Limit Bandwidth Usage

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BudTheStud

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Is there some way that I can limit the bandwidth going to each PC in my house because I got two younger brothers that always uses all the cap. Any ideas on how to limit their usage?
 
Generally you would use a firewall, or more advanced router which can limit bandwidth on a per-port basis for this. If you have a spare PC, you could use Smoothwall / Redwall / Monowall / etc, otherwise you could look at using a microtik / Linksys + ddwrt gateway or any other ADSL router with bandwidth management. You could even get a 8port layer switch that could do bandwidth management 2nd hand on the net :)
 
SoftDux-Rudi said:
Generally you would use a firewall, or more advanced router which can limit bandwidth on a per-port basis for this. If you have a spare PC, you could use Smoothwall / Redwall / Monowall / etc, otherwise you could look at using a microtik / Linksys + ddwrt gateway or any other ADSL router with bandwidth management. You could even get a 8port layer switch that could do bandwidth management 2nd hand on the net :)
Click to expand...

Well, its basicly 3 computers on 1 router.
 
SoftDux-Rudi said:
Generally you would use a firewall, or more advanced router which can limit bandwidth on a per-port basis for this. If you have a spare PC, you could use Smoothwall / Redwall / Monowall / etc, otherwise you could look at using a microtik / Linksys + ddwrt gateway or any other ADSL router with bandwidth management. You could even get a 8port layer switch that could do bandwidth management 2nd hand on the net :)
Click to expand...

Like I said it's my computer, my brothers' pc and my dad's pc on a Telscum router. So are there even ways of managing their usage from my pc? so evil :)
 
Actually a very interesting question. IMHO if all of you are plugged into the adsl router (IE a 4 port adsl router) I would say no. If you are plugged into the router and they are plugged into your machine, then as suggested will work. As in, you are plugged into the adsl router, you have a second nic card to another router/switch for them to plug into. Their traffic has to go through your machine.
What say you experts?
 
To do proper bandwidth control you need something that
  • Sees all the traffic
  • Can count all the traffic in accounting periods (e.g. monthly)
  • Can limit based on these counters
  • Can keep them across power outages

Most machines these days connect to switches, and your ports on your router are switch ports, so they see none of the traffic that are not actually directed at them. Therefore, if you have PC's connected to a router, your PC will not know of the traffic being generated. However, the router has to pass all the data to the DSL link, so it HAS to be able to see all the traffic on the link.

You will either need to get a router that can do this (e.g. Microtik), or you will need to
  • Implement a software solution
  • Make the machine handling the software solution become the router, by establishing the PPPoE link
  • Put your router in bridged mode

As for software solutions, there are a few. The easiest is a Linux-based firewall, which you can run in a virtual machine on another machine.

All mentioned by SoftDux-Rudi earlier, but I thought I'd expand a little on the why. In short, this is something that can only be done properly on the gateway device. The gateway device is also the only one capable of actually throttling the connection. You may be able to install client software on another PC to manage the rulesets and such, but the capabilities needs to be in the gateway device itself. Consumer-grade routers don't lean themselves to this sort of use.
 
And I'll strongly suggest web-filtering software such as URL Filter or Dansguardian, to filter out porn and other unsavoury sites.
 
Any names of a few software that I can install on their PC to limit the usage maby?
 
BudTheStud said:
Is there some way that I can limit the bandwidth going to each PC in my house because I got two younger brothers that always uses all the cap. Any ideas on how to limit their usage?
Click to expand...

A stern speaking to .. followed by the threat of a baseball bat should the talk not prove effective.
 
SoftDux-Rudi said:
But what stops me from booting up my PC with a Live CD, crack the admin password and remove this software and then bypass your security?
Click to expand...

Nothing. That's where the baseball bat mentioned earlier in the thread comes in. if the PC is tampered with, you apply until the tampering has ceased.

If someone wants to bypass the limiting, and have the technical expertise to do so, then you have no choice but to install a edge limiting device.
 
so netlimiter wil only monitor the cap usage ? eny other software that can set a specific cap on their pc for ex. 2 Gb then when they hit that amount their internet wil cutt out?:confused:
 
BudTheStud said:
so netlimiter wil only monitor the cap usage ? eny other software that can set a specific cap on their pc for ex. 2 Gb then when they hit that amount their internet wil cutt out?:confused:
Click to expand...
NetLimiter 2 Pro can only monitor and rate limit, but it can't cap the usage.
I don't know of any client side applications that can place a cap on the usage either.

So you'll have to buy hardware or run some kind of router OS to cap the usage. If you simply want to cap HTTP usage, then you can most likely do that by running a transparent SQUID proxy server.
Otherwise, you'll have to run a router with DD-WRT/OpenWRT/RouterOS or a PC with IPCop/SmoonthWall.
 
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