Yeah, seems like a decent deal if you need one, but if you have a capable router and know how to configure it yourself to get similar results, it’s likely not needed.
I’m guessing it’s a QoS for Dummies device (or for people w/ cruddy routers).
This guy says that it is basically really good for VoIP, and doesn’t help gaming. Even hurts it. The reviews from Amazon, below, indicate a similar fact as any user who used it for gaming makes complaints and all positive reviewers praise it for the only feature they use it for: VoIP.
I work for Rutgers University’s residential networking, so I have a small idea of how dorm networks are run.
Odds are, you won’t be helped by it, though it will do its job dutifully. The bottleneck, though, is really not from your computer to the switch, but the aggregate traffic from the router outside. Essentially, you’re putting in a QoS prioritizer between A and B, but it’s really needed between B & C(switch => router) or C&D (router => world).
It can help; whoever called BS on it just because it inspects and reprioritizes traffic doesn’t know much about networking. However, the gain you will see is definitely varied. If you’re directly connected to the modem, this probably won’t do too much. If you’re connected behind a router with other people also connecting it, but most of you do nothing but game and use Skype or Ventrilo, you probably won’t see too much boost either. However, if you’re behind the router with say, four other people that browse the internet, use bittorrent and p2p, and various other stuff…and you find yourself occasionally lagging, this is probably worth the money to get.
Used this to find out what QoS is, went into my router settings, set them, and now I have what this device does without paying for it 
Thanks woot for teaching me what QoS is.
redundant features list is kind of redundant.
Why don’t they make ones optimized for browsing/download?
Don’t you just love corporations? I can almost hear the conversation now…
employee: Sir, we should start prioritizing RTP packets so people won’t have dropped calls.
Boss: Uhh wha? Err great idea! How do we do that…
employee: We can update firmware and add a check box!
Boss: any way we can squeeze anther, oh, $60 out of this?
emplyee: we could over complicate the system by bypassing the router with some pathetic stripped down box that is basically a router…
Boss: I’m going to be district manager in no time!
not all routers can be configured to do it. sometimes the limitation is in the device, and other times it’s in the person doing the configuring.
if you are physically on the college network (as in plugged in via cat5) then this will only help you if you have a number of different devices within your room that share the connection.
if you are physically off campus, and connect via tunneling or something similar, than this will help you balance your other non school connection traffic.
to reply to your other slightly more subtle comment, fear may deny faith, but so can rationality.
Unfortunately, it appears that some of these (don’t know the condition, grade, etc) have been sold for as little as about ~$21 on the the “Evil Bidding As Yardapes” site; otherwise known as eBay.
It works by operating at a much higher speed than your connection. It’s got a 100 megabit/sec router-side connection, while cable and DSL upload speeds tend to be around 1 or 2 megabit/sec. If you’re close to saturating your upload bandwidth, this will be able to accept and prioritize time-sensitive packets. Those BitTorrent connections (all for perfectly legal Linux ISOs, freeware games, and freely released indie music, of course) will get bumped to the back of the line if everything can’t go through as it comes in. This does indeed help with VoIP connections, games, and anything else time sensitive. I’ve got my router configured to do the same thing, but there’s value in a magic box that does it for you if you’re not the type to get hot and bothered over QoS settings in custom router firmware.
If people are having trouble with torrents that make your router seem to disconnect and need a reset, though, keep in mind that this won’t help with that. Assuming your ISP isn’t cracking down on your buccaneering ways, consumer routers can fill up their RAM with all the connections to hundreds or even thousands of your fellow pirat^H^H^HLinux ISO enthusiasts. That can be fixed with a custom firmware, if your router supports it and you’re willing to tinker with things that could, possibly, break your router (google “DD-WRT” and “tomato firmware” for two popular and stable options), or by upgrading to a fancier model.
Can I use this if my modem/router is a one piece, or would it be redundant, useless and redundant?
Your router already does that. every switch does that. Its called store-and-forward, the packet goes into a queue and then is sent out. It happens extremely fast. This does actually reduce lag for games by just having a simple filter for packet headers, immediately sending those out and then sending out the others.
Would this work for online gaming wirelessly for say a Wii? I would guess that it would work for any form of online gaming from what I can gather.
I owned one for less than a week. It was crap. I bought it so that I could have clear VOIP calls and download my stuff at the same time, didn’t work a bit.
All it does is enforce QoS on your outgoing and incomming traffic, nothing that DD-WRT can’t handle.
In my opinion its crap.
it sounds like all this ‘network optimizer’ does is basically run QoS on outbound packets from your router. Watch out, if you have a nice router a lot of them have QoS built-in and you won’t need this
I have one of those Vonage Wireless D-Link routers that reset themselves after power-cycle and I lose all customizable settings. I am thinking this will help.
If you have a really cheap, low-end router and use things like VOIP this can help you out - especially if you have a connection with a low upload speed (like DSL 3MB down/768K up for example, or cable where they really cap the upload speeds sometimes). I bought a Hawking HBB1 quite some time ago. It did what I needed. My connection was getting choked out because the kids were doing alot of P2P stuff.
I still have it hooked up, probably don’t need it anymore since I’ve since gotten a better router with integrated QoS functionality and faster internet access (FIOS). Plus, I have 100% of the bandwith to myself 95% of the time now since the kids are away at school and my wife hardly uses the internet and generally does so when I am not home.
Newegg has the OGV200 for $44.99 (hidden lower price in cart - it’s marked $59.99)
Here’s a few comparable products on Newegg:
Hawking HBB1 (the one I have) $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833164151&Tpk=Hbb1
D-Link DI-102 $64.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16876115001&Tpk=DI-102
The Hawking and D-Link units use the same exact chipset. I’d bet the Linksys does also, I just don’t feel like searching to confirm it.
I didn’t get the Jacko reference to the Australian rugby player/singer in the description.
So I researched, and figured it out…
Enjoy!
Check your router’s setup software - you may have the very same feature in your router. If you have a setting called Quality of Service or “QoS”, you can tell it what to prioritize. Just bear in mind that both the QoS settings and this Woot can only control outgoing information. You’re at the mercy of the Internet for anything coming back.
If you’re a big P2P software aficionado, this (or the QoS business on your router) will be helpful if you’re saturating the upload side of your connection. If your problem is on the incoming side of things, this won’t help a bit.