[Tech] Download Caps for Certain Users on a LAN?

[Nanor]

So we've got internet set up in our gaff and it's pretty sweet, except around peak time. I'm going to have to grin and take it but I simply can't when one of our housemates spends all evening on Skype, Spotify, torrents and common web browsing. It's making SC pretty unbearable and downloads horrendous.

We're using a Virgin router which, as far as I can tell, is a reskinned version of Netgears router software. From there can I cap her to a certain download speed? I know I can shut her off, but that's simply not an option.

Cheers in advance.

 

[thatbloke]

tell your friend to stop being an inconsiderate cow and hogging all the bandwidth. Only use the torrents when other people are not also using the connection

 

[Iron_fist]

unless you went for linux on it pretty much no, however if memory serves there is a timed lockout feature that i think you can specify ports on, might be worth investigating that and setting it so that you all use a range of say 10 ports for torrents which are then locked out between say 6pm and midnight

 

[elDiablo]

I gotta say, saying that she can't use Skype in the evenings is a pretty shitty thing to do. Ditto with Spotify and the likes. Yeah, it interrupts your gaming, but should one take priority over the other?

Torrents I'll all for doing overnight, and you could even say that you'd be happy to set her up a server to do it, which you can then limit the time for yourself. And say that it means the whole house can share things.

But meh, this is really more of an aside then anything.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

punch her in the ovaries

 

[PsiSoldier]

wooo qos

 

[Ronin Storm]

From there can I cap her to a certain download speed?

As Psi has intimated already, Quality of Service (QoS) is probably the answer. Unfortunately, I don't think the default Virgin router comes equipped with that capability. QoS can be used to identify certain kinds of traffic and ensure that they are prioritised appropriately. For example, gaming could be given maximum priority and torrents should be at the bottom of the priority list.

Have a check in your router's settings to see if there is a QoS option. If so, you may be in business... if not, new router?

 

[Wol]

The only things in that list that should take up too much bandwidth are torrenting and skype.

torrenting during the day is silly. ISPs will lock down download rates for it anyway. If you must desperately torrent something, then set it running overnight. I'd definitely enforce this if i were on a shared network like that.

Skype - hmmm. not an easy one. Although unless shes constantly on webcam to someone (giggedy), it shouldn't cause too much of a problem i thought. the audio quality is still pretty cack, so can't imagine that uses too much upload.

Spotify doesn't use much bandwidth really, although it's not constant. Usually just downloads the file in one go and then sits and does nothing. It's pretty good at caching too.

web browsing shouldnt use much bandwidth either

 

[Kasatka]

Skype uses a massive chunk of bandwidth actually, especially in group convos. One-to-one it's not as bad, but still a large step up from TS3 or Vent for example.

 

[Nanor]

I've checked the router and I can't see any QOS. Buying a new router is pretty out of the question too. I couldn't really justify it to the new housemates.

My brother did recommend I install linux as a partition on this laptop. I didn't really see the point because I didn't think I could use it for much but now... What do you reckon THN. Should I start breaking shit!?

 

[Traxata]

[strike]You can't break it Nanor [/strike]



You shouldn't be able to break it Nanor ....

 

[Ronin Storm]

Why would installing Linux on your laptop help? Unless you plan on routing all traffic through your laptop, that is...

 

[Haven]

Install linux on the toaster and route to the toaster via the kettle with a cluster of egg timers for resilience!

 

[DeZmond]

Install linux on the toaster and route to the toaster via the kettle with a cluster of egg timers for resilience!

I spat out my coffee when I read that!!!

 

[Ronin Storm]

I couldn't really justify it to the new housemates.

Surely they couldn't object if you bought an inevitably better quality router to improve their overall experience?

 

[waterproofbob]

Shared accommodation has to go both ways. Insist that torrenting is done overnight. Also make sure if she is torrenting that she is doing it sensibly, limited ups and down at a relative ratio to your bandwidth.

If you live with other people then being a ass hat and lolling all the bandwidth should be a criminal offence. Or at least get you lightly beaten with a frying pan.

Another point to be made on this is if you are using virgin ADSL then they throttle at peak time like nothing I've seen on another isp. I used to get awesome up and down until 6-7pm and then my connection would completely tank and be unusable until about 11-12.

p.s I love my fat be pipe it makes me tres happy.

 

[Haven]

Routers will rarely do all that you're wanting them to do - especially home ones. I'd strongly recommend looking into a second firewall/router unit that sits between your current router and your users. Something along the lines of.

http://www.pfsense.org/

Either install it on some old hardware if cost is an issue (only requirement is two network ports and a usb stick to run it from) or go buy a little system to use for it:

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12647

Systems like this are completely web gui (optional command line) controlled and yet still powerful enough to filter what you want - you'll need to block all outgoing traffic and then build up a rule set allowing what ports you all want through it from there. Once that is done and you are forcing everyone to use standard ports for torrents (with header encryption as they are not that stupid right ?) you can start to implement QoS settings on what is left.

The ideal setup for this is just use your old router/modem as a bridge device and set it to pass all traffic to the pfsense which will handle dhcp/dns/routing/QoS and firewalling. pfSense also supports modular software expansions - definitely install squid (transparent web proxy) and any stats tracking ones so you can chase down issues.

If you're not sure if its what you want then its a free download - go grab the bootable ISO and have a play before you commit to any hardware:

The above is the long answer, the short answer is it won't magically fix itself and takes a bit of effort to setup a network "right".

Have fun.

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

One thing i have never understood is how, a household can have X download and yet games use 0.05x at all times, but as soon as someone uses a program that uses say 0.50x the game lags like mad?

 

[Xylak]

One thing i have never understood is how, a household can have X download and yet games use 0.05x at all times, but as soon as someone uses a program that uses say 0.50x the game lags like mad?

Well, as far as I understand it, it's not about how much data gets transferred but when and how quickly. Your online game (whatever it is, lets assume a FPS) probably makes a lot of connections to the server for positioning updates etc but with nominal information (x,y,z, stance, action). While not being a lot of data, quick response is fairly essential. If someone is using large amounts of data (eg Skype) your packets of data will not be sent/received quite as often thereby creating what we lovingly refer to as "lag".
I think that makes sense in a simplified way

 

[PsiSoldier]

from what i understand, the reason situations like that cause 'lag' is because the packets for both the bulk (ie downloads) and the high priority (ie voip / games) are all mixed up as one 'queue', if you will.
you still get the same throughput but everything is going at the same speed, so naturally packets will take longer to get to where they are going, resulting in higher latency.

now, when you use QoS, resources get reserved for whatever has been marked as priorty traffic, so it gets a priority over the bulk traffic and 'cuts the line' so to speak. this lets you maintain your low latency on priortity packets while still allowing for bulk transfers at the same time.

i apologise if this makes little sense, tired as fook right now