QoS management and/or bandwidth limiting. What do i need & how do i set

[Technique]

PROBLEM:

I pay the bill. There's various machines connected to the wireless router (netgear DG834PN) & i dare bet that it's a free-for-all as far as download speeds go. Not good ... when i pay for the bill.

WANTING:

My PC is hardwired to the router. I want top priority when it comes to download speeds. I'm not talking specifically web browsing, file downloading, YouTube viewing, i'm talking MY MACHINE - as in ANYTHING i'm doing on the net. I want top priority.

My gf's tab is connected wirelessley. I want this in 2nd place.

My sisters laptop i want to come in 3rd. Again wirelessley.

The family PC which is the other hardwired machine i want coming in 4th.

Then there's 3 iPhones which connect via WiFi. Mine, my gf's & my sisters which i would like to come in 5th, 6th, 7th in that order.

Again, to point out i'm not talking any specific activity (such as YouTube viewing gets top priority regardless of what machine you're on), i'm talking about individual machines getting a priority order.

One corner tells me i need a router with QoS. Another corner tells me i need something called bandwidth limiting.

Maybe both are right, but i'm guessing not. So what do i need & how do i set it up?

[spUrr]

Traffic shaping is really what you're after. Your router cannot do it and mac address filtering is about as close as it can get.. but still miles away! Fork out some hefty $$ for one that can or have a multihomed machine running something like 'ipcop', between a modem/router connected to the internet and the rest of your network. I always feel dis-illusioned when I go hunting for a cheap solution using this :dontgetit:

[cork1958]

Quite greedy, are we? :)

Do as spUrr said though.

[spUrr]

Also have a look here http://wiki.squid-cache.org/Features/DelayPools?highlight=%28faqlisted.yes%29 about the delaypool feature of a Squid proxy. hehe. Traffic shaping is a complex affair!

[Sparky101]

With a basic consumer Broadband service which I assume you have you cannot do what you want to. That's because the downstream traffic can only be limited or prioritised by the ISP before it's sent towards you, so nothing you can do on your home router. The only thing you can control is upstream QoS whereby you could on a router which supports QoS prioritise the traffic being sent from your network towards the ISP. But I don't think this is what you're looking for.

[Wolfbane]

Traffic shaping is really what you're after. Your router cannot do it and mac address filtering is about as close as it can get.. but still miles away! Fork out some hefty $$ for one that can or have a multihomed machine running something like 'ipcop', between a modem/router connected to the internet and the rest of your network. I always feel dis-illusioned when I go hunting for a cheap solution using this :dontgetit:

Routers that support QoS can't be that expensive, the one I have from my ISP (Thomson TG585 v7) supports it...

[Technique]

Thanks guys. Sounds too complicated for me. I best just leave it then & remain being angry :) lol

With a basic consumer Broadband service which I assume you have you cannot do what you want to. That's because the downstream traffic can only be limited or prioritised by the ISP before it's sent towards you, so nothing you can do on your home router. The only thing you can control is upstream QoS whereby you could on a router which supports QoS prioritise the traffic being sent from your network towards the ISP. But I don't think this is what you're looking for.

Ah is that how QoS works? I thought it was a 2 way thing. Looks like even that wont work then either.

Worth a thought i guess.

[MS Bob 11]

Linksys routers with QoS certainly allow setting it up per MAC address, per app, or per Ethernet port. I know because mine does even with stock firmware (and of course DD-WRT) and I have set it up that way. A router should do the job for you.

[HawkMan]

Linksys routers with QoS certainly allow setting it up per MAC address, per app, or per Ethernet port. I know because mine does even with stock firmware (and of course DD-WRT) and I have set it up that way. A router should do the job for you.

Except as has been said, it'll only be usefull for upstream. For downstream, it'll be counterproductive, s the only thing you'll do is throw away packaged the router has already received. So the data has to be sent to you again.

[MS Bob 11]

I see. Didn't realise this. Then I guess throttling the app is one compromise.

[spUrr]

QoS and 'traffic shaping' aren't really the same thing, although QoS would carry out some degree of 'traffic shaping'

That's because the downstream traffic can only be limited or prioritised by the ISP before it's sent towards you, so nothing you can do on your home router. The only thing you can control is upstream QoS whereby you could on a router which supports QoS prioritise the traffic being sent from your network towards the ISP. But I don't think this is what you're looking for.

Well sure the ISP can shape packets going to your router, but if the router of network appliance is capable then you can shape packets to your hearts content, to and from the clients on your lan. Have a look here http://www.dd-wrt.com and get a router that supports it, as this is probably one of the cheapest options.

[HawkMan]

sigh. useless for downstream still.

[spUrr]

Oh and I wouldn't hesitate to put that dgteam firmware on the router you have at present.. Who knows, it might give you what you want for free! Restore original firmware if not - how easy is that!

[-Alex-]

Just a thought, but I'd be very surprised if someone hadn't written a piece of software to be installed on a PC to do this. Then you could just set that PC to be the gateway, and have XYZ software limit it...

[spUrr]

Oh and I wouldn't hesitate to put that dgteam firmware on the router you have at present.. Who knows, it might give you what you want for free! Restore original firmware if not - how easy is that!

sigh. useless for downstream still.

But it is from the router to the clients on the lan that need it anyway. If client 'A' has more priority than client 'B' on LAN then router feeds packets to client 'A' before client 'B'... Website loads on client 'A' machine first. If 'A' is downloading and using all available bandwidth then 'B' stalls to wait.

[spUrr]

http://www.dd-wrt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=430435&sid=1d4340920a326c44c99c46f3dbf63f01 Looks like 'traffic shaping' is supported!

A rough difference between QoS and 'traffic shaping'

[HawkMan]

No, the important bit is the bottle neck that is ISP->modem/router from router to clients there's no issue. with local QoS and traffic shaping on downstream you're just throwing away stuff thta's already passed the bottleneck.

More importantly QoS on the upstream will in most cases fix any problems anyway since that's usually what slows you down, a clogged upstream will make your downstream slower since you can't request new packages fast enough. so you won't get full or even close to full use of the downstream you have available.

[spUrr]

Although, I don't believe the traffic shaping router is throwing away packets...yet. The router sees 2 packets coming in: 1 to client 'A' and 1 to client 'B' ... The traffic shaping router sees that client 'A' has more priority than client 'B' and thus delivers the packet first to client 'A' | If the bandwidth is fully utilized then to achieve required throughput to client 'A', packets to client 'B' must be dropped. I believe this is what he wants.

My ISP throttles me back to 64kbps if we go over the monthly cap. But i'm still able to 'shape' those packets even so, to allow more priority of that 64kb of bandwidth to a particular client.

[HawkMan]

But, shaping is pointless at that point, it's already past the bottle neck, of only risk throwing the away, there's no other benefit at that in in the chin.