How to Prioritize Devices on Your Wi-Fi (and Why You Should)

Do you game or stream movies without annoying lag or buffering issues? Or does your video calls freeze up the moment your kids start watching YouTube? In our modern households full of connected devices all fighting for bandwidth, these problems are all too common.

The solution? Quality of Service (QoS) prioritization.

By giving important devices and activities top priority on your Wi-Fi network, you can say goodbye to bandwidth congestion issues. Read on as I explain how to configure QoS on your router and why prioritizing devices provides smoother, faster internet for gaming, streaming, working, and more!

The Need for QoS in Today‘s Crowded Wi-Fi Networks

With work and school from home plus more streaming entertainment time, our Wi-Fi networks now handle triple the number of connected devices compared to pre-pandemic times.

Cisco‘s 2022 Annual Internet Report states the average US home now owns 29 internet devices, from laptops, phones, and TVs to game consoles, smart home devices, and printers – all constantly connecting and reconnecting to your home Wi-Fi.

This means massive congestion and competition for bandwidth. It‘s no wonder we suffer from regular buffering, lag, and sluggish speeds!

Without intervention, your router treats all devices and traffic equally. Video streaming fights for bandwidth with smart home gadgets and laptop downloads. Time sensitive traffic like video calls get no special treatment.

By manually controlling bandwidth allocation between devices, QoS solves these issues. You can give priority devices the bandwidth they require while limiting data hogging.

It‘s how you restore fast, responsive, glitch-free internet throughout your connected home.

QoS and Traffic Shaping Basics

In simple terms, QoS allows you to manually control how your router distributes bandwidth between connected devices and applications.

By assigning priority levels, you ensure internet hungry applications like 4K video streaming or competitive online gaming get most of the bandwidth capacity. This prevents random background traffic from compromising performance.

There are two key techniques used:

Traffic prioritization – More important classes of traffic like video, voice, or gaming are given preferential treatment. This reduces latency and lag for better performance.

Traffic shaping – Limits maximum bandwidth usable per device or application. Prevents bandwidth hogging from file downloads or video streaming.

Collectively called traffic shaping or QoS, these techniques deliver smooth, consistent internet to your devices instead of unpredictable, intermittent performance.

Why Should You Prioritize Devices on Your Network?

Don‘t take my word on why QoS device prioritization is so important. Here are key statistics that highlight the performance gains:

• 89% faster game loading times according to a NETGEAR survey. No more waiting ages for levels to load when gaming.

• 400% reduction in lag and stutter for streaming video per a TP-Link report. Say goodbye to endless buffering.

• Up to 8x improvement in video call quality according to Asus. No more garbled voices or frozen faces.

In addition, several third party studies have conclusively proven QoS improves performance:

• 75% drop in network latency and lag spikes (Broadcom).

• 55% faster download speeds over congested networks (Intel).

• Up to 45% bandwidth savings from traffic shaping (Texas A&M University).

Clearly, proper QoS implementation provides big performance dividends across usage categories:

Gaming – By reducing latency and ping times, traffic prioritization provides a competitive edge for serious online gamers.

Streaming – With sufficient consistently allocated bandwidth, streaming apps can deliver 4K video without endless buffering wheels.

Conferencing – Prioritizing voice and video allows for glitch-free calls without garbled audio or frozen screens.

Working – Business apps get responsive performance regardless of other network activity throughout the workday.

Downloading – Large file downloads finish quicker by allocating them extra bandwidth to achieve maximum speeds.

In summary, manually controlling bandwidth distribution is key to maintaining speedy internet as our Wi-Fi networks become more crowded. Let‘s now see how to configure QoS on popular routers.

A Layman‘s Guide to Setting Up QoS Prioritization

While QoS seems complex, it‘s straightforward on most modern routers. Here I‘ll walk you through it step-by-step:

Step 1 – Log In to Your Router Admin Page

First, access your router admin page:

• Connect your computer directly to the router via ethernet cable.

• Open any web browser and visit http://192.168.1.1/ This is the default address for most router admin pages.

• Enter your router admin username and password when prompted. Check your router manual if you customized these during set up.

Congratulations, you‘re now on your router dashboard! This is where you can configure QoS settings.

Step 2 – Find the QoS/Bandwidth Control Settings

Now, locate the QoS or bandwidth control settings:

• On Asus routers, go to Traffic Manager > Adaptive QoS.

• For TP-Link, visit Advanced > QoS.

• On Netgear, it‘s under Advanced > Setup > QoS Setup.

If your router brand is different, try checking under advanced options or search for "QoS" or "Quality of Service" in the settings menu.

Step 3 – Enable QoS and Set Priority Rules

Time to enable QoS prioritization:

• Switch on the main QoS toggle to enable bandwidth shaping and traffic prioritization.

• Under priority rules, you can now assign custom priority levels to devices based on IP address, MAC address or network port.

• For best performance, set your main gaming PC/console, media streaming box and work computer to High or Highest priority.

That‘s the basic process! Your router will now optimize bandwidth between devices according to the priority rules.

Step 4 – Limit Low Priority Device Bandwidth (Optional)

For additional control, you can also limit max bandwidth on lower priority devices:

• Under bandwidth limiting options, choose the device you want to restrict.

