Recommended Posts

Hello! This post will be long but I need some help.

I have recently run into an interesting dilemma and need some advice. I'm in college and live in a large house with a lot of other people. I have my own internet connection in my room, and up to now everyone in the house used another kids internet connection. He recently disabled his internet because nobody was paying him even though they used his connection. SO a few people came to me asking if they could use mine for a few days, and being the nonconfrontational person that I am, I gave them the info.

Well now everyone in the house is using it, and I have 15 separate devices connected to my wireless router. Now I could just change the password, but it would no doubt be an endless cycle, and as I said I hate confrontation. So I really want to set up a custom router so that I can control what is going on.

I'm considering two options, either buying an older used computer(<100$) and turning it into a software router, or putting custom firmware on a router. I was hoping you guys could help me figure out which would be better for me, because I can't decide.

I have to be able to limit bandwidth to users, because I payed for a separate connection in the first place so that I could have quick internet all to myself. I have a few roommates that I know torrent illegally like crazy, and I don't want to deal with that, so I want to be able to block that and be able to set up a terms of use agreement splash page. I would really really like to be able to set up a pay to use thing, so I don't even allow them to connect unless I've gotten money for the month (to completely avoid what happened to the other kid).

I've read some articles about both methods, and I still can't decide. I'm a computer science major and just the thought of setting up a linux box and learning all of the network stuff and implementing it myself gets me excited, but I am kind of pressed for time too. I also wouldn't mind having a file/media server.

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas? I just don't know where to start.

Anything that can run tomato firmware, or a router that has a guest network feature.

With tomatoUSB from shabby or toastman you can set up a bandwidth limit within the QoS menu on the same ranges your DHCP scope. You then set all your own devices to static up in dhcp on the router(not on the devices).

Or if you use a router with a guest network feature, I believe you can set up BW limits on the guest network, us I'm not sure. Of course with tomato you could also set up a feature where they would have to pay to your Paypal account for noter net access, which seems the fair option ;)

  • Like 1

WPA Enterprise will let you give each user a different username and key but needs an external computer with a radius installed, You might want to look at the Cisco (not Linksys) 87x series which are going cheap online these days.

Anyone with any experience with a software router solution rather than a hardware solution? What advantages/disadvantages does running an older computer as a router have over running customer firmware on a hardware router? (Other than more power consumption)

Build a pfsense box and get an amped wireless!!!

For the wireless stuff

Pfsense is really powerful enterprise grade router software you install on a pc.

you tune their bandwidth down with the right router and let it go. its been a long time for me since school but i recall seeing some real payback when you take something away. if that orange juice taste funny you will know why.....just saying something to think about.

If you have the time and wanting to learn something good go with pfSense (look at their website, you'll find good stuff there) but if you don't have time go with the already suggested Tomato firmware or ww-drt on an old router (read the specs of the firmware because they don't support all routers and hardwares) it's easy to set up and you'll like how it looks too. ;)

pfSense:

www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=43

Tomato:

www.polarcloud.com

ww-drt:

www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

Good luck and please post if ya need further help.

Nabz0r, I think you got that backwards.. It's not WW-DRT. Even your link says DD-WRT, lol. :p

I used ptSense in the past. Awesome software.

(OT: CJ33, I miss Vivi :( )

Your going to have to learn how to deal with confrontation if you plan on coexisting in the real world.

Change the password - and be done with it. When they ask you to use it again for "a couple" of days. That has already passed, and it seems you like to share since now there are 15 people using it, etc.

Going forward.

If you go with say pfsense on your own hardware - you could setup a captive portal that allow for vouchers (version 2.x of pfsense). And you could limit the bandwidth as well. You could create vouchers that are good for say different periods of time be it 1 hour, be it 24, 7 days, month, etc.. Then as they give you money you give them the voucher number that matches up with that amount of time. Once they put in the voucher number - clock starts ticking. Once time is up they loose access and would have to pay for new voucher number.

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Captive_Portal_Vouchers

  On 05/11/2012 at 15:56, Mindovermaster said:

Nabz0r, I think you got that backwards.. It's not WW-DRT. Even your link says DD-WRT, lol. :p

LOL! It was 6 in the morning and I was on the train on my way to work and I am glad that this was the only mistake I made. :p

Back to topic:

How did it go? Any updates?

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...

I have a similar situation and I throttle devices with abandon. I use the stock software on a newish Linksys router. The stock firmware will do what you want it to, but its really your call on that. Getting it all setup is the time consuming part, obviously, but it can be done. My router now features a parental control feature. You can time allow/disallow devices-I LOVE THIS.

I also agree with the bit about charging people for using your bandwidth. Fair is fair.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I'd switch to the new outlook readily ... if it was not such utter dogshit! Trying to replace the original Outlook with all it's functionality with that knock-off mobile app is downright insulting.
    • Yeah, it seemed like a bunch of 2D decal assets to me, so I didn't think it would be a huge issue to replace them. Assuming, of course, that Sony didn't just decide to settle and pay the artist instead. Do we know if that happened?
    • No worries, I wasn't pointing to your post specifically at all. I was talking in general and building upon your idea.
    • This 2TB NVMe Gen4 SSD is priced just $94 and you also get a free 64GB UHS-I memory card by Sayan Sen A few days ago, we reported on Team Group's T-FORCE G50 4TB NVMe SSD that was up for grabs at just $200 thanks to a promo coupon. Sadly, that deal has expired although you can still WD's SN8100 (Gen5) and SN7100 (Gen4) offerings as they are still running the discount. If you don't have the budget for those or are shopping for lower capacity drives then Crucial's T500 Gen4 drive discount is still live, and you can get them for just $125. And while the G50 4TB deal has expired, Team Group is now offering its 2TB model at its lowest ever price and you also get a free Micro SD card with it. The Team Group G50 is also a TLC (triple level cell) NAND flash SSD, and thus the endurance on the T-FORCE SSD is quite good, as it is rated for 1300 TBW (terabytes written) for the 2TB variant. Its MTBF, or Mean Time Between Failure, is claimed at 3,000,000 hours. The operating temperature is 0~70 C. The G50 does not have a dedicated DRAM cache (only the G50 Pro SKUs have it), but since it is based on NVMe version 1.4 which supports HMB (host memory buffer) technology; thus, the drive can use system memory for caching. In terms of performance, Team Group promises sequential read and write speeds of up to 5000 MB/s and 4500 MB/s, respectively. However, the firm does not disclose random throughput metrics. Get the Team Group G50 at the link below (deal is said to be ending in less than 10 hours): Team Group T-FORCE G50 SSD (TM8FFE002T0C129) + Team Group 64GB Elite microSDXC UHS-I U3, V30, A1, Micro SD with SD Adapter, to 100MB/s (TEAUSDX64GIV30A103): $105.99 + $12 off with promo code SSETA665 (Shipped and Sold by Newegg US) This Amazon deal is US-specific and not available in other regions unless specified. If you don't like it or want to look at more options, check out the Amazon US deals page here. Get Prime (SNAP), Prime Video, Audible Plus or Kindle / Music Unlimited. Free for 30 days. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      Ian_ earned a badge
      First Post
    • Explorer
      JaviAl went up a rank
      Explorer
    • Reacting Well
      Cole Multipass earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Reacting Well
      JLP earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      Rhydderch earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      646
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      269
    3. 3
      Michael Scrip
      218
    4. 4
      +FloatingFatMan
      184
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      146
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!