Router for timed bandwidth throttling

ATiRubyfan

ATiRubyfan

ATiRubyfan

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Joined
26 Dec 2020
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183
I have a BT FTTP package with a Smart Hub 2.
I would like to slow down WIFI speeds significantly ( think kbps ) between certain hours so that Whatsapp video calls are painful / blocky for a certain MAC address connected to my home's WIFI network.

Are there any routers than can let me do this ?
 
WJA96 said:
Most routers will allow you to throttle a device or devices. The cheapest option that can limit bandwidth easily would be the Honor Router 3 but that would throttle ALL bandwidth to that device in that timeframe. if you want to just limit WhatsApp then you'll need something more sophisticated like Untangle.

Also, bear in mind that Whatsapp is spectacularly efficient so to make video calling painful would effectively mean shutting down the device anyway.
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Surely, if you reduce bandwidth to let's say 100Kbps, then video call quality will suffer?
 
WJA96 said:
Whatsapp video calling uses 0.15MBytes per minute so 1.2Mbits per minute or 20kbits per second. So no, reducing the available bandwidth to 100kbps would have no appreciable effect on it. And Facetime uses half of that. They were designed for people on limited mobile phone bandwidth and limited mobile phone data so they are incredibly efficient. Indeed, it's quite possible that if you shut the data down sufficiently, if a phone or other device had such restricted data on WiFi it would just switch to GPRS/3G/4G/5G instead.

Can you say why you want to just degrade the image quality?
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My kids are flirting with 3rd parties that I do not approve of. I cannot confiscate the phones as social services or the Old bill will then come round.
How do Gulf countries block Whatsapp calls? Messaging is fine by me, it's the audio/video calling that I do not approve of.

Maybe I need a router with parental controls ?
 
AhhBisto said:
Surely easiest way is to provide phones with limited functionality for basic calls/texts?

Kids are smart I'm sure it wouldn't take them long to realise they can sneak in an over the counter pay as you go sim and pop it when needed.
.
Really not quite sure I should ask why would social services/police get involved for confiscating phones but now I'm just really curious.
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You give your kid a smartphone. You take it away and then kids can invent all sort of stories to get you in trouble. Should have never given one in the first place. Should have given each a Nokia 1100!
 
Sorry for bumping this thread.

I still haven't got round to setting this up.But, I now have a new requirement. Not only would I like to do bandwidth control for certain devices on my network, I would also like to be sent by email a log of the websites visited by users of those devices.

Googling suggests Asus routers can do bandwidth throttling but Netgear routers can send out emails ( https://www.groovypost.com/howto/free-parental-control-net-monitoring-netgear/ ). Is there a router that can do both ?
 
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