Limit Internet bandwidth usage on PC?
Hello, I have a problem with bandwidth usage on home’s laptop that my brother use. He often drains too much bandwidth resource from my DSL Internet connection line, causing many applications too be unstable or slow.
I was looking for an application that could “share” or limit the bandwidth between PC and Laptop to a more fair 50% or something.
I don’t have any particular skills in programming or anything, so Im looking for a simple program to perform this task.
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What router model do you have?
There may be some settings there.
Sitecom RTL867x ADSL Modem/Router
You can limit the bandwidth of a router connection by going into settings. Maybe you can Google instructions to do so. Set it to 50% of what comes into your home, and if only two people are connected, no one will notice any slowdown due to the other person.
If you have a dual band router, set one to low bandwidth (for him) and set the other one (which you would connect to) for unlimited. ;)
There really are no “simple” programs for it. Such things generally require deep system tweaking.
Not all routers allow this, and those that do generally don’t allow it out of the box; I’ve only really heard of it in have had their firmware re-flashed.
Also, all are dedicated routers, not router-modems. In fact, running a router-modem instead of separate router and modem really restricts your options in MANY ways.
The term for what you are looking for is “rate-limiting” or “throttling”. If you google one of those terms along with the model name of your router then you might (or might not) get useful instructions on how to configure your existing equipment.
If you don’t then you might look into purchasing or making another router or proxy to do the rate-limiting.
See if your router supports QoS. My 30 dollar netgear one does.
And most likely what is happening is they are doing something upload intensive. Like torrents. What happens here is that when your computer receives some data it sends out a ACK packet. If something else is using all the upload your computer can never send that packet out. So the server sits there thinking you never got what it sent and keeps sending the same thing over and over again to you.
If your router supports QoS this is easily fixable. Here is what it looks like on my router. Set the upload to 50% of your max and you should be pretty good.
Even my old 15 dollar router does this.
@johnpowell Some do, some don’t, just like not all cars come with power mirrors. QoS would work if the router supports it, but I’m not sure if it does. Still, definitely worth checking out.
In fact, running a router-modem instead of separate router and modem really restricts your options in MANY ways.
The router-modem may have (probably has?) a bridge mode, which bypasses the router, making it simply a modem.
Then you can use it with a separate router with the fancy functions.
My choice would be buying a router with the DD-WRT operating system installed from eBay.
@Amaroaverno I’m sorry to say I don’t think there’s “a simple program to perform this task.”
@jaytkay I run mine in Bridge mode and have it hooked to a Netgear router that (unlike @johnpowell)‘s does not support QoS. However, my home LAN doesn’t have any chronic bandwidth hogs (@rexacoracofalipitorius is a conscientious roommate), so I never bothered doing anything about that lack.
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