QoS itself isn't going to help a lot if the connection is being thrashed by a torrent.

There are many many threads on here with people believing "QoS" actually reserves bandwidth and will be the magic fix for bandwidth issues. QoS is all about prioritising packets and not is a fix to bandwidth issues. QoS is important for making sure time sensitive packets (like voice, video etc) are prioritised above packets that are not that time sensitive (like torrents, http, etc etc)

If you are having a lot of issues, introducing proper traffic queuing/shaping is really the only way to fix these issues. And I don't think a Frtizbox has those capabilities.

In saying that, if in fact you are not actually killing the connection with torrent, maybe some basic QoS might help. Again though, it is hardly the magic bullet. You may tag traffic with 802.1p values for your outbound traffic, but it is highly unlikely that your ISP will honour any inbound p-tagging. I personally only know of one ISP that is doing proper inbound QoS with their broadband/VoIP offering (there are most certainly more but I just haven't come across them in the SME space).

There are many good articles which explain the QoS dilemma. Here's one http://blog.level3.com/network-operators/qos-doesnt-work/ which has a link to a much longer and more detailed article with pictures.

To add to what @chevroulx has already stated.

Realistically you can only control the upstream band for QOS, Downstream your only option is to stop the packets once they get to you and drop them to cause congestion control..

Torrents being a prime example, Especially public based swarms you deal with a fair bit of UDP Based traffic where controlling the TCP Acks would too be an invalid pratice for keeping the quality.

Realistically, QOS on the downstream (the side you hear) should be provided by your ISP.

End to end, i do recall Snaps VoIP service to be well controlled in terms of QOS YMMV...

Athlonite:

 

Hi I'd like to know how to set up QOS for voip on an Fritzbox 7490 because when downloading anything during a phone call makes the call turn to crap 

 

OK.

For this concept to work really well, it needs to be enabled both at the supplier end - the voip provider via the internet to your ISP down to you - and inside your own network.

Setting QoS on your own kit will give you some control over what's happening inside your own domain. But from the outside world - your isp - you are going to be fed all traffic requested in sequence, with no action taken to make sure your voip packets go ahead of any other traffic, as fast as the connections will let in. There is no 'reservation' or 'isolation' of voip vs everything else. Its gets better when your ISP is cheap and instead of building capacity they apply packet dropping to control the usage. At 1% - meaning 1% of EVERYTHING is dropped - your connection is going to suffer.

Such is the internet.

As far as I know, no ISP provides this capability for 'anyone you want', it's only for the isp/carriers own service... so don't do big downloads when you're calling and you'll be fine.

antoniosk:

Athlonite:

Hi I'd like to know how to set up QOS for voip on an Fritzbox 7490 because when downloading anything during a phone call makes the call turn to crap 

OK.

For this concept to work really well, it needs to be enabled both at the supplier end - the voip provider via the internet to your ISP down to you - and inside your own network.

Setting QoS on your own kit will give you some control over what's happening inside your own domain. But from the outside world - your isp - you are going to be fed all traffic requested in sequence, with no action taken to make sure your voip packets go ahead of any other traffic, as fast as the connections will let in. There is no 'reservation' or 'isolation' of voip vs everything else. Its gets better when your ISP is cheap and instead of building capacity they apply packet dropping to control the usage. At 1% - meaning 1% of EVERYTHING is dropped - your connection is going to suffer.

Such is the internet.

As far as I know, no ISP provides this capability for 'anyone you want', it's only for the isp/carriers own service... so don't do big downloads when you're calling and you'll be fine.

NonprayingMantis:

Bigpipe allows you to prioritise communications which includes VoIP. It's done at the network level.
If used it for Skype before to make sure the quality is decent. Works really well

My bad, you're right. I wonder if they support qos to 2talk and the other providers, and ensure packets don't get dropped or caught up in the policy management??

Thanks for the answers guys so basically the answer is no there isn't a way to do it effectively (but still doesn't answer the question of how to set up QOS in a fritzbox 7490) ohwell never mind then unless I can find out where the page is to play with settings on the modem/router once in the menu pages of it 

to those who suggested I move to Bigpipe thanks but no as I've only just signed upto an 12 month contract with Orcon so that aint gonna happen unless one of you is going to offer to pay the $500 ETF 

Are you not using Orcon for voice? And aren't they only supplying the 7490 on Gigabit connections?

a) If you are they should be configuring the router and network appropriately in the first place and b) I don't see how you could be saturating a Gigabit connection to be affecting voice.

If you're not using Orcon for voice then you are pretty much on your own, and have no way of truly prioritising downstream traffic as others have pointed out above. QoS on a router really only controls the upstream.

sbiddle:

 

Are you not using Orcon for voice? And aren't they only supplying the 7490 on Gigabit connections?

 

a) If you are they should be configuring the router and network appropriately in the first place and b) I don't see how you could be saturating a Gigabit connection to be affecting voice.

 

If you're not using Orcon for voice then you are pretty much on your own, and have no way of truly prioritising downstream traffic as others have pointed out above. QoS on a router really only controls the upstream.

 

 

Yes I'm using Orcon for voice over IP and yes I am using an 7490 on an Gigabit connection 

(a) And that's exactly what I thought too 

(b) I didn't think that 22.5MBps (megabytes) would saturate it either 

(c) all of the speed tests done so far haven't been over 500Mbps so I'm starting to doubt the gigabit name 

Athlonite:

 

sbiddle:

 

Are you not using Orcon for voice? And aren't they only supplying the 7490 on Gigabit connections?

 

a) If you are they should be configuring the router and network appropriately in the first place and b) I don't see how you could be saturating a Gigabit connection to be affecting voice.

 

If you're not using Orcon for voice then you are pretty much on your own, and have no way of truly prioritising downstream traffic as others have pointed out above. QoS on a router really only controls the upstream.

 

 

 

Yes I'm using Orcon for voice over IP and yes I am using an 7490 on an Gigabit connection 

 

(a) And that's exactly what I thought too 

 

(b) I didn't think that 22.5MBps (megabytes) would saturate it either 

 

(c) all of the speed tests done so far haven't been over 500Mbps so I'm starting to doubt the gigabit name 

 

Congesting at 180Mbit seems a little odd.

might be worth collecting stats and seeing if there is a coloration that could indicate a congested point that needs reporting. 

The case i could see for lag issues here is if you are torrenting, and opening up a stupid amount of connections (although i recall the 7390 having a sizable state table so i would expect the 7490 to be better...) 

I actually thought Orcon were using 802.1p tagging and the CIR for UFB voice. Assuming this is the case then adding QoS isn't going to change anything as you already have the ultimate QoS - voice delivered over it's own CIR.

If voice is on the CIR and you're seeing the issue then the issue can really only be your router, and considering you're saying it's only occurring during torrenting the most obvious cause would be too many connections that are saturating the CPU.

So basically all I should need to do is limit the number of connections and it should be all good then OK I'll give it ago 

Athlonite:

 

So basically all I should need to do is limit the number of connections and it should be all good then OK I'll give it ago 

 

It's a possible cause.

Athlonite:

 

So basically all I should need to do is limit the number of connections and it should be all good then OK I'll give it ago 

 

Attack that question from the other angle.

What sort of load do you currently put on the poor thing?