How to limit wireless bandwidth?

ahmado

Posts: 48   +0
Hello,

I have a linksys WAG200G router. I would like to set a limit for my wireless bandwidth as i am sharing it with another partner. I have his MAC address.

I tried doing it using my router but it seems that it won't work. I was thinking of any softwares that can help me.

If you have any other solutions, i will be glad to hear it from you.

Regards
 
Look for the QoS settings in the router. They discriminate on the services, not the user
eg: lower bandwidth for ICQ, P2P, Stream, Facebook, BitTorrent ....
 
Look for the QoS settings in the router. They discriminate on the services, not the user
eg: lower bandwidth for ICQ, P2P, Stream, Facebook, BitTorrent ....

When i go to the QoS menu, it shows an option to enable or disable it and it shows the following:

High priority Medium priority Low priority
FTP

HTTP

Telnet

SMTP

POP3

Specific Port#

Specific Port#

Specific Port#

Please guide me through this. Can wireless be controlled through this ?

Thanks
 
Flashing the router's firmware to one by dd-wrt will do what you want - limit bandwidth based on MAC address: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Quality_of_Service

However, it doesn't look like your router is supported. If what jobeard suggests doesn't quite resolve your problem & you need to limit bandwidth by MAC, then perhaps get a refurbished/recertified modem then flash it's firmware. This 2nd router will be connected to the WAG200G, which I'm guessing was provided by your ISP.

You can take a look at this list to see what are supported: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices
 
Yes it seems that the QoS suggestion will not solve my problem. As you said, my router is not supported by dd-wrt.
Could you please explain what is a recertified modem ?

I appreciate all your replies here. Thanks :)
 
The first reply was aimed at controlling the DATA streams (ie the usage).
You apparently want to totally impact a specific machine, which frequently is a massive over reaction imo. Why two users can't read email and surf with browsers and equal services is parochial.
 
As far as I know, it's basically open box/used item. But the item has been checked by the vendor and probably has some sort of warranty. And of course cheaper. I bought a recertified Linksys wireless router from Newegg years ago. Don't remember what warranty it came w/, probably 30 days. I wanted a repeater but didn't want to pay too much if it didn't work out. Read about dd-wrt and gave it a try. It worked out.
 
THe answer is simpler than that.

Make sure you have a modem that supports dual SSIDs.

Your first SSID is hidden, accessible and seeable only by your devices.

The second is his/hers.

If their quota usage is getting too high for the month, change the password for the SSID, and they are insta-blocked.

Works very well, just make sure you change the router access password from default.
 
You can just get an additional wireless router, a $30 one, and plug it into the back of the modem to give yourself a dual SSID.
 
THe answer is simpler than that.

Make sure you have a modem that supports dual SSIDs.

Your first SSID is hidden, accessible and seeable only by your devices.

The second is his/hers.

If their quota usage is getting too high for the month, change the password for the SSID, and they are insta-blocked.

Works very well, just make sure you change the router access password from default.

Why would you suggest something draconian and *****ic like this? There's plenty of hardware available that can do what he wants w/o outright blocking someone, in fact, I'm certain any wireless router that has multi-SSID capabilities also has at least more than basic QoS settings.

To ahmado:

There are many ways you can go about this. You can, as others have suggested, look for an affordable router that is on the dd-wrt supported page and flash it with dd-wrt to enabled advanced QoS settings. You could also just buy a new router with such capabilities already built in.

I'm partial to engenius just because they've always been rock solid and I have bought several of their routers/range extenders. If you want a router with both multi-SSID broadcast and QoS bandwidth limiting, try the ESR9850, which goes for around $50-65 USD. It has gigabit ports, B/G/N wifi, and can broadcast up to 4 SSIDs. WIth it, I can restrict people by both upload and download speed (after giving them a static IP address), or I could restrict by protocols/port #s, or by a priority queue.

I currently give my own machine full access to my 32mb/5mb connection, while all other devices in the house are restricted to 16mb/1mb speeds. It works well, and I also have 2 SSIDs set up, one for the devices in the house, and another for visitors who get quicker access with a shorter/weaker password. The secondary SSID is even restricted from communicating with devices on the rest of the network that connect via the first SSID or local ports.

For your needs it'd work great, but if you're on a budget and want something more affordable, you should definitely look into the first suggestion, acquiring a used/refurbished router that's on the dd-wrt compatibility list, and flashing it with said firmware. Either route will be sufficient for your needs, as you're only looking to restrict 1 person and not a whole/multiple networks. Get back to us whenever you've decided on what you want to do.
 
Why would you suggest something draconian and *****ic like this? There's plenty of hardware available that can do what he wants w/o outright blocking someone, in fact, I'm certain any wireless router that has multi-SSID capabilities also has at least more than basic QoS settings.

The fact in, he has someone using too much bandwidth, and talking to them has obviously not worked. So the shock of being cut off completely will likely stop the issue, as the other person will realize he means what he says, when he says he will cut people off.

Occam's Razor dude.
 
Each Windows PC has QoS limit settings under GP Group Policy default is 20. 0 if you don't want to limit the QoS on a PC. 90 really high. 100 is the max limit. Also MSC (Max Session Connections can be limited by the TCP.sys. Windows OS since XP SP2 was set to 10 as with Windows 7 too. Low that on a PC you feel it should be down to 5 and set the QoS to 50. There is app called TCP Optimizer that can really cripple the PC in question too. Unless you get a Router that support managed switching or a managed switch you can also limit the throughput to half instead of full or 10 or 100 or 1000 or 10000 depends on what you working with.
 
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