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Running an app if bandwidth use drops

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nosh:
If I leave my download manager on while using Firefox, the browsing is not that smooth. I generally stop the bandwidth guzzlers when I browse but then I forget to start them if I walk off the PC or start working on offline apps. I've been trying to figure out how to start a bandwidth guzzling app automatically when my bandwidth stays below a specific limit for a certain amount of time. I've managed to do this in a roundabout way using DShutdown (a powerful app with a messy interface) and an app built on my own system in conjunction. Dshutdown does exactly what I want but it's built with powering off the system as its primary purpose, so it disables itself once it starts the download manager. My app helps to overcome this limitation by re-enabling Dshutdown.

I stayed away from bandwidth throttling tools assuming they would stop my download manager going full speed when I'm not using the net. I was wondering if I did a poor job of reinventing the wheel here. Is there a cleaner/more straightforward way to achieve this?

Lashiec:
Would NetLimiter with the "Grants" system do the job?

Grant is a brand-new feature in NetLimiter 2. It could seem similar to limits, but it works differently. When you set grant for application or connection, then it means that you grant specified bandwidth for it. If other application/connections take too much bandwidth, then it is taken from them and is given to application/connection with granted bandwidth.

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Hmmm, there MUST be some other alternative to NetLimiter though, but I'm not aware of any other...

nosh:
From the face of it, I don't think it'd work in my case. Firefox is always running on my system, so I'm guessing, if I grant X kbps to Firefox that's always going to be reserved for Firefox, even when I'm not using it. Or is a grant only implemented when the application that's been granted the bandwidth demands it? I suppose it depends on how intelligently NetLimiter implements these things. When it comes to bandwidth throttling apps though I have a bad gut feeling that there will be some bandwidth lost from the total when I start capping apps.

Lashiec:
Check out the features. I think it's possible to create a rule that says: "If Firefox does not use x amount of banwidth for y amount time, grant bandwidth to z application".

But on second though, it would be better for you a application that worked like this: "If the computer is left unattended for x time, start apps y and z" and combine that with NetLimiter so the downloading apps could get some juice while Firefox is not using any bandwidth, or throttle them when Firefox is loading a page. Or ditch NetLimiter and kill apps yourself when you return to the computer ;D

I'm sure that an application capable of starting apps by itself complete with an internal timer can be done in AutoHotkey. A new Coding Snack! :)

nosh:
Thanks for the input, Lashiec.

This is getting complicated.  ;D

"If Firefox does not use x amount of banwidth for y amount time, grant bandwidth to z application".
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OK, but what if I'm using another app, say Opera instead of Firefox? What if I've started a bittorrent download and don't need bandwidth for the download manager? Netlimiter seems to set hard and fast rules and looks like a problem waiting to happen in the long run. Unless an elegant solution comes along I'm going to have to stay with DShutdown + home made app.

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