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Block high bandwidth sites like YouTube?
squirly
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm sick of people wasting bandwidth and slowing down the Internet and I wish to block some websites, basically any video ones since I can't imagine to many others that would use up a noticeable amount of bandwidth (Except maybe other ones like Facebook or MySpace).
This needs to be done at router level too, I have a D-Link DSL G604T (I really need a new one).
What are the common video sites? (There's so damn many now..) I know how to block sites at per IP ability with this router so it's really annoying to ad tons, I wish there was an easier way..
Also, yay for pathetic Internet in Australia (Slow speeds, bandwidth caps, high costs, etc).
This needs to be done at router level too, I have a D-Link DSL G604T (I really need a new one).
What are the common video sites? (There's so damn many now..) I know how to block sites at per IP ability with this router so it's really annoying to ad tons, I wish there was an easier way..
Also, yay for pathetic Internet in Australia (Slow speeds, bandwidth caps, high costs, etc).
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Who are you blocking? Do you even have the authority to block people? I really hope you run a business and this isn't for your home.
There are tons of video sites out there. You're fighting against impossible odds outside of installing blocking software on a head-end server or putting software on each computer you want to control.
Sorry, this just smacks of douchebag to me initially.
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Also, I too fell the pang of Australia's shitty internet plans. Blame Telstra.
Considering companies like Comcast are starting to ban customers outright for using up too much bandwidth, I wouldn't be so quick to judge him. Also from the tone of his post, it sounds like he's the one paying the bill, so yeah, he definitely has the authority to do this.
And as other people have said, you're going to need to run a dedicated server. That or talk to each person and tell them to lay off downloading so much content.
I would agre with you if they were also paying the bill as well. But if Squirly is the only one paying the bill, I'm pretty sure they don't have the right to complain.
But I'm also suggesting he talk with them about using Youtube too much. I know of people that play music through Youtube over and over again, each time loading the video, as a means of listening to a song they want to listen to.
If they don't change their behavior after talking to them, QoS away.
"I'll pay the bill and we can all use this connection."
and
"I'll pay the bill, we can all use this connection but I reserve the right to block certain sites as to obtain better speeds for myself / for all."
That second statement makes me split the bill so you can't control my data.
If they're willing to pay their share of the bill, then all is well. It would be better if they can all pitch in for a faster, higher download cap, package from the ISP.
Mayhaps, assuming your router doesn't have the functionality (most modern consumer ones do now), you could install some form of custom firmware that does?
This way everybody can enjoy their YouTube videos while at the same time you can enjoy zippier interwebbing.
All of this is, of course, assuming you're also the one footing the bill (in which case this is a reasonable course of action).
Which ISP are you with Squirly? TPG have some plans that are a bit friendlier to people who download globs of stuff. Assuming they provide service to where you are, and that you can use ADSL.. It might be worth having a look for a better plan on Whirlpool too.
Yeah, I am sure you can afford to be all self-righteous with your awesome internet, but I have satellite internet at home. Now as far as I know we don't get slammed with huge fees for going over our bandwidth cap. But the cap (after upgrading the service and doubling it) is 200 MB per day. Once you hit that, you get worse than dialup speeds and are lucky if you can check your email.
Websites like youtube are cool and all, but they eat up a shitton of bandwidth. And I really doubt this guy is locking down the internet for his whole town or whatever... so.. yeah
I've put up with sharing the Internet for years and I've been completely reasonable the whole time, don't try and judge me and make it seem like I'm doing some horrible, mean thing. I'm not really worried about the Internet being slow when I want to play games online, I'm worried about hitting the cap and having to put up with 56K speeds for 2 freaking weeks.
Since my router lacks the ability (And there is no decent custom firmware) and router choices seem to lack in Australia I may just go with setting up an old PC but that seems like a bit of a hassle.
Trentus, I blame Telstra, the government and a whole horde of people. I'm actually already with TPG.
I'm tempted to buy something like this and if the default features don't work, install DD-WRT but I think than I may lose ADSL functionality..
If you're just thinking of blocking sites, but can't put a PC between your local network and your router, consider using a DNS service like OpenDNS. From what I hear, you can set up a special OpenDNS account that lets you stop certain kinds of sites from resolving, kinda like a really easy-to-avoid web filter. I've never used OpenDNS but I listen to Leo Laporte's The Tech Guy radio show and he frequently recommends it.
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I'd recommend that you might be better off looking into whether a program like DD-WRT can do bandwidth capping, and if so buy a used router that supports it and go with that. Linux and an old PC you have laying around the house may be "free," but running 24/7 it may well end up costing more over the course of time...a router uses a lot less power.
Plus, whatever computer you'd be throwing Linux on will probably need a second network card, so there goes roughly 1/7 of your savings anyway ($10 network card vs. $70 router).
...because that's by and far more expensive than buying a cheapo Linksys router and throwing OpenWRT on it or something similar.
I think I already made a case as to why that would be both inefficient and likely more expensive to boot, at least in the long run, even if the OP has a spare PC to use for this task.
My router uses like 15W of power. You won't build a "cheapo" PC that runs less than about 150W. 135W of additional power use 24/7, besides being environmentally irresponsible, actually costs money.
EDIT: Just to crunch the numbers, 135W of power 24 hours a day for a year is about 1200kWh. Now, the lowest average residential power price for a state in the US hovers between 5 and 6 cents per kWh...with some regions (such as New England) running upwards of 15 cents per kWh and a handful running over 20 cents per kWh. Even at 7 cents per kWh, that means that the additional power used by your cheapo PC over a router will run at least $80 or so over the course of a year. A Linksys WRT54GL, on the other hand, runs $68 over at amazon.com as I type this. Of course, we're talking US amounts and dollars here, but it's highly likely that the situation will be similar elsewhere.
And the best part is, even really good PSUs are only like 70% efficient. An ancient 150W PSU is probably about 60% efficient, so it actually costs almost 1.5 times what you calculated.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
True. Though I was thinking about it and I realized that if you're only running the computer as a router, you probably won't draw full power. So all in all you'll probably still be drawing 100W or more over what a router would draw. So still, even assuming you already have a spare PC, your chances of actually saving any money are slim.
The thing is though, the way ADSL works down here is you either have a router the phone cable goes into so the broadband is always on or you have an ADSL modem where you actually have to dial in (Yes, like dial up) but it only takes a couple of seconds -- I'm not too sure how I'd insert some type of gateway between the phone line and the router. I guess a second network card would work..
mcdermott, the unfortunate thing is, my router is also an ADSL modem so I can't just go order a DD-WRT compatible router because most of them do not have ADSL. :< I did find 1 though, a Linksys one which was near $200AU (Edit: $179 which seems kind of awesome and supports ADSL but it's a bit pricey.
I could always get a cheaper router that supports custom firmware and connect it to my ADSL router and than have all the PCs connect to that new router. So it'd be phone line > ADSL router > custom firmware router > all PCs (A wired one, a X360 and 2 or so wireless laptops).
Azio, my router can block websites by their IP address and I've tried it out but it doesn't particularly work well. After I apply the rule whatever site won't load but than suddenly a bit later it will despite the rule still being applied..
We have a ton of spare PCs and old parts around here too. What Linux distribution (Or maybe *BSD? But that'd be harder to set up and I have next to no BSD experience) and software would you use?
Yes, this is what I was recommending. Because again, unless you don't pay for power, it will likely be cheaper in the long run.
Here in America, if my DSL is slow, I call and complain to the company on the phone for 30 minutes.
The Linksys WRT54GL. It's basically what the Linksys WRT54G used to be, before they chopped the RAM and flash storage on that model in half.