WiFi network bandwidth limit

Hi,

Our house uses a Wifi Belkin cable router with up to 7 users (54G
cards)on a 2Mb line.

The problem is as soon as 1 person decides to download, others usually
lose their bandwidth to the point that no traffic goes through (except
person downloading).

The router firmware doesn't appear to be able to handle bandwidth
limits (no option on interface) so am stuck trying to balance the share
of bandwidth between users, in order to garantee that ALL can be online
at the same time.

Does anyone know of a solution excluding an internet gateway server?
Maybe somes soft client that can be installed on the culprit machines
(or inconsiderate users!)? any ideas?

Thanks,

Oli

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <1131064050.986028.210840@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups .com> on 3 Nov 2005
16:27:31 -0800, "nightfrog" <nightfrogs@gmail.com> wrote:

>Our house uses a Wifi Belkin cable router with up to 7 users (54G
>cards)on a 2Mb line.
>
>The problem is as soon as 1 person decides to download, others usually
>lose their bandwidth to the point that no traffic goes through (except
>person downloading).

I suspect the real problem is uploading (e.g., when file sharing). On pure
download, all active clients will get roughly equal priority. But if the
uplink gets saturated, then downlink goes to hell for everyone. If this is
the case, then a good bet would be a router that can throttle uplink by
client.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

On 3 Nov 2005 16:27:31 -0800, "nightfrog" <nightfrogs@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Our house uses a Wifi Belkin cable router with up to 7 users (54G
>cards)on a 2Mb line.
>
>The problem is as soon as 1 person decides to download, others usually
>lose their bandwidth to the point that no traffic goes through (except
>person downloading).
>
>The router firmware doesn't appear to be able to handle bandwidth
>limits (no option on interface) so am stuck trying to balance the share
>of bandwidth between users, in order to garantee that ALL can be online
>at the same time.
>
>Does anyone know of a solution excluding an internet gateway server?
>Maybe somes soft client that can be installed on the culprit machines
>(or inconsiderate users!)? any ideas?

Hi Oli,

I had the same when playing a ping / lag sensative internet
'shoot-em-up' type game and my daughter fired up MSN / web cam ;-(

I resolved it by installing Netlimiter on her PC and throttling
Messenger to a reasonable bandwith. Ok her cam isn't as fast as it
could be (but it works) and she can still use her PC for more
'serious' work (homework) like browsing the web and checking her mail
at a shared speed (and I don't get killed so quickly) ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

p.s. She is 'happy' with this solution as the alternative was no cam
at all ;-)

On 3 Nov 2005 16:27:31 -0800, "nightfrog" <nightfrogs@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Our house uses a Wifi Belkin cable router with up to 7 users (54G
>cards)on a 2Mb line.
>
>The problem is as soon as 1 person decides to download, others usually
>lose their bandwidth to the point that no traffic goes through (except
>person downloading).
>
>The router firmware doesn't appear to be able to handle bandwidth
>limits (no option on interface) so am stuck trying to balance the share
>of bandwidth between users, in order to garantee that ALL can be online
>at the same time.
>
>Does anyone know of a solution excluding an internet gateway server?
>Maybe somes soft client that can be installed on the culprit machines
>(or inconsiderate users!)? any ideas?

I've been using DummyNet for bandwidth management (and traffic
imparement simulation).
http://info.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/ip_dummynet/
It runs from a floppy disk or CF card on any PC with two ethernet
cards. Not exactly a gateway server but possibly useable. It would
probably be easier to buy a Linksys WRT54G which includes QoS
features.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Thanks guys,

i doubt my housemates would be happy with me installing a client o
their pc so it's gonna have to be a new router.

Thank you all for your advice!.

Oli