Fallen Kell]

What I'm basically asking is if I get a router that support QOS, will it then distribute than bandwidth to what the device connected to the router requires provided that I configure the port priority on the router? For example if Steam is downloading at the maximum speed of my internet connection (100 mbps but then I start streaming a TV show on my Apple TV at around 15 mbps, shouldn't QOS provide that 15 mbps to my Apple TV and 85 mbps to my PC that is downloading a game through Steam if I set my QOS port priority to High for my Apple TV 4k even if I started downloading on my PC the game a minute before I started streaming a TV show using my Apple TV 4k? I didn't seem like the QOS port priority feature was kicking in on that manage switch that I returned because even when set to High priority for Port 4 (Apple TV 4k connected to) of the managed switch the image quality looked like 2 mbps. A router is much more expensive than a managed switch and I didn't think I needed a router if my ISP's provided modem has an integrated router and I thought that I could just get a managed switch with QOS.

The managed switch with QOS wouldn't work unless it was a L3 switch (i.e. a router) and you setup a couple VLANs and put the U-Verse modem/router on it's own VLAN and then create a separate VLAN for your production network, and create a router interface between your production network VLAN the the one that the U-Verse is on and set that as the default route for the devices on your production network and setup the QOS on that route between the production network VLAN and the U-Verse VLAN. But to do this, you would also need your own DHCP server (or one you can customize which I doubt the U-Verse router/modem will let you do) so that it can also respond to traffic from the other production network VLAN (which needs to be a separate address space, so if you use 192.168.1.0/24 for the U-Verse, your production network would need to be something like 192.168.10.0/24).

Only with that setup would your switch be able to perform the QOS requirements you were expecting it to do.

 

[Dave3000]

The managed switch with QOS wouldn't work unless it was a L3 switch (i.e. a router) and you setup a couple VLANs and put the U-Verse modem/router on it's own VLAN and then create a separate VLAN for your production network, and create a router interface between your production network VLAN the the one that the U-Verse is on and set that as the default route for the devices on your production network and setup the QOS on that route between the production network VLAN and the U-Verse VLAN. But to do this, you would also need your own DHCP server (or one you can customize which I doubt the U-Verse router/modem will let you do) so that it can also respond to traffic from the other production network VLAN (which needs to be a separate address space, so if you use 192.168.1.0/24 for the U-Verse, your production network would need to be something like 192.168.10.0/24).

Only with that setup would your switch be able to perform the QOS requirements you were expecting it to do.

I think I already tried what you are talking about here. My mom's Netgear R7000 router is used in my home and I initially thought that QOS was not supported in that router because QOS was grayed out, but I had to set to it router mode to get QOS enabled. However, in router mode, even with QOS enabled, Steam is still hogging up all the internet bandwidth as I download a game, making streaming through my Apple TV 4k blurry, even when my Apple TV 4k is set to high priority and my PC is set to medium priority in the QOS settings. This just seems to be happening in Steam as downloading from other sites, those downrates will automatically lower themselves to my PC as I stream through my Apple TV 4k. I also ran speedtest on both my Apple TV 4k and PC at the same time and my PC is not hogging up all the internet bandwidth when doing that either. Should Steam automatically lower it's download rates to accommodate streaming on another device if a router on the network has QOS enabled and the PC that is being downloaded to is set to a lower priority than the streaming device? Does Steam respect QOS settings in a router? I don't have this issue when downloading through other sites and they automatically lower the download bitrate as I'm streaming through my Apple TV 4k. I put the R7000 router back in AP mode as I was just testing the router in router mode with QOS enabled to check if it would fix the issue of my Steam downloading hogging up all the bandwidth even while streaming on another device. I was thinking of buying my own router and replacing my switch with it and even modifying it with one of the open-sourced firmware downloads. My devices are in my bedroom and I would set up my own VLAN in my bedroom. Other devices in my home would be using the AT&T router/modem directly or via the R7000 router (set to AP mode) to the AT&T modem/router depending on signal strength. I'm the only PC gamer in the house anyways, so most likely no one else in this house will be doing a huge download, especially not through Steam, while I'm streaming, so if the QOS in the router that I might buy to put in my bedroom is going to ignore devices connected the the AT&T modem/router or R7000 router, it's no big deal to me. So should I replace my switch in my bedroom with a router and create a VLAN there?

