Load balancing

[Fudd Rucker]

I have had this problem for ages with network balancing on my home network. By that I mean, if a couple of people are streaming a video on thier laptop or downloading at even very low rates via bittorrent, my connection comes to a grinding halt.

Is there a way to build some sort of load balancer to evenly allocate internet bandwidth to each client without the floodgates being opened for low bandwidth applications so everyone else can use the internet. I have looked around and all I really found was links to balancing multiple internet connections.

[enaberif]

QoS

Comes with almost any router you buy.

[Desiato]

Originally Posted by Fudd Rucker

I have had this problem for ages with network balancing on my home network. By that I mean, if a couple of people are streaming a video on thier laptop or downloading at even very low rates via bittorrent, my connection comes to a grinding halt.

Is there a way to build some sort of load balancer to evenly allocate internet bandwidth to each client without the floodgates being opened for low bandwidth applications so everyone else can use the internet. I have looked around and all I really found was links to balancing multiple internet connections.

Can you please give more details about your network?

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by Fudd Rucker

I have had this problem for ages with network balancing on my home network. By that I mean, if a couple of people are streaming a video on thier laptop or downloading at even very low rates via bittorrent, my connection comes to a grinding halt.

Is there a way to build some sort of load balancer to evenly allocate internet bandwidth to each client without the floodgates being opened for low bandwidth applications so everyone else can use the internet. I have looked around and all I really found was links to balancing multiple internet connections.

If I had to guess, I'd say that you haven't capped the upload on their torrent programs. Saturating the available upload bandwidth will absolutely destroy your connection even if you're not even close to your download limits.

[Fudd Rucker]

Seems im going to have to build myself a router as apparently my SMC 8014wn home gateway (it was free wireless N upgrade so I went with it) doesnt really support QoS apparently. The manual states it does, but thats as far as it goes for anything involving that. Havent been able to find anything either on how to set it up.

edit: I have tried capping bandwidth on bittorrent clients in the house as well to no avail. Just as a test I had set my laptop up to a 1kb/1kb cap , and even running at that my internet still crawls along at an infuriating speed.

[JD]

This is a cable connection? Could be that your area is congested.

However, I'm fairly sure everybody hates those SMC router/modem combos. You're much better off with a Motorola modem + whatever router you like.

[Perineum]

Originally Posted by sswilson

If I had to guess, I'd say that you haven't capped the upload on their torrent programs. Saturating the available upload bandwidth will absolutely destroy your connection even if you're not even close to your download limits.

I'd just about bet my next paycheque this is the issue....

[LarkStarr]

lol, good luck with QoS with torrents. It just doesn't happen.

You need to have one torrenting program running on the WAN connection, and that upload needs to be capped at MAX 80% of your top upload speed. 50% is even better.

[sswilson]

I personally don't do torrents in the house, but if it were my system, I'd block the normal upload ports, and set Qos on the ports you decide to use for upload.

[JD]

Originally Posted by LarkStarr

lol, good luck with QoS with torrents. It just doesn't happen.

You need to have one torrenting program running on the WAN connection, and that upload needs to be capped at MAX 80% of your top upload speed. 50% is even better.

I have uTorrent running on a single PC (which happens to be my file server as well). The upload is capped at 80% during hours that I'm awake and full-speed when I'm not.

As such, I applied QoS to the MAC address of my server to place any and all WAN traffic into "bulk" priority (DD-WRT). Seems to work quite effectively. If I start downloading from HTTP on my PC, I can see the torrents drop off in speed. This works perfectly since the only WAN traffic on it is torrents.