Throttling the kids

duncan · Jan 05, 2009, 17:16:08

I have a family of 5 on a home LAN. 2 adults using the internet mostly for work (really!) and 3 teenagers. We only have a 512K connection due to distance from the exchange.

As the kids get older and their internet time coincides more with ours we are finding that on-line gaming, streaming videos, downloading files etc interferes more and more with our work. So I'm in the market for some kind of traffic shaping software (ie for local use on the LAN), preferably CHEAP. Any recommendations?

I have seen Squid but it looks awfully complicated for what I need. Also a problem with much of the traffic management software is that it can only impose fixed data rate caps. (e.g. IPaddress(A) can only use 128Kbps) I am looking for something closer to QoS which I could use to assign priorities (e.g. IPaddress(A) = low) so that if there is no contention with other users they can still get the benefit of 512K. Anyone seen anything like this?

Thanks,
Duncan

Rik · Jan 05, 2009, 17:21:17

Sorry, Duncan, but I have no experience in this area. I'm sure someone will be along shortly, though. What router are you using?

Steve · Jan 05, 2009, 17:51:58

It is theoretically possible with the mains plug 200 AV associated software to set priorities for each plug on the network to low,medium or high. Whether it works or not I have no idea.

vitriol · Jan 05, 2009, 17:55:17

I've seen this built into some routers but never seen software that could do it.

Of course you could give BT or Tiscali a ring

Glenn · Jan 05, 2009, 17:57:09

Is this any help? http://www.cfos.de/support/decision_e.htm

Sebby · Jan 05, 2009, 19:05:28

What you need is a router with really good QoS settings. If you have a Linksys, I believe that the DD-WRT (third-party) firmware can do it.

cavillas · Jan 05, 2009, 19:13:38

Another use with Power plugs is to cut the wire from their computers ...problem solved.

D-Dan · Jan 05, 2009, 20:23:38

Quotewe are finding that on-line gaming, streaming videos, downloading files etc interferes more and more with our work.

Don't you mean that you are finding that your work interferes with all the other stuff?

duncan · Jan 05, 2009, 22:40:03

Quote from: Rik on Jan 05, 2009, 17:21:17
Sorry, Duncan, but I have no experience in this area. I'm sure someone will be along shortly, though. What router are you using?

Speedtouch 546. I've been through the command line interface and can't see anything useful.
Duncan

duncan · Jan 05, 2009, 23:00:37

Quote from: Glenn on Jan 05, 2009, 17:57:09
Is this any help? http://www.cfos.de/support/decision_e.htm

Interesting software but it looks like it only runs on one PC to optimise bandwidth availability to applications. It doesn't seem to work as a server supporting multiple clients.

Duncan

duncan · Jan 06, 2009, 08:45:26

Quote from: Sebby on Jan 05, 2009, 19:05:28
What you need is a router with really good QoS settings. If you have a Linksys, I believe that the DD-WRT (third-party) firmware can do it.

DD-WRT looks fantastic. Just wish this functionality was incorporated into software for an internet gateway. Maybe I could pick up a compatible router on eBay.

sebt · Feb 01, 2009, 16:21:08

Draytek routers have some good options in this area, including QoS and VLAN segmentation. QoS can be hard to set up when people are gaming etc., since ports used tend to be dynamically assigned by those programs. VLAN is a good simple option that just restricts bandwidth on a network segment.

with ADSL, the thing that complicates this further is that ramming the upstream craps out the downstream. So you need to ensure that a proportion of your available upstream bandwidth is kept free if you want to ensure that your browsing doesn't turn to sludge. Drayteks also have this feature; combine that with QoS and I've found that you can keep everything working reasonably even with multiple torrents and gaming running.

Of course, Draytek routers are not the cheapest, however you can pick up 2800G's reasonably on ebay (previous to the current 2820xx series). I upgraded to the 2820n recently on the basis that it will see me up to ADSL2+ so should last a while. It's a great and very flexible piece of kit.

Software solutions aren't going to cut it for this kind of issue.

Seb