I have 1-5 users on 40 mbps connection with no QoS configured. Connection was slightly slowing down as more users download, VoIP, Netflix, or torrent. Problem was noticed mostly by gamers. So, I bought Peplink Balance One and an additional 20 mbps connection. Unfortunately, this problem seems to have gotten much worse with this setup, as everyone notices the problem now, and not just gamers.
I did a test where I concurrently download 1 GB file and upload 100 MB file, on each of the two connections, and on the Balance One. When using Balance One my connection was almost unusable, while the other lines were slow but not as bad.
So, I tried several combinations of the following:
- Configured QoS Application Prioritization. I added all gaming ports as high priority; no noticeable difference at all.
- Enabled QoS Group Bandwidth Reservation and gave managers group 70% reservation; there was a slight improvement.
- Added users to staff group and gave each user a bandwidth limit of 10 mbps only; huge improvement.
With the third step above, a user can even use torrents without affecting anyone else. However, each user started to complain that their connection slows down to a crawl if they do multiple things at once, like download and browse at the same time, which is a problem that didn’t exist before.
I could not, no matter how much I changed, of beating the connection performance of using a single connection without the Balance One. Why can my telecom provided cheap modem handle multiple users perfectly, while Balance One fails to do the same even with QoS and an additional connection?
I don’t want to limit users to 10 mbps, especially that most of the time, there is only a single person using the connection at a time. I want each user to enjoy the max available bandwidth, and only slow down if there are other users.
What am I doing wrong? How can I solve this problem without adding limitations? How can I give everyone the max available bandwidth, without affecting other users, like my telecom provided modem?