 

[sdifox]

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I run pfsense in a vm and don't have any issues with bt and streaming at the same time.

 

[Fallen Kell]

My devices are in my bedroom and I would set up my own VLAN in my bedroom. Other devices in my home would be using the AT&T router/modem directly or via the R7000 router (set to AP mode) depending on signal strength. I'm the only PC gamer in the house anyways, so most likely no one else in this house will be doing a huge download, especially not through Steam, while I'm streaming, so if the QOS in the router that I might buy to put in my bedroom is going to ignore devices connected the the AT&T modem/router or R7000 router, it's no big deal to me. So should I replace my switch in my bedroom with a router and create a VLAN there?

No that will not help. The device running QOS needs to be in control of and see ALL the traffic that it needs to divide the bandwidth between. You can't simply connect a couple devices to the QOS switch and have other connected elsewhere in the network and be able to balance the traffic out of the entire network between the QOS traffic and the non-QOS traffic and expect all the traffic on the network to follow the QOS rules. The only way QOS works is if all the traffic is going through it's rules so that it prioritizes certain traffic over others in what it send out upstream. If what you are trying to prioritize is already upstream from the QOS router, it won't make any difference.

Here is a very old tutorial/guide (2006 so don't really rely on it other than as me trying to show how it works) on how you really need to setup QOS and it goes over a lot of what I was saying above, (i.e. the device that is doing the QOS needs to be the one that has all the traffic). https://www.wi-fiplanet.com/dd-wrt-tutorial-4-defining-priorities-with-qos/

As for the R7000, I am not really surprised that it didn't work unless it was flashed to running DD-WRT or OpenWRT and not running netgear's original firmware.

 

[Dave3000]

What about if another person is streaming through Netflix or YouTube using the AT&T modem/router as the router? Would a 100 mbps download connection leave enough left over bandwidth for other things, such as another person streaming Netflix without degradation of video quality. If someone in the house is streaming at 15 mbps on a 100 mbps connection even without QoS, wouldn't I have 85 mbps left over for other stuff? Does QoS only matter if something is downloading at full or almost full capacity of my internet connection, leaving no reserve bandwidth or not enough bandwidth for other stuff, such as downloading a game through Steam at 100 mbps (full capacity of my download connection) but wanting to stream something from Netflix simultaneously through my Apple TV 4K, but not wanting to lower the bandwidth limit through Steam's settings?

 

[VirtualLarry]

No that will not help. The device running QOS needs to be in control of and see ALL the traffic that it needs to divide the bandwidth between. You can't simply connect a couple devices to the QOS switch and have other connected elsewhere in the network and be able to balance the traffic out of the entire network between the QOS traffic and the non-QOS traffic and expect all the traffic on the network to follow the QOS rules. The only way QOS works is if all the traffic is going through it's rules so that it prioritizes certain traffic over others in what it send out upstream. If what you are trying to prioritize is already upstream from the QOS router, it won't make any difference.

Short answer, you really can't QoS (bandwidth limit) incoming / down-stream traffic, unless you control the edge router UPSTREAM of your connection.

 

[DaaQ]

This may or may not help, IF you are on U-Verse, is that not fiber?

Next question would be, are you working where you could maybe pitch in and help pay the difference in an upgraded plan?

Just looked at join date, so No offense meant that I thought you may have been younger. But still, a 100M plan is low end these days. I think that is our base plan now. I am now on maintenance so I don't keep up with the plan tiers anymore just keep it running good.

 

[sdifox]

you can also try to limit upload speed. it helps with asymmetric pipes