The Quality of Service (QoS) feature on Nighthawk Pro Gaming Routers lets you allocate your bandwidth to specific devices on your network. You can also use the Traffic Prioritization feature to prioritize traffic for specific services or a specific device. Nighthawk Pro Gaming routers with DumaOS 3.0 add the ability to configure QoS for specific applications in addition to specific devices, along with the Congestion Control feature, which prevents network congestion. For more information, see How does the Quality of Service feature work on my Nighthawk Pro Gaming router?
By default, your router automatically prioritizes bandwidth-heavy traffic for activities like online gaming. If you want to manually set up QoS for a specific device or application, you can do so from your router’s web interface.
To set up the Quality of Service feature for your Nighthawk Pro Gaming router:
- Launch a web browser from a computer that is connected to your router’s network.
- Visit www.routerlogin.net.
- Enter your router user name and password.
The user name is admin. The password is the one that you specified the first time that you logged in. The user name and password are case-sensitive.
The Dashboard displays. - Select QoS.
The QoS page displays. The Bandwidth Allocation pane displays a graph that shows the devices or types of applications on the router network. By default, each device or application type is allocated an equal share of your router’s bandwidth, expressed by a number in a white circle that is associated with a device.
Note: DumaOS 2.0 routers only support Device mode. If you have a DumaOS 3.0 router, you can also use Application mode, which is selected by default. To switch to Device mode on DumaOS 3.0, click the menu icon in the Bandwidth Allocation pane and select Devices. - To allocate download bandwidth, do the following in the Bandwidth Allocation pane:
- Above the graph, make sure that the Download (default) radio button is selected.
The Bandwidth Allocation – Download pane displays. - To allocate bandwidth to a device, move the device’s white circle to a bandwidth amount.
As you move the white circle, the download percentages in the white circles of the other devices change.
Important: If you allocate 100 percent of bandwidth to a device or application type, you disable other devices or application types. If you allocate 0 percent, you disable that device or application type entirely. - Click the UPDATE DISTRIBUTION button.
The allocated download bandwidth takes effect.
- Above the graph, make sure that the Download (default) radio button is selected.
- To allocate upload bandwidth, select the Upload radio button above the graph and repeat steps b–c.
- (Optional) To prioritize traffic, do the following:
- In the Traffic Prioritization section, click ADD DEVICE.
- Select a device and click DONE.
Note: If the device list does not display, select the Show All Devices check box.
Your settings are saved.
(DumaOS 3.0 routers only) To set up the Congestion Control feature:
- From the QoS page, click the menu icon in the Congestion Control pane.
The Options pane displays. - In the Download Bandwidth and Upload Bandwidth fields, enter your Internet download bandwidth speed in Mbps and Internet upload bandwidth speed in Mbps.
Note: If you used the automatic Internet setup when you first installed your router, the bandwidth speeds are automatically entered. If you did not use automatic Internet setup, or you would like to redefine the bandwidth speeds, run a connection benchmark test in the router web interface to obtain the values. - Set the default congestion control options:
- Goodput: Selected by default. Goodput aligns upload and download bandwidth values to your benchmark test results. We recommend that you leave Goodput enabled.
- Disable QoS: Cleared by default. This option disables all QoS features, including Congestion Control. We recommend that you do not select Disable QoS unless you are troubleshooting a network problem.
- Click X to close the Options pane.
- Select how you want to apply Congestion Control:
- Always: Congestion Control is always active. With this setting, you can play games without any applications or devices causing traffic to lag, but your total bandwidth is reduced.
- Auto-Enable: Congestion Control is only activated if games are being played (all console games and most computer games are automatically detected). Your total bandwidth is reduced only if games are detected.
- Never: Congestion Control is disabled. With this setting, your full bandwidth is available, but if all your bandwidth is being used, your games are subject to a queue, which might cause traffic to lag. This option is selected by default.
- In the Congestion Control pane, move the buttons on the Download and Upload sliders to set percentage values.
For gaming, we recommend that you set each slider to 70 percent.
Your settings are saved.
For more information about Nighthawk Pro Gaming and DumaOS features:
- NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming home page
- What are the features of DumaOS on Nighthawk Pro Gaming routers?