[Asterisk-Users] DSL router with QOS

[Neil Cherry]

Rod Bacon wrote:
> What's the point?
> 
> You can prioritise as much as you like at your own end, but as soon as 
> it leaves your premises and enters the 'net, all bets are off!

While I do this for a living (networks and QoS) and I shouldn't argue
with the above, I will. The engineer in me just has to have the
egress policed. :-)

> Even the contention ratio of the DSL circuit (as provided by your ISP) 
> can kill you.
> 
> QOS is really only useful in a point-to-point scenario, or in a meshed 
> network that honors QOS on all links.
> 
> If you really want to experiment, grab an old PIII for $50 off e-bay, 
> and setup a linux box as a router behind your DSL modem. You can play 
> with QOS as much as you like then, without forking out $500.

Rod makes several really good points here. If you want a box with
Wireless and Traffic shaping get the Linksys and use one of the 3rd
party firmware images. I'm currently using a WRT54G with Sveasoft's
Alchemy image, though I now heavily disagree with the vendor's
opinion of Open Source and it's community (I won't renew my
subscription). My understanding is that the OpenWRT and another
image may also have this same functionality (Traffic Shaping called
tc). This may be a good way to go and the cost should be less than
$100 (US). You'll still need the DSL modem but I don't like all in
one devices at that level.

-- 
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry at comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/               (Text only)
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