back to article Wi-Fi routers able to manage bandwidth by app are offered

The latest wi-fi routers know which applications are asking for wireless connectivity and can prioritise those that matter while still letting data trickle to those which don't. The technique, which maker Aruba calls "AppRF", looks at the packets to work out what each wi-fi client is doing, allowing the enterprise to decide …

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  1. ukgnome
    Thumb Down

    Don't be silly

    no one plays COD over WiFi

    1. Oninoshiko

      Re: Don't be silly

      mostly because of Nachos...

      http://xkcd.com/654/

    2. LarsG
      Meh

      The only one that

      The only one that prioritises my data and bandwidth is my service provider.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't be silly

      Maybe not your WiFi but both my boys play against each other over my WiFi.

  2. LAGMonkey
    Thumb Up

    Layer 7?

    how is this different from a linux box running a Layer 7 QoS that i built many moons ago? apart from the marketing speak and plastic casing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Layer 7?

      This one is available to other people

      1. AndrueC Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: Layer 7?

        ..and you don't need to be a geek to set it up. You can be a normal computer user.

        Well, probably. Assuming the router UI isn't totally messed up.

    2. Paul Shirley

      D-Link GameFuel

      How is it different from the 'GameFuel' traffic shaping on my ancient DGL-4300 router (launched 2006 I believe)?

  3. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    Fingerprinting coming of age

    I can remember when Fyodor introduced this in nmap to identify operating systems and a couple of more entertaining people busied themselves with hacking network stacks to mess it up.

    It'll be interesting to see how long this will last before someone cooks up a method to bypass it, and make that "rock star" Gary Glitter..

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: Fingerprinting coming of age

      You beat me to it. I was trying to come up with the perfect "Rock Star" example to use and it is Gary 'Gotta-find-another-country' Glitter.

      The coat: its a mac.

  4. h3

    Aruba is overpriced.

    Probably the same sort of quality as Ubiquiti but priced about 5 times higher. (Better than Mikrotik though).

    The market it as being (cheaper) enterprise grade but it is not really.

    1. JeevesMkII

      Re: Aruba is overpriced.

      I refuse to believe any of those are names of real companies.

  5. Caltharian

    hasnt netgear been offering this type of QOS for donkeys years on some of its routers?

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      That's port based. What this lot is talking about is detecting the application behind the traffic, so changing port number to cheat on such a mechanism is not going to work.

  6. illiad

    why get a new wifi router???

    there have been many routers/ switches ( whats in a name?? they always have the wrong one, just note the model number.... :roll: ) that will do..

    QOS ( setting priority of each port)

    Rate limit (bandwidth limit set in Mb - on *individual* port ! :) :) )

    this does it all.. Make sure it has the ** E ** in the name...

    http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/10005359/art/netgear/gs105e-prosafe-plus-switc.html

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      this is wireless not wired qos

      "bandwidth setting per port" isn't the same thing. this is wireless qos.

      Aruba has the best enterprise-class wifi. Juniper's kit is ok but it's a bit limited, as is Cisco's. Aruba is the only one with a per-session firewall and having worked with all three, Aruba is the one I recommend first to clients.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: this is wireless not wired qos

        > "bandwidth setting per port" isn't the same thing. this is wireless qos.

        Um, port in here is not talking about the physical port into which one connects a network cable. Instead, it is talking of a network port, the likes of which are defined in /etc/services . Each service generally has a defined range of ports it uses (httpd = 80, https = 443, etc).

  7. Gordan
    Thumb Down

    News??

    How is this anything new? We've had QoS traffic shaping capabilities in Linux for well over a decade, and distributions of Linux such as OpenWRT specifically targetting WiFi and ADSL routers. These initially targetted the immensely popular Linksys WRT54G routers, originally released in 2002, and a decade later custom upgraded models (more RAM, bigger flash) are still available "new" on ebay by professional modifiers. I've certainly been applying traffic prioritisation and shaping on my Linux routers for over a decade, so why is this "new" product in any way newsworthy?

    1. asdf
      Trollface

      Re: News??

      OpenWRT does pfifo_fast (worthless, TOS byte is so 1997) QOS by default on wireless. CeroWRT now by default does fq_codel on wireless but alas doesn't seem to have UPNP working. Oh well not that hard with scripts to set fq_codel on all interfaces in OpenWRT.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nice free advert but nothing new.

    Sonicwalls have had traffic rules for a long time - either throttling, blocking or changing the priority of individual applications or categories and can base i ton time of day, device or user.

  9. crediblywitless

    Once the bosses discover it, they'll all want their traffic prioritised over everyone else's. Instant statuf inflation, like the wastes of space that put "Priority: Urgent" on every last email message.

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