Bandwidth

[Derek]

I am running a 4 PC network (xp pro) with a central file server.
All access the internet via a ADSL router which is stand alone.

I have a 2mbit Internet connection and I would like to share the
bandwidth evenly between the workstations and server. so in effect
each PC gets a 512kbps connection. At the moment if someone
downloads a large file it hogs the Internet connection, slowing
all the others down.

Is there a bit of software that will allow me to do this, preferably
some software that is centralised, but not too fussed if it is not.

 

[Conor]

I am running a 4 PC network (xp pro) with a central file server.
All access the internet via a ADSL router which is stand alone.

I have a 2mbit Internet connection and I would like to share the
bandwidth evenly between the workstations and server. so in effect
each PC gets a 512kbps connection. At the moment if someone
downloads a large file it hogs the Internet connection, slowing
all the others down.

Is there a bit of software that will allow me to do this, preferably
some software that is centralised, but not too fussed if it is not.

Linux. Traffic shaping is built in.

 

[Skylar Thompson]

I am running a 4 PC network (xp pro) with a central file server.
All access the internet via a ADSL router which is stand alone.

I have a 2mbit Internet connection and I would like to share the
bandwidth evenly between the workstations and server. so in effect
each PC gets a 512kbps connection. At the moment if someone
downloads a large file it hogs the Internet connection, slowing
all the others down.

Is there a bit of software that will allow me to do this, preferably
some software that is centralised, but not too fussed if it is not.

As far as the router is concerned, probably not. Short of sticking in
something like a Packeteer PacketShaper between your machines and your
router, your current setup can't doing anything completely in hardware.

The best solution I can think of is putting a *BSD/Linux machine and
setting it up as a transparent bridge between your machines and the router.
Then configure rules as you see fit. The beauty of a transparent bridge is
that none of the machines can access it via the network; its sole function
is to pass packets, and not one even gets up to Layer 7 (hence
"transparent"). This makes it a highly secure solution.