EE router hidden QoS

[hawthornflk]

Hello

I believe the EE Router has hidden QoS which is built into the firmware. The EE hub believes that all the containers/VMs on one server are on one port (which I guess, technically they are) and so it throttles the speed of any one "device" to make sure there is enough room for everything else.

That is cool in theory, but it means that anytime ANY device pings over the local network (let's say media container to update what devices are local, or SMB refreshing on a device) then it drops peak throughput to 500mbps, which is a third of what I pay for.

I don't mind if it were advertised, but every single thread on the forum boldly and proudly states "EE routers don't have QoS" - they do, you just can't see it.

Is there any way to turn this nonsense off? I don't want to turn off 90% of my containers in the hope another doesn't ping so I can download something or update my lancache for example.

The contract and T&C's for traffic management state there is no penalty for being a 'heavy user' - but there clearly is, unless your definition of a heavy user is updating more than one xbox in the same week?

[hawthornflk]

It doesn't matter what  service I have since traffic shaping is EE wide, in fact its EU (and then codified upon leaving) law! 

I can link you to the T&Cs here: https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/help/terms-and-conditions/broadband/network-traffic-management/ee-broad...

It does not matter what service I had before, why are you bitter about an old ISP provider I had as an unemployed community forum moderator?

[XRaySpeX]

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@hawthornflk wrote:

It is unacceptable that I have to go to customer service to prove something that has been designed and engineered deliberately then hidden away from the user who is paying for the service..

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Where else can you go then? This user discussion group ain't gonna change anything you think needs changing. If you have an issue with a service you take it up with the service provider & no one else.

[XRaySpeX]

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@hawthornflk wrote:

every single thread on the forum boldly and proudly states "EE routers don't have QoS"

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Every single thread? I don't think so! Hardly any refer to QoS.

I also remind you of Terms of Service :

We also remind you that all content represents the opinions of the user who posted it, not EE

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[bobpullen]

@hawthornflk - you could packet capture traffic and it would tell you if there are any errant ToS markings but I've a feeling something else might be going on. I'd fully expect there to be some sort of local QoS, even if just to protect EE services like voice and TV.

I'm a bit confused by the explanation of your setup though to be honest, equally so what benefit EE would see from intentionally throttling traffic like you describe.

FWIW, I have a whole bunch of HTTP servers behind a reverse proxy on my network, two of which are containerised; proxy and servers all reside on the same machine to which I can easily pull 1.5Gbps+ down via a speedtest.

[hawthornflk]

So in wireshark for the TCP stream from a speedtest:

Differentiated Services Field: 0x04 (DSCP: LE, ECN: Not-ECT)
0000 01.. = Differentiated Services Codepoint: Lower Effort (1)
.... ..00 = Explicit Congestion Notification: Not ECN-Capable Transport (0)

I tried to pin it down by:

• iptables DSCP override > no effect
• Replaced pfifo_fast with fq_codel > no effect
• Disabled Tailscale VPN > no effect
• Ran Speedtest directly on host > still throttled

So it's outside out the host machine's problem, so it's the router.

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@bobpullen wrote:

I'm a bit confused by the explanation of your setup though to be honest, equally so what benefit EE would see from intentionally throttling traffic like you describe.

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So it would prevent people oversubscribing one network port (i.e running a switch off port 1 and then 20 devices and complaining about something). 

So, I would like an apology at least from the nice little forum experts who said it's nothing to do with the router

Also, going to a complaint about it seems impossible because I will fill in all this info and the support worker will be running from a script with no idea about networking and tell me that it's my fault or my problem and take 2 weeks to do so

[bobpullen]

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@hawthornflk wrote:

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@bobpullen wrote:

I'm a bit confused by the explanation of your setup though to be honest, equally so what benefit EE would see from intentionally throttling traffic like you describe.

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So it would prevent people oversubscribing one network port (i.e running a switch off port 1 and then 20 devices and complaining about something). 

So, I would like an apology at least from the nice little forum experts who said it's nothing to do with the router...

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I still don't see conclusive evidence it's the router to be honest, and assigning blame to some sort of intentional throttling is conjecture at this stage IMO.

Are you talking about oversubscribing a LAN port on the hub itself!? If so, I don't buy it. That bunch of servers I mentioned earlier are connected to a single LAN port on my EE hub alongside another 10+ wired devices fed by the same switch. If your issue was solely the result of some sort of widespread per-client limiting, then surely I'd suffer similar problems?

Not to say there might not be some aspect of the EE hub that's contributing to your issue, but I don't personally think it's as 'cut and dry' as you say it is🤷