# Issues with consoles (networking)



## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

Okay guys, I'm stumped.

We got a net upgrade to 80/11 speeds from 21/0.9 which is great. My room gets about 30-40mbps and so does the rest of our house. The next door which we share wifi with gets about 5-15 which is fine, they don't do much except for the kid. Besides my issues with him his two consoles, an Xbox 360 and Xbox One screw with the entire network when he gets on. Let me explain.

One example is last night, when I was trying to download a game on my desktop and the other desktop, we can average about 3mb/s on EACH desktop and everything is fine. We can pause and close both downloads and everything is fine. We can watch videos, game, and the rest of the house and next door is fine until one of the two consoles comes online. We go from 3mb/s to 150kb/s download, buffering on videos and/or lower quality, and even to the point of people disconnecting on the network in the same house.

We only really  have issues when one or both of the consoles come on and on the previous modem setup, I even went to limiting access to when the kid wasn't home, effectively banning the two Xboxs from the entire network and guess what, shit worked just fine. No issues, even on the horrid 21mbps we could all watch movies/netflix/youtube and play games just fine.

My question is do we just keep the Xboxs off? Is there a way around this? As much as I hate the kid I'm not trying to ban him off completely but we're paying the bill, and if we can't use it because of him well you get the point.

Network layout here:






They run off of the SSID buddy, yet when his consoles come on it actually hurts my part of the network. Again when he's off the entire network runs smoothly so it's not an issue with the layout, just how he connects on. Beforehand the second router wasn't on and they were off the modem. Same issues persisted until I banned him off.

*I want it noted that the next door has three consoles, but the only ones causing the issues are in his room. One Xbox 360 is in the parent's room and that is the one that can be ran 24/7 and causes no issues to the network at all.*

What do guys?


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## dorsetknob (Mar 6, 2018)

Buy him a Bottle of Aftershave ( one that attracts horny Sasquatch ) and i believe its called QOS from the house of MAC


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Mar 6, 2018)

Rename Wifi and hide the SSID.


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## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

I'm not that mean, but that doesn't mean I'm not tempted to.


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Mar 6, 2018)

Also think of what they could be looking up using your shared wifi that would trace back to you. I wouldnt want that.


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## dorsetknob (Mar 6, 2018)

assign Bandwidth limits by MAC address (QOS)


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## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

Oh I know what the kid looks up, I'm the one who had to clean his grandpa's laptop after the kid used it and busted the power jack.

I'll try the QoS.


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## dorsetknob (Mar 6, 2018)

You should also be able to Schedule/restrict his Connection Times 
somewhere in your Router settings


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## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

dorsetknob said:


> You should also be able to Schedule/restrict his Connection Times
> somewhere in your Router settings


Tried that. The restricted hours is from 9pm to 3pm, but the router goes by military time and "the end must be higher than the start time" which is dumb as hell. I used MAC restricting which banned him off last night, which doing so made everything work again but I have to manually change it.


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## dorsetknob (Mar 6, 2018)

IN the Router settings
Bind his MAC to fixed IP Address and he getst same ip address all the time
you can then create a firewall  rule for the MAC/ip address with the restrictions you need such as bandwidth and connection permitted times
after this i'm out of friendly idea's /advice

@remixedcat  is router knowledgeable she may be of assistance   and 
yes anyone else got any workable non homacidable idea's


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## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

dorsetknob said:


> IN the Router settings
> Bind his MAC to fixed IP Address and he getst same ip address all the time
> you can then create a firewall  rule for the MAC/ip address with the restrictions you need such as bandwidth and connection permitted times
> after this i'm out of friendly idea's /advice
> ...


Uh... lemme see if I can do those settings. It's an old router with dd-wrt on it, so I might be able to pull something.


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## lexluthermiester (Mar 6, 2018)

I've had this problem. Tried an arrangement, but it didn't work out and I told the offenders they needed to get their own internet. Then I changed the router name/password and shut off the SSID.


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## dorsetknob (Mar 6, 2018)

Toothless said:


> Tried that. The restricted hours is from 9pm to 3pm, but the router goes by military time and "the end must be higher than the start time"


Did You try 2 time  settings Restrictions

21:00 to 23:59 
then 
00:01 to 15:00 ?

Edit/merged post

Fun thing to do

Set up a second router that he can connect to    ( But not connected to internet )
leave the rest to you ( like blocking his MAC on original router but not the Dummy you just set up for him


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## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

dorsetknob said:


> Did You try 2 time  settings Restrictions
> 
> 21:00 to 23:59
> then
> ...


I didn't think of that, let me try it.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 6, 2018)

Toothless said:


> We go from 3mb/s to 150kb/s download, buffering on videos and/or lower quality, and even to the point of people disconnecting on the network in the same house.


Symptomatic of router overload.  It's being asked to route more packets than it can handle so packets get sent to null.


