Quality of Service

Advanced wireless routers offer QoS, which is short for “Quality of Service.” Quality of Service controls allows the user to control their network’s bandwidth to prioritize some forms of data over others.

Priority is determined based on usage. For instance, if your son is streaming video or using a VOIP (Voice Over IP) phone and your wife is just reading a newspaper, your son is prioritized since he needs more data available to him so he can stream his video successfully.

This feature is especially if you have a monthly data cap you can’t exceed; you can set your router’s limits lower than their Internet Service Provider allows, restricting usage as needed.

Quality of Service simply makes use of what’s already there. Rather than giving everyone in your house the same bandwidth regardless of what they are doing online, it gives more of the bandwidth already available to those using the internet for more intensive things like gaming, streaming video or using an Internet-based phone service to make a call.

For those of you who aren’t technologically inclined, your router’s customer support will be able to help you with a setup. Be sure to know offhand what your data rate is so the Quality of Service can be adjusted accordingly.