Any way to easily control bandwidth usage?

Hi,

I was hoping someone may be able to help me with this.

I've got two bandwidth vampires (my sons) sucking the life out of my DSL/wireless (draft N). They even invite other bandwidth vampires (their friends with laptops) to come to my home to feast.

Needless to say, my once fast connection has little life left for me.

Is there a software solution that will allow me to "divide" the amount of bandwidth?

I'd like to be able to keep at least 1/3 for myself and let the kids share the rest.

Any help with a software solution is appreciated.

Rob

 

looooooooooool i really need the same application, but for diffrent reason (my bro is sucking the hell of the connnection)

 

I think you better ask in hardware section, you'll probably need a different router with this build-in feature.
Also, what is an exact model of your modem?
I, also, assume you checked the manual.

 

This would be a darn good feature for my connection at home. As if it wasn't slow enough already, a certain someone hoards all of the bandwidth with an insane queue of downloads. Everyone else in the house gets the shaft.

The only solution we have is to block the sites he downloads from and prohibits his computer from connecting through the router's interface. That would probably not work too well for your situation, as it barely satisfies ours. We have to wait for him to leave his post so we can shut his connection off. It works for a while, but isn't a permanent solution.

I have heard of routers that have a feature called Quality of Service (may be called QoS) but I haven't used one to see how well it works. From my understanding, it distributes the bandwidth equally between the connected devices.

Someone else can elaborate on it. I would also like to know about this.

 

QoS does not work very well for 'broadband' connection, mainly for 'home network'.
I have the DLink 655 which has QoS and when i'm playing a game online (CSS) my ping still shoots to something crazy when another person in the house is uploading photos to facebook .

 

Shoot. That is very discouraging. :/ QoS was my last hope for a fair distribution of bandwidth.

 

You need a router that will prioritize traffic. I'm not sure what your price range is, but you can find a router that will prioritize traffic from your computer over traffic from other computers.

 

Consider custom firmware. E.g. DDWRT, FreeWRT..etc.

Also, you can block ports for those "bandwidth sucking "appliactions.

E.g. if your sons are downloading things through torrent, block their download port and lock the router. That way, it limits the torrenting speed to about 200kbit/s

 

I just got an Idea: how about just asking those ppl in the house to use less internet?

 

The" easiest" is to buy a router that supports prioritization or get more bandwidth.. The cheapest way would be to ask your kids not to hog the internet.