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## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Symptomatic of router overload.  It's being asked to route more packets than it can handle so packets get sent to null.


So basically nothing I can do to fix?


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## jboydgolfer (Mar 6, 2018)

dorsetknob said:


> assign Bandwidth limits by MAC address (QOS)



I assign bandwith limits to all the consoles and  devices of the children in my home. 15 MB down 3 MB up. PC gets a bit more (be careful to set BW limits to Steam DL, as it will run away with bandwidth if allowed to run on the "no limt" setting) ,but I found that when they download it just saturates the routers bandwidth.  My Asus router also has some type of Xbox console optimization option ,which I don't enable ,but maybe it'll help if you ....  on the off chance that you do.  I also turn off all wireless 5 GHz and run solely on the 2.4 GHz channel. And I run only in wireless N mode.  These steps seem to have reduced the amount of strain on the network from consoles and PC (of which there are many).  I also create separate guest network just for the children.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 6, 2018)

Toothless said:


> So basically nothing I can do to fix?


Not without getting a commercial router.


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## NdMk2o1o (Mar 6, 2018)

Not sure how online gaming on a console can use that much bandwidth, are you sure little bastard Johnny isn't streaming or downloading as well as just gaming on his xbox? I've noticed when using torrent streaming services that unless I limit the upload then it will quickly take all the bandwidth it can thus making the user experience for everyone else trying to do anything online quite horrible, but honestly online game play shouldnt require anything more than 3mbps d/1mbps u regardless of the game and that's being very generous.


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## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

NdMk2o1o said:


> Not sure how online gaming on a console can use that much bandwidth, are you sure little bastard Johnny isn't streaming or downloading as well as just gaming on his xbox? I've noticed when using torrent streaming services that unless I limit the upload then it will quickly take all the bandwidth it can thus making the user experience for everyone else trying to do anything online quite horrible, but honestly online game play shouldnt require anything more than 3mbps d/1mbps u regardless of the game and that's being very generous.


I have no clue what the hell he's doing. Honestly as far as I care it makes everything bad if it's even turned on.


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## NdMk2o1o (Mar 6, 2018)

You can see what is connected by SSID is there anything else apart from the consoles when he is using the net, cell phone, laptop, tv box etc? I can't see how the xbox's would bog down your connection unless he's using another device for torrents/streaming/ pr0n whatever...



FordGT90Concept said:


> Symptomatic of router overload.  It's being asked to route more packets than it can handle so packets get sent to null.



Quite possibly this which would suggest some kind of p2p traffic where lots of sources are overloading the available resources of the router.


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## Jetster (Mar 6, 2018)

Why are you paying for someone else's internet?


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## Toothless (Mar 6, 2018)

NdMk2o1o said:


> You can see what is connected by SSID is there anything else apart from the consoles when he is using the net, cell phone, laptop, tv box etc? I can't see how the xbox's would bog down your connection unless he's using another device for torrents/streaming/ pr0n whatever...
> 
> 
> 
> Quite possibly this which would suggest some kind of p2p traffic where lots of sources are overloading the available resources of the router.


Whenever his stuff is on and unblocked, it bogs everything down. Block it or it logs off and everything thing works.



Jetster said:


> Why are you paying for someone else's internet?


I pay for the house I live in that is providing the service. Next door are good friends besides the kid to me. It's a weird situation but it works.

I get free room, I pay their bills, next door helps and are friends, they can use wifi. Their kid is causing issue.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 6, 2018)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Not without getting a commercial router.



I don't think a commercial router is necessary.  A better consumer grade router might be all that is needed.  It sounds to me like he has an old router that just can't handle the connections generated by the kid next door.


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## NdMk2o1o (Mar 6, 2018)

His stuff? you need to be looking at all the different device id's connected to the routers and not trusting him when he says he just games on his xbox, som,ething else is going on apart from online gaming

Or perhaps change the WiFi password and you connect any device they want connecting instead of giving them the password and free reign to use/abuse it as they see fit.


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## silkstone (Mar 6, 2018)

The old DVD Wrt router should have QOS settings. 
It should be straightforward to limit the connection of the consoles.


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## Jetster (Mar 7, 2018)

Toothless said:


> Whenever his stuff is on and unblocked, it bogs everything down. Block it or it logs off and everything thing works.
> 
> 
> I pay for the house I live in that is providing the service. Next door are good friends besides the kid to me. It's a weird situation but it works.
> ...


I get it. You dont want to mess with a good thing but you have this kid who is doing god know what to the service.  Get his MAC and ban it when your on. Then when you off let him go for it


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 7, 2018)

QOS, set his to lowest priority on router, check xb settings too.


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## Toothless (Mar 7, 2018)

When I was going through QOS I didn't have a "single out" option for it. I'm thinking he's gonna have to deal with it.


