Public wifi help!

gitbags · 2 Feb 2013 at 22:26

My other half setup a wifi spot at work and surprise surprise.. it's been bandwidth raped

Her limit is 10gb/m, not a lot I know but that won't be changing just yet. I've told her to invest in a decent router that has QoS settings, but in the mean time is there anything I can do to help prevent people taking the mick? I was thinking of blocking all but essential ports. Would this have any effect over the short term until she can replace her technicolor plusnet router?

bremen1874 · 3 Feb 2013 at 02:43

Setting up a public Wi-Fi hotspot using a residential Internet connection is asking for trouble.

Ignoring the actual bandwidth consumed, what are you going to do when the letters claiming that you've downloaded something you shouldn't and they'd like compensating start to arrive?

dfarrall · 3 Feb 2013 at 08:50

Blocking random ports isn't exactly a fix, just annoying.
And as above, if your just putting a random access point with no password there then it may as well be free game, your responsible for what happens on it.

Might want to consider a proper service if its being used that much.

gitbags · 3 Feb 2013 at 09:10

bremen1874 said:
Setting up a public Wi-Fi hotspot using a residential Internet connection is asking for trouble.

Ignoring the actual bandwidth consumed, what are you going to do when the letters claiming that you've downloaded something you shouldn't and they'd like compensating start to arrive?

Its not residential. Its a business account she set up with her ISP so she can offer free wifi access to customers.

gitbags · 3 Feb 2013 at 09:12

dfarrall said:
Blocking random ports isn't exactly a fix, just annoying.
And as above, if your just putting a random access point with no password there then it may as well be free game, your responsible for what happens on it.

Might want to consider a proper service if its being used that much.

It has a password and its changed weekly. And wifi is off over night.

KIA · 3 Feb 2013 at 12:30

10GB is nothing, even if you were to throttle people to 50KB/s. Ask for a bigger bandwidth allowance from the ISP.

d_brennen · 3 Feb 2013 at 12:33

gitbags said:
It has a password and its changed weekly. And wifi is off over night.

If it's a WPA2 password then it's someone who is privy to the key tbh.
If so you must assume all legitimate traffic? You need a higher allowance, 10GB is nothing these days

gitbags · 3 Feb 2013 at 13:34

KIA said:
10GB is nothing, even if you were to throttle people to 50KB/s. Ask for a bigger bandwidth allowance from the ISP.

d_brennen said:
If it's a WPA2 password then it's someone who is privy to the key tbh.
If so you must assume all legitimate traffic? You need a higher allowance, 10GB is nothing these days

I know she could do with a bigger allowance, but for the time being that isn't possible due to an on going dispute with the site manger (long story, she's a catering contracter) and we are aware of the most likely abusers.
So throttling users is the best of her limited options for now?

Gammawolf · 3 Feb 2013 at 13:55

To be honest, with a 10GB limit you might as well just turn it off until something gets sorted. Assuming a 5 day working week, with an 8 hour working day that leaves 64MBs an hour. You would have to rate limit the entire connection to 140Kb/s or below to ensure you don't breach this cap. But being pretty much twice the speed of dialup you won't be able to do much on it..

d_brennen · 3 Feb 2013 at 14:05

Jeez, just looked at the Plusnet business broadband site

http://www.plus.net/business/broadband/

For the love of God just stump up an extra £5 for 50GB allowance or £15 to not worry about it at all :confused:

It's pennies a day, get energy saving bulbs or turn the heating down a notch if money is an issue

gitbags · 3 Feb 2013 at 19:11

Gammawolf said:
To be honest, with a 10GB limit you might as well just turn it off until something gets sorted. Assuming a 5 day working week, with an 8 hour working day that leaves 64MBs an hour. You would have to rate limit the entire connection to 140Kb/s or below to ensure you don't breach this cap. But being pretty much twice the speed of dialup you won't be able to do much on it..

I thought as much but if it increases the time others can use it, it'll do for now. she would love to switch it off trust me but she isn't able to for the time being.

d_brennen said:
Jeez, just looked at the Plusnet business broadband site

http://www.plus.net/business/broadband/

For the love of God just stump up an extra £5 for 50GB allowance or £15 to not worry about it at all It's pennies a day, get energy saving bulbs or turn the heating down a notch if money is an issue

I have already stated that for the time being this is not an option! :rolleyes:

The wifi access is being provided under duress to a council run facility that she serves as a sub contractor, operating from their premises to provide food service to its clients (the general public) The site manager is currently insisting that she provides wifi access to all and sundry who walk through the doors, even if they don't provide her with custom. She has been informed that if she doesn't provide this it will affect her chances of taking over the contract for herself. As she currently doesn't have any existing agreement with those who operate the facility she doesn't want to pay more than she has to, until she has it in writing she has too. Especially as it has been proven not to increase her trade!

Hence the crap package.

SO. general opinion is throttling will do it but make it a miserable service for all.

d_brennen · 3 Feb 2013 at 21:52

If you throttle the service to levels that will guarantee not going over your cap it will for all intents and purposes be too slow to be useful for anything other than viewing plain text emails. But at least you can say it's provided, regardless that the service is unusably slow.

A router with decent QoS features is likely to be £60+ (I'm not too current with models) which is the same as upgrading your package anyway over the course of a year

gitbags · 3 Feb 2013 at 22:12

d_brennen said:
If you throttle the service to levels that will guarantee not going over your cap it will for all intents and purposes be too slow to be useful for anything other than viewing plain text emails. But at least you can say it's provided, regardless that the service is unusably slow.

