Need advice for a router/setup

[CrazYmonkeY159]

So I live with a friend of mine and we are both avid gamers however both of us have girlfriends who visit frequently and they sometimes bring their friends who open up their macbooks/laptops and they just end up sucking up all the internet with their Facebooking and YouTubing, then we end up lagging in our respective games

We have a 4 meg line I was thinking if I could just highly prioritise gaming traffic in some way it would make everyone happy. I am willing to spend a bit of money to get this set up working, a friend suggests I get a Mikrotik router and set up QoS on that basis. I am basically here for a second opinion before I spend thousands on a router. So basically I ask if this is the best course of action and secondly what router should I get for this? My only requirements are that it should be a gigabit modem router, I am currently dealing with a cheapo R600 D-Link modem router that is not gigabit and it sucks copying large files to/from my home server.

 

[Stratt]

The cheapest way to get decent QoS would be either a Linux firewall/proxy, or a Mikrotik router. A decent router that can do proper QoS as well as ADSL is going to cost you about 3k. The Mikrotik RB260GS will do what you want and has a GUI interface. You can pick them up from Scoop or Miro for under R600, and you can use your D-Link in bridge mode, or leave it as is and change the Mikrotik as the gateway for your LAN and just route the traffic to the Dlink. The Linux route requires a bit more knowledge of Linux, and CLI experience is recommended.

 

[dadecoza]

+1 for Mikrotik