change internet speed on the fly

[techidave]

I don't know what this is called but is it possible to adjust "your" computers bandwidth on the fly, to the point of others on the same access point cannot get on??  I have been searching google but am not coming up with much.

Here is what happened:
One of my teachers tried to get on his own home network with a school laptop and it was so slow that he gave up.  When he mentioned something to his son about it, he said to wait just a minute and I will turn my bandwith down.

Is this really possible?

[Deozaan]

Sounds like his son may have been torrenting something. My (basic) understanding of the torrent protocol is that it uses multiple connections to max out bandwidth. This can indeed make other browsing speeds suffer, even on the same machine.

Most torrent applications I've used allow you to limit (throttle) the connections/bandwidth used by the application so that browsing speeds aren't so negatively affected.

So, yes, it's possible.

[JavaJones]

There are also a few other possible scenarios. 1: his son had a bandwidth throttling app on his system (these exist, here's one), or (perhaps more likely?) 2: they have a router that they both connect to that has a throttling implementation of some kind, and he adjusted the priority there. Perhaps a device running DD-WRT or Tomato.

- Oshyan