@gfraser2 you're in a rather interesting situation. Normally the easy solution is to buy a router or managed switch that gives you the ability to control the bandwidth allocated to the various devices that you might be running. But, given that you're using the Ignite TV system with the XB6 router, that might require that you run the modem in Bridge mode which isn't supported by Rogers. Not that its a huge deal, but, if you do have any issues, that would require you to return to Gateway mode so that Rogers techs can attempt to sort out the issues. So, as I said, not a huge deal, but, you might need to be prepared to operate outside of the normal supported modem mode.
Ok, so, two possible solutions:
Number 1:
1. Run the modem in Gateway mode, which is where it will be at the present time.
2. Buy and connect a managed gigabit switch which should give you the ability to control the bandwidth allocated to your devices. That will take some research to find a switch that will provide that bandwidth control. That could be done via switch port, or possibly by protocol in use by the devices.
Number 2:
1. Kick the modem into Bridge mode.
2. Buy and connect a router that will give you the ability to control the bandwidth allocated to your devices. That can be done via Quality of Service (QOS) for example, provided that QOS really does work on the router in question. That requires research to find out if QOS works on the routers that you might be interested in. You would have to check out the router forums to peruse the comments posted by other router owners, and, if necessary ask pertinent questions. Bottom line, QOS doesn't necessarily work as advertised, so, personal research is required.
I'll pick on Asus routers as that is what I'm using at the moment, an Asus RT-AC86U. That modem comes with its own QOS, which apparently doesn't work very well due to the lack of a good packet id system. So, the solution is to load Merlin's Asuswrt instead of the stock firmware. Merlin's Asuswrt is a modified version of the stock firmware, with changes to enhance the capability of the router. Eric Sauvage, aka Merlin has been at this for a number of years with a loyal following of users who run his firmware on their router, myself included. Lately, there have been a number of developments by other users to enhance his firmware to include a better user defined packet management system (FlexQos) or the to run a packet management system titled CAKE (Common Applications Kept Enhanced). CAKE is currently the best packet management scheme around, developed over several years of similar packet management schemes. It is however, math intensive, so users have to be aware of that fact. Background info for CAKE can be seen here:
https://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/codel/wiki/Cake/
The FlexQos (for Merlin's Asuswrt) thread can be seen here:
The CAKE (for Merlin's Asuswrt) thread can be seen here. Essentially CAKE is a que management system that provides equal opportunity bandwidth to all users, preventing a bandwidth hog from what you're currently experiencing. Its a set and forget system that appears to work pretty well on the Asus routers.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/release-cakeqos-merlin.64800/
So, fwiw, the route that I would consider is to either run a managed switch with the modem in its default Gateway mode, or, run an Asus router with Merlin's Asuswrt loaded and Cake running. If Cake didn't do what you wanted to do, then I'd use the FlexQos add-on. Note, from looking at the notes for FlesQos, it indicates that IPV6 support is experimental, which might be an issue as the XB6 and Xi6-A/T set top boxes use IPV6.
The overall Merlin thread can be found here:
https://www.snbforums.com/forums/asuswrt-merlin.42/
Merlins's homepage is located here:
https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/
To load the add-ons that are described in the various thread in Merlin's SNBForum page, you need a USB3 stick to install on the router to hold the swap file and various add-on files. The various add-ons are accessible by using a Secure Shell to log into the router, using Putty or MobaXterm. There is a Asuswrt-Merlin Terminal Menu that is accessed with the Secure Shell program that allows users to load a number of add-ons, depending on what their requirements are. Just to note there are add-ons to prevent the router from accessing known malware sites and lock out countries, titled Skynet, and an add-on for add filtering titled Diversion. Both of those work very well.
As for your comments above,:
1. "I do not want to compromise my Internet download speed for these games." I'm assuming here that you mean that you want the tv's and phone to keep running when your downloading games??
2. "buy another XB6 Modem separate from computers and just use for TV's and VOIP Phone". Nope, can't do that, unless the other modem is on another account. Rogers won't let you run more than one modem on your account. In any event, running a managed switch or router should resolve the problem.
