Quality of Service (QoS) is a mechanism used to reserve bandwidth giving selected packets priority in a network, therefore ensuring a minimum level of performance for selected data flows. QoS can be very complex and difficult to implement in large networks. For the average consumer home network though, it’s rather simple. It’s simple because you can only realistically control outgoing QoS, or your side of the router. You can exert your will over packets leaving your network, but it’s up to your ISP as to how packets arrive. That begs the question. Do you really even need QoS? That depends.

Initially (as of 9/5/2009) this worked with the ooma Telo. Apparently, there’s been a firmware change since this article was written causing this to no longer work. Since my Telo is back in it’s box (I much prefer the hub) I can’t verify.

I’m a big fan of the ooma VOIP device. It’s a feature packed phone system that allows you to ditch your land line, and it’s 100% free after the initial outlay. That means no more phone bills. For $99 a year you can get their premier service which has even more features.

The install guide that comes with ooma instructs you to place the Hub (when I say Hub, I mean the ooma Hub) between your modem and router (or computer if you don’t have a router). This configuration is perfect for 90% of installs, and allows the quality of service (QoS) built into the Hub to reserve the bandwidth needed to ensure the great call quality ooma is known for. For some situations though, this isn’t ideal.