ISP that allows user-based data caps or somesuch?

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parsley

59 posts

Master Geek

#108594 2-Sep-2012 14:18

Just wondering - does anyone know of a domestic ISP that allows you to specify a data cap for each user in the house? Our family usage is heavily skewed towards the teenagers but I don't know of any way to enforce a data cap across multiple devices.

Thanks for any suggestions.

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2566 posts

Uber Geek

#680394 2-Sep-2012 14:28

ISPs won't/can't offer this, you'll have to get a modem/router that will do this for you.
Potentially some of the custom firmwares will let you do it too.

sbiddle

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#680395 2-Sep-2012 14:32

This isn't something an ISP can (easily) do. Since you only have a single connection with your ISP you need to do this at your end. There are plenty of ways of doing this, typically with a router that allows a hotspot style setup for sharing between users and/or devices.

There were a couple of people in NZ who have created custom router firmware that allows this that have posted on here in the past. There are also a number of 3rd party router firmware releases that also support this. Regardless of the approach you almost certainly will need to buy new hardware. I would personally use something like a Mikrotik 750 or 751 but without a RouterOS expert to configure this you won't be going anywhere fast.

chevrolux

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#680574 2-Sep-2012 21:41

Would Gargoyle not just be the most simple way to achieve this?
Just to clarify I am reading this right... you want to allocate, for example, 10GB of data to laptop A and then when this is reached throttle the speed back?
Get a Linksys WRT54GL and load up Gargoyle firmware. Pair it with a Draytek Vigor 120 modem in bridge mode and you will be away laughing. Really easy to set up and simple to configure quotas and speed throttling.

lucky015

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#680602 2-Sep-2012 23:46

No ISP allows for separate caps on one connection, Instead I would recommend the Slingshot Unlimited plan.

Ragnor

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#680614 3-Sep-2012 01:37

Gargoyle Router is great and has a QoS, bandwidth monitoring and quota system.

I would go Draytek Vigor 120 in ppoe passthrough to TP Link TL-WR1043ND flashed with Gargoyle Router

Draytek Vigor 120: http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=464899
PPPoE Passthrough: http://www.draytek.net.nz/draytek/support/passthrough/

TP Link TL-WR1043ND: http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=529115
Gargoyle Router: http://www.gargoyle-router.com/

It's pretty easy to setup but you do have to get your hands dirty (flashing open source firmware) and a general understanding of how networking works helps.

sidefx

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#680675 3-Sep-2012 09:39

An AYCE plan isn't going to help much if you've got no decent QoS, so +1 for the Gargoyle suggestions. I used the TP Link recommended by Ragnor for a few months and it worked great; the only reason I'm not using it now is because my VDSL modem doesn't allow bridging. I'm seriously tempted to try sell my current modem so I can get one that bridges and go back to Gargoyle!

The draytek modems are defintely highly recommended by many people here, but if the cost is prohibitive I found an RTA1320 worked really well too - they can be had on trademe for ~$5.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#680680 3-Sep-2012 09:53

alternative owuld be to get a bigger cap and maybe police the teens usage more.

maybe chaneg your wifi password every week and don't let them have it unless they do all theri chores

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

parsley

59 posts

Master Geek

#680683 3-Sep-2012 09:57

I appreciate the suggestions made so far, but the trouble is that they assume:
1. Everything uses Wifi.
2. Each device belongs to a particular person.

What I'm really looking for is a solution that allows me to allocate a data cap per user. Gargoyle is a nice package but if I'm going to install OS I'll use OpenWRT, which is what Gargoyle's based on anyway. Does anyone know of a package for OpenWRT that would popup a user login for each session (possibly using cookies to prevent having to login every time) and track the data usage per user? I can see how certain devices (e.g. XBox) would be allowed past this because it doesn't really support a login.

russelo

328 posts

Ultimate Geek

#680684 3-Sep-2012 09:59

I had my trusty old Linksys WRT54GL running on dd-wrt for years. Changed the firmware recently to Gargoyle to limit my son's excessive youtube use. Never looked back.
Aside from the quota, it also logs the search and URL history. I just couldn't find a way to auto save these logs to my pc.

I've connected it to Vodafone provided Huawei hg556a with DHCP disabled.

parsley

59 posts

Master Geek

#680689 3-Sep-2012 10:04

russelo: Changed the firmware recently to Gargoyle to limit my son's excessive youtube use. Never looked back.

I looked at Gargoyle's website and it only mentioned tracking usage by device, not user. Am I missing something?

Thanks.

rhy7s

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#680714 3-Sep-2012 10:30

Depends on how much it's worth to you but you can assign per user quotas with a Zenbu router.

tonyhughes

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#680725 3-Sep-2012 10:43

Use Gargoyle.

Create groups of devices.

Give each group a quota (5GB per month, 500MB per day, whatever).

Put each device owned by each user in a group for that user.

---
First group = 'Dad'

192.168.2.100 Dads PC
192.168.2.101 Dads smartphone
192.168.2.102 Dads Wii

10GB Per month, throttles to 512KB when capped.

---
Second group = 'Mom'

192.168.2.103 Moms ipad
192.168.2.104 Moms laptop

5GB per month, throttles to 400KB when capped.

---
Third group = 'Johnnies PC and Xbox'

192.168.2.105 Johnnies Xbox
192.168.2.106 Johnnies laptop

500MB per day, blocks internet when capped.

---
Fourth group = 'Johnnies smartphone'
192.168.2.107 Johnnies smartphone

500MB per day, throttles to 128kb (good for email/IM only) when capped.
---

And so you see the possibilities.

This is baked into Gargoyle, and works great.

Set static IPs against MACs in Gargoyle, and use the feature to block access to MACs with static IPs that try and connect with a different IP. You can leave the devices on dynamic allocation, and they will pickup the static assignment from Gargoyle (nice!!).

Dont bother with anything else in my opinion!

Ragnor

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#680728 3-Sep-2012 10:47

parsley:
russelo: Changed the firmware recently to Gargoyle to limit my son's excessive youtube use. Never looked back.

I looked at Gargoyle's website and it only mentioned tracking usage by device, not user. Am I missing something?

Thanks.

You can enable static DHCP by mac address as per the post above.

Alternatively if you want a per user system has to login via webpage like hotel or cafe system the term you want to search for is "captive portal", there are packages for OpenWRT for that I believe.

sidefx

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#680729 3-Sep-2012 10:49

tonyhughes: Use Gargoyle.

Create groups of devices.

Give each group a quota (5GB per month, 500MB per day, whatever).

Put each device owned by each user in a group for that user.

I think the issue here is that if you have people sharing devices you can't seperate the usage.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

Ragnor

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#680732 3-Sep-2012 10:51

sidefx:

I think the issue here is that if you have people sharing devices you can't seperate the usage.

Yeah if that's the case what he needs is a captive portal, lots of options for this eg: pfsense, monowall, smoothwall, ipcop, zenbu, tomizone, openWRT packages, modified versions of TomatoUSB...

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