Please help me - need advice on splitting bandwidth

Hello all,

I really need some help. I live in house with two other guys in the UK.
We have a linksys wireless router and share a broadband connection.

Basically the guy downstairs is constantly downloading through torrent
engines and go knows what, he basically takes all the bandwith, and I
can just about surf the web most of the time. He actually pretended the
router was broken the other week so he could use a cable connection,
when we tested the router it worked, but it is still hard to get any of
the bandwidth at the moment.

I know what I need to do, set the router up so it shares the bandwidth
equally between the three computers, I just do not know how.

The router I have is a linksys BEFW11S4.

I have researched a little bit and found that I need to set up QoS
(Quality of Service), however I think my router is quite old as it does
not seem to have this feature.

I really am at my wits end because I rely on the internet to speak to
my family back home, as I have emigrated. I also enjoy playing games
online, but this is impossible. If I ever manage to get a good
connection he will unplug the router and plug it back in so he gets all
the bandwidth. When asked he just says the router does not work
properly, but when his computer is turned off (rarely) it works ok.

I look forward to hearing some advice. Thank you.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
View this thread: http://www.wirelessforums.org/showthread.php?t=38993
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dOn Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:15:38 -0500, Terry Arif
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
<(E-Mail Removed)>:

>I really need some help. I live in house with two other guys in the UK.
>We have a linksys wireless router and share a broadband connection.
>
>Basically the guy downstairs is constantly downloading through torrent
>engines and go knows what, he basically takes all the bandwith, and I
>can just about surf the web most of the time. He actually pretended the
>router was broken the other week so he could use a cable connection,
>when we tested the router it worked, but it is still hard to get any of
>the bandwidth at the moment.
>
>I know what I need to do, set the router up so it shares the bandwidth
>equally between the three computers, I just do not know how.
>
>The router I have is a linksys BEFW11S4.
>
>I have researched a little bit and found that I need to set up QoS
>(Quality of Service), however I think my router is quite old as it does
>not seem to have this feature.
>
>I really am at my wits end because I rely on the internet to speak to
>my family back home, as I have emigrated. I also enjoy playing games
>online, but this is impossible. If I ever manage to get a good
>connection he will unplug the router and plug it back in so he gets all
>the bandwidth. When asked he just says the router does not work
>properly, but when his computer is turned off (rarely) it works ok.
>
>I look forward to hearing some advice. Thank you.

Your BEFW11S4 is too old to solve your problem. Get one of the
supported devices and use DD-WRT firmware
<http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices>

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

On Feb 18, 10:15 am, Terry Arif <Terry.Arif.34z...@no-
mx.wirelessforums.org> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I really need some help. I live in house with two other guys in the UK.
> We have a linksys wireless router and share a broadband connection.
>
> Basically the guy downstairs is constantly downloading through torrent
> engines and go knows what, he basically takes all the bandwith, and I
> can just about surf the web most of the time. He actually pretended the
> router was broken the other week so he could use a cable connection,
> when we tested the router it worked, but it is still hard to get any of
> the bandwidth at the moment.
>
> I know what I need to do, set the router up so it shares the bandwidth
> equally between the three computers, I just do not know how.
>
> The router I have is a linksys BEFW11S4.
>
> I have researched a little bit and found that I need to set up QoS
> (Quality of Service), however I think my router is quite old as it does
> not seem to have this feature.
>
> I really am at my wits end because I rely on the internet to speak to
> my family back home, as I have emigrated. I also enjoy playing games
> online, but this is impossible. If I ever manage to get a good
> connection he will unplug the router and plug it back in so he gets all
> the bandwidth. When asked he just says the router does not work
> properly, but when his computer is turned off (rarely) it works ok.
>
> I look forward to hearing some advice. Thank you.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> View this thread:http://www.wirelessforums.org/showth...lessforums.org

You can also try cooperation with your roommates. It is possible to
reduce the bandwidth of those torrent programs. Unless you have the
only password to the new router, you will have the same issue. That
is, other people will just change the QOS.

John Navas <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>Your BEFW11S4 is too old to solve your problem. Get one of the
>supported devices and use DD-WRT firmware
><http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices>

Agreed. DD-WRT v24 RC6.2 works. I'm suprised that your BEFW11S4
doesn't crash and hang from all the P2P traffic.

