Question

I have an issue that when using bandwidth intensive applications like FTP/bittorrent/newsgroups these will often use all available bandwidth and consequently things like web browsing/video streaming/skype calls will become stuttery/unresponsive.

I would like to be able to allow the bandwidth intensive apps to be deemed lower priority, and only to use as much bandwidth as is not currently being used by higher priority applications.

I don't want to have to manually pause a download when I start watching iplayer for example.

Is there some way that I can do this? Currently most of my bandwidth intensive stuff happens on one machine and the video streaming happens on another, but both machines are used for browsing, so I would like a solution which works by giving priority not traffic on the same machine as well as traffic from different machines.

cheers

Answer 1

There are some routers that can handle this. I think D-Link refers to this feature as 'GameFuel', and the pre-sets prioritize one-line game traffic over others, but you can always adjust the settings. D-Link seems to have a set of 'Gaming' routers (like the 108G) that contain this feature.

By putting the feature into your local network router, I think you'll have the best experience, once you figure out the appropriate ports to prioritize (or de-prioritize).

Caveat: I haven't actually done this, I'm just saying that it appears to be possible with this equipment.