A router with decent QoS features is likely to be £60+ (I'm not too current with models) which is the same as upgrading your package anyway over the course of a year

Well my other half has just showed me her bandwidth usage for the past 2 1/2 weeks (the amount of time wifi's been up and running) and she was averaging about 170mb a day, until Saturday when someone consumed 10.2gb. So as she's pretty confident its council staff using it all (usage spikes when the manager is off) she doesn't want to encourage them.

I've had a look at the tplink td-w8960n and that looks like it'll offer basic traffic control and can be had for £35 so we'll give that a go seeing as the provided one doesn't offer any form of control. At least it might put people off downloading if their limited to 1mb instead of 10mb

Caged · 4 Feb 2013 at 03:02

How is she responsible for providing a hotspot and also not given any authority over how to run any part of the service being provided? This is clearly not her responsibility to deal with and knuckling under and trying to achieve the impossible (pubic Wi-Fi on a capped connection) is going to end in tears.

Just unplug the WAN from the router and plead ignorance when asked why the internet doesn't work. She runs catering, not an IT department, this is nothing to do with her.

gitbags · 4 Feb 2013 at 20:02

Caged said:
How is she responsible for providing a hotspot and also not given any authority over how to run any part of the service being provided? This is clearly not her responsibility to deal with and knuckling under and trying to achieve the impossible (pubic Wi-Fi on a capped connection) is going to end in tears.

Just unplug the WAN from the router and plead ignorance when asked why the internet doesn't work. She runs catering, not an IT department, this is nothing to do with her.

I agree totally. But the problem has occurred due to a verbal agreement with the previous caterer to provide wifi access. She refused initially, but was informed by the site manager that (by contract) she has to maintain the level of service the site had been receiving prior to her arrival. Failure to do so could lead to her contract being terminated, he sees the refusal to provide wifi as in breach of this. :rolleyes:

Gammawolf · 4 Feb 2013 at 23:52

In that case I'd say rate limit the connection to something like 200Kb/s, this should prevent people from heavily using the connection while still allowing access to most web pages at bearable speeds and email etc. I'd monitor it and adjust the speed cap as needed. You may find that you can increase it a significant amount as people just give up trying to abuse it

#Chri5# · 5 Feb 2013 at 00:23

Can you knock the WiFi to 802.11b and the data rate right down to 1 or 2Mbps?

Can you speak to PlusNet and ask for the line to be put on a fixed ADSL profile? If they can, you might be able to get it on an older capped 512Kbps or 1Mbps service. Hopefully the "contract" doesn't mention speeds, just service.

bremen1874 · 5 Feb 2013 at 00:30

The OP mentions a Plusnet Technicolor router. If this is the same one they supply for residential connections (and according to their website it is) the configuration options are very limited.

Looking at the one I've got here there're certainly no options for rate limiting. You don't even seem to have the option to drop the wireless down from N.

No options for wireless isolation either as far as I can see.

Steveocee · 5 Feb 2013 at 07:14

gitbags said:
She has been informed that if she doesn't provide this it will affect her chances of taking over the contract for herself.

I pretty much stopped reading the thread at this point.....
Maybe some tough love?
Tell her she cant want the contract that much if its at the cost of £5 extra per month.

I'm sure once she gets the contract it will more than make up for the initial "outlay" of an extra £5 per month.

Can't want it that much if she/both of you aren't willing to make that sacrifice to get the contract.

**Also when she goes over allowance, what is the penalty? Is it halved speed anyway or do you have to pay by the Gb ? If so bumping up the package will probably be cheaper anyway.

gitbags · 5 Feb 2013 at 11:04

#Chri5# said:
Can you knock the WiFi to 802.11b and the data rate right down to 1 or 2Mbps?

Can you speak to PlusNet and ask for the line to be put on a fixed ADSL profile? If they can, you might be able to get it on an older capped 512Kbps or 1Mbps service. Hopefully the "contract" doesn't mention speeds, just service.

Not really the options on the current router are limited as mentioned below.

bremen1874 said:
The OP mentions a Plusnet Technicolor router. If this is the same one they supply for residential connections (and according to their website it is) the configuration options are very limited.

Looking at the one I've got here there're certainly no options for rate limiting. You don't even seem to have the option to drop the wireless down from N.

No options for wireless isolation either as far as I can see.

Unfortunately it is the same one.

Steveocee said:
I pretty much stopped reading the thread at this point.....
Maybe some tough love?
Tell her she cant want the contract that much if its at the cost of £5 extra per month.

I'm sure once she gets the contract it will more than make up for the initial "outlay" of an extra £5 per month.

Can't want it that much if she/both of you aren't willing to make that sacrifice to get the contract.

**Also when she goes over allowance, what is the penalty? Is it halved speed anyway or do you have to pay by the Gb ? If so bumping up the package will probably be cheaper anyway.

It's got sweet f a about "not wanting it" and more to do with setting boundaries. The paper work she has states she is there to provide catering service, not internet access. But the site manager is insisting that as he had a prior agreement with the previous caterer she needs to maintain a connection. Her contract isn't with him, it's with the council. Until the council can confirm her site obligations she's just trying to play it safe. If she NEEDS to spend more she shall, but as it currently seems to be the site wanting something for nothing we don't see why she should.

As for the Adsl, I believed its throttled but they do make mention of charges. This is something she's going to check with them. In the meantime the routers off. Shes also confident it's staff as the WiFi was accidentally left on and someone used 650mb between 6:30am and 8am. Also the site manger asked why the WiFi was off and she informed him (without giving any specific details) her bandwidth had been exceeded, before she said any more his response was "do you know who it was? And is it possible to find out?" Seemed like a odd response.