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Thread: Sending high BW apps to the end of the line

  1. #1
    Old Timer jasong's Avatar
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    Sending high BW apps to the end of the line

    Guys, I need help. I've been using utorrent and throttling the hell out of it, but my grandmother still complains about not being able to hear her relatives in France on Magic Jack. I can't edit the router stuff to fix things because it's my dad's and he's locked me out by not telling me the password.

    I've told him for the past few years that he needs to send utorrent to the end of the line when it comes to bandwidth allocation(or more specifically, the port number it uses) but he and I don't get along(please don't ask) so it's difficult for me to reason with him. Is there some website I can send him to that will give him dead easy instructions on what to do? I can supply the letters associated with his router if that helps, but it's a super-old router, like 5 years old. Our connection isn't fast enough for the router to slow us down, but it might mean it's difficult to find instructions for it.

    Here's all the funky codes I could find on it, not sure what's important:

    Linksys router
    CNP01G111631
    QCOK (might be a zero there)
    ************

    I know there are some easy to understand websites, but I'm trying to reason with an ornery retiree, so it doesn't matter if I understand them, only if he does. He was a communications tech for the Army back in the 80s, but doesn't give a damn about technology otherwise so feels flummoxed when it comes to stuff like this.
    Last edited by gopher_yarrowzoo; 05-07-2011 at 09:40 AM. Reason: Removal of MAC Address.

  2. #2
    Old Fart Bigred's Avatar
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    The simplest solution would be to shut down all the high BW applications when bandwidth is a concern. Another would be to limit the upload/download speed. I checked the Linksys website but could not find anything about this specific router. However, if the situation merits, this will show you how to reset the router to factory settings including password.

    Be careful what you say about ornery retirees. I happen to be one myself.
    19 primes found. The largest: 1351*2^617684+1 (185945 digits)

  3. #3
    BOINC Gypsy ChertseyAl's Avatar
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    Don't know what router model that is, but I use DD-WRT SE for my WRT54G that will allow throttling by MAC address along with a host of other goodies. Not free sadly, and plenty of scope to brick the router.

    I think the plain-vanilla free DD-WRT might do what you want. Not 'easy' to install, but not rocket science either. Google will be your father's friend

    Oh, you might want to delete that MAC address in your post

    Al.

  4. #4
    Old Timer jasong's Avatar
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    What MAC address? Unless the MAC address is printed in ink on the physical router, there is no MAC address in my post.

  5. #5
    Administrator AMDave's Avatar
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    it is the 3rd code that is 12 characters long
    Al is right. You should remove that from your post.
    It is not relevant to your question but does expose your Dad's router to being 'impersonated', among other things.

    You may have heard that a Linksys router can throttle bandwidth.
    AFAIK there are a couple of pid-for and OSS firmware replacements that would enable that on a consumer-grade Linksys (not sure of the models that would support it, but GIYF)
    However, this would mean overwriting the Linksys firmware on the router and voiding the warranty (tough luck if it doesn't work, in other words)

    Your best solution would be to either
    (a) get your own connection which would eliminate the problem or
    (b) schedule your torrents to resume and suspend at hours when the owner of the connection is not using it, to mitigate the problem

    Of course it may also be that the connection has some attenuation on it that is causing the issue.
    You can test this (verify the problem) by not torrenting at all and asking if the voice transmission is better.
    At least that way you will know for sure if your torrents are the source of the issue.

    good luck.
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  6. #6
    Free-DC Semi-retire gopher_yarrowzoo's Avatar
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    I edited and removed the MAC for you Jason
    Hmm yeah I'd turn off the torrents and see if helps although I have checked how much bandwidth magic jack is supposed to use.
    To me it sounds like it's trying to do "QoS" and the router don't support it. It depends on where it's plugged into and what the spec of that pc is.. I see it's basically a VOIP type system - 64k is the most likely usage maybe a bit more. Hmm not being able to hear isn't the same as it being garbled.
    Now I use skype and it's clear only sometimes does it garble but that's normally down to who I'm talking to's connection as normally it's my girlfriend on her 'droid, so you can see if it works on a droid with GPRS it will work anywhere.
    I would firstly check the volume settings and actually listen into a call and see if you can hear ok, if you can hear fine then Grandma needs her hearing checked...
    So unless you've only got like under a 512k DSL I wouldn't worry about bandwidth too much.

    So to better answer the question what PC is the magic jack plugged into as the newer ones understand "QoS" much better..
    It maybe the case of a new router I know I've replaced mine already dang thing couldn't handle torrents too much, kept having to daily reset it.. Got annoying.
    Actually try that, make sure no-one is using any bandwidth and go to
    www.speedtest.net - run a before test.
    Open a "New Tab", reset the router then once the router is back up, go to www.speedtest.net in the new tab and run the test again using the same server - see if there is a difference.
    Semi-retired from Free-DC...
    I have some time to help.....
    I need a new laptop,but who needs a laptop when you have a phone...
    Now to remember my old computer specs..


  7. #7
    www.amdusers.com
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    How about setting a limit on the torrent software's d/l and u/l when the Router traffic is being shared in the household / network and give it full speed "after hours". My uTorrent client allows speed shaping according to the hour of the day; no access or speed limited or full access.

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