Router for timed bandwidth throttling

ATiRubyfan

ATiRubyfan

ATiRubyfan

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26 Dec 2020
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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 ?
 
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.
 
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?
 
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?
 
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 ?
 
Parental controls won't do this for you. You can block the ports that Whatsapp uses. Not 80 or 443 as they're EVERYTHING on http/https. Block ports 5349 and 3478 and they can still message but not video chat. And the internet will otherwise work just fine. That'll confuse them! And I'm sure you can always promise to call the ISP to find out what's wrong at some point in the future. And they'll tell you that nothing is wrong...

WhatsApp Video Protocol - Ports and DPI Reference (netify.ai)

And you should be able to block those ports on the Hub2.
 
ATiRubyfan said:
My kids are flirting with 3rd parties that I do not approve of.
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Let me suggest a two-step process. First you set up a separate wifi VLAN for your kids, a wired VLAN too if necessary. You can then throttle that - look for Bandwidth Management or Rate Control on your router. You have a separate VLAN for the adults. Second you block or restrict the ports for that VLAN for Whatsapp as @WJA96 details and for Facetime block or restrict 5223 and 16393-16472 (TCP and UDP). You might need a business-class router like a Draytek to do it. The trick here is to not do it at the device level but the VLAN level.

BTW While you're at it, set up more wifi VLANs: one for you, one for the children, one for guests, one for IOT devices, and one for visiting workers (imagine a plumber needing some information).

A sneakier way is to use two routers: one for your children and one for yourselves. The children's router plugs into yours and you then restrict what that router can do as above.

If you are using your home network for work then you should definitely set up a VLAN for your work PC which gives you priority.
 
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.
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Really not quite sure I should ask why would social services/police get involved for confiscating phones but now I'm just really curious.
 
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 ?
 
You're trying to do some pretty sophisticated things here with your router. Things that need throttling, maybe use of VLANs and now custom alerting. I can't comment on what off-the-shlef product may fit the bill but you have already had Untangle suggested and I note from the wiki on their alerts that the email notification of a user visiting a particular website is in fact the very example they use in their "Adding Alert Rules" section https://wiki.untangle.com/index.php/Events#Alerts I think given the complexity of what you'd like to do plus the ease of interface of Untangle it's a good choice for you.
 
Yes, Untangle is your best bet here. It’s perfect for this.

You just need a cheap mini-PC (Celeron or better) with at least 2 network ports and install Untangle on it. You don’t need more than 8Gb RAM and a pretty small SSD. I think 32Gb but 64Gb to be safe.
 
ATiRubyfan said:
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!
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Why would you kids go to social services in the first place for you setting down some house times, ie no video calls at night.
 
Im more interested in the backstory! Sounds like kids are attempting to do Colombian arms deals on the dark web or something. Hope you get it sorted.
 
robj20 said:
Why would you kids go to social services in the first place for you setting down some house times, ie no video calls at night.
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Sadly have to agree, this isn't really something to be solved with router controls - it needs addressing with the kids. Otherwise what happens when they go to a friend's house and use their WiFi etc?
 
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