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How can one limit the bandwidth of a whole PC, and not just a specific process. I’m gonna move into a new home, but I will only have around 1,800 kb/s internet speed. This is a bit a problem, because I’m working as a web designer and need to download large programs/graphics frequently. Also I need to be able to access some home pages flawlessly such as those on my company’s developer server or the site form one of our customers.

As my family also uses the Internet, I need to limit the bandwidth of other PCs in my network or else Netflix, Youtube etc. will saturate the whole Internet connection. There is one Mac Pro, and two PCs which are using Windows 8.1 in my network. Maybe I also will buy a ​Raspberry Pi, to download large files at night, but this device won’t need a bandwidth limitation.

My router doesn’t support “Quality of Service” (QoS) and I can't change the router because the ISP does not allow custom routers.

Is there any possibility to limit the bandwidth of an entire PC, so that I can evenly split my Internet speed?

I created the sketch below to clarify what I want to achieve:

enter image description here

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    You could add another router, fyi
    – Robus
    Mar 11, 2015 at 18:22
  • Since you can't do it with the router, you'll have to add the OS(s) of the PCs you want to limit. Mar 11, 2015 at 18:23
  • @Robus, well sometimes solutions are very simple. I really didnt know that, i thougt thre can be only one router per lan. Do i have to consider something special if i have an environment with two routers?
    – Shiklum
    Mar 11, 2015 at 18:31
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    @Shiklum Basically you just add another router, and treat the connection to the existing router as if it were the ISP (WAN). This way you add another NAT (therefore new lan), but you could implement QoS without messing with the provider's router
    – Robus
    Mar 11, 2015 at 18:33
  • there is software you can install on a pc to limit the network speed for processes or all. NetLimiter can do that, though recent versions are paid. Old versions are free if I remember correctly.
    – LPChip
    Mar 11, 2015 at 18:48

1 Answer 1

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You say this:

As my family also uses the Internet, I need to limit the bandwidth of other PCs in my network or else Netflix, Youtube etc. will saturate the whole Internet connection.

But then this:

…I can't change the router because the ISP does not allow custom routers.

Without even knowing the details of your specific modem/router device, the reality is even the strictest ISP in the world will provide customers with modems/routers that allow the device to have the “router” part disabled and be set to “bridge mode.”

By being setting your modem/router to bridge mode, the router function is disabled and then you can connect whatever device you want directly to the modem. For example, I have a modem set to bridge mode in my home that has the Ethernet cable directly connected to my computer. At one point I had it connected to a router, but I no longer need that functionality. But the general message is that bridge mode on a router/modem allows for the flexibility you are looking for.

And once bridge mode is set, you can even get a router that can be “flashed” with more flexible firmware like DD-WRT or OpenWRT. Those—and a few other—open source firmware packages allow you to really tweak and take better advantage of router functionality so you can adjust things like “Quality of Service” (QoS) easily and without much worry.

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