Bandwidth Distribution Software?

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antbs

370 posts

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#26877 6-Oct-2008 14:53

Hi All

Unlike most countries NZ broadband data is capped. I'm looking for a piece of software that will distribute data to certain computers at the start of the billing cycle for those computers to use for the month.

So lets say my bandwidth data cap is 20gb and I have 4 computers running and connected to the internet. What I am looking for is at the start of the billing cycle the host PC distributes 5gb to each computer and that is the computers allowance for the month. Once the computer goes over its allowance it can either have more bandwidth distributed, bandwidth gifted from other computers or simply no internet access.

Is this at all possibe? Is there a program that already does this? I think the best way would be that no individual software needed to be installed on each computer rather the computer gets its specified data cap from a host machine.

Any ideas?

xcubed

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#169310 6-Oct-2008 15:22

You probably need to look at building your own proxy server on Windows using something like WebMarshal or WinGate (although you could probably do the same thing on Linux using Squid for free). The catch is that this will only work for HTTP/HTTPS traffic, so if you're planning on monitoring BitTorrent traffic or whatever, this won't be much use.

jpollock

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#169315 6-Oct-2008 15:29

Search freshmeat.net for "bandwidth", a bunch of projects will show up.

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raytaylor

4014 posts

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#169370 6-Oct-2008 18:45

I use a program called Kerio Winroute Firewall.
It lets me allocate bandwidth to different computers so none of my flatmates can go over their caps, unless they pay for a topup block. Works really well. Its a bit on the expensive side (work pays for my play / testing copy) but you can find cheaper alternatives.
I think there may even be a linux iso you can use or replacing the firmware in a linksys router with some firmware with chilispot features work.

What you will probably need is more than a proxy server. I would search download.com or some popular download sites (like freshmeat mentioned above) but when searching, i would use the keyword billing as well.
Wingate (kiwi made i think and pioneering in this field) features quota managment but i gave up on it a few years ago because users couldnt check their quota / balance and the 'Wingate Internet Client' software never seemed to work properly

I just did a quick search and found this
http://www.wifi.com.ar/english/cdrouter/
You download an iso file and burn it to cdrom then use an old computer with 2x network cards to act as a gateway between your network and your router. It says it has 'Traffic Control' and 'Wonder Shaper'
Free edition avaliable
oooh and i just saw it has load balancing between 2 internet connections which means if you got 2 dsl lines, you could have up to 40mbit download speeds when using p2p or a download manager if the uplink from your exchange has the capacity

Im getting all excited about this cdrouter now - i wanna try it and see what speed i can get with the neighbours and my connections. Now to find a couple of spare ap's to get their connection over to my house....

Ray Taylor

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antbs

370 posts

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#169379 6-Oct-2008 19:16

raytaylor: I use a program called Kerio Winroute Firewall.
It lets me allocate bandwidth to different computers so none of my flatmates can go over their caps, unless they pay for a topup block. Works really well. Its a bit on the expensive side (work pays for my play / testing copy) but you can find cheaper alternatives.
I think there may even be a linux iso you can use or replacing the firmware in a linksys router with some firmware with chilispot features work.

Thanks am giving Kerio Winroute Firewall a test out. Would be great to integrate it into my router. I am running a Linksys WAG54G V3, but doesnt seem to be compatible with DD-WRT or Tomato or anything else. Does this program require to be installed on each machine?

What you will probably need is more than a proxy server. I would search download.com or some popular download sites (like freshmeat mentioned above) but when searching, i would use the keyword billing as well.
Wingate (kiwi made i think and pioneering in this field) features quota managment but i gave up on it a few years ago because users couldnt check their quota / balance and the 'Wingate Internet Client' software never seemed to work properly

This might be a good option, would you have to configure each computer to work with a proxy server? Not sure how I would do this on a Mac though.. But this could be a good option as I really only need to throttle http/s traffic.

I just did a quick search and found this
http://www.wifi.com.ar/english/cdrouter/
You download an iso file and burn it to cdrom then use an old computer with 2x network cards to act as a gateway between your network and your router. It says it has 'Traffic Control' and 'Wonder Shaper'
Free edition avaliable
oooh and i just saw it has load balancing between 2 internet connections which means if you got 2 dsl lines, you could have up to 40mbit download speeds when using p2p or a download manager if the uplink from your exchange has the capacity

Im getting all excited about this cdrouter now - i wanna try it and see what speed i can get with the neighbours and my connections. Now to find a couple of spare ap's to get their connection over to my house....

Not to sure what 2x network cards are? 2 network cards? Is this neccsary if you only want to control 1 line? Looks very interesting, but I imagine computer would have to be on 24/7..

antbs

370 posts

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#169388 6-Oct-2008 19:29

jpollock: Search freshmeat.net for "bandwidth", a bunch of projects will show up.

Quite a cool site. I found a great one that just monitors bandwidth from certain IP addresses, which would be great to identify which computer is hogging

jpollock

600 posts

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#169472 7-Oct-2008 08:17

Yeah, since Google has started to get more and more content, I have found that to find actual software, I have to use freshmeat. :)

Make sure to let us know how it goes, I'm sure a tonne of people would be very interested in what you come up with. I'm sure it's going to be a rproblem that a lot of flatmates will have. :)

---
http://blog.jason.pollock.ca

raytaylor

4014 posts

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#170753 12-Oct-2008 18:33

With the proxy / kerio / traffic counting software, you set up a computer to act as a server.

It needs 2 network cards in it. One is plugged into your home network, the other into your router. This way all traffic flows through the 'server' and can be counted. Otherwise the only way you can do it would be to use a router set up as a hotspot or use a service like a chilispot backend provider, or install traffic counting software on each pc.

Most software like kerio have a built in DHCP server and use NAT so that each computer on your network side doesnt need any extra programming. DHCP gives them the ip addresses when they boot up and the NAT means you dont need to program a proxy server. Kerio however has a transparent proxy server (dont need to configure clients) and a cache so common files dont have to be re-downloaded. You shouldnt have any problem setting up your mac client computers to use a proxy server if you need to (you shouldnt) as it is the browser program that you set the proxy server in. Eg. in internet explorer on windows its tools > internet options > Connections > Lan settings and this is where you would enter the address of your server computer. Most internet software like msn messenger, bit torrent etc have options to use a proxy server

I use kerio to manage bandwidth in a set of flats that my parents own. We have about 7 people and each can see their monthly usage, or purchase a topup block to get more data. When they try to go online they are asked for a username and password and once logged in, any internet traffic is counted against them untill they shut down or log out. This means that if someone has a visitor, they can use their friend's username and password to get online, if allowed, with ease.

There are free alternatives using linux, however i use kerio because work pays for a copy for me to have at home. We use it for alot of our clients and i can fiddle and play with it.

The latest version supports load balancing between multiple uplinks :-)

Ray Taylor

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Masada

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#170983 13-Oct-2008 22:38

anthonybs: Hi All

Unlike most countries NZ broadband data is capped.

The only thing unusual about the caps in NZ is the Commerce Commission requires ISPs to state clearly any and all limits. Other countries do not enforce similar regulations. The simple fact is all ISPs must implement some limit in order to stay profitable. The level of the caps is certainly up for debate, but there is no way for an ISP to purchase 50 meg at $10,000 a month and sell dedicated (fully loaded) 1 meg pipes for $50 a month.

My posts reflect my best attempt at understanding and do not represent the views of my employer.

antbs

370 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#170999 14-Oct-2008 00:25

@Masada

Its very true, I just suppose its one of the things you'll have to deal with if you live in New Zealand