Home networks are complex. Really complex. Mind boggling complex in fact. The typical household has multiple computers at this point. Home wireless networks are very common. Additionally, there are a growing number of devices that are pinging your home network: DVRs, smart phones, gaming consoles, printers and hard disk storage. These devices constantly check for e-mail, send diagnostic information, request patches, etc., etc. Despite the extra complexity, most people don’t optimize their network for these changes. I’ll briefly discuss why this may require some optimization for your home network.
Take this example: I was streaming a TV show via the Media Center program, when the video began to slow and freeze. Shortly thereafter, the “network problem” message occurred. It was well past midnight, so I wasn’t sure of the problem. The Internet access to my house was working. My Media PC wasn’t otherwise being used. What was the issue? Turns out another PC on the network was backing itself up to my NAS. Certainly, streaming my TV show should take precedence over a routine backup. That’s where QoS (Quality of Service) comes in.
Your typical home network has a single router, and configuring it for QoS is fairly simple. By doing this, you can modify the bandwidth and priority for the traffic on your network. By changing the priority, you let preferred traffic network pass through the network first. By changing the bandwidth, you let more of that traffic pass.
Linksys largely rules the home networking market, and this link will give you fairly easy instructions on how to configure their most common wireless router. Other brands typically work the same way. The router I use has three ways to configure QoS:
- Device – Every device on a network (in your home and in the world) has a unique MAC address. You can enter this address, to ensure these specific devices receive a higher priority.
- Router Port – You may choose a port on the back of the router to optimize traffic. This Ethernet port might lead to a single computer or a hub connecting it to another group of computers.
- Application Port – The software and games that connect over the network typically do so by a certain application port number(s). To give yourself an edge in gaming, or to configure for LAN gaming, you’d probably want to use this. Since VOIP is starting to replace land lines, most routers are preconfigured in this manner.
This is fairly simplistic, in the greater scheme of QoS. However, the options above give you some flexibility depending on your network setup. In general, you want real-time network applications, i.e. video streaming, VOIP phone calls, to take precedent over long term, less urgent Internet activities, i.e. BitTorrent downloads, receiving e-mail, etc.
Hmmm, sounds too good to be true. What can go wrong? Your router, connected to your ISP’s modem might not be able to operate efficiently with your upstream bandwidth. In other words, you might want to make requests that people over the Internet can’t (or won’t) honor in a timely manner. Every network is different, and by observing results over time, you’ll find that improvements can probably be made.
Maybe I’m jaded. I consider homes with a mere single PC quaint. A throwback to a simpler time, if you will. In such a case, QoS really isn’t so necessary. But for the dorms, small businesses and LAN parties out there, making some simple adjustments can really improve your home network.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:03 am
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