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[kstuart]

Our family sometimes watch live webcasts on Youtube or other sites, using Firefox on a Home Theater PC running Windows connected to the living room HD TV.

I find that family members can generally use their laptops on our LAN at the same time, however I sometimes find a few web sites will cause the webcast to pause while the page displays (with the webcast resuming when that page is finished displaying).

So, I am wondering if any of you know of a good way to prioritize Internet bandwidth for the Home Theater PC over all other devices on the LAN ?   I can do this permanently, because that is the only time that any Internet bandwidth is used by that PC (so it is always correct for it to have priority).

Thanks !

[Hilton]

You can try setting up Quality of Service (QoS) on your router and giving the mac address for your HTPC the highest priority and setting everything else on your network to a lower level of priority. (via Mac Addresses)
Unfortunately I cant give you specific information as every persons network is different, and every network vendors QoS settings are different.

You can get more granular than that down to an application level on some routers, but streaming services like Netflix and Youtube rely on port 80 which is also your standard WWW port which is why you basically have to do it at a device level (mac address) in most cases.

[Hilton]

For Example:

Here are the instructions for my Netgear router.

QoS Settings Help

QoS is an advanced feature that you can use to prioritize some Internet applications and online gaming, and to minimize the impact when the bandwidth is busy.



Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) Settings
WMM (Wireless Multimedia) is a subset of the 802.11e standard. WMM allows wireless traffic to have a range of priorities, depending on the kind of data. Time-dependent information, like video or audio, has a higher priority than normal traffic. For WMM to function correctly, wireless clients must also support WMM.



Turn Internet Access QoS On
If this feature is enabled, the QoS function prioritizes Internet traffic. For applications, online gaming, an Ethernet LAN port, or a specified MAC address that already exists in the drop-down list, you can modify the priority level by clicking the Edit button. You can click the Delete button to erase the priority rule. You can also define the priority policy for each online game, application, LAN port, or the computer's MAC address by clicking the Add Priority Rule button.

To save or cancel changes:

Click Apply to have your changes take effect.

Click Cancel to return to the previous settings.


For Applications or Online Gaming

To set up the priority for an application or online gaming:
1. Select Applications or Online Gaming from the Priority Category lists.
2. Select the Internet application or game you want to use from one of the relevant lists.
3. Select the priority level: Highest, High, Normal, or Low.
4. You can also type the name in the QoS Policy for field for this rule.
5. Click Apply .
For an Ethernet LAN port

To set up the priority for computers connected to a LAN port:
1. Select the number of the LAN port for which you want to specify the priority level.
2. Select the priority level: Highest, High, , or Low.
3. You can also type the name in the QoS Policy for field for this rule.
4. Click Apply.
For a MAC address

To set up the priority for a specified computer through its MAC address:
1. Select the MAC address from the Priority Category list.
2. Click the Refresh button to update the list of those computers already connected to routers.
3. Select the entry's radio button in the table.
4. Modify the information in the MAC Address and Device Name fields.
5. Select the priority level: Highest, High, Normal, or Low.
6. You can also type the name in the QoS Policy for field for this rule.
7. Click the Edit button.
8. Click Apply.
To add the priority for a specified computer through its MAC address:
1. Select MAC Address from the Priority Category list.
2. Enter the MAC address of the computer for which you want to define the priority.
3. You can also enter a name in the Device Name field.
4. Select the priority level: Highest, High, Normal, or Low.
5. You can also type the name in the QoS Policy for field for this rule.
6. Click the Add button.
7. Click Apply.
To delete a service entry:
1. Select the entry's radio button in the table.
2. Click the Delete button.
3. Click the Apply button.

[kstuart]

My Router does that in terms of bandwidth quantity per IP address or MAC address, not priority (unfortunately).

Any other way to do this ?

[RoderickGI]

You could try just assigning 100% of your broadband capacity to the HTPC. It may only use that capacity when it needs it, and leave the rest to other users.

Of course, it may also allocate the capacity permanently and leave nothing for other users. Try it and see.

Then again, it could be the webcast site that is causing the pauses, as they are just as often the bottleneck. Also, if QoS is used and maintained for the whole data chain, the web site can use the QoS information to provide a better service. It all depends on the capabilities of all devices in the data chain.