[deathhand]

How many words does it take to say QoS(quality of service)?

Too many apparently.

This problem has been solved but much like our bigger and faster computers efficency takes a back seat for MORE. Just throw MORE at it and the problem is solved. It's a failure of tech, capitalism, and the environment.

[rubiquity]

This is a very well written article that drives home the difference between smooth application responsiveness and numbers like bandwidth that are useless by themselves. I've shared this article with non-IT people who read it and had a much better understanding of how their home internet performance varies under contention.

It's also very real that there's a shortage of equipment for consumers that support any QoS let alone fq_codel or CAKE at a reasonable bandwidth rate, unless you're a power user dabbling in "prosumer" devices or racking your own switches. You could probably use a Raspberry Pi to do this for a 1Gbps connection but very few people have the know-how to do such things.

[loup-vaillant]

ISP issued home routers have a remote update procedure, enabled by default. At least that's how it works out in France.

Starting from there (to be checked), shortage of equipment is not a thing: most routers are programmable computers, all we need to do is update the software to something that doesn't suck. And best of all, the customer doesn't even have to know. They just wake up one morning, and as if by magic, their Zoom/Meets/Hangouts calls suddenly work better.

Now if most home routers are not updated by the ISP… my condolences to your country I guess.

Edit: OK, real question: how does home routing actually work in the US? Who is responsible for what equipment, and for the ISP issued equipment, are there any relevant remote update capabilities, and if so are ISPs actually competent at doing updates?

[TheNewsIsHere]

Here in the US the CPE provided by ISPs is almost universally barely functional and low quality. For fiber connections the actual interconnect hardware might be better quality. The box I have has some nice Alcatel-Lucent hardware.

The software running on these things is usually garbage.

Typically people will get routers from their ISP, and their ISP often charges a monthly fee. The ISP is then responsible for troubleshooting and updates. Except for network management related updates, my experience has been that they don’t often (or sometimes ever) issue updates. ISPs here expect most people will never directly interface with the router’s management functionality so it’s often very basic and clunky.

In my home we put any CPE we get into pass through mode and connect our own rack of professional network gear.