NetEqualizer News Blog

Myth #1:  A QoS device will somehow make your traffic go faster across the Internet.

The Internet does not care about your local QoS device.  In fact, QoS means nothing to the Internet.  The only way your traffic can get special treatment across the Internet would be for you to buy a private dedicated link – which is really not practical for general Internet usage, as it would only be a point-to-point link.

Myth #2:  QoS will enhance the speed of your internal network.

The speed of your local internal links are a fixed rate, they always run at maximum speed.  The only way applying QoS can make something “appear” to go faster is by restricting some traffic in favor of other traffic.  I constantly get asked by our customers  if we can make important traffic get through faster, and my follow on questions are always the same.

1. Do you have a congestion problem now?
   If not, than there is no need for any form of QoS, because your data already moving as fast as possible.
2. If you do have congestion, what traffic do you want me to degrade so that other traffic can run without congestion?

Myth #3:  There is nothing you can do to give priority to incoming traffic on your Internet.  

Wrong! Okay, so this sounds like it may be a contradiction to Myth #1, but there is a difference in how you ask this question.   Yes, it is true that the Internet does not care about your QoS desires and will never give preferential treatment to your traffic.  But, the sending service DOES care about whether the data being transmitting is being sent at the appropriate speed for the link you get, and you can take advantage of this.

All senders of data into your network are constantly monitoring the speed at which that traffic is getting to you.  Now, if you recall the very definition of QoS is restricting one type of traffic over another.  Let’s say for example that you have a very congested Internet link with many incoming downloads.  Let’s say one download is a iOS update, and the other one is your favorite streaming Netflix movie.  By delaying the iOS update packets at the edge of your network, the sender will sense this delay, and back off on the download. The result is that there is more bandwidth left over for your favorite Netflix , and hence you have attained a higher quality of service for your Netflix over the iOS download.  How this delay is implemented is another story.

If you are interested in learning more, please feel free to contact us.