[ale] need help allocating / limiting broadband bandwidth between users

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

I understand that Linksys / Cisco is also junk and they don't quickly 
fix bugs.  Is there something you'd recommend under $ 150?

Sincerely,

Ron

On 1/24/2013 3:28 PM, James Sumners wrote:
> It's probably overheating or the firmware has a memory leak. The
> "consumer grade" Netgear stuff is garbage.
>
> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
> <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com>  wrote:
>    
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I've got an interesting and frustrating problem here at home that I need
>> help with.  My wife works at home using a Citrix connection.  Everything she
>> does comes from a remote system.  I have several computers that I use here
>> as well, some of which are periodically doing automated data transfers and
>> backups, etc.  Periodically, she complains that her system is running so
>> slow that it's unusable.  This is an intermittent problem.  Immediately
>> after she mentioned it today, I connected to her wifi router and did a speed
>> test.  I got .6 Mbps.  Typically, I get around 28 Mbps for downloads.  I
>> switched her to my router and the problem went away.  Now, her system is
>> blazing fast again.
>>
>> The routers are configured as follows.  This may or may not work as a text
>> diagram.
>>
>> Old Setup
>>
>> Ron's wifi router (a) --->\
>>                             Master wired router (c) --->  cable modem
>> Wife's wifi router (b) -->/
>>
>> New Setup
>>
>> Wife's wifi router (a) -->\
>>                             Master wired router (c) --->  cable modem
>> Ron's wifi router (b) --->/
>>
>> Hopefully, if that diagram survives the email, you can see that she has a
>> wifi router and I have one.  Both of those are connected to a master wired
>> router that is connected to the cable modem which is connected to the
>> internet.  Normally this works very well.  I like to keep her stuff and my
>> stuff on separate networks.  You might think, from this description, that
>> router (b) is failing.  And that is a possibility.  I'm prepared to replace
>> router (b) if I have to.  However, I'm not convinced.  I rebooted router (b)
>> and did a speed test and it's back up in the 28 Mbps range again.
>>
>> I'm wondering if router (c) is getting confused during times when both (a)
>> and (b) are putting heavy demands on the link and trying to send / receive
>> more data in aggregate than the link is capable of.  If it's a problem of
>> bandwidth hogging by my stuff, I'd rather just curtail that and make sure
>> that her stuff has at least, for example, 3 Mbps up / 6 Mbps down at all
>> times.  All the routers are NetGear equipment.  The wifi routers have QOS
>> settings that I've tried to tweak in the past to address this type of
>> problem.  I haven't had much success with that.  The wired master router
>> does not have QOS settings.  I have set up a 3 Mbps upstream bandwidth limit
>> on my router, but I don't have any option to limit downstream bandwidth.  My
>> total upstream capacity is about 6 Mbps.
>>
>> I need to stick with off the shelf equipment here.  I could replace the
>> master router (c) if needed, or stick something in between my router and the
>> master router to limit my maximum bandwidth if necessary.  I would be
>> willing to reflash a router's firmware if necessary, but I have to have
>> something that resets automatically in case of a power failure.  I don't
>> really want to be running another pc just for this purpose.
>>
>> Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Ron
>>      

-- 

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Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com