How in the Tech

Get Your QoS Going with the Tomato Firmware

By Adam Myers ⋅ July 19, 2008 ⋅ Tags: Networking, System Administration

The Tomato firmware is a feature rich replacement firmware for the extremely popular Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS and other Broadcom-based routers. If you weren’t aware, the WRT54GL runs a highly tuned and specialized version of Linux. Because of this, it is a popular device for hackers who enjoy adding new features or coercing a bit more performance out of it.

Why would you want to replace the Linksys firmware, which is probably working just fine for you, with a different 3rd party version? Here are a few of the features the Tomato firmware provides:

• Easier GUI web interface
• Bandwidth usage monitor
• In depth Internet access restrictions
• Advance wireless features like WDS
• And the purpose of this how to, a much more advanced QoS system

Quality of Service, or QoS, allows different levels of priorities for traffic flowing in and out of your router. Think of it as a way to guarantee a certain level of performance for particular applications or services. Gamers, VOIPers, or heavy BitTorent users would all be obvious beneficiaries to QoS and Tomato.

I won’t detail how to actually install the firmware, that information is readily available on the Tomato website. However, I’d like to show you one way to configure QoS – which should be enough to get you up and running with a good deal of understanding on how to further tweak QoS for your particular environment.

With the Tomato firmware installed and working -

1. Point your web browser to the router’s IP address – typically at http://192.168.1.1
2. On the left hand navigation menu, select QoS which opens to the Basic Settings. Tick the checkbox to Enable QoS.



3. Set the Max Bandwidth under the Outbound Rate / Limit heading. This number represents the maximum upload speed provided by your ISP. If you are unsure there are numerous speed tests that can give you a rough idea. Officially, my max is 1 Mb/s but I’ve played it safe by knocking 10% off of that, resulting in 900 Kb/s.



4. Repeat the process of defining Max Bandwidth for the Inbound Limit. In actuality, this isn’t truly necessary because your router has already become saturated with incoming traffic before it is able to apply any QoS. Because of that, I do not use it.
5. That’s it for the Basic Settings, click Save at the bottom of the page.
6. Now we must define the Classification rules for QoS, again off the left hand menu. It’s important to understand that the rules are applied from the top down, QoS is applied on the first classification that matches the traffic pattern. Therefore, your Highest should be at the top of the list.



7. You can see in my setup, I’ve defined DNS and Vonage as Highest. Using Layer 7 and IPP2P I’ve set the appropriate priority for Xbox Live and BitTorrent traffic. Once you’ve finished your classifications, click Save.

QoS is an indepth technology and I’ve only scratched the surface here. As such, this brief guide is only suitable to get you up and running. You may find yourself having to deviate from your initial settings in order to get the desired performance.