I have just installed my first RB1200 for a customer yesterday. The customer has a need to manage traffic a bit. They have a connection that yields about 15Mbps down and 2Mbps up. People on the internal network often have a need to upload very large files to various FTP or HTTP sites. These sustained uploads bring internet access to a slow a crawl. I have implemented PCQ to just limit per connection uploads to 1Mbps each. There is probably a more dynamic way to do this. Can somebody help me out? Here’s the relevant config:
[dsmithson@MikroTik] /queue> simple print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic
0 name=“queue1” target-addresses=10.10.10.0/24 dst-address=0.0.0.0/0 interface=all parent=none direction=both
priority=8 queue=PCQ_upload/PCQ_download limit-at=0/0 max-limit=0/0 burst-limit=0/0 burst-threshold=0/0
burst-time=0s/0s total-queue=default-small
[dsmithson@MikroTik] /queue> tree print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid
0 name=“queue1” parent=global-in packet-mark=all limit-at=0 queue=PCQ_download priority=8 max-limit=0
burst-limit=0 burst-threshold=0 burst-time=0s
This is a very easy thing to set up, and probably my favorite feature of Mikrotik. If you are just looking for a basic flat PCQ setup, go ahead and just use simple queues. Mixing Simple Queues and Queue Trees is just going to cause a headache down the road. (Simple Queues generate their own Queue Trees and mangle rules)
With your setup, the thing you are missing is Max-Limit in the simple Queue. Max-limit is the total bandwidth of the internet connection. Without it, none of the QoS works. Go into your simple queue, and set the Max-limit to 15M for download and 2M for upload. If you find the connection doesn’t always give the advertised bandwidth, lower these limits a little. If you can’t reach the speeds set in Max-limit, the QoS won’t work well, and in my experience, users are happier with 12Mbit and working PCQ over 15Mbit and broken PCQ.
Personally, I would then go in to the PCQ_download and PCQ_upload definitions and remove the pcq-rate, since there is usually no reason a user in a small business can’t use all the bandwidth when it is available. Limit-at is typically used by ISPs to handle individual subscriber caps. I’m not saying there isn’t specific times it is useful, I just generally don’t find it so with small/medium business.
If you haven’t seen them yet, here are the examples out of the wiki. They explain the relation of Max-limit and PCQ-rate nicely:
Thank you for your help on this. I find that the documentation in the wiki is sparse in certain areas. I had actually followed a confusing example from the wiki which is why I ended up mixing trees and simple queues. May I ask where does one really learn the magic? Do I have to attend MUM or get certified or what?
# Self Learning / R&D is the key to success, # Read , Read, Read and do practicals / practice in your lab. # Attend MUM’s to see how people are using this product in there customized environment # Get Proper Training > Certification # Finally Earn by Consulting ~
Almost all my knowledge has come from trial & error and reading these forums. Trying to answer questions and help others has given me a much stronger understanding of a lot of the basics.
Training classes and certifications were fun, but to be honest I learned more from these forums than the classes.
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