Buffebloat is a lesser-known but still critical networking issue that can cause numerous problems. It's caused by excessive buffering in network devices like routers and modems, creating latency and making your internet feel sluggish even if you should have high speeds. If you've ever experienced lag while gaming, on a video call, or in other scenarios, and you're not sure why that might be the case, then bufferbloat might be the reason why.
If you want to test for bufferbloat, there are plenty of online tools like Waveform's that can test it specifically for you.
4 It impacts latency, not just bandwidth
That's bad for gaming
When you're doing latency-sensitive tasks like gaming or calls, you might experience lag that doesn't really make sense in the context of your internet connection. When your network buffers fill up, they delay packet delivery, creating potentially frustrating latency spikes. This means your fast internet might not feel fast when it matters most.
If you experience latency problems during video calls or gaming and you're not sure what the reason why is, bufferbloat might be the reason why.
3 It's invisible to speed tests
You won't see it without special tools
If you're trying to find the cause and online speed tests like SpeedTest, Fast, or Google's tester all show fast speeds, you might be confused about the cause. That's because bufferbloat is invisible to these tools, as all they do is measure your speeds, nothing more or nothing less. Even the ones that include a ping test typically do that before they start downloading and uploading.
That's why specific tools are required to measure it, and why Waveform's bufferbloat test is worth checking to see if that's the problem.
2 it affects all devices on the network
It's not just one device experiencing it
If you have one device that's saturating your network, then that saturation will affect all connected devices. One person downloading or uploading can cause everyone else problems, and you mightn't even realize it because it's not your device that's doing it.
Most routers will allow you to see how much data other devices are using on the network, so that might be your first port of call to discover whether other devices are downloading or uploading a lot whenever you experience problems.
1 Bufferbloat can be really easy to fix
Or at least make better
If you have bufferbloat problems, the fix might not be as difficult as you think it might be. While your router might be the problem and you can get a new one, routers with services like QoS that let you prioritize certain types of traffic will go a long way to helping you fix the problem when it comes to things like gaming or calls. Plus, if you can install OpenWrt on another router (or even on the same router) you can enable SQM.
SQM does a couple of things. Firstly, it limits the size of buffers in routers and network devices. Instead of allowing large queues of packets to build up, SQM keeps the queues small so that packets are sent and received quickly, reducing latency. It also tries to prioritize latency-sensitive traffic, adapting to real-time conditions. It may not solve all of your problems, but it will make things significantly better without you needing to do much work.