Belkin Wirless N Router and Modem: Video Chat slows internet!

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Belkin Wirless N Router and Modem: Video Chat slows internet!

mickmok

25 posts

Geek

#31044 3-Mar-2009 01:18

I am having problems with my Belkin router and modem during video chat.

My partner is Chinese and uses QQ messenger to video chat with her mum back in China. The other day I bought a new Belkin Router with Modem and had problems setting the thing up and with some drop outs.

The most annoying problem however is when she uses video chat the internet for all other computers on the network slows to an unusable rate. I used Slingshots speedtest (we are with them) and I was getting a ping as high as 1600ms. All while she is happily chatting with video.

I got in contact with Belkin support and they said I needed to forward the ports for the instant messenger program and the web camera...

I have never had problems like this on any other network components I have used and this seems like a silly thing to have to do. Especially since I can only port forward to one IP, meaning only one person on the network can use it at a time.

I also cant find anywhere which has a solid video chat port for IM's such as Windows Live Messenger let alone QQ.

If anyone has had this issue please let me know. If you have a solution, even better. If you plain returned the product and got something else, please give me a suggestion on a decent router. At this point I am quite dissapointed with what I got for my $180.

Thanks

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
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#198888 3-Mar-2009 08:34

It sounds like the chat program has its own QoS which is sucking the rest of the bandwidth.

Ever since the Belkin N routers were released Ive heard hit and miss stories with them. A friend has one and had nothing but problems with it to start with, if its any better now I dont know but suspecting not....

Personally Im on a 3Com Office Connect (ADSl2+, Wifi 11G) and never had any issues with its performance - my setup consisting of my main machine connected via ethernet and a laptop (wifes) running a 11g wifi card and shes never complained of it going slow when Im on Skype/gaming/downloading.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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mickmok

25 posts

Geek

#198921 3-Mar-2009 11:11

Yeah its possible. However I used a browswer based chat client the other day to see if it was just the program and even that slowed the net down.

The router also has the option to increase traffic to things like file sharing and gaming etc, but I had this turned off at the time...

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

iainw

75 posts

Master Geek

#198926 3-Mar-2009 11:23

I wouldn't have thought Port forwarding was an issue - if the packets were not being correctly forwarded, then something just wouldn't work as opposed to running slowly.

Does your aDSL modem report any traffic stats? If the aDSL traffic speed stays constant, it suggests that the modem is allocating too much bandwidth to the video chat. Check the QQ software as well - I know from experience a lot of the chinese chat programs are written very badly. You will also want an idea of whether this bandwidth is being used.

If you have 100Mbs (as an easy example) of aDSL bandwidth, then no modem in the world can give you more than this. If QoS reliant applications are using 80Mbps, then 20MBps is all that is left over and you can't get any more.

Bear in mind as well, slow web browsing is a result of not enough bandwidth, a high ping is a result of high latency - two different things. You can have high latency AND high bandwidth, and you will have to wait longer for the page to begin loading, but it will load very quickly when it does.

- work out your bandwidth and latency without QQ using a web based speedtest
- work out your bandwidth and latency with QQ using a web based speedtest
- the difference between the two is caused by QQ
- work out the bandwidth that QQ is actually using

- if QQ is requiring 10MBps but reducing your available bandwidth by 15Mbps - you have a problem with your QoS settings

- if it is 10/10, then this is just a fact of life and you can either decrease QQ settings, pay for higher connection speeds, or accept that everything else will be slow.

mickmok

25 posts

Geek

#198930 3-Mar-2009 11:33

Thanks, I will give that a go. However this occurs when using any chat program, even a web based one. So I doubt it is only QQ.

My theory is what you said, that the router is allocating too much bandwidth to video chat, Belkin say I need to port foward but I agree with you because the chat is working fine, its just that its using too much of the bandwidth.

Just to reiterate I have done speedtests:

Without chat I had a latency of around 55ms.
With chat it was at its highest over 1600ms.
Without chat the bandwidth speed test was around 2000kbps
With chat the test wouldnt even start.

I sent a response back to Belkin saying it was whenever video chat was used, not just with QQ.

Like I say I have never had this problem with other routers and modems, she has been using the program for years and only since using this router has the problem occurred.

iainw

75 posts

Master Geek

#198936 3-Mar-2009 11:50

Do you know what speeds you used to be getting using other equipment? And do you still get those speeds today using other equipment? It could just be that you no longer get the speeds you used to.

Does the raw aDSL speeds change with video chat?

To put the numbers into context, if you are video chatting at 640x480 resolution, real time (PAL) in colour with no compression, you would expect to use (640x480x23fpsx3bytes per pixel (RGB)) = 20,699kBps of bandwidth.... with only 2000kbps of available bandwidth, your video settings can have a massive impact...

Ragnor

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#198946 3-Mar-2009 12:48

I put $5 on the problem being slingshot rate shaping your connection and not the belkin router being the problem.

Measure the sustained download and upload rate with some international speed tests you're using QQ video chat.