I have an ASUS RT-AC66u router, but any modern router will have an option called QoS, short for quality of service. This can be a great tool to manage your network bandwidth, particularly at home when download and upload speeds are not superfast, and you need to give priority to certain applications, like gaming and video streaming. Online multi-player gaming requires really solid upload speed and QOS setting can be quite helpful in reserving that.
Given I was only on an ADSL2+ connection until a month ago, I’ve never really bothered with this setting on my router. The download speed was 12~15 Mbps on its best days, and upload is a paltry 0.5Mbps. It was so low, there is no point even trying to ration it. However, when my ISP ( Telstra Australia) in partnership with Australian govt owned NBN( National Broadband Network) brought me a high speed option (100/40Mbps ) the QOS setting suddenly became suddenly relevant.
Turns out, the setting is enabled by default, and has fairly conservative limits on both download and upload speeds. After the technician setup my new connection, I ran a speedtest, and to my dismay it showed an upload speed of 5Mbps whereas the download was close to the promised number. When I called the ISP, they advised me that I have to wait 24 to 48 hours for the full benefits of the plan to kick in. I found that answer really peculiar. This is not a new car where I have to drive carefully for the first 1000 miles. Really odd advise, I wonder if the guy just wanted to get rid of me.
Anyway, after a bit of thinking, it dawned on me that something on my router could be causing this. I then went through the options on my router, and lo behold, I found it.
In stead of tweaking around with the settings, I chose to just disable it. But some of you may want to control it to a finer degree then you have options too. Once I disabled QOS and rebooted the router, I was able to get my speeds to their expected levels.
