Speed congestion problem and bandwidth monitoring

RouterOS General
1

Hi

I had a TP-Link beefed up with Gargoyle. It was working fairly nice and had a couple of goodies that I would like to have on my new RB951Ui-2HnD.

  • The first thing is a simple way to QoS or whatever to tell the router that when someone is uploading a big file, all the others don’t suffer in download speed. bandwidth should be divided fairly between everyone, no priorities. Shouldn’t this be standard as a base point to start a configuration? I mean, doesn’t everyone NEED AT LEAST this (obviously lots of people need something way more advanced, but…)? Is it necessary to prioritize ACK for this (taht would be a PITA)?
  • The second thing is a simple/graphical way to see WHO is consuming the bandwidth. In Gargoyle you have a pie chart and a 3 line graph where you can choose to display the bandwidth by IP/host. Maybe with an external and simple SNMP program?
2

SIMPLE way to QoS is to use PCQ in Queue Rules, so every one gets equal share of what’s available. Plenty of tutorial out there.

bandwidth consumption, not simple, Trafic Flow will do this for you
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:IP/Traffic_Flow

or set up Hotspot with data limits.

3

Thanks. I wouldn’t call PCQ+Simple Queues “SIMPLE”. I know it’s one way of clearing the problem, but I would love that MikroTik tackle this problem in a simpler way. It’s not that I can’t configure it, but for lots of people, I think that there has to be some easier way. Or maybe program it in the QuickSet as they program the WiFi setup (You simply enter the password in the Quick Set, but you have to enter in Wireless, Security Profiles, the item you want to change and then put the password… it’s not difficult, but it simpler when you start in the Quick Set).

Which program would you recommend for Traffic Flow monitoring? (something simple, no need to record, complex configuration,…).

Regarding Hotspot, I don’t want to limit, simply monitor and configure so that no one clog the network.

4

You have to remember that RouterOS is not for those that want simple checkmarks and buttons to do out-of-the-box complex tasks.
There are many other routers on the market that do that. RouterOS has quickset for basic configuration, but beyond that it requires
expertise to configure.

It is possible to use scripting to do automatic configuration, and indeed for this specific problem a script exists (look on this forum),
but still it requires skills such as importing the script, making changes to the parameters, and running it.

When you have some very standard setup that you want to use in a lot of routers with very similar situation (e.g. same interface names,
same uplink bandwidth, etc) you may be able to make a script that is a little easier to use.
When installing a script is too much for your users you could also make a dedicated program that uses the API or a telnet chat
to configure the router.

5

Maybe a configuration that makes a router works well out-of-the-box should be considered a basic configuration. Maybe PCQ+Simple Queues shouldn’t be a complex task.
Take a look at a Quick Set window: VPN Access, Firewall Router,… I bet that many RouterOS users would gladly trade VPN Access for a “PCQ+Simple Queues”. Of course, not everyone, as many users uses VPN and need a complex tree-queue, but my point is that a router that you don’t need to configure to work well is better than a router that has to be completely configured from scratch (kudos to Mikrotik that give us the option to start from 0, and kudos for adding a Quick Set to simplify our lives). Take another example: Firewall Router is “simple enough” to be written on a script also. There you can read a rule to drop invalid connection state. There are some cases where you need that rule (although I can’t think of many…), but most people would prefer to have it, so MikroTik put it (and the other “standard” rules) in the “Firewall Router” checkbox.
I can’t think of a place where you wouldn’t want to solve a simple problem like this one: one PC uploading data clog the network. So a check to configure it (like the Firewall Router checkbox) would be a nice addition. Again, not everyone would use it. But not everyone uses Firewall Router, VPN Access neither… even Quick Set is not useful for everyone.

It’s not that I don’t know how to do any of those things (in fact, I do a lot more). I also know how to solve the problem, but not in a simple way. I’m not looking for a solution to replicate in other setups. I think that a problem like this one is sufficiently general to merit a place in the Quick Set window.

