How do I throttle flatmate?

Vattic

Vattic

Vattic

Associate
Joined
22 Oct 2009
Posts
23
I pay for the internet in this house and allowed one of my flatmates to use it for free on the understanding that he doesn't download or stream video 24/7. Sadly this is what he is doing. We've asked him a number of times to be more considerate but after short time he goes back to his old ways.

I want to avoid conflict with the guy and he needs access so I can't just cut him off. I heard you could use something called Quality Of Service to give priority to certain computers but I can't find out which routers support this in the ways I want.

While searching I read about DD-WRT but this kind of thing is out of my depth, though, I could learn. I've also read also that it's QOS doesn't work so well. I've even considered turning an old PC into a router and running some software to do this on there but again it seems a bit extreme.

Basically I need to be able to filter by MAC address. I want to set it so that while others are online their connection gets priority over his. What routers support this? Are there any other alternatives?

Cheers.
 
I came i here thinking OP would be asking for advice on how to kill his flatmate. I am disappoint :(




EDIT: Regardless of who pays for the service, is it "yours" or the whole house?
 
Hades:
I only noticed how poor the title was after I'd posted and I can't change it now.

Considering the bill is split between me and another flatmate I'd say it was the both of ours. We are letting him use it for free because he needs access. We've asked if he's put something towards access but he says he can't afford it despite having enough money for alcohol and other luxuries.

Even if he was willing to pay I see no reason why splitting the use in three wouldn't be fair. As things stand it's not possible to play online games or download things while he is online and he is seldom not.

Tingle: you have my thanks.
 
We had constant problems at uni with one particular flatmate. A linksys wrt54g with tomato firmware worked very well, and ddwrt never worked well enough for me.
 
Last edited:
Cut him off, he will learn. If he really needs access he'll either cough up or behave.
 
Just cut it off for a few days every time he does it, he'll soon learn moderate internet use is still better than having no porn.

MW
 
Last edited:
Kreeeee said:
We had constant problems at uni with one particular flatmate. A linksys wrt54g with tomato firmware worked very well, and ddwrt never worked fell enough for me.
Click to expand...
You are not the first person I've heard complaining about ddwrt. Unfortunately all the routers I've been suggested would need separate DSL modems. My current router/modem needs replacing anyway but I've never bought a modem that wasn't also a router. Any advice?

tom_e said:
Cut him off, he will learn. If he really needs access he'll either cough up or behave.
Click to expand...
Mr-White said:
Just cut off for a few days every time he does it, he'll soon learn moderate internet use is still better than having no porn.
Click to expand...
We've sat him down and explained that this will happen if he doesn't moderate his downloading. We even agreed on times of day when he can download all he wants. It always works for a month or so but then we are back needing to have awkward conversations.

Jay794 said:
Can't you just block his IP? or if you're on wifi, change the WEP key?
Click to expand...
He's wired so I'd have to unplug him. I regret setting it up for him now.

Thanks for all your replies.

Any advice on DSL modems?
 
mrbell1984 said:
I take it you have never heard of open dns?
Click to expand...
What use would that be? :confused:

OP, had the same problem as you while at uni in a shared house. Full fat 24 meg unlimited and out of the 6 people who had to share it there were 2 offenders who would take it in turns to render the connection unusable over the course of the day and night.
I took the terrible supplied modem router (a BEbox) and set it to bridged mode only and then dumped ddwrt on my wrt610n and put qos and caps in place. Had a few stability problems as the 610n struggled with what I was asking of it so the 4 of us pooled and bought a £65 atom itx box.
Installed ddwrt x86 on it and it worked flawlessly throughout the rest of the duration it was needed.

There are other options like m0n0wall and pfsense if you go down the x86 route and two of the main advantages is you can't brick anything and the far higher amount of resources at your disposal but routers with 3rd party OS' on them are viable as well trusting you don't brick they are also greener.
Look to whatever you can justifiably afford from the supported hardware lists on tomato & ddwrt.
I personally found ddwrt the easiest to setup qos and manage but YMMV.
 
mrbell1984 said:
I take it you have never heard of open dns?
Click to expand...
I have yes, why?

KIA said:
Which router do you have at the moment?

You could bridge the connection to a wrt54g running Tomato.
Click to expand...
It's a terrible non branded one I got when I joined Tiscali. I've been meaning to replace it.

lay-z-boy said:
OP, had the same problem as you while at uni in a shared house. Full fat 24 meg unlimited and out of the 6 people who had to share it there were 2 offenders who would take it in turns to render the connection unusable over the course of the day and night.
I took the terrible supplied modem router (a BEbox) and set it to bridged mode only and then dumped ddwrt on my wrt610n and put qos and caps in place. Had a few stability problems as the 610n struggled with what I was asking of it so the 4 of us pooled and bought a £65 atom itx box.
Installed ddwrt x86 on it and it worked flawlessly throughout the rest of the duration it was needed.

There are other options like m0n0wall and pfsense if you go down the x86 route and two of the main advantages is you can't brick anything and the far higher amount of resources at your disposal but routers with 3rd party OS' on them are viable as well trusting you don't brick they are also greener.
Look to whatever you can justifiably afford from the supported hardware lists on tomato & ddwrt.
I personally found ddwrt the easiest to setup qos and manage but YMMV.
Click to expand...
I'd be tempted to go down the route you ended up going down but the router will have to sit in the shared area of the house. The problem is that everyone but myself smokes, and quite heavily, this seems to kill any technology left in the shared area. Then again all the routers I've been looking at aren't cheap either. I would like to know more about the atom itx box you bought, I can't find anything that cheap.

Thanks again everyone.
 
The current router is almost in the middle of the house. The phone line goes to it and then Ethernet cables connect everyone else. I could set it up in my room but it would be a bit awkward given the layout of the house, still worth thinking about, though.
 
Where is the master socket?

If it were me, I would place a modem at the master socket, then run an ethernet cable to your bedroom (or the other bill paying flatmates room) and locate the router there.

I would then run a single ethernet cable to the centre of the house and place a switch (or old router set up as access point/switch) there and plug all the devices in to it there.
 
Master socket? The phone line is right next to where the current combined router/dls modem is.

I'll likely do as you suggest. I'll have to check what cables I've still got but I think I'll only need to get one more.

So now I need to find a new dsl modem and figure out what kind of router to get.

Cheers for the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom