Router Q: Bandwidth thottling

[Cloq]

Do any consumer routers support bandwidth throttling/packet shaping? 4-8 port router with wireless support.

It would really help in a family situation, prevent certain members of the family from hogging all the bandwidth due using peer to peer like apps for instance.

I have tried the QoS and like approach. Really doesn't seem to make a real difference.

[Perry Mowbray]

I have a young son who can use a lot of our Bandwidth at times, and I've found a gentle word will get him to throttle himself; he uses NetLimitter I think ...

[cranioscopical]

I've found a gentle word will get him to throttle himself

I should probably have posted this under new products and services but…
If all else fails, for a modest fee (plus expenses) I'll come round and throttle him for you 

[patthecat]

Check to see if the ASUS RT-N12 or ASUS RT-N13 fits your needs.  They can be found in Buy.com, Newegg.com, and jr.com. 

[JavaJones]

I would just buy something compatible with DDWRT (list here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Supported_Devices ) and use the throttling feautures built-in to the software.

- Oshyan

[Shades]

I use an old Pentium II PC (with Linux) as a router/DNS/Gateway/DHCP/Proxy/Squid/Firewall. Throttling is relatively easy to do when you can have a dedicated PC to do this kind of "heavy lifting".

Actually I have two incoming connections and diverting which user uses which connection is also relatively easy to do as well. And with Squid I have a clear picture of what everybody in the household is doing on the net as well.

By using a dedicated PC, one can use whatever (external) modem that is available at any time (a dealbreaker in my case).

[Cloq]

I would just buy something compatible with DDWRT (list here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Supported_Devices ) and use the throttling feautures built-in to the software.
- Oshyan

I was looking at DDWRT software/firmware but didn't come across anything concrete about bandwidth throttling.

[4wd]

Quite a lot of the Zyxel modem and router range support Media Bandwidth Management - they can throttle the bandwidth used depending on the traffic/IP/port/etc applicable to WAN/LAN/WLAN independently on a Priority or Fairness based model.

I use it to give priority to WLAN traffic and also throttle my downloader pc when there's HTML/email/etc traffic happening.

Otherwise, there is also cFosSpeed which I've used for years.  You can install it on all PCs and it will co-operatively prioritise the bandwidth among them giving P2P and other bulk protocols a lower priority.  It can also do online budgets based on time or volume, traffic analysis, usage graph and prioritise to favour ping time or bandwidth.

Personally, I think it's a great program and it certainly works for my network setup but you can try it for free for 30 days to see if it's suitable for your circumstances.

NOTE: I'm only a happy user of cFosSpeed, not in any way associated with the company.  I got my license for free, (by providing traffic data for my hardware/ISP), but I also bought another license.

[JavaJones]

DD-WRT should do everything you need:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Quality_of_Service

- Oshyan

[Cloq]

DD-WRT should do everything you need:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Quality_of_Service

- Oshyan

Interesting.. will have to take a look at using tc command. thanks!

@4wd - Zyxel is a bit out of my budget.. though I have had a zyxel router before and it's interface (gui) reminds me of Netgear.