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## silkstone (Mar 7, 2018)

Toothless said:


> When I was going through QOS I didn't have a "single out" option for it. I'm thinking he's gonna have to deal with it.



Look for a later version of DD-WRT. You should have something that looks like this:







Put his mac address into the bottom and set it to the lowest priority

Edit - Just to clarify, this is on a very old Linksys E900 router. A pretty crappy router that I'm using as an AP. DD-WRT updates come out pretty often, so its a good idea to check for an update if you don't see the options


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 7, 2018)

newtekie1 said:


> I don't think a commercial router is necessary.  A better consumer grade router might be all that is needed.  It sounds to me like he has an old router that just can't handle the connections generated by the kid next door.


An EdgeRouter would be sufficient.  Looks like they added more options too.

I wouldn't recommend anything less than the ERLite-3 because 240,000-730,000 packets per second.


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## Toothless (Mar 7, 2018)

silkstone said:


> Look for a later version of DD-WRT. You should have something that looks like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Won't let me scroll down, I'll check it later on if I can do it work a different computer.


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## silkstone (Mar 7, 2018)

Toothless said:


> Won't let me scroll down, I'll check it later on if I can do it work a different computer.



You should also have some basic filtering options so you can block key words or just block torrent traffic. 

https://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=617323&sid=8a90f905007f76aecb16216bcfb77aa5
https://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=619982
https://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Peer-to-Peer_(P2P)_Throttling


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## Toothless (Mar 7, 2018)

silkstone said:


> You should also have some basic filtering options so you can block key words or just block torrent traffic.
> 
> https://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=617323&sid=8a90f905007f76aecb16216bcfb77aa5
> https://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=619982
> https://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Peer-to-Peer_(P2P)_Throttling


Easier to tell him to use the neighbor's wifi that is a lot lot closer to let him on if he can stop pissing everyone off.

They're talking about getting their own wifi next door. If that happens then all of me and my roommates can rejoice and enjoy the good network.

Thanks guys, have a cookie.


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## SamirD (Mar 7, 2018)

Simple, dirt cheap solution.  Goto a thrift store and buy and older wifi access point.  Remove the buddy SSID from your AP, plug in the thrift store one (which surely won't be as fast, if not limit it to 54g), set up buddy ssid.  Let the kid try to use all the bandwidth now, hehe.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 7, 2018)

SamirD said:


> Simple, dirt cheap solution.  Goto a thrift store and buy and older wifi access point.  Remove the buddy SSID from your AP, plug in the thrift store one (which surely won't be as fast, if not limit it to 54g), set up buddy ssid.  Let the kid try to use all the bandwidth now, hehe.



I'm guessing that just limiting the speed isn't going to fix the issue.  What the neighbor is doing is probably generating so many connections that it is overloading the modem.  P2P programs are notorious for this.

IMO, we need to know what hardware(and firmware if running non-stock like DD-WRT) each piece of the network is running.  It looks like there are 3 routers in play here.

Ideally, if the "Buddy" router that the neighbors are using is running DD-WRT, then there are two very easy things OP can do to help with the problem.  

The first is go to Administration -> Management and change the Maximum Ports from the default of 4096 down to the lowest possible which is 256.  That number of ports should still be plenty more than enough for a few people normally using the web, but it will limit the neighbor from creating so many connections that the main modem/router gets overloaded and the speeds drop out for everyone.

The next thing to do is go into Wireless -> Basic Settings and change the Wireless Network Mode from Auto to B-Only.  This will limit the neighbors to only using a maximum of 11Mbps.  Still plenty for normal web use, even for streaming youtube and netflix, but won't allow them to use all the bandwidth possible.  This actually shouldn't be an issue, because by default the QoS, even with it disabled some QoS is still happening, means the the bandwidth available should be evenly distributed.  So no one device can take it all, blocking others.  But, hey, you're giving them the internet for free, so they should be happy with 11Mbps.


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## SamirD (Mar 8, 2018)

newtekie1 said:


> I'm guessing that just limiting the speed isn't going to fix the issue.  What the neighbor is doing is probably generating so many connections that it is overloading the modem.  P2P programs are notorious for this.
> 
> IMO, we need to know what hardware(and firmware if running non-stock like DD-WRT) each piece of the network is running.  It looks like there are 3 routers in play here.
> 
> ...


Okay, so just set it to B from the getgo, haha.

But seriously, can an xbox generate that many connections that quickly?  If so, then putting another router with an ap will put that load on that router vs the main one and also solve the problem.  Most ap available at my local goodwill are also routers and usually <$3.