No matter which path you decide to take, you're going to have to do some research about bandwidth control. Consider that a little homework. Going down either path won't necessarily be intuitive, step by step, so, when in doubt, ask questions, many questions ..... If necessary, sign up for the forum that serves as the board for the device or devices that you're looking at and ask any questions that you might have.
Hope this helps.
Edit; note, that to use something like CAKE, you should be looking at something like the RT-AC86U, or the more recent RT-AX88U. I'd have to check the CAKE thread to see the AX88U status with respect to running CAKE on the AX88U. The AC86U had a 1.8 Ghz dual core processor with 512 Mb of memory, the AX88U has a 1.8 quad core processor with 1 Gb of memory if I remember this correctly. Only question is the status of Merlin's firmware for the AX88U. At low speeds like 150 Mb/s running CAKE shouldn't be any issue on these and possibly lessor Asus routers, but, if and when you step up to faster data rates, routers like the AC86U and AX88U with their faster processors would be required. Personal opinion, these days, I wouldn't recommend anything less than a 1.4 Ghz procesor, preferably a 1.8 Ghz processor or faster if available. I'm thinking long term here, keeping the router for several years, and possibly thru increases in data rates as well.
Third possible solution: Increase your internet data rate to 500 Mb/s (?). Does steam download at or above 500 Mb/s? Don't know, but, assuming that the answer is no, that should let Steam run a max rate while leaving capacity for other devices. This all depends on the max data rates for Steam downloads.
@gfraser2 I am in a similar situation in that I also have a 150u service and 3 Ignite set-top boxes. I have also tested watching 3 HD channels (with each stream consuming ~10 Mb/s average bandwidth) simultaneously and initiated a large download from my computer, but my TV service was unaffected.
If I had multiple 4K streams (each consuming ~25 Mb/s average bandwidth) that would take up a sizable portion of my available Internet bandwidth.
If my WiFi was not performing at its peak, that will also affect the performance of Ignite TV.
The traffic from the Ignite TV streams is very bursty; not a continuous bitrate. You need to have enough bandwidth available to support the streams but it should not be necessary to dedicate or to reserve bandwidth. (If you implement QoS and rate-limiting, the network gear will end up dropping packets intentionally and that will likely cause even more problems for Ignite TV.)
My initial gut feeling is that if you have that much TV/Internet traffic, spending a few dollars more for a 500u service would help, and would be a significantly cheaper alternative. I also can't stress how important it is to have WiFi working at its peak for Ignite TV to work well, regardless of whether there are other devices contending for bandwidth.
If you want to rate limit your PC, you could invest in a ton of expensive hardware and spend the next several months tweaking and tuning it, OR, for a mere $12, you could buy yourself a (10/100) Fast Ethernet switch and use that to connect your computers to the XB6.
I don't have a good answer for how to deal with your VoIP traffic. A G.711 codec + RTP overhead will consume roughly 100 kb/s. That's not much, but VoIP does not tolerate delay or jitter very well and if you have bandwidth constraints and saturated high-speed and/or asymmetric links, you absolutely must implement QoS and prioritize traffic. The XB6 can't help you with that and you will need to install your own router and configure it properly... or you could choose to drop your VoIP service and switch to Ignite Home Phone.
@gfraser2 The real solution for this problem is that Rogers needs to have a mechanism in place that can prioritize downstream traffic going to your home. There should be a way to reserve a certain amount of bandwidth for Ignite TV, and allow other application traffic to burst beyond their low-priority threshold only if Ignite TV is not using all of its reserved bandwidth.
If Rogers can allow customers to create their own custom profiles, to reserve and prioritize bandwidth for their own critical applications (e.g. Zoom, work VPN, VoIP, etc.) as needed, even better.
@toolcubed wrote:
^^Agreed. I can't believe they're not already prioritizing TV and Home Phone over all other IP traffic. That's really strange. I know for a fact that Bell prioritizes TV for their Fibe service.
Bell has no choice. For their VDSL customers, they have to deal with severe bandwidth constraints and Fibe TV streams (on the old Mediaroom platform) are multicast, so even relatively minor packet loss would cause audio/video drop-outs.
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