RE: bandwidth regulator using Linux


Subject: RE: bandwidth regulator using Linux
From: Steve McGrane (mcsteve@globaltap.com)
Date: Tue Feb 05 2002 - 17:55:09 MST


I took a look at this, and was wondering if there is anyway to run it on the
box in question, instead of on a router or gateway?

I have a customer that wants to limit his inbound traffic, and I would
prefer to have his box do it.

- Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: nathan r. hruby [mailto:nhruby@arches.uga.edu]
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 1:34 PM
To: yellowdog-general@lists.yellowdoglinux.com
Subject: Re: bandwidth regulator using Linux

On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Mr Bear wrote:

> My friend has a baby (small) wireless network based on 802.11b.
> One of the users on the network has taken to hogging the
> entire bandwidth out to the internet.
>
> Is there a way to take a Linux box and put it between the
> network and the internet and limit bandwidth to specific IP addresses ?
> If so, what Linux application is required to do this ?
>

Yes. Recent linux kernels incude support for traffic shaping, which is
what you want, it will also have to serve as a gateway / IP MASQ router.
Use Google to look for the HOWTO's and relevent documentation

This should get you started:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Traffic+Shaping+Linux

I might add, that a better way to solve the problem is to talk to the
offending users and ask them to ease up on the network usage -- perhaps
explaining how WiFi works and that it is a shared bandwidth technology. If
that serious a problem and the user is unresponsive to your requests or is
unwilling to be a polite network neighbor, change the WAP key and don't
give then the new onem perhaps even for a day and take some stats on how
the network improved and show them to the offending user.

This is a human/user based problem, and the only way to *really* fix it is
to deal with the user, not the problem, which is really just a symptom.
You'll probaly find that the user is unaware that he/she is using as much
bandwidth as they think, or something else (MS-based worm, cracked
computer on the offending users 'net, etc..) is causing the bandwidth
usage.

Also, your Access Point might also allow you to restrict traffic to
certian ports or restrict access to specfic times of day (my linksys
WAP/cable router will do both). Thus removing another machine on your
netowrk to possibly cause problems later on down the line.

-n

--
......
nathan hruby - nhruby@arches.uga.edu
computer support specialist
department of drama and theatre
http://www.drama.uga.edu/
......



This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Tue Feb 05 2002 - 18:07:52 MST