Making a router biased to a certain PC?

[wreckedcarzz]

Hi everybody!

I have a small home network going (wired/wireless) that I need to have primary access to (I do major (5+GB) file down/uploads, game server hosting, and other heavy net usage). However my dad, having gotten into the internet, has decided to take a seat in the Web 2.0 world, and eat the life out of any bandwidth I may be getting.

So I thought that, since his PCs are wireless and my primary PC is wired, I could tell the router to make wired PCs more priority than wireless, and therefore get back my share of the internet. Does anyone know of a way to do this? I have a Linksys WRT300N Draft N router, latest firmware.

-Brandon

[f0dder]

This requires traffic shaping, either using QoS or based on things like IP addresses. And typically, your stock end-user routers are very limited in this regard

[Deozaan]

Sometimes you can schedule routers to only allow certain IPs at certain times or something like that. But that would mean totally blocking your dad's internet access during the "off" times of the schedule.

[Armando]

I guess your basically speaking of QoS (Quality of Service). I don't know if your router supports it, but if not you could probably try to flash your router with the "open source" DD-WRT router firmware : www.dd-wrt.com

hardware compatibility list (your router seems to be supported)  : http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Linksys

Wiki manual : http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page


There might be better options than DD-WRT. Have a look at this article : http://lifehacker.com/344765/turn-your-60-router-into-a-user+friendly-super+router-with-tomato


Edit : Deozan and f0dder were quicker than me...    but... maybe you'll still find something useful

[Armando]

Actually, your router might NOT be supported, depending on its version number.
v1.0 IS supported. v2 is NOT.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Known_incompatible_devices

[Armando]

And if your router is supported, here's exactly what you need to do. 

http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/ensure-a-fast-internet-connection-when-you-need-it-326543.php

[wreckedcarzz]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I went into the router's settings and over to the QoS tab, and made my PC (via MAC address) a "High" priority. Will be able to test it out tomorrow.

-Brandon

[Lashiec]

Remember that parents have less technical ways to make the routers biased to their PCs if they suspect something...

... or know how to read forums

[wreckedcarzz]

Remember that parents have less technical ways to make the routers biased to their PCs if they suspect something...

... or know how to read forums

While you may have a point, I don't think my dad (as bad as this sounds) would think to try anything to see what the new internet slowdown was. He knows how to type, click, and turn it on. Thats about it.

And in addition to that, I am the family "tech guy" and have everything related to technology in my room. It isn't like he can come over and subtly mess with it (if he can tell what it looks like then that is a surprise in itself).

[Armando]

Remember that parents have less technical ways to make the routers biased to their PCs if they suspect something...