What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
ronzie1
Contributor - Level 2

We are having some throughput issues with devices connected wirelessly to our Verizon supplied Actiontec MI424-WR router.  I noticed a page in the router's advanced settings with a bunch of priority settings.  I have never touched them.  They are numbered 0-7; 0-3 are set to low, 4 & 5 are set to medium, and 6 & 7 are set to high.  Does anyone know what they do?

Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
Bixbyte
Contributor - Level 1
This Verizon Actiontec router operates on 802.11 B and 802.11G. Unfortunately as far as I can see this router does not support 802.11N protocol 150 Million per sec.. 1. First at "BASIC SECURITY SETTINGS" I changed my Verizon Router settings to stay on Channel 11 and to keep your channel during power down cycles. Everyone else is on Channel 6 so if you change your router to channel 11 you will be out of everyone else's way. 2. Next I configured All my computers wireless modems and Forced them to the 802.11G protocol 54 Million per sec.. That is kind of difficult unless you are computer savvy? Basically: My Computer>properties>Hardware> Device Manager> "+" Network adapters>YOUR (?) Wireless Modems model(?)> click right mouse on your Wireless Modem Model(?)>properties> ADVANCED> Click the action that forces "G" or 802.11 G. Every wireless modem modem might have a different name and some older wireless modem models only support 802.11 B that runs at 11 Million Bytes. At 802.11G all my wirless devices are running extremely fast . B interferes with G so it is best to force all of your wireless to G and clock at 54 million per sec. DID I CONFUSE YOU?
Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
jmw1950
Specialist - Level 2

There is no shortage of potential reasons for wireless performance to be considerably less than you might hope for.

While 802.11g is in theory capable of 54mbps, in reality it tends to be very hard to get past about 10 mbps. This is caused by a wide range of issues. Interference. Wi-Fi runs in unlicensed spectrum, and there are in fact other valid uses. These can cause interference, and in fact your neighbors WiFi equipment can cause interference as well. As others have suggest, using a different channel may help that problem, but many cordless telephones operate in the same spectrum as well.

IN addition, if any your devices are actually running 802.11b, that will limit the 802.11g performance to a lot less than the theoretical 54mbps.

My own experience is that the receive 'window'  and buffering for most wireless adapters is too small to support anywhere near the maximum 54mbps that can in theory be achieved.  If really want faster Wi-Fi, you are probably  going to have to invest in 802.11n equipment, both for your wireless devices, and a wireless access point to connect to your FiOS router.

Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
Bixbyte
Contributor - Level 1

You could disable AP on the Verizon Router and plug in via the LAN port a faster router.

Or hot wire the computer into the Router and run at 100 Million per sec.

B and G are slower than N.

But let's be realistic, Verizon offers 15/5 Million per sec service and the Router runs at 11 or 54 Million per sec.

I had Comcast for a couple of years.

Verizon clocked at 16 Million faster on Speednet than Comcast 15 Million --- I live in the City of Philly.

BUT, HS Internet is slower, my daughter is clocking 20 million outside the City in the Burbs.

Need faster HSI Move to the burbs?  

I am not going to complain. 

Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
ronzie1
Contributor - Level 2

@Bixbyte wrote:
This Verizon Actiontec router operates on 802.11 B and 802.11G. Unfortunately as far as I can see this router does not support 802.11N protocol 150 Million per sec.. 1. First at "BASIC SECURITY SETTINGS" I changed my Verizon Router settings to stay on Channel 11 and to keep your channel during power down cycles. Everyone else is on Channel 6 so if you change your router to channel 11 you will be out of everyone else's way. 2. Next I configured All my computers wireless modems and Forced them to the 802.11G protocol 54 Million per sec.. That is kind of difficult unless you are computer savvy? Basically: My Computer>properties>Hardware> Device Manager> "+" Network adapters>YOUR (?) Wireless Modems model(?)> click right mouse on your Wireless Modem Model(?)>properties> ADVANCED> Click the action that forces "G" or 802.11 G. Every wireless modem modem might have a different name and some older wireless modem models only support 802.11 B that runs at 11 Million Bytes. At 802.11G all my wirless devices are running extremely fast . B interferes with G so it is best to force all of your wireless to G and clock at 54 million per sec. DID I CONFUSE YOU?

