RB 450G to help improve Netflix/Apple TV streaming

RouterOS General
1

I just bought the Mikrotik RB 450G, which I have not received yet (its on its way). The idea I had in mind when I bought it is, with its own cpu as well as 256mb of ram, I am hoping to improve streaming from Netflix or from my Apple TV.

My ISP service provides 384k/sec, which produces good DVD quality playback sometimes .However, often times I get a constant rebuffering. Before increasing my ISP service, I wanted to try a better router to see whether it offer better performance and the RB 450G looks robust. I also noticed the 450G has the capability for micro SD card, and I have a 4gb available but not sure how to apply it to my needs.

What will I need to do to accomplish my goal? I will need to setup the router once it arrived. I have a McaBook Pro with Windows XP SP3 installed through Parallel and understand there is a steep learning curve with RouterOS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW this is my first time posting. Thank you.

2

You are probably going to want to set up some QoS rules to do what you want. Though with a 386k download from your ISP, I’m surprised Netflix works at all.

The basic steps you are going to want to do:

1.) Run Torch on your LAN interface of the rb450 and see what ports are used by Netflix streaming service, If I remember correctly, most of it should be done over port 80 or 443.
2.) In Mangle prerouting mark new connections with a dst-port of the desired service, and based off of the connection mark, mark packets.
3.) Mark all other connections/packets differently
4.) Set up two Queue trees, one of the LAN for the download and one on WAN for upload, and make two leafs, one with the Netflix mark and assign it a priority of 1 and the other leaf with the other packet mark and assign it a lower priority.

Be sure to set your Max Limit for download at around 90% of your total download speed, otherwise your ISP will likely mess up your QoS scheme.

3

I’d like to second that I doubt you’ll get Netflix to stream nicely at around 384kbps. That’s just plain not enough bandwidth for streaming video at any decent resolution and quality. As far as I know their lowest possible codec is 375kbps - and you’re just not going to see 100% clean utilization across the Internet.

4

Thanks guys for responding. Would using a public DNS help also? I should get mu router on Tuesday. :smiley:

5

Changing your DNS servers won’t make any difference to your ability (or not) to stream media (at least not in terms of sustained bandwidth).

6

Thanks for responding regarding DNS. I had figured similar to that. However, I also figured by improving my infrastructure first, any opening of the pipeline would enhance my streaming. Once I set up my Mikrotik, I will come back and share.

7

I have a 12m/1200k dsl service at my home. Netflix HD will “rebuffer” as in read ahead the next minute for about 10 seconds every 30-40 seconds. So figure constant download would be 3-4mbit.

384k aint gonna do it. That would only be enough for the digital audio stream.