6

It is all a question of which market you want to cater for, and how much effort you can spend on things like this.
Other routers, like the ones we get from our ISP and those we can buy in the computer shops, do what you want to
do but then they are extremely limited whenever you want to do something that is out of the specification box.

It is difficult to make a detailed config mode (as RouterOS already has) co-exist with a QuickSet option, we already
see that now. When you setup your router with QuickSet, then go on and change some things in the detailed config,
then go back to the QuickSet screen and change something, even some apparently innocent detail like the router name,
you foul up everything big time!
It would be very difficult to work around that, because QuickSet necessarily has to apply boilerplate configuration
items all over the place, and cannot know (unless it is made extremely intelligent) what the influence of its actions
on other configuration will be.
The only safe way of having QuickSet is, like the other router manufacturers have done, to hide the entire detailed
configuration and provide only some high-level standard application selections with their associated parameters.
The router would then use that info to configure itself.

But, you must be careful not to see your own application of the router as the only one there is. It appears that most
users have some kind of internet connection with a single IP address, a LAN network with a couple of PCs, a WiFi
to connect their phone. and do NAT. Then they see this as the standard config where they want all kinds of bells
and whistles being configured to use it as a gaming router like some competing products have.

But, such usage would be only a small part of my typical usage. I use these routers mainly in a purely routed
environment (with BGP using private AS) and no NAT. Devices and networks have public and registered addresses.
Maybe in some of the routers there is an internet connection, sometimes with only a single route to use for a
backup VPN over internet, sometimes with dual routing tables to be able to use the internet connection with NAT
but still have the routing network as described above, which has its own (wireless) links.

This usage is possible with RouterOS because of the flexibility it offers in configuration. Configuration is not
necessarily complex, but it is not “standard” and it would not be cost-efficient for MikroTik to put time in developing
QuickSet support for it. We do not use QuickSet, we clear out the default config as required.

Maybe what would be required is two modes of operation: “QuickSet” (wizard) mode where you specify some
standard usage and some parameters and the router manages everything, and “Expert” mode where you can
use the router as you want but have no wizards.

In fact that is something I have suggested before but has not been implemented: I would like some option to
disable QuickSet, or at least change it to read-only. It happened a few times in our network that routers were
misconfigured because someone accidentally used QuickSet after it had already been configured in detail.

A new router could come up in QuickSet like it already does, the user could enter some basic config and apply
it, but then as soon as they go on and make other changes the QuickSet would be disabled or there would be
some checkmark somewhere in the System menu to do that. Additionally, there could be some checkmark on
the QuickSet page to enable access to the detailed config at all (“Expert mode”), and then it would be more
feasible to make complicated QuickSet configs like you suggest without the risk of messing up things.

7

I’m not trying to do a fully funcional Quick Set, smart, beauty, superduper. I’m not trying to change anything from RouterOS. I only think that a tiny little option that makes a RouterOS deployment do something that I think is usefull for a large subset of the market is worth cosidering. Like the other tiny little options that Quick Set has right now.
You have several options in the Quick Set making life easier for lots of people. Why not add something that I think will help lots of other people?
I bet that lots of new RouterOS installation or configurations could benefit from this. Even non standard configurations.

I think that Quick Set is a nice start point that makes our life easier. Obviously you have to configure the rest of the router later, but as a start point, is not bad. It’s only limited.
I think that Quick Set has potential in a line of thinking: preconfigure this box as a xxx kind of machine with yyy and zzz option. Then you could add sjhe, jdkd, janek, and all the other strange things you want.
Do whatever you want later. Disable Quick Set, hide it, destyo it… but make it more powerfull at the begining. And a tiny little option that adds PCQ+Simple Queues preconfigured preventing a device from slowing down the network in a simple configuration is, I think, a nice addition.

Personally I install cheap RouterOS devices whenever I can instead of other cheap routers of other brands. Set it and forget it. It is way more stable than any cheapo TPLink for example. My clients would never touch it anyway so I don’t care about how easy or difficult is to use it.
And I know lots of people that do the same.

Yes, there are other gurus that can make a RouterOS device talk and take your dog to a walk in the park, but we are all part of the RouterOS market.