What Is The Relevance Of Wirelss Router To Watch E.G. Youtube?

[THAIPHUKET]

This report by cnet.com sounds as if more than just speed capacity makes a difference

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3132_7-57382096-98/top-5-wireless-routers-home-networking-evolved/?tag=FD.Carousel

Layman would like to understand, can you pls explain?

( I was recommended here on the board the Dlink extreme, would I see hear a difference?)

[Guest]

I guess you are referring to this

The best feature of the D-Link is its HD Fuel, a customize QoS feature that automatically detects HD streaming, games, and voice content and prioritizes the Internet bandwidth of these applications. For those who stream a lot of Netflix or YouTube videos, or play online games, you don't need to have to worry about making sure to turn off downloads or other activities in the network that would slow down your entertainment needs. The router takes care of that for you.

That could mean that the router has build in QoS (Quality of service) and predefined rules, which prioritize the incoming traffic to Youtube etc services.. and lowers automatically the speeds of torrents and other browsing, when youtube videos need more internet bandwidth.

[THAIPHUKET]

That makes sense, even to a layman!! Thanks a lot. Now must find the right D-Link here.

[Pib]

I guess you are referring to this

The best feature of the D-Link is its HD Fuel, a customize QoS feature that automatically detects HD streaming, games, and voice content and prioritizes the Internet bandwidth of these applications. For those who stream a lot of Netflix or YouTube videos, or play online games, you don't need to have to worry about making sure to turn off downloads or other activities in the network that would slow down your entertainment needs. The router takes care of that for you.

That could mean that the router has build in QoS (Quality of service) and predefined rules, which prioritize the incoming traffic to Youtube etc services.. and lowers automatically the speeds of torrents and other browsing, when youtube videos need more internet bandwidth.

QoS is kinda like a traffic cop at a three way intersection....with traffic flowing in from the main highway to the intersection the cop will direct traffic either to the left or right roads....he could slow the number the number of vehicles being allowed to turn left in order to allow more vehicles to turn right....or said another way, allow more bandwidth from the main highway to flow to the right versus left. And the cop can manage the flow in a similar way for upload/outbound traffic trying to turn onto the main highway.

But unfortunately, QoS don't speed-up the amount of flow coming down the main highway to the intersection...so if your internet plan connection is not providing enough bandwidth QoS settings may not help much if any for streaming video. And for smooth streaming video consistent/steady flow versus stop/go/erractic flow is critical to obtain non-pausing streaming video. A 4Mb plan could actually give better streaming video performance over a 10Mb or higher plan because the 4Mb plan bandwidth could be providing a smoother/steady flow of data compared to a stop/go/surge type bandwidth of a higher speed plan. Don't expect router QoS to increase bandwidth/speed of the bandwidth/speed arriving at the input of your modem/router. Many routers provide QoS capability/settings....it's nothing new.

[THAIPHUKET]

Wonderful analogy , the policeman, sounds like a Thai policeman trying to be efficient :-)

The point about the line is helpful. I got a stable 6mb TOT line, hardly ever going under 5MB, was thinking of upgrading to 10 mb.( TOT still, to avoid hassle with the house owner.) May not the best idea.

Secondly, the D-Link DIR-857 is more expensive than the Dlink Extreme , so it may not be worth it.

The goal is to display Internet on a TV screen,( Sony ? ) and to stream music around the house on bluetooth speakers of good, not super sound quality

.

In short= what would you do to have technically homogenous system??

[Pib]

Where you say it hardly ever goes under 5Mb, are you basing that on a speedtest result? And I expect that's an "in-Thailand" speed with the speed to international web sites dropping down to the 1 to 2Mb ballpark...and that 1 to 2Mb speed could be very stop & go/choppy versus a consistent/steady speed.

Example: during a speedtest say your 6Mb gives you a international 2Mb speed to the U.S./Europe/FarangLand. Now if you had a visual display of that bandwidth flow during the speedest (like a test run on Speedtest.net will show) you could see the speed spike to 3Mb, then dip to 1Mb, spikes to 4Mb, dip to zero, spikes to 5Mb, dips to 500Kb, etc...etc....etc...when the speedtest concludes the result would show somewhere around 2Mb speed, but that was the "average" speed...when in fact the speed was varying up and down quite a bit....streaming video hates this type of data flow as it's not consistent/steady...will result in frequent pausing of the video and even cause the video stream to hangup/stop. But if your 6Mb in-Thailand speed plan gives you a pretty steady/consistent 2Mb international data flow (ie.,spikes to 2.2Mb, dips to 1.8Mb, spikes to 2.3Mb, dips to 1.7Mb, etc) which would also give around a 2Mb "average" speed, the streaming video would probably run smoothly. Of course the streaming video server you are connecting to also has a big say in how smoothly the video is streamed to you....some servers just get overloaded and/or throttle the video stream.

Streaming video requires consistent/steady data flow, not just fast data flow. Heck, even a 100Mb plan could do a bad job in streaming video if it's a stop/go/choppy data flow. So, don't assume just going to a higher speed plan will fix things...it will probably help...then again if it's still a choppy high speed your streaming video will still pause a lot. Good luck.

Now, just for streaming saved/already downloaded video around the house...video that you have already downloaded and just being re-streamed out to other locations in the house I would think most any router would serve that need.

[THAIPHUKET]

Thank you, the whole thread is half an internet course. You are right, everyone speaks only of speed, no one about steadiness. Just going by ADSLthailand, flow-through on my connection can be very jerky. Will test on speedtest.net when at my pc.

Also noticed speedtest.net has thousands of checking stations, many in remote towns, really relevant for normal speedtest? Speaking generally, I guess the main cities are relevant for our expat purposes.

BTW Noticed attached ad on speedtest, I can´t imagine that such service can overcome any real bottleneck of capacity or line limitations, or is it more than hot air?

[Pib]

Hot air 99% of the time. For some it may fix some misconfiguration on their computer or make a tweak that might get another few percent in speed. Yea, hot air.