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Partitioning Bandwidth Using Mac OS X?
dasboy has this query: "I was wondering if anyone knew of away to partition bandwidth amongst a group of computers running Mac OS X? I have a [few Macintosh machines] at home all on the same LAN and all on the same Internet connection. One of these machines is used by my daughter when she's home from school. The biggest problems happen when she begins downloading large files (I'll let you guess what she downloads <grin!>). I was wondering if there are any cool BSDish ways of constricting the amount of bandwidth her computer uses?"
I'll let you guess what she downloads
I'll leave it up to everyone else with perverted minds to guess what _I_ thought of when I first read that.
I feel like a bad person now.
This statement is false.
It was porn huh?
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The biggest problems happen when she begins downloading large files (I'll let you guess what she downloads
:)
4 posts so far, 3 implying she downloads porn. You did ask for it you know
QoS on the router would be the best bet in my uninformed opinion. Other then that a download manager that throttles her bandwidth
I haven't tried it yet (1.5Mbps is plenty for all those on my home LAN), but you might want to give Throttled a shot. Certainly not the easiest to use (no GUI), but it is open source and cross platform (Linux/BSD/OS X). Basically it runs a server process that you enables bandwidth throttling in your kernel's firewall. The configuration file is simple enough to understand and is quite flexible. You can change also settings while it is running by sending it signals using the not-so-aptly-named 'kill' command in the terminal.
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QoS (Quality of Service) settings on your router might be the easiest method. I've never used it, but I know my LinkSys allows you to set priorities (High, Low) for either a specific LAN port, or a particular protocol. Assuming you know what program she is using, say LimeWire, you can also set a specific port (23, etc) to a low priority. I'd be interested to see what effect this has.
Like puzzle games? Warehouse51 for iOS
The simplest way to limit the amoutn of bandwidth she is using would be to throttle it using ipfw, the BSD firewall, you can use it either drop random packets by percentage in order to limit the bw she consumes as well as several other methods.
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Doing this should limit the connection to 300Kbit/s. If you want the connection faster or slower you simply need to change the 300Kbit/s number. 56Kbit/s should be approximately the speed of a 56K modem. The last number probably should be scaled appropriately to the first number, that is if you cut the first number in half then cut the second in half.
To learn more about pipes and dummynet, read the manpages for ipfw with the following command in the terminal:
Sapere aude!
**sigh**
This is the 4th young girl I've heard about this week succumb to the evils of Richard Simmons videos. Which is her favorite? The "Disco Blast Off", or the "Best of Latin Buns Burning"?
Or is it....no....it couldn't be...."Getting Dirty with the 80s"? Oh, the humanity!
is something I've used under OpenBSD for bandwidth throttling. Don't know if it compiles on OS X.
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...have you tried talking to her about it? :)
Well, that's what my Dad would have done.
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I assume you mean illegal MP3s. If you encourage your children to steal music and software, please be sure it's a conscious decision. Liability issues aside, you send a very clear message to your kid when you teach them that it's okay to pick and choose which laws they obey.
I have a similar requirement, in that I would like to throttle a connection on a per-server basis (on OpenBSD most likely). i.e. I would like to allow 192.168.1.2 100kb/s and 192.168.1.3 50kb/s. Is this possible? How would it be done?
- j
He said the problem is large file downloads -- i.e., downstream bandwidth. Throttling will limit upstream bandwidth, but there isn't much you can do locally about the amount of data hitting you from external sites...
Since I'm not too familiar with OS-X I don't know if this will work, but this is probably close enough to what you are looking for. LINUX Advanced Routing HOW-TO It would be interesting (to me at least) to know if the same tools apply on OS-X.
. . . is not bandwidth throttling, but rather packet prioritization. It will be unnecessarily restrictive (and not ideal for you either) to give her, e.g., 300 kbps at all times. It would be much better to give yourself all the bandwidth you want at any given moment, and give her whatever's left over. That way she could use the full bandwidth most of the time, but not interfere with your work at all in the rare moments when you need a lot of bandwidth. Unfortunately, this kind of prioritization between traffic from different hosts would have to happen in the router, so it's probably not available on your home network.
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Well, obviously her excessive downloading of the latest Ricky Martin MP3s is interfering with her Dad's excessive downloading of Girls Gone Wild - Spring Break movies.
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.