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User profile for user: Nitnellav
Nitnellav Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

How do I limit my son and daughters bandwidth?

Hi,

I'm looking for a way to retake control over my home wireless network.
My son and daughter are hogging all the bandwidth which is increasingly becoming a headache for me and my wife when we either work or just surf the web.

Is there some way to limit the amount of bandwidth the kids are using?

FACTS:

Macs:
- My daughter is using a MacBook (facebook and usually has a youtube video going on)
- I'm using a MacBookPro

Pc's:
- My wife is on a PC (windows XP)
- My son is on a PC with Windows 7 or his Xbox 360 (this really seems to hog the bandwidth a lot)

Router and connection
- We are all wireless connected to a Apple Timecapsule on a 20 mbit connection.
(I've measured the connection when none are online and i'm getting about 17mbit through to my MacBookPro so the wireless connections in our house are quite good)

Message was edited by: Nitnellav

Message was edited by: Nitnellav

MacBook Pro 17 - 2.93Ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 7, 2011 6:46 AM

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13 replies
User profile for user: Bob Timmons
Bob Timmons
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
159,914 points

Mar 7, 2011 7:08 AM in response to Nitnellav

Is there some way to limit the amount of bandwidth the kids are using?


This is not possible. But, you can specify certain times of the day that the kids will be allowed to connect using Timed Access.

Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click the Access Control tab located just below the row of icons

You might want to enter "access control" in the search box of the Help menu for more details about this.
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User profile for user: Nitnellav
Nitnellav Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Mar 7, 2011 7:37 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Hi Bob,

Actually I'm already doing this. Every night at 10.30 pm in the evening I get my network back.
But this doesn't solve the problem during daytime when they get home from school.

After trawling the web i've stumbled upon something called Net Limiter for the Pc.
After looking it up, it must be something like that I need, i think.

Just for the mac.
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User profile for user: Kurt Lang
Kurt Lang
User level: Level 9
58,428 points

Mar 7, 2011 8:17 AM in response to Nitnellav

Routers sometimes have a way to do that in their admin settings. You would get the MAC address of your son's and daughter's computer, put it in the router's configuration page and set a limit.

The Netgear router I'm using doesn't have that kind of control, though it can be set to block access to any number of sites I want.

The Zyxel DSL modem I'm using can limit time. I can enter the IP address of the computer, then limit it to which days of the week and time range of day that device can access the Internet.
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User profile for user: Nitnellav
Nitnellav Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Mar 7, 2011 10:12 AM in response to Nitnellav

I'm really happy about my Time Capsule and the fact that we can share our photos etc. on its harddisk. So i can't see myself buying a new router.
I'm a bit worried about seperating the G/N bands so i won't explore that further.

I have rummaged around in my "old box of wires and gear" and found an Airport Extreme router.
I don't know how, but maybe i could somehow chain this up to the Time Capsule and make a new network for the kids on that and then keep my wife and myself on the existing Time Capsule network.

Would something like that work?
Would the 20mbit connection be shared equally across the two networks or would their network be able to suck the life out of the Time Capsule network?
And would we loose the harddisk sharing?
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User profile for user: T5GP5Ox32
T5GP5Ox32
User level: Level 3
590 points

Mar 7, 2011 10:18 AM in response to Nitnellav

I personally have used NetLimiter and it's a very useful program. Lets you see what is taking up your bandwidth and allows you to cap it. Mostly used it for myself to stop certain programs from using up more bandwidth than I wanted them to. Issue with this is if your kids are smart they could just disable it.

The best way would be to get a router that allows network shaping/bandwidth limiting and attach it to the Time Capsule. I don't know of any software besides something similar to NetLimiter and install it on each machine.
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User profile for user: T5GP5Ox32
T5GP5Ox32
User level: Level 3
590 points

Mar 7, 2011 10:44 AM in response to Nitnellav

Yeah then you're definitely going to need some hardware to shape the network to suite your needs. There's no software we can install on one computer to mess with the network on all the computers.

Some routers have this capability but I'm unaware if there's some other sort of device that gives that functionality. You may take with your ISP to see if it's possible for them to do it on their end via IP but I don't believe so as by the time it gets to them it's already clogging your network. Only way is if the Modem has the capability which I highly doubt.

Also I'm not sure how an Xbox is hogging up a 20mbit connection. The traffic it uses, unless he's constantly downloading updates, should not be a huge issue. Sounds like it could be an issue with how your network is setup or with your ISP. As someone said before setting it up to be dual channel may be all you need to do.
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How do I limit my son and daughters bandwidth?

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