Also see:
Optimization for Bittorrent to prevent crashes.
<http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Bittorrent>

Quality of Service:
<http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Qos>
<http://solosoft.org:81/projects/qos/>
under prioritization by application or MAC address.

You can also just block P2P protocols. Under "Access Restrictions"
there are a list of common P2P protocols. See:
<http://www.informatione.gmxhome.de/DDWRT/Standard/V24BetaVPN/Filters.html>
--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

<snip>

> I'm suprised that your BEFW11S4
> doesn't crash and hang from all the P2P traffic.

<snip>

Indeed, I wonder which rev. it is. In a previous post I
mentioned my troubles with that device which I have repackaged
for outdoor use. When it was subjected to many days of
below zero F temperatures, the frequent crashes vanished.
I can't say how long that will last, but it suggests some
mechanical problem with the board rather than the design.

Michael

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:13:43 -0600, msg <msg@_cybertheque.org_> wrote:

>Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>> I'm suprised that your BEFW11S4
>> doesn't crash and hang from all the P2P traffic.
>
><snip>
>
>Indeed, I wonder which rev. it is.

Most v4 mutations seem to suck. v2 seems to work. No clue on the
others.

>In a previous post I
>mentioned my troubles with that device which I have repackaged
>for outdoor use. When it was subjected to many days of
>below zero F temperatures, the frequent crashes vanished.

The specs on the BEFW11S4 are 0C to 40C.

>I can't say how long that will last, but it suggests some
>mechanical problem with the board rather than the design.

Nope. I now have 4 of the v4 losers and they all hang or crash.
However, I setup one of them with some new 1.52.06 firmware for v4
that was "leaked" out of Linksys. (1.52.02 is the latest on the
Linksys web pile). See:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/BEFW11S4v4/>
The web based update mechanism does not work due to bad checksums on
some lines. However, the TFTP upload method works just fine.

I haven't done much testing with this version. I also updated a
customers. No complaints yet, but that might be because they owe me
money.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

Terry Arif wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I really need some help. I live in house with two other guys in the UK.
> We have a linksys wireless router and share a broadband connection.
>
> Basically the guy downstairs is constantly downloading through torrent
> engines and go knows what, he basically takes all the bandwith, and I
> can just about surf the web most of the time. He actually pretended the
> router was broken the other week so he could use a cable connection,
> when we tested the router it worked, but it is still hard to get any of
> the bandwidth at the moment.

Get a Netequalizer appliance and problem solved. They start at $1,800
and they work very effectively. That's what we run.

DTC <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>Get a Netequalizer appliance and problem solved. They start at $1,800
>and they work very effectively. That's what we run.

Hmmm.... $1800 is about 5 years worth of $30/month DSL service. He
could buy the P2P addicts their own DSL service for 5 years, for the
price of the hardware. After 5 years, both the roommates and the
hardware will probably have depreciated to zero value.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

If he's plugging and unplugging the gear what makes you think he'll go along
with throttling the connection?

Who owns the equipment? Who's the subscriber to the internet service?
Unless that's you then you've got a problem that's unlikely to be going away
any time soon.

If it's your equipment and you're the person named on the account for
internet service then you might have options. You could start by setting up
a router that has features for reporting usage. Start tracking which ports
and computers are using the bandwidth. Use that as evidence in a discussion
with your roomates, especially when it comes to calculating who's going to
be paying MORE for gobbling up the bandwidth.

The next step would be to move the equipment into some sort of locked box.
Not one that blocked the wireless signal though.

You'd probably have better luck just moving out. Roomates are a pain in the
ass.

On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:00:51 -0500, "Bill Kearney"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
<(E-Mail Removed)> :

>If he's plugging and unplugging the gear what makes you think he'll go along
>with throttling the connection?
>
>Who owns the equipment? Who's the subscriber to the internet service?
>Unless that's you then you've got a problem that's unlikely to be going away
>any time soon.
>
>If it's your equipment and you're the person named on the account for
>internet service then you might have options. You could start by setting up
>a router that has features for reporting usage. Start tracking which ports
>and computers are using the bandwidth. Use that as evidence in a discussion
>with your roomates, especially when it comes to calculating who's going to
>be paying MORE for gobbling up the bandwidth.
>
>The next step would be to move the equipment into some sort of locked box.
>Not one that blocked the wireless signal though.
>
>You'd probably have better luck just moving out. Roomates are a pain in the
>ass.

Or just get your own private service.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>