One of our machines has a wireless adapter that includes a neat app showing info about the other wireless networks in the area, and all were on either channel 1 or 6, so I switched to 11, as you suggested.  There was no setting on the pc for "G only" that I could see, but the router had that capability, in "Wireless Settings>Advanced Security Settings", but setting that to "G only" didn't help the speed.

Going from the pc wirelessly through the router to the internet only gave me 20M/20M, from a 35M/35M connection that consistently delivers 43M/30M through a wired connection.  We get the same 20M/20M speeds going wirelessly through the router to wired machines on the local network.

We normally use wired connections almost exclusively, but we got a netbook recently that we like to move around the house, as well as take outside on the deck.

No, you did not confuse me, I did that to myself through years of hard drinking. Smiley Wink

Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
Bixbyte
Contributor - Level 1

MAYBE U COULD enable "N" in ur notebook and purchase TRENDnet 300 Mbps Wireless Easy-N-Upgrader (TEW-637AP)?? 

Perhaps You are not drinking enough? 

Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
Cdrinkard
Enthusiast - Level 2

802.1p has to do with QoS, with values of 0-7 and priorities of low medium or high.

0 is for background

1 is for best effort

2 is for excellent effort

3 " " Critical Applications

4 " " Video, < 100 ms latency

5 " " Voice, < 10 ms latency

6 " " Internetwork Control

7 " " Network Control

I changed my priorities to 0-2 medium and the rest are at high, I'm using the 9100EM router so you can test it out with yours and see what differences it makes. You can also add some DSCP values for more QoS.

Hope this helps.

Edit* For better speeds try having the router automatically find a wireless channel, i used to be on 11 and switch to automatic and it put it at channel 2 and I get 29-30 mbps down and 22 up, I have the old 25/5 plan and I also live in the burbs of Dallas. You can also play around with other QoS options like traffic priority and shaping

Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
pa28pilot
Enthusiast - Level 3

cdrinkard's summary is very good. 802.1p has to do with preferences for how packets are delivered (quality of service) and traffic shaping, not wireless standards. 

One caveat you should remember - if you turn on 802.1p you'll probably only get much benefit if all of your other switches on the network also support it. Think of it like a "tag" that is attached to the packets that fit the criteria you set.

It can make some difference with how your router manages its internal queues of packets, but where it really comes in handy are environments where the whole LAN is busy and you need to make sure that certain services or hosts don't experience a lot of delay (latency) or jitter (variability of latency). 

If you have other switches, they need to be able to read the tag on the packet as well, otherwise all of your packets get tossed back into the same bucket. Do NOT just set everything you find to the highest number and expect that to make a difference - you'll just be back where you started. The whole point is to differentiate services from each other. Just remember that you can't ever add to more than 100%. 

Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
tns
Master - Level 2

@Bixbyte wrote:
This Verizon Actiontec router operates on 802.11 B and 802.11G. Unfortunately as far as I can see this router does not support 802.11N protocol 150 Million per sec......


Actually there are are a number of versions of the Verizon Actiontec MI424WR .   The F version had preliminary N support.  The G version supports the 802.11n standard.   Most people are given version D or earlier at this time.

Re: What do 802.1 p priority settings in Actiontec MI424-WR do?
cjacobs001
Contributor - Level 3

After you have ruled-out interference from other devices using same frequency as your wireless internet (older cordless phones, wireless blue ray, wireless satelite, baby monitors, wireless home intercom systems, wireless speakers, etc., etc.) AND after you have mitigated high running processes on the wireless device (which slows everyting down) AND after you have tested things like turning off fish-tank lights, refrigerators, (basically everything electrical can bring interference into the mix), radios, TV's, etc., etc., THEN you could try getting matching NIC's on both ends and 'bonding' them together.  That usually gets good results.