QoS on ASUS AC66U with AppleTV

[jasong]

Hey all,
I've never used Quality of Service before and I'm having a little trouble wrapping my brain around it and would very much appreciate some help with the matter.
I have an ASUS AC66U router:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E16833320115&gclid=CKOb0NTq8rgCFQ6f4Aod1w8AKw
An AppleTV 3 and a Macbook Pro w/ Retina. I am streaming video through Airplay.

My issue is because the Macbook Pro I have isn't 802.11a compatible, the video skips and jumps - not often, but enough to be frustrating. I did a little googling and apparently QoS can help the issue. However, all the tutorials I have found have to do with streaming video from the Internet, not from another device on the LAN.

I have six fields:

Service Name | Source IP or MAC | Destination Port | Protocol | Transferred | Priority

Which MAC am I supposed to be using - the laptop doing the streaming or the AppleTV? Or do I need to be making two rules, one for the laptop and one for the AppleTV?

Any help would be very much appreciated =)
-Jason

 

[clintb]

QOS is really only useful for LAN to WAN traffic. If either one of your devices are on wireless, I would recommend you take a look at channel congestion in your area first. Use something like InSSIDer for Windows, but a Mac equivalent to see how many access points/wireless routers are in your area. If it's a sea of them, look to either going wired, or if that's not an option, go to the 5 GHz spectrum.

 

[jasong]

Clint,

I am living in an apartment complex that has a fairly decent chunk of networks, but I am already using the 5.0Ghz bandwidth because of that. What you've said makes sense, but it's at odds with what I've read online:

Set up QOS (Quality of Service) on your router, and place your AirPlay devices at the highest priority.

This is the last thing to adjust, but if you are still having problems, it can definitely make a difference. I know that it did for me, because as I later realized, one of the problems I had when I first got my new iPad and used AirPlay Mirroring for the first time was that I hadn’t set it up for QOS. Once I did, things improved noticeably.

If you unfamiliar with the Quality of Service feature, it is geared toward helping you prioritize how your wired and wireless bandwidth gets used. I have a Netgear N600 router in my home, and it has fairly robust QOS features. There are several presets for different bandwidth intensive programs, such as online games and video chat applications. It also allows you to prioritize by switch port number, for your wired devices. For my purposes, I use the MAC Address prioritization, which lists all of your connected devices, and allows you to determine their priority level. I set all of my AirPlay devices to Highest, my computers to Normal, and specialized devices like my wireless printer and satellite service’s Internet interface, to Lowest. As I said before, setting this up makes a BIG difference in my network’s AirPlay Mirroring performance.

(emphasis mine)
source: http://isource.com/2012/03/31/a-few-tips-for-improving-airplay-mirroring/

Can anybody shed some light on the subject?

 

[PrivateJoker]

Clint,

I am living in an apartment complex that has a fairly decent chunk of networks, but I am already using the 5.0Ghz bandwidth because of that. What you've said makes sense, but it's at odds with what I've read online:

(emphasis mine)
source: http://isource.com/2012/03/31/a-few-tips-for-improving-airplay-mirroring/

Can anybody shed some light on the subject?

Well, month old thread but I found it interesting. I dunno if I'm really buying what the guy in the article you cite claims to have experienced. Airplay is fine (in my situation) for sending video to, or streaming music - I love it, but it games that require instant feedback (Real Racing 2 & 3 I've tried, among others), even when my ATV is wired (switched in a gigabit switch) and my iOS device has an insanely good wifi connection, the lagginess between controller (iOS device, iPhone 5 in my case) movement and onscreen action, though probably just milliseconds, is completely disconcerting. I mean, "hard core" PC gamers don't even play with wireless bluetooth mice because of the lag, bringing RF into a very fast moving game isn't a winning equation IMHO.

Also, have you ever heard of isource.com or the author of that article before? I hadn't. There's a handful of places I trust for reviewing stuff, and that hasn't been one of them. ha. . .I read his other suggestions and one of them was to use a repeater. You can't tell me in the same article to use both a repeater to help me play iOS games mirrored via Airplay, and also use QOS, right??

 

[jlake]

Well, month old thread but I found it interesting. I dunno if I'm really buying what the guy in the article you cite claims to have experienced. Airplay is fine (in my situation) for sending video to, or streaming music - I love it, but it games that require instant feedback (Real Racing 2 & 3 I've tried, among others), even when my ATV is wired (switched in a gigabit switch) and my iOS device has an insanely good wifi connection, the lagginess between controller (iOS device, iPhone 5 in my case) movement and onscreen action, though probably just milliseconds, is completely disconcerting. I mean, "hard core" PC gamers don't even play with wireless bluetooth mice because of the lag, bringing RF into a very fast moving game isn't a winning equation IMHO.

Also, have you ever heard of isource.com or the author of that article before? I hadn't. There's a handful of places I trust for reviewing stuff, and that hasn't been one of them. ha. . .I read his other suggestions and one of them was to use a repeater. You can't tell me in the same article to use both a repeater to help me play iOS games mirrored via Airplay, and also use QOS, right??

I've read where some people say airplay works better with IGMP Snooping enabled on the router. Others say it's worse. And the rest say it's not relevant. Personally, I have no clue. Maybe something to look in to or test.