What I look at is try not to disturb the network that works by isolating the problem network to its own issues.  Ideally, doing this with vlans would determine if the router is being overloaded, but that's also an investment in essentially providing someone else free Internet.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 8, 2018)

SamirD said:


> Okay, so just set it to B from the getgo, haha.
> 
> But seriously, can an xbox generate that many connections that quickly?  If so, then putting another router with an ap will put that load on that router vs the main one and also solve the problem.  Most ap available at my local goodwill are also routers and usually <$3.
> 
> What I look at is try not to disturb the network that works by isolating the problem network to its own issues.  Ideally, doing this with vlans would determine if the router is being overloaded, but that's also an investment in essentially providing someone else free Internet.



That's the thing, I bet the neighbor isn't just using an Xbox, they are probably torrenting.

And from what I gather, the neighbors are already isolated on their own router.


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## SamirD (Mar 8, 2018)

newtekie1 said:


> That's the thing, I bet the neighbor isn't just using an Xbox, they are probably torrenting.
> 
> And from what I gather, the neighbors are already isolated on their own router.


Yeah, that would do it for sure.  And looking at the diagram again, they are using their own.  I can't believe it's able to pass enough traffic to overload the main one.  If that could be restricted/limited, that would probably do the trick.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 8, 2018)

11 mbps is assuming an ideal connection, which it isn't.  I'd try g first.  It'll probably auto negotiate 54 mbps to something like 5 mbps.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 8, 2018)

FordGT90Concept said:


> 11 mbps is assuming an ideal connection, which it isn't.  I'd try g first.  It'll probably auto negotiate to something like 5 mbps.



I'd do 11mbps, if it is too slow they can pay for their own internet.


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## Toothless (Mar 8, 2018)

So my roommate stuck the consoles on the router and if any issues come up then we'll just talk to next door and see what we can do. They can't afford their own networking. 

And before someone says "oh but they have xboxs and stuff" that was gifted to them. Really no way they could buy those.


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## taz420nj (Mar 8, 2018)

newtekie1 said:


> The next thing to do is go into Wireless -> Basic Settings and change the Wireless Network Mode from Auto to B-Only.  This will limit the neighbors to only using a maximum of 11Mbps.  Still plenty for normal web use, even for streaming youtube and netflix, but won't allow them to use all the bandwidth possible.  This actually shouldn't be an issue, because by default the QoS, even with it disabled some QoS is still happening, means the the bandwidth available should be evenly distributed.  So no one device can take it all, blocking others.  But, hey, you're giving them the internet for free, so they should be happy with 11Mbps.



Most newish devices don't even have B radios anymore, so they won't even see the connection.  

Anyway, @Toothless why don't you run Wireshark and see what exactly is trashing the connection?  It's your internet, they have no right to privacy on it.


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## Toothless (Mar 8, 2018)

taz420nj said:


> Most newish devices don't even have B radios anymore, so they won't even see the connection.
> 
> Anyway, @Toothless why don't you run Wireshark and see what exactly is trashing the connection?  It's your internet, they have no right to privacy on it.


Because I can just as easily see who is on it and when it goes to shit I can see if one of the Xboxs is on. I literally have my Chromebook next to me with the modem tab open and I can see who is doing what. I'd prefer not to do that since it shows EVERYONE but when net goes south, I can see why.


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## taz420nj (Mar 8, 2018)

@Toothless But thats not telling you why.  All its telling you is that the two xboxes are doing something to the network while the third one doesn't.  Hes abusing your network, and if it were me Id want to know WHAT he's doing.  And if you set it up as a MITM between Pickles and Buddy, it should only snag packets on that segment.


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 8, 2018)

Needs to multiplay like the Days of Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo, N64, Dreamcast, no onlinr play but have friends over lol or do adhoch with multiple consoles a console lanparty lol


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 8, 2018)

It could easily be trying to get updates or downloading a game.  Microsoft systems tend to eat all the bandwidth they can get (Windows Update does, Xbox One S does, etc.).  Since they don't give any options to throttle, limiting their bandwidth in a router is the only way.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Mar 8, 2018)

Run a Cat6e to them give them a $10 tenda wireless n 150 and voila... Tell them to hard wire the consoles.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 8, 2018)

taz420nj said:


> Most newish devices don't even have B radios anymore, so they won't even see the connection.
> 
> Anyway, @Toothless why don't you run Wireshark and see what exactly is trashing the connection?  It's your internet, they have no right to privacy on it.




If it has a 2.4GHz radio in it, I guarantee it will connect to a Wireless B network.  It would be stupid to remove support for B when it uses the same hardware as G and N.  There is no such thing as a Wirless B radio, it is just 2.4GHz Wireless G or N, both are backwards compatible with B.


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## Mussels (Mar 9, 2018)

You could get something running DD-WRT or a router like TP links that support bandwidth limits out of the box (other brands do too, i just have experience with those two) - cap his speeds down, or just set a max bandwidth for the router they're using.

If you cap their router/AP directly, it means when he heavily downloads only THEY get lagged out, and not you.

Odds are he's either downloading games, or outright torrenting.


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