Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Limiting Bandiwidth in a Shared DSL Environment?

Posted by Cliff on from the cutting-back-on-the-bandwidth-leeches dept.

stylee asks: "We have a DSL connection that runs from a Cisco 675 DSL modem to a 24 port hub. Cat 5 cable has been run to the utility closet of each unit. The condo assoc. pays for the DSL from the monthly condo fees collected. The internet connection has been terribly slow the last few days, so I did a little snooping with ethereal and found that there is an individual who is using eDonkey 2000 to download and share movies. This user is eating up all the bandwidth. I want to set up a good router that can do load balancing so that an individual can't take up all the bandwidth and I was wondering what Slashdot would recommend. I would have to do it on the condo assoc. dime so it would have to be done on the cheap. Any suggestions?"

4 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Take a cue from my university... by xoran99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What my university always did was, if a single user was using a lot of bandwidth on a constant basis, simply turn off their connectivity. When people learn to police themselves, stuff works better.

    --

    Karma: Bad (mostly due to all those "In Soviet Russia" jokes)

  2. Not too hard, cut him loose by dnight · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Refund the portion of his condo fees used for DSL, and tell him to get his own DSL line.

    If he's illegally sharing files, he won't squawk too loudly.

  3. OpenBSD or FreeBSD by plsuh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OpenBSD has support for limiting classes of bandwidth for quality of service as a part of the pf(4) firewall. See the part of the pf user's guide that covers how to do it.

    FreeBSD also has built-in support via the altq facility that is a part of the ipfw firewall.

    My druthers would be to use OpenBSD for this as it's not a CPU-bound problem and security on your router should be very high on your list of priorities.

    --Paul

  4. Didja try asking him? by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd recommend politely approaching the guy and asking him to throttle it down a bit. If he agrees, problem solved. If he refuses, cut his connection. Why spend more money to solve the problem of one abuser?

    --
    "Derp de derp."