Internet service providers are gradually chipping away at net neutrality and imposing bandwidth limits. Most users will need to trust their ISP to report accurate bandwidth consumption rates, and most will not be able to control the traffic generated by many devices on their home network.
I'd like to have a fine level of control over the data leaving my network and coming into it, view reports about attempted traffic, create comprehensive logs, and easily configure the service to permit or deny acceptable types of traffic or devices.
I'd like to be able to configure this service or application on a virtual machine running Ubuntu server on my network.
For example, I'd like to identify the connections and type of data a PS3, Xbox, Wii generates when attempting to download an update, deny or permit on my schedule, yet always allow online gaming traffic. I'd also like to block particular network chatter to certain advertisement servers or other CDNs. I've seen plug-ins for Firefox that re-write html to avoid downloading bulky video advertisements. It would be awesome to do that for all devices.
Many years ago I tinkered with IP tables, firewalls, and proxies on Ubuntu. Yet, I either didn't learn enough or simply don't recall that any of them by themselves provided a good comprehensive solution to this impending problem. They especially aren't geared for lay users. I'd like a little advice about where things are now. Should I use a combination of all three or is there a better or easier solution?