Router - anyway to apportion bandwidth?

Dodge777

Dodge777

Dodge777

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Location
Hampshire, UK
Hey all

In a student house with 2 other guys. Between the three of us we share a 10mb broadband connection through a router. The problem is, one of my housemates tends to use bit torrent a lot (i.e. Azureus) for, ahem, legal downloading. Anyways, if any of you have had experience with bit torrent, it totally cripples the bandwidth and absolutely hogs the connection! So my internet operates at the fraction of the speed which it should. Yes, I could talk to him about it and I have but I'm looking for alternative solutions here...

So, I was wondering if there's a way I could perhaps limit the bandwidth or connections or something that each person is allowed? Or alternatively, it is possible to block the ports which use Azureus (if worst comes to worst)??? Any advice on the situation would be massively appreciated.

Thanks in advance chaps.
 
If you disable port forwarding BT will go much slower. AFAIk there isn't any way of controlling down/upload speeds with a router as it'll give out maximum per computer when it needs to, you'll need a proper file server to do say 30% of connection per computer (PC with internal ADSL modem then software to allow permission rights for WAN connection, you should then be able to control speeds)
 
Buy another router with a more powerful processor and / or QOS. ( Quality Of Service )

I have just updated to a Billion 7402 and even with Azureus running I get a smooth connection. You can set priorities for certain IP's to throttle the bandwidth if an higher priority IP is using the connection.
 
The Asgard said:
Buy another router with a more powerful processor and / or QOS. ( Quality Of Service )

I have just updated to a Billion 7402 and even with Azureus running I get a smooth connection. You can set priorities for certain IP's to throttle the bandwidth if an higher priority IP is using the connection.
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I'm looking for a replacement for a DG814, would that Billion 7402 be suitable? I don't need wireless, just wired. Looked at the DG834.
 
squiffy said:
Yeah but do you really think his mate would do that?
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If he's a mate then he should do it... I had this a lot with my mates while I was uni I would just confront them about it and ask them to turn it down, because my internet used to slow to a crawl. Esp. with 10 meg theres no excuse for him not to turn it down.
 
I have exactly the same problem tbh which is a real pita when your in the middle of a CS:S game :mad: .

The only souloution i can seem to find is to invest in a decent router as was said with QoS or traffic shaping. Or just mac filter them ;) and say it must be because they DLed a virus then un filter them in a couple of days :p

the linksys AG241 supports QoS as does that netgear gaming router which used to be sold here.

Anyone used / got any recommended routers for doing this?
 
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squiffy said:
AFAIk there isn't any way of controlling down/upload speeds with a router as it'll give out maximum per computer when it needs to, you'll need a proper file server to do say 30% of connection per computer
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You don't need a file server, and there is a way of controlling throughput on a router. Though the OP hasn't said what router they're using, so it's a bit hard to comment...

(PC with internal ADSL modem then software...for WAN connection, you should then be able to control speeds)
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You are aware that's just a router, right?
 
If your doing BT you need a good router with a fast processor because of all the active connections. 7402 uses the Argon chipset with plenty of memory which is why its one of the fastest routers available and specifically geared towards P2P for your legal downloading. There are many flavours of the Billion 7402 with and without Wireless. Highly recommended.
 
tolien said:
You don't need a file server, and there is a way of controlling throughput on a router. Though the OP hasn't said what router they're using, so it's a bit hard to comment...



You are aware that's just a router, right?
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Aye but I would take a guess you'll have far more control and security with PC acting as the router, rather than just a all-in one modem/gateway/hub/router/switch thingy.

That way you can have proper logging of each user's activity, attacks and bandwidth monitoring/resource handling. Mates company use DSL server, mail server etc.
 
squiffy said:
Aye but I would take a guess you'll have far more control and security with PC acting as the router, rather than just a all-in one modem/gateway/hub/router/switch thingy.
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Not necessarily.
 
As above the Router will have ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) whereas the PC is a general purpose machine so even though the clock speed may be slower the routers tend to be faster (Obviously dependant on the Spec of the PC, the Spec of the Router and load levels) - OK I should read posts....

But the router (for higher end equipment) will be better for security, logging etc.
 
Dodge777 said:
Hey all

In a student house with 2 other guys. Between the three of us we share a 10mb broadband connection through a router. The problem is, one of my housemates tends to use bit torrent a lot (i.e. Azureus) for, ahem, legal downloading. Anyways, if any of you have had experience with bit torrent, it totally cripples the bandwidth and absolutely hogs the connection! So my internet operates at the fraction of the speed which it should. Yes, I could talk to him about it and I have but I'm looking for alternative solutions here...

So, I was wondering if there's a way I could perhaps limit the bandwidth or connections or something that each person is allowed? Or alternatively, it is possible to block the ports which use Azureus (if worst comes to worst)??? Any advice on the situation would be massively appreciated.

Thanks in advance chaps.
Click to expand...

Best bet is to pick up a Linksys WRT54GL (£50 from OcUK) put customised DD-WRT firmware on it, enable QoS and set bittorrent packets to lowest priority and anything else to highest.

There are probably other routers out there than can do QoS equally as well but for the price ratio/performance, the WRT54GL can't be beaten. :)
 
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