I often hear people saying they have bad responsiveness / high latency on their high-speed internet connection. Even though they have a contract for 500 mbps+ service from their ISP, a speedtest shows high ping times when the link is loaded.

The answer is well-known – install a router with SQM that knows how to control latency (“bufferbloat”). But… they counter, a router to handle my high-speed network is expensive! And that blows out my budget!

I posted a contrarian viewpoint in a post on the OpenWrt forum:

Save money and purchase a 250mbps to 350mbps connection and use good SQM (for example, the IQrouter v3, or any reasonable performance OpenWrt compatible router.)

Unless you’re unusual, and the transfer speeds of your bulk up/downloads are unacceptable, it’s likely that a lower speed to your ISP with a modestly-priced router that controls latency will make you just as happy.

Not only will you save money with a less-expensive router, you save every month with a lower ISP bill.

Many people are surprised to hear that their web browsing doesn’t have to be crowded out by intrusive ads. There is an entire industry of “ad blockers” and “content blockers” that claim to fix this.

uBlock Origin is the one I use. Its author, “gorhill” states that it’s Free. Open-source. For users by users. No donations sought.

Accept no substitutes! The other products carry names that combine the words “ad”, “block”, “guard”, “plus” and a whole host of synonyms. And I wouldn’t trust any of them – they all come with with strings (or fees) that make them less than perfect.

For Chrome or Firefox:

• To install uBlock Origin, Google “ublock origin” (use that exact phrase) and then click the link for “ublockorigin.com“
• Follow the instructions

For Safari:

• uBlock Origin is no longer available for Safari
• Use AdGuard for Safari. It’s also free, and seems to follow the same ethos as uBlock Origin. (Tested with current Safari on 12Feb2023).
• For a state of uBlock Origin for Safari, and the recommendations that lead me to AdGuard for Safari, see https://github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari/issues/158

For Other Browsers:

• Go to the ublockorigin.com site and follow their instructions.