latency

pfSense FQ_CoDel & Bufferbloat

by

I’ll start with – Tom from Lawrence Systems absolutely nailed the tutorial for this!

Bufferbloat is something that sits in my mind, recently I’ve picked up the gaming mantle again and latency has been greatly improved by me now being on FTTP as opposed to the old SoGEA FTTC service. Improving that latency though and making it more even is something I’ve always been on top of previously using a USG3 (smart queues), then SFQ on MikroTik before FQ_CoDel when ROS7 launched and then more recently FQ_CoDel with pfSense. Other queue algorithms are about and work to a degree but FQ_CoDel is the one I’ve had most success with.

I followed some YT videos in the past and thought I’d taken in the documentation properly but it turns out I hadn’t, Tom nailed it with this recent video though and following this moved me from an A to an A+ on the bloat test.

It’s super simple and in general if you’re doing anything latency dependant I’d highly advise implementing some kind of FQ_CoDel

FTTC Fast Path (Interleaving) removal with Plusnet

by

A quick and free boost for my broadband connection this week. I’d been monitoring my DSL service and was noticing some errors on the downstream and with some quick research Interleaving was a common cause of this. Interleaving in short splits your packets down and reassembles at the far end, it’s great for stability but does increase latency. It’s not great if you use VOIP and if you’re a gamer it can increase that all important response time which you need as low as possible.

A quick webchat with Plusnet support and I’d asked for my service to be put on “fast track” or in other words, having interleaving removed. A 24 hour wait and to my surprise my connection has improved!

Before;

After;

 

The only issue with this is if Interleaving was helping the connection there is a possibility it will wobble and DLM will re-apply it but the service in general is very stable so I am hopeful that the change will last.