How to limit other user's bandwidth...

Hi all… I have 5 housemates and we are using the same slow WiFi connection… It's fine when all the people are only browsing, but they may download and streaming… And whenever they do that, they will take all the bandwidth and every other user will be slow… I have been searching on google on how to limit other user's bandwidth… But what I get is a NetLimiter, Network LookOut, Cisco Network Magic Pro, I had installed them but some of them have to be installed in other people's computer to be able to limit their bandwidth or it just doesn't work. I have heard about NetCut, but I can't find NetCut which can be used in my OS(Windows 7)… If u guys have any other way to limit other people's bandwidth without installing some kind of program on their laptop, pls tell me…

Thanks a lot…

You can be dirty and send things at their computers. BackTrack has everything you need to do that. I don't condone illegal activity. :ninja:

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/resource_files/firewalls/Bandwidth-Limiting-HOWTO/

But that does involve getting a linux server, however i would think most of the services would be installable on any linux machine?

Might be worth investigating further?

There are only two ways this can be done:

1. Install programs on their machine
2. Set up your machine to be the router for the network

You can't simply limit their bandwidth from your desktop machine, you'll have to configure your network for your desktop to be a router. After that, I'm not sure if there is software that's capable of doing this easily on Windows. You might need Linux for this one.

Personally, I don't think what you're trying to do is worth the hassle, so perhaps check your router admin page for options that might be helpful.

Thanks a lot for the responses… I'll try to learn about linux then…

Just as a little hint;

If you don't want them to know about it you can set DHCP to issue the default gateway as the address of whatever your machine is once you have the software and services on it.

They will never know anything has changed :)

The best way to do it is squid, if you have an old box (PII) with 128 M+ of ram you could install a light weight linux distro and install squid on it. to use it as a wireless router you will need a wireless card too installed on that box.

i would recommend antix or slitaz as a light weight linux.

using squid you can limit speed per IP, max download file size, max concurrent connections, filter out some sites. and also limiting access to some IP addresses only, Squid also will reduce bandwidth consumption as it will cache some file that are requested often by users on your network.

total mony needed, less than a $100, did one for an internet cafe for a friend of mine and the coast was $50 for the box and $25 for the wireless card.