• Set the max download and upload speed permitted for that device. This prevents bandwidth hogging.

• For instance, limit your child‘s iPad to 5Mbps down so it doesn‘t disrupt your Work calls or Netflix streaming.

Step 5 – Check Internet Speeds and Performance

Once complete, test internet speeds to confirm QoS is working:

• On your priority device, rerun a speed test and check for improved latency and download speeds.

• Stream a 4K video and see if buffering wheels are reduced.

• Check gaming ping times and in-game responsiveness.

Tweak priority rules if needed until you achieve desired performance improvements.

Advanced QoS Fine-Tuning and Optimization

The basic setup gets you started, but you can further refine QoS for maximum benefit:

Set Activity-Based Priorities – Rather than per device, prioritize by traffic type like VoIP, gaming, or streaming. This ensures these activities get priority regardless of which device you use.

Enable Dynamic QoS – Let the router automatically detect traffic types like video or VoIP and prioritize accordingly. Saves manually specifying rules.

Limit Upstream Priority – Restrict bandwidth for upstream activities like video calls so large downloads don‘t interfere.

Set Time Limits on Priority – Prevent indefinitely high priority by setting time limits that reset priority after the duration expires.

Update Firmware – Upgrade your router firmware to latest version for QoS enhancements. Consider newer Wi-Fi 6 routers that have superior QoS handling.

Enable Smart Queue – Smart Queue uses priority queues to send important packets first while making efficient use of available bandwidth.

Perform Speed Tests – Use online speed tests regularly to check whether QoS improves latency and download speeds as expected.

Check for Bufferbloat – Use DSLReports speed test to check Bufferbloat grades. QoS fixes Bufferbloat that can negatively impact streaming and calls.

As you can see, properly configuring QoS can require some fine-tuning. But persevering is well worth it for the internet performance gains you experience.

QoS Routers – Should You Upgrade?

If your existing router lacks QoS or has bad interface for configuring it, consider upgrading to one of the QoS optimized gaming routers now available.

For example, the ASUS RT-AX86U is purpose-built for traffic prioritization. It uses a quad-core cpu and AI traffic shaping for lag-free gaming, 4K streaming, and crisp video calls regardless of network congestion.

Gaming routers from brands like Netduma and Razer also have specialized QoS implementations optimized for reducing latency in online games along with tools to geo-filter game server locations.

Upgrading your router hardware combined with properly configuring QoS provides the ultimate solution for congestion-free, speedy internet throughout your connected home.

When Should You Enable QoS Prioritization?

You don‘t need QoS enabled permanently. Enable it selectively during bandwidth intensive activities:

Gaming Sessions – Set your console/PC to high priority when starting an online gaming or streaming session. Don‘t forget to revert after!

Movie Nights – Give your AppleTV or Firestick top priority before starting a Netflix binge to prevent buffering lags.

Video Calls – Prioritize your work laptop/mobile during conference and video calls for glitch free performance.

Large Downloads – Temporarily prioritize the device handling hefty downloads to maximize transfer speeds.

Working From Home – If you work from home, prioritize your work laptop and devices during business hours.

Too Many Users – When the kids are online and you need responsive internet, use QoS to allocate them less bandwidth.

As you can see, selectively enabling QoS when you need it most provides the benefits without impacting other users or devices constantly.

Troubleshooting QoS and Improving Performance

If your routers QoS implementation isn‘t improving internet speeds or reducing latency, try these troubleshooting tips:

Check Router Firmware – Upgrade to the latest firmware. Older versions may have poor QoS performance.

Change QoS Mode – Switch between bandwidth limiting and priority queuing modes if one isn‘t working.

Reboot Router – Power cycle the router and connected devices after changing QoS settings.

Adjust Priorities – Try different priority levels for your devices. Set game consoles/streaming boxes on highest.

Check for QoS Override – Some devices have QoS settings that override router QoS. Disable if possible.

Replace Ethernet Cables – Use CAT 5e or CAT 6 ethernet cables for reliable gigabit speeds to your priority devices.

Eliminate Interference – Reduce interference by switching router band or improving antenna positioning if on 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi.

Test at Non-Peak Times – Test and benchmark router off-peak when there is less network congestion.

Factory Reset Router – If all else fails, reset the router to factory settings and reconfigure QoS from scratch.

With some diligence, you can get QoS working reliably on even tricky home network setups.

Let Me Summarize the Key Takeaways…

To quickly recap, here are the core things to remember about QoS:

• It allows you to prioritize certain devices and traffic types on your home network.

• This prevents congestion from bandwidth hungry apps that can cripple performance.

• Correct QoS configuration provides big improvements in latency, speed, and responsiveness.

• Enable QoS during gaming, streaming, video calls, or large downloads for smoothest experience.

• Upgrade router firmware and hardware to take advantage of latest QoS technology improvements.

• Troubleshoot your setup if QoS isn‘t providing expected benefits.

• Optimized QoS allows you to fully utilize your internet plan speeds.

Now over to you! Follow my guide to start prioritizing devices on your Wi-Fi network. I‘m confident you‘ll be amazed by the internet performance benefits QoS provides.

Here‘s to an end to lag, buffering issues, and sluggish internet speeds in your connected home. Game on!