One of the concerns of people who perform different activities online like games, video streaming, VoIP, etc. is the bandwidth. Having a continuous internet service whether through expensive plans or cheap broadband, can enable you to perform these internet related activities, but there are ways where an internet user can do these with utmost convenience, depending on priority. This is with a downloadable custom Firmware, DD-WRT. Modifying the settings may take some time but if this is the trade-off for a better performance of your internet activities, then it should be worth it.
(Courtesy of jepoirrier)
Getting The Firmware
After getting and installing the firmware, DD-WRT, go to the router’s program to adjust your bandwidth. You can do this by selecting the tab labelled QoS where it shows how much bandwidth you have and where it goes.
When adjusting your bandwidth, you have to be certain that you are only consuming at the most, 85% of what you have. While your ISP may state its certain speed for your internet plan, you can ascertain your real bandwidth with the interactive broadband speed tests that you can easily find in the internet.
Services Settings
It is important that all the processes are included in the Service Settings for their proper optimization. If there is anything that you want to include, select the ‘Add/Edit Service’ button and add the program.
Bear in mind that this procedure is performed to optimize the programs by receiving the right bandwidth. Prior to this modification, all the processes are already receiving bandwidth.
Add A MAC Address
Adding the MAC address of a device that you are working on can let you drive bandwidth to that device for optimum performance, an example this device is your PS3.
You can find the MAC address of a device in the packaging, user manual, or in the ‘Settings’ menu. After getting the MAC address, simply type it in the ‘MAC Priority’.
Fine-Tune The Process You Want To Prioritize
Remember to choose only one process or program to optimize. Should you attempt to choose more than one program to optimize, you will most likely experience lags since the data will get congested.
To begin the process, click ‘Priority’ then select ‘Premium’. By choosing ‘Premium’, the priority will be set to 75%. You may have to do this to other related processes. To explain further, if you choose to prioritize Skype for VoIP, you may have to do the same process for ‘skypetoskype’ and ‘skypeout’.
Set The Other Processes
After setting the prioritized process’ bandwidth, you will also need to set the other processes to ensure that the prioritized process will achieve its setting. The other settings are as follows:
· Express – This setting is for your other process that needs a lot of data and you may likely use while another prioritized process gets the most bandwidth. Be sure to set only one or two process to this setting unless you have a great bandwidth.
· Standard – This setting is best for other processes that may need a significant amount of attention but not as much as the ‘Premium’ and ‘Express’ programs. You may adjust one to two process to this setting.
· Bulk – This is for the rest of the programs which are not set to ‘Premium’, ‘Express’ or ‘Standard’.
Processes that are modified as to the bandwidth are not limited to its settings. For example, if a process is set at ‘Bulk’ it will have a 1.5% priority but if this is the only process running, it can get all the bandwidth.
Changing the Prioritized Process
Switching the priority setting to another process is easy and can be done anytime. Be sure to adjust the settings of all the processes involved in switching the priorities. Select the process that you want to prioritize and set to ‘Premium’, and set the process which was initially in this setting to ‘Express’.
With this firmware in your computer, optimizing your most preferred process can be easily achieved. And should you change your priorities for any reason, it’s easy to make adjustments anytime you want.
This is a guest article by Ruben Corbo, a writer for the website Broadband Expert. Broadband Expert compares cheap broadband and helps consumers find the best resources and comparison on their broadband necessities. When Ruben is not writing, he is writing and producing music for short films and other visual arts.
