Every home has several smart devices requiring a fast internet connection. To do this we need the best performing internet networking devices. One of the best devices for this is a QoS router. However, what is a QoS router and how does it make our smart homes better?
QoS is a very familiar term that you will always find when buying routers. A QoS router has the QoS feature or technology. Our major work today is not to deal so much about the router itself but the technology.
We will dwell on most aspects of the technology to ensure that we bring you up-to-date information about it and how it will benefit you. There are QoS and dynamic QoS that together tend to make a difference.
This feature works best for devices that have Wi-Fi 6 technology. Have a look.
What is QoS?
The word QoS is a simple representation of the quality of service. It is an excellent and underutilized tool that allows you to train your router to ensure equitable distribution of bandwidth to all the devices that scramble for the internet.
You can quickly say that the QoS is a setting that the network itself determines, hence making the router’s service outstanding. When using the quality of service, you have the potential of training the router to do specific tasks so that the quality remains remarkable.
The feature allows the router to attempt balancing between tasks such as streaming players and downloading files. All the activities will take place without lags or buffering. A good example is the best Netgear routers that all have the feature.
One common thing that happens with routers that do not have QoS is that they prioritize service delivery. For instance, if you are playing games and streaming simultaneously, the router will choose the service to support.
With QoS, the router will balance the tasks so that each one gets an adequate and reliable connection. This makes all the devices get enough bandwidth depending on the requirements.
Dynamic QoS
Here now comes the dynamic part. The dynamic QoS means that the settings allow for the changes to happen without manual interference.
It will, therefore, automatically manage the settings depending on the task you are doing. An assessment of your device type happens and then allocated a bandwidth that will serve its needs.
When using the dynamic QoS, it means that all your activities go uninterrupted. The dynamic QoS compared with the QoS is that it will deliver a better performance. There is no need to do any settings as they automatically happen.
Is there a need for QoS
You will agree that every time you are using the internet, there is usually a challenge with reliability. This mostly happens when you have a movie to stream, children have a game to play, and someone else has office work to do.
Speeds and stability dramatically lower making the connection not dependable. So the best router for multiple devices should have QoS as one of the primary technological features.
With QoS, the game changes with how you use the connection. QoS does a perfect traffic shaping that allows your devices to use the connection conveniently. What happens is that the connected devices get prioritized, and each gets a service that will make it perform to the maximum.
When QoS is working, each bandwidth gets perfectly assessed, determining how many devices it can accommodate and their consumption. The rate of data loss, therefore, gets minimized to a great degree. Your internet gets adequately utilized hence lowering the chances of having your bundle exhausted within some short time.
QoS manages the router by serving for a few days to assess the devices and their internet consumption. You can use a device or an app to monitor the functionality of the connection and its services.
Each of your devices will be allocated as high/low/medium priority. One challenge that is likely to arise is when a device has an application that needs a priority as it may not get the priority.
To ensure that the service is outstanding, you will need to do some frequent updates. When the firmware is up to date, the service also maintains a high-quality performance. When your internet protocols are up to date, you can be sure that you will enjoy the best service quality.
QoS Parameters
Several parameters measure the QoS. What most organizations commonly employ is the following.
- Packet loss- packets begin to drop when all the links in the network begin to drop. When there is such a drastic drop, communication begins to lower. You cannot do video calls and other tasks as the latency rate lower the consistency of communication unreliable.
- Latency- when there is latency, the movement of service from the devices to the router and vice versa delays. When there is latency, you cannot communicate using video calls. Every time you try to download content, it becomes impossible. When communicating on a call, you will experience some overlapping and echo.
- Jitter- jitter lowers the quality of communication between devices. The timing drift changes dramatically, making all the tasks you want to do challenging and quite inconveniencing.
- Bandwidth- the bandwidth is the capacity of communication to move some data amounts within some given time. It is, therefore, an optimizer performance that determines how everything moves from one point to another.
- Mean opinion score- it is a metric determiner that uses a five scale rating to determine the quality of the internet. Using the voice calls will assess each call quality, hence maintaining each device’s performance.
Benefits of QoS
Some benefits come along with the QoS. The most prominent benefit is that it allows the various functions to work under the network connection.
The efficiency of the utilization of the existing bandwidth gets maintained to the maximum maintaining timely and reliable responses.
