Home Network - How can I allocate bandwidth?

Exige

Exige

Exige

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Joined
23 Apr 2008
Posts
15
The Problem

Currently, the broadband in my house goes straight into a wireless router, so anyone with the access code can log gain access to my internet.

Both my sister and I access the internet but my sister runs a lot of applications that drain the bandwidth (streaming, downloading, gaming, etc). Consequently, my internet runs slowly.

Having discussed this as a family, we want to set something up so that each user has a dedicated amount of bandwidth.

The Solution?

The solution I have come up with is to run the broadband directly into my PC (my sister likes using wireless to her notebook), then using bandwidth manager software set the bandwidth for each user. The broadband will then run out of my PC to a wireless router, which my sister can pick-up.

Now I’m certain this will work while my PC is on. And when I’m not using my PC, I’m not bothered whether the bandwidths are set-up or not – my sister can use all of it. But will my sister be able to access when my PC is off? Will the broadband continue to flow through my PC while the power to it is off, or it’s on standby?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Exige
 
Easiest way?

QoS router :P

Depending on which one you get it usually supports allocation of bandwidth, priority and scheduling.

If you dont want to go that route there is plenty of software which can limit bandwidth on interfaces at the computer itself, I used a program called NetLimiter before I implemented a QoS solution. The problem with a software solution is that it is usually fixed caps.

With QoS you could set it up so that everyone had access to bandwidth but when you used the internet you were guaranteed a % of that bandwidth.
 
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I don't know of any software (windows-based at least) that will let you do that.

Your sister wont be able to get internet access whilst your computer is off though, thats for sure :)
 
Crud, so my PC has to be on.

I kinda expected that tbh, but I was hoping my suspicions wouldn't be confirmed.

What's a QoS router? I'm not that familiar with this type of kit.

Thanks for the replies.

Exige
 
Exige said:
What's a QoS router? I'm not that familiar with this type of kit.
Click to expand...

QoS = Quality of Service.

Its just a feature of the router, some have it some don't. Just check the technical specs of some routers and find one in budget with QoS. :)
 
Why not build an old system (low spec) to act as a router with QoS features, or just buy a router with built in QoS as mentioned before.
 
Just a regular router which supports QoS (Quality of Service)

In a nutshell it allows you to define a set of rules that controls bandwidth to IPs, a range of IPs, Ports, sources, destinations etc.

At home mine is configured to allocate 80% of the Upload/Download bandwidth to my IP and the remaining 20% to anything else which gets an address from the DHCP pool. I also tag my packets so that they have a higher priority. For instance it does not matter if a system is only using 20kb/sec of bandwidth if its making 500 torrent connections for example its going to screw up my ability to game online.

I am afraid OCUK dont stock my particular brand of router but its a Billion. Been very good for me, packed full of features and very reasonable on price :)
 
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