Need to split bandwidth (upload and download) 50:50

[MarcLister]

My brother and I share my ADSL broadband line after years of us wasting money by having one line each. Since my ADSL is at about 6.5Mb and his 2Mb we decided we would share mine.

This saves Mum about £40 a month which is a very good thing.

Now of course we have problems with sharing the bandwidth equally. Whenever he experiences lagging in games he'll automatically suspect me of using too much bandwidth when I am torrenting. This is despite me either setting the upload to 10Kb or not torrenting at all. So I have to deal with him assuming that he should be getting all 6.5Mb of the line and if he isn't then its obviously my fault.

So we either need some hardware or software that will limit us both to half the bandwidth each, both upload and download. I have a Netgear DG384PN router, can we do anything with this or do we need a new router?

To compound the issue, this is only needed when I am home from Uni. So Xmas/Easter/Summer etc. Also this is my last year so I could be getting a job away from home, in which case we wouldn't need all this aggro, or I could be living at home for a while before getting a deposit together for my own place, in which case we would need a solution that works full time.

I'm not too bothered about spending some cash on this, but I would prefer a hardware solution rather than a software solution if at all possible.

[Jay]

Lag / ping in game is not to do with bandwith its about packet priority. If you are bothing playing an fps then the router will have to choose what packet needs to be sent first.

[listy]

iirc dlink had a gaming router that would make gaming traffic a priority and anything would not be as important

[MarcLister]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. We don't both game online. So that isn't the problem. It is my brother who is the big problem here, he thinks he's entitled to perfect bandwidth and pings etc. He always comes up here to see if I'm torrenting when he's having problems. When I say it could be the gaming server he's using, he always says that it's the same server he always uses. Yeah and it's always going to be that fast? No chance of it being pushed to its maximum then?!

As for this Dlink gaming router, I'm not even going to consider that. Nothing against you listy, it's just that I want a solution that is 50:50 and does not favour him or me (more likely him tbh )

[listy]

you could maybe get a tool called netlimiter(think its called that anyway) and limit it via that but his ping will still be high if you are torrenting tbh

you could also limit it with qos bit of googling will find info on that

same happens here when my wife is downloading and im playing dont really matter how much i limit it on this pc i still get high ping on other so i just come and turn it off when i need too

[MarcLister]

Right, so it doesn't matter how fast I'm torrenting, his ping will suffer anyway?

What is it about the torrenting that is affecting his ping? The uploading or downloading, or both?

Does my router need to support QOS or is this something I can implement on our PCs?

[arthurleung]

Don't think there is any way to solve your problem really, even downloading at 20KB/s will increase on ping value considerably.

Not to mention most ISPs use packet shaping during peak hour which will also increase the ping, and cause the top speed to drop to like 2Mbps. Probably he doesn't feel the connection as slow if you don't use the line (when there isn't actually any difference) which is a psychological deception.

Downloading + Gaming don't mix.

You can always set Bittorrent to run between 2am-8am or so then everyone is happy. Not like Bittorrent run fast in peak hour anyway.

QoS will probably not help you here because the bottleneck is typically NOT your router but the ISP.

You can easily proof (or counterproof) it to him, by running a software called PRTG and measure the ping value (to his fav game server for example) throughout the day.

[MarcLister]

Probably he doesn't feel the connection as slow if you don't use the line (when there isn't actually any difference) which is a psychological deception.

Yeah, once or twice he's come up here asking me if I'm torrenting and uTorrent is shut so either it's in his mind or it's the servers he's using.

You can always set Bittorrent to run between 2am-8am or so then everyone is happy. Not like Bittorrent run fast in peak hour anyway.

Ironically that is when he's more likely to be gaming. He doesn't follow normal hours. So when I'm up he's asleep and when I'm asleep he's gaming. There is a bit of overlap in our daily routines mind.

One major problem I have is that my brother has this friend on MSN from Holland. What this friend of his says regarding IT goes, so I have to battle hard to get my argument across. It is quite annoying that he listens to his friend in Holland but I have to sort things out because it's me here and not his friend. Tbh I'm surprised his friend hasn't told him that it doesn't matter how fast I download/upload with uTorrent since just torrenting will harm his precious ping.

You can easily proof (or counterproof) it to him, by running a software called PRTG and measure the ping value (to his fav game server for example) throughout the day.

What info would I need? The server IP address? And is this PRTG thing free?

[Lourdes]

QoS can solve your problems so long as you also limit your up/down speed in your client, in netlimiter (good app) or both - so as not to completely saturate the connection. Unfortunately as far as I can tell your router doesn't support QoS.

[HSK]

i recomend netlimter aswell, which is mentioned in the thread, i've used it in the past.

[digit]

To be honest you could just both agree amongst yourselves when one wants to play games online and the other wants to use bit torrent. Simplier and far easier surely? Works very well at home and at uni. Also I'd recommend getting a subscription to rapidshare as in my own experience you get far faster speeds downloading files, compared to bit torrent. Plus your isp won't traffic shape your connection.

[MarcLister]

QoS can solve your problems so long as you also limit your up/down speed in your client, in netlimiter (good app) or both - so as not to completely saturate the connection. Unfortunately as far as I can tell your router doesn't support QoS.

I will look into this. So its either Netlimiter or a new router?

i recomend netlimter aswell, which is mentioned in the thread, i've used it in the past.

So we could limit both our PCs to 50% of the upload and 50% of the download?

To be honest you could just both agree amongst yourselves when one wants to play games online and the other wants to use bit torrent. Simplier and far easier surely? Works very well at home and at uni. Also I'd recommend getting a subscription to rapidshare as in my own experience you get far faster speeds downloading files, compared to bit torrent. Plus your isp won't traffic shape your connection.

You haven't met my brother. We don't agree on things at the best of times.

[Lourdes]

I will look into this. So its either Netlimiter or a new router?

Both. Limiting software isn't perfect so you still get soem interruptions unless your router is being smart about prioritisng traffic.

[Zak33]

You need a Draytek Vigor Router. Mine splits bandwidth for all 4 ports. It's ace and is an old 2600.

Welcome to DrayTek UK - Vigor Routers

Vigor 2800 ADSL2+ Router, Firewall and VPN Device - Vigor 2800 has Rate Control

Session/Bandwidth Limiting per LAN Client - prevent users hogging bandwidth

[peterb]

I haven't used this myself, and I don't know how effective it would be, but you might want to look at this

cFosSpeed, faster Internet access with Traffic Shaping

(Alternatively - since it is a problem only when you are at home - and your brother has exclusive use of the line at other times - tell him to put up and shut-up - but then I was never in the running for the Condoleeza Rice Diplomacy Prize!)

[MarcLister]

I haven't used this myself, and I don't know how effective it would be, but you might want to look at this

cFosSpeed, faster Internet access with Traffic Shaping

Thanks. I'll look at that now.

(Alternatively - since it is a problem only when you are at home - and your brother has exclusive use of the line at other times - tell him to put up and shut-up - but then I was never in the running for the Condoleeza Rice Diplomacy Prize!)

Neither am I, and I don't see why I should. I might just tell him that he'll have the full 6Mb to himself for over half the year and to just put up with things when I'm back home.