[Bloat] Best approach for debloating Airbnb host?

[Jonathan Morton]

> On 17 Oct, 2023, at 4:10 pm, Sebastian Moeller via Bloat <bloat at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
> 
> 	[SM] This is why maybe a demo unit would be helpful, but then we would need something with commercial grade support to point them at? Maybe evenroute's IQrouter (I like their approach, but I never tested it).

For IETF Montreal and Singapore, I carried along my IQrouter and temporarily inserted it into the network of the AirBnBs we used - for which the host wasn't directly present.  I only had to inform it that there was a new network to calibrate itself to, and it ran the necessary capacity tests automatically.  It's also possible to inform it directly about the line's rated capacity, and it will just run tests to verify that the capacity is actually available.

Mine is the v2 hardware, which is no longer the one sold, but the v3 is just a newer model from the same underlying vendor.  There seems to be enough commonality for a similar feature set and UI to be available in both versions.  I'm sure that simplifies support logistics.  They would easily be able to cope with an 80/20 line.

> 2. What would I recommend? Obviously, inserting something with cake into the mix would help a lot. Even if they were willing to let me examine their entire network (Comcast router, Apple Airport in our Airbnb unit, other router?) I have no idea what kind of tar baby I would be touching. I don't want to become their network admin for the rest of time.

For a one-stop "plug it in and go" solution, the IQrouter is hard to beat.  Evenroute also do a reasonably good job of explaining the technical background on the necessary level for end users, to help them understand what needs to be plugged into what and why, and more importantly where things should NOT be plugged in any more.

Of course, while the IQrouter has a decent WiFi AP of its own, installing it wouldn't directly improve the WiFi characteristics of the Apple Airport - it's quite understandable to have a separate AP for guests, in particular so they don't have to "shout through a wall".  However, if the airwaves are not overly congested (we found that the 2.4GHz band was a mess in Montreal, but 5GHz was fine), that probably doesn't matter, as the WiFi link may not be the bottleneck.  If necessary, it could be substituted with a debloated AP - if there's one we can recommend with the "new wifi stack", so much the better.

 - Jonathan Morton