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Hi all,

I live in a home that hosts international students studying at university and we offer wireless internet.
It's pretty fast and the quota is reasonable but with the number of students that live here we get a somewhat 'cookie jar in the dark' situation and have been having trouble controlling the downloads.

I don't know why i have not looked into this earlier.
http://www.antamedia.com/bandwidth-manager/

This is what i have found which looks best for my situation but the only concern i have with it now is,
"a computer with 2 network cards is required to run Bandwidth Manager software"

That to me is pretty general and does that mean i can just go out and get two low-profile any random network cards, fit them in a computer that's near the router and go?

Modem > In one network card > Bandwidth manager > Out another network card > into Wireless Router = YAY?

If so do i need to worry about compatibility with the router?

I'm using a belkin pre-N

TL;DR
Do want this software. Is there anything i should consider or look out for?

Cheers

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Sukhdeep

Dani AI

Generated

Good catch, — the “two NICs” note just means the Bandwidth Manager is intended to sit inline as the network gateway (one interface toward the ISP, the other toward your LAN). Your sketch (modem → PC/NIC1 → PC/NIC2 → wireless router/AP) will work, but avoid leaving two devices doing NAT/DHCP at once: either put the ISP modem into bridge/passthrough or convert your Belkin into an access point (disable its DHCP and use a LAN‑to‑LAN connection). That prevents double NAT, port/DHCP conflicts and simplifies policing. (learn.microsoft.com)

Practical steps and hardware notes: install the software on a Windows box and enable Internet Connection Sharing or, for a more robust setup and bigger user counts, use RRAS on a Server OS. Use two wired gigabit NICs (one to the upstream modem, one to the switch/AP); avoid cheap USB Ethernet adapters. For reliability and throughput, server‑class Intel gigabit adapters are recommended and will outperform generic/USB NICs. If your connection is fast or you expect many simultaneous users, give the gateway a decent CPU and gigabit NICs so NAT/traffic shaping isn’t CPU‑bound. (learn.microsoft.com)

Alternatives and monitoring: if you’d rather not run a PC inline long‑term, a small dedicated router/firewall (pfSense, RouterOS or a flashable router running OpenWrt/DD‑WRT) can do per‑host shaping and fairness (OpenWrt’s SQM/cake or pfSense traffic shaping are good options). For traffic insight, flow collectors (NetFlow/IPFIX analyzers) show top talkers but are usually overkill for a small house — start with the Bandwidth Manager’s built‑in logs and move to a flow tool only if you need long‑term forensics. (opennds.readthedocs.io)

Quick checklist: verify the modem’s mode (bridge vs router), disable DHCP on the Belkin and connect PC NIC2 to a LAN port, use quality wired NICs (Intel), test after setup for double NAT and throughput (LAN ↔ WAN tests). If load grows, consider migrating to a dedicated appliance with SQM for fair sharing. As noted, flow analyzers exist — useful, but decide after you know what you actually need to measure.

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