Greetings all,

I live in a flat and I am currently sharing a 3 Mbps ADSL connection
with 2 flat mates. Problem is, we all split the monthly ADSL
subscription fee evenly between ourselves but sometimes a few of them
are leeching the overall bandwidth unscrupulously via a variety of P2P
programs (i.e. Kazaa, Limewire, BitTorrent etc) without giving any
consideration to others.

My current network configuration (due to wiring difficulties across the room
to the router) is 2 PC?s connected to a switch, and the switch is then
connected to the ADSL router. There?s a computer (not the
administrators) connected directly to the router. I have tried using
the software Bandwidth Controller on the client?s PC but it is highly
ineffective as the client PC with Bandwidth Controller installed would
flood the router with UDP/TCP packets, therefore effectively denying
any network access of other computers.

Are there any cost-effective way where I can distribute the ADSL
bandwidth evenly between the 3 of us (i.e. 1 Mbps/person)? I have
administrator access to the router as well as physical access to the
phone line.

Thanks for your help! I consider myself with an advanced knowledge
with computer systems, so the answer would best suit people with sound
knowledge with computers. Generous tip will be offered for anyone who
can give me the best practical and cost-effective option.

Cheers and have a great day!

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 01 Aug 2006 04:48 PDT

cronula-ga,

Can you clarify what the problem is?

Is your flat mates use of P2P bandwidth affecting your montly fees? 
Interfering with your access?  Causing ethical concerns? Or merely
annoying the heck out you?

It would help to have a clearer understanding of the situation.

Thanks,

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by cronula-ga on 01 Aug 2006 05:06 PDT

Hi there pafalafa-ga 

Our monthly ADSL plan has a 10GB cap/month, as soon as the bandwidth
cap has been reached our ISP will throttle our speeds from 3Mbps to a
mere 64Kbps

So I guess my flat mates actions does significantly affect my monthly
bandwidth cap, and it does interfere with the access of other
computers on the network because as soon as he starts downloading we
couldn't access to the network *at all*. And yes, this is annoying the
heck out of me too :D

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 01 Aug 2006 09:24 PDT

Hi cronula,

Here are two possibilities, see what you think. 

SoftPerfect Bandwidth Manager will allow you to put bandwidth limits on each user.

1) SoftPerfect Bandwidth Manager
Lite edition - free to try ($35)
"SoftPerfect Bandwidth Manager is a full-featured traffic management
tool for Windows that offers cost-effective bandwidth control and
quality of service based on built-in prioritized rules. These rules
can specify a bandwidth limit for each Internet user..."
http://www.softperfect.com/products/bandwidth/

2) PRTG Traffic Grapher is free for three users and will send email
notifications to your flat mates when they reach their limits.

PRTG Traffic Grapher V5.3.0.833/834 
Bandwidth and Network Usage Monitoring Made Easy
Notifications
 * For each sensor individual email notifications can be configured
that notify about
  o Errors (e.g. device is not reachable)
  o Reaching traffic limits (e.g. more than x MB transferred per day or month)
  o Reaching traffic or usage thresholds (e.g. more than 700kbit
bandwidth for more than one hour)
http://www.paessler.com/prtg

PRTG Freeware Edition
"Free for personal and commercial use and limited to three sensors."
http://www.paessler.com/prtg/download

I will look forward to your reply,
hummer

cronula-ga, what's the make and model of your router?

You can limit bandwidth in different ways based on your router's QOS feature.

For instance, the Linksys WRT54G, has QOS feature that can prioritize
traffic by Router Port, Mac Address and IP Port #.

It does not allow one to limit the actually bandwidth speed but it
does allow you to say for instance that BitTorrent traffic (Port
6881-6889) gets low priority, which means that when you go to surf the
web or gaming and bandwidth gets tight, BitTorrent gets push to the
back of the line :D.

Let me know if your router supports this feature and if I can help
with anything else.

Thanks
  Mike