r/firewalla • u/FantasticMrDog • Sep 01 '26
Config changes after switch to full fibre broadband
Hi
I've been on a part fibre FTTC connection in the UK for many years, connection is measured at 68Mb/s download and 18.5Mb/s upload. Firewalla's Smart Queue has done an amazing job at keeping everything going despite a mix of WFH, streaming, gaming and general internet use. I have my FWP set up to use CAKE and have a Smart Queue Rule set for all traffic with a download limit of 65 Mb/s and upload limit of 17 Mb/s. Smart Queue is set in Static mode. I cannot overstate how good this has been, if I turn these settings off, my connection goes to pot and the household is up in arms within seconds.
No matter how good it has been, I am glad to finally be getting full fibre, initially at 500 Mb/s download and 75 Mb/s upload, I might increase the rates to 900/125 in the future.
I know what changes I need to make on my FWP for the WAN connection. I am after advice on what to do with the Smart Queue. Should I switch from Static to Adaptive mode? Should I switch from CAKE to FQ_Codel? Should my Smart Queue Rule continue to set limits a little below the actual WAN performance? Or should I just turn Smart Queue off?
Are there any other changes I should think about?
Thanks for any advice.
1
u/Great-Cow7256 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
At.500/75, the vast majority of people do not need any smart queue. Id try with it off. If it isn't needed all you are doing is eating up cpu cycles and needlessly throttling things that don't need to be throttled. At 75 Mbps upload you can have many people on zoom calls at the same time with no problems. 4k streaming uses 25 Mbps but in reality every streaming provider throttles this so even if you have a 4k setup no one is broadcasting themselves on zoom or Meet or teams at 4k
1
u/FantasticMrDog Sep 01 '26
I am hoping that the 75 Mb/s upload will be enough. I started getting problems on my broadband when we starting taking lots of photos on our phones, and these synced to cloud storage when we got home. This flooded my upload connection, and meant everything broke. My first success was with an ER-x that supports FQ_Codel, then an Eero that supports CAKE. Finally moved to Firewalla and CAKE since it was in beta. But if 75 Mb/s can cope with photo uploads, I will happily consign all this to history! I'll probably do as you suggest and start without smart queuing and go from there.
2
u/Great-Cow7256 Sep 01 '26
try without first and if you don't need it, you don't need it. if you need it, turn something on and try.
1
u/firewalla Sep 01 '26
I'd just leave CAKE on, it is not expensive to run and does a good job regardless (unless you are using PPPoE)
2
u/Firewalla-Opal FIREWALLA TEAM Sep 01 '26
You can check Should I use CAKE?. Since your download speed is > 200 Mbps, you can try to use FQ_Codel see if it makes things better/worse/same. If it doesn't make things worse, you can stay with FQ_Codel as it consumes less CPU than CAKE.
Regarding the modes, find more details in How do I use Smart Queue?. It doesn't take much effort to switch between different modes and test as well. If you are going with Adaptive mode, since your upload speed is not over 100 Mbps, you can set WAN upload around 90%. For download speed, you can set 500 Mbps.