Other specific benefits include;
- Prioritizes services to ensure that each device serves the specific need it needs to fulfill. Your critical applications, therefore, have more than enough service from the router.
- Management of traffic- you will have an opportunity to manage the traffic using a more effective method—your devices, especially those that need some priority, end up getting a more remarkable service.
- Cost-effectiveness- QoS is very good at saving on cost. It lowers internet consumption, especially when some devices have to use more internet than others. You will have each device consuming the exact amount of internet that it needs to functions.
- Improved service- the user experience improves, making the connection more reliable, making the router’s functionality more outstanding. Having a connection that isn’t interrupted makes each user have good times with the internet.
Implementing the QoS
When implementing the QoS, four steps are involved. They are as follows.
- Planning-you will have to understand the service you want to get from the router and the devices you have.
- Design- after identifying the various applications and their functionalities, you can begin working on the QoS. You will therefore set parameters for each device to ensure that the functionality is well balanced.
- Testing- after you implement the QoS, you will begin to test the working of the service. Various safety policies and controls will therefore tell if the working of the router is reliable.
- Analysis and monitoring- you will then monitor the performance of the router after implementing the QoS service. After analyzing the service, you can implement further protocols that will make the router’s functionality outstanding.
When implementing the QoS, some models exist. The best effort is a model that allows each device to enjoy the priority. It will happen when the router’s design does not support the QoS.
Integrated services is a model that reserves the bandwidth and helps it to maintain a specific path. Applications will therefore function best under a reservation, and the router manages the packets conveniently.
Differentiated services is another model that allows for the linking of services to different packets that also have different priorities. Based on the configuration that you want your Home to work under, you will have a chance to implement the various measures. You can have the voice services taking a specific router as the streaming ones use a different one.
How to enable QoS in your router
Different routers come with different features, such as the firmware and settings. Each one of them, therefore, has its capabilities that make the functionality remarkable. Below is a universal procedure that you can comfortably use.
- Determine your goal- before you get into setting the router, you should start by determining your exact needs. You will determine the devices that need priority at your Home. You can also set various rules to guide on the task you are doing.
- Determine the connection speed- this is the stage that makes things begin to work. You should know the router’s download and upload speed as it is a requirement by the QoS. Using the ISP interface or the router, stop all the high service applications. You can then visit speednet.com and do a test to get accurate results about the connection.
- Enable the QoS- you can do this by opening the admin’s page and use your login details to access the service. After logging in, select the QoS tab that appears as either NAT or the QoS tab. Click enable, and you will have the service running. You can then reduce the router’s values on the upload and download speeds to have them operating under a balance.
- Prioritize the service- you can do so by using the applications, or interface, or service. It is as simple as selecting the drop-down menu and clicking the options.
How to prioritize traffic/ devices on your router
There are several ways of prioritizing your traffic or the devices connected to your internet connection. This ensures that your devices or services that require the most bandwidth get it when required.
Effecting QoS on the newer routers is simple as compared to the process described above. You can use some dead-simple QoS options to control which devices or services should get the first priority on QoS.
The router will give you a list of services that you can move up or down on your priority list. This way you can get the services that require a stable connection getting the first priority on QoS.
The following are the various ways of prioritizing traffic on your QoS router:
- Prioritizing by service: You can use your QoS router to give priority to certain apps or services. For example, you can give priority to YouTube or Netflix on your router interface.
- Prioritizing by interface: Using the methods by which your devices are connected to the internet is an easy way of prioritizing the devices. Thus you can give the lowest priority to Guest network devices and a higher priority to Ethernet internet or local Wi-Fi connections.
- Giving priority based on the IP address: This is one of the best ways of prioritizing devices if your network uses static IP addresses or DHCP reservations. With DD-WRT prioritization, you can also select a group of IP addresses to be prioritized.
- Giving priority to Device basing it on the MAC Addresses: This is exceptional for a network where there are no static Ip addresses for your devices.
Conclusion
QoS is a service that makes your router’s performance in terms of speed and service stand out. Selecting it allows your devices to deliver remarkable service. You can choose the best home router to ensure you get to prioritize your devices.
As a priority rule, you will have your high-performing services getting good internet to enjoy a quality service. Balancing within your services also makes the performance of each stand out.
