How to interpret Status: Traffic shaper: Queues

[tShaper]

Hi,

I used the Traffic Shaper Widzard for 10Mb down-1Mb up ISP connection. I am using Pfsense as a home router with an expectation to play games smoother. My Status: Traffic shaper: Queues diagram attached.

Can someone tell me the basic principles of how to interpret such a diagram so that i can make sure my traffic is shaped well for gaming (Diagram somehow tells me my gaming queues are allways loaded) and the further tunes that i must consider if not.

It is also ok if someone directs me to a document or blog e.t.c on the subject.

Thank you.

[KOM]

This graphic is just showing your queues as if they were buckets, and the red line is how full the bucket is.  From your image, it looks like most of your traffic is in the Games queue.  Interface LAN shows what's coming into your network from the Internet, Interface WAN shows you whats going out.

[tShaper]

Hey Kom,

I have the ability to interpret this diagram as much as you can with the help of my high school knowledge. I am looking for more expert advise on the topic. Thank you for the answer by the way.

[sideout]

The best way to make sure traffic is hitting the correct queue is to test and do packet captures to make sure you have the right protocols and ports classified into the correct queues.

If all your traffic is hitting the gaming queue then it is marked as default? The next question would be to make sure on the floating rule you only have the WAN interface highlighted.

Check those and then re-test.

[tShaper]

Thank you Sideout very much for the informative and clear answer  , I will go in that direction. So , Can you give me a hint on how to understand if a queue is marked as default and , Does pfsense have the ability to log packets according to the protocols for each queue. (I am really new to the networking bussines and pfsense)

Thanks.

[sideout]

If you ran the wizard typically qLink is default. There is a check box on the queue page under the shaper for Default queue.

Make sure you have the quick option checked on your rule so it stops processing.  Pfsense processes rules top to bottom , floating then interface.

Posting a screenie of your rules might help as well.

[tShaper]

Yes I ran the widzard typically , and add the game port forwards and rules for Age of Empires III game only. My Firewall Rules are attached.

[sideout]

Okay so get rid of the WAN interface rules , you shouldn't  need those since you have the floating rules in place and will have the WAN interface selected. Do not select the LAN interface on any floating rules.

Make sure you have the Quick Option checked on the floating rules. This way it is not trying to match traffic to the other rules.

Since you ran the wizard , qDefault is the default queue from the WAN side and qLink is the default queue on the LAN side so any traffic not matching the other queues should go into that queue.

You can download from the link I put up eariler in the forums and that has my alias set in it.  I dont have AoE I think but I have a ton of other games in there that you can use.

Otherwise , everything looks fine from what I can see. I would test it like this if you can:

1. Have a laptop or another PC connected to Pfsense gui to look at the queues.
2. On your machine - launch the game and see if the qGames starts to get traffic.
3. On the laptop - stream an MP3 or launch a webpage like youtube and watch a video and see if you see those queues getting traffic.

You can run the packet capture from inside of PFSense on the LAN using the IP of the clients to see what ports and hosts are being used and then download that to your machine and use Wireshark to look at it to make sure you are getting the correct ports.

[tShaper]

Thank you.

[KOM]

I have the ability to interpret this diagram as much as you can with the help of my high school knowledge.

I'm sorry I offended you with my attempt to help.  I thought the chart was fairly obvious as to what everything meant, and you didn't specify what you were having trouble with.  If you don't want simple answers, don't ask vague questions.

[tShaper]

I advise you not to answer questions you find vague.

Thank you.