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I'm kind of new to Linux (but learning) so bare with me if I say something stupid :P.

I'm currently running an Ubuntu fileserver which automates a whole bunch of downloading tasks. At present it is set to throttle downloads at certain times so I don't impact too much on casual browsing iPlayer etc during peak times. But this is not ideal.

I was wondering if it is possible to limit overall system bandwidth usage based on sniffing packets from other systems on the LAN that are going to/from specific URLS (e.g. iplayer)

If somebody could point me in the direction of the relevant tools, I'm happy to do the research myself. Just right now I wouldn't know where to start...

slm
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Ben Wainwright
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1 Answers1

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There are a couple of approaches that come to mind.

Method #1 - iptables

Yes it is possible through iptables to throttle traffic based on either the TCP port(s) it's making use of or the source IP addresses that it's originating from. I would need to know specifics in order to assist in crafting actual rules for your situation.

Method #2 - traffic shaping QoS

The other approach is to throttle specific applications using tools such as Wondershaper or Trickle.

Examples

To throttle the upload/download speed to 20Kbps.

$ trickle -d 20 wget -c http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm

You can also set these independently in the above scenario. You can also make these settings the default like so.

$ trickled -d 50 -u 10

You can also use Wondershaper to control the bandwidth at the network level. For example say I want to throttle my eth1 device.

$ sudo wondershaper eth1 1024 256

This will give me a Download speed of 1024 Kbits and 256 Kbits Upload. Which are 128KB and 16KB.

When you want to release the caps.

$ sudo wondershaper clear eth1

These are pretty capable tools so this is just meant to show you the potential.

References

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