Bandwidth question

Not sure if this is the right forum or not to post this in. Just a quick question: There are 4 computers in this house using one cable modem, and we use a wired router (i hope that is all the correct terminology confused ) My brother has been downloading a game for quite awhile today that he wants to try. I have been trying to use the internet off and on all day without much success because it is taking forever to load anything. I tried to stream video earlier and gave up on that completely, but even just going to websites i visit all the time, it takes forever to load a page. So my question is, does downloading a huge file or program like he is downloading hog all the bandwidth (i hope i'm using the right word) from our internet connection and slow down other peoples ability to surf the net??

 

yes. it does hog it up. unless, you set a bandwith limit on his computer.

 

Good to know, thank you He claims that it only slows down my ability to surf if it's a large download going really fast. He's downloaded several large files/programs before and i've never quite been sure if thats the reason i occasionally have this problem. Gives me some ammo hehe thanks

 

While using bandwidth certainly slows down others connection, unless the download is usinng the full downstream, its more than likely the router choking on the packages being sent through.

This ESPECIALLY happens when using Bit Torrent, as most router are very bad at handling torrent packages.

I've run into this a ton being in a college house with 9+ heavy internet users on one cable modem. In my experience, the best bet is to get a nice router that is capable of loading DD-WRT firmware. DD-WRT handles torrents and other large downloads amazingly better than most routers with stock firmware. You can get a fully capable DD-WRT router for under $50, occasionally under $30 when certain Buffalo WHR models go on sale.

 

Sorry i'm not quite sure what you mean by that When i checked to see if he was finished the download, he said that he was using utorrent to download this particular game and that he thought that torrents were less of a strain on bandwidth, so i was just about to ask about that but you answered that question already. Thanks hehe. I have no idea what our router is capable of handling but i will see what kind it is and try to find out if it's any good. I asked the guy at the store before we bought it if it would have trouble handling 4 people surfing the net, or playing online games, or downloading music etc. all at the same time compared to any other router that was available there and he said no, that it was just as good as any other, just a less known brand which is why it was cheaper. I'm never really sure whether to believe them or not but i had no clue so i took him at his word, as scary as that might be

 

It sounds like you bought the router from a 'box' store: BestBuy, CircuitCity, CompUSA.... of course they'll tell you what you want to hear to make a sale to increase their monthly commisions I download torrents from time to time on an unshared router (after 7 or 8pm) and if I get more than 3 going at once, EVERYTHING that's internet related completely bogs down and if another PC tries to surf or whatever, it takes forever. So, YES, torrents are total bandwidth hogs... some routers deal with bandwidth allocation better than others... when downloading anything (esp. torrents) expect slower or much slower speeds.....

hd2k

 

Tell your brother to set the maximum upload speed and download speed to 80% of the maximum upload and download speeds of your cable connection. He can do this by running the utorrent speed guide. This will allow him good upload/download speed and allow you and the rest of your family enough bandwidth to surf the web, check e-mail, etc.

 

definetly a good idea in any sutiation to set the bandwidth limits below the line speed.

However, while that should be the case, often times even having a torrent open with no significant bandwidth usage will bog down a router, since torrents by nature throw a ton of packets back and forth.

If you're interested in doing a little bit of research to get a nice performance outcome, this router is DD-WRT capable and under $50 http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Buff...84832/catOid/-12980/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

This one is just as good, short of the 125MB/s speed boost feature (handy, but more of a novelty in my opinion). If you keep an eye on this one, it dips down to $25 every couple months. Best deal at that price. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Buff...55054/catOid/-12980/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

 

Awesome info. Thanks for all the replies I will keep an eye out on that and hopefully be able to go grab one in the near future. Good to know about setting bandwidth limits, i would never have even known that was possible to do. Thanks for such detailed responses too by the way. It's great to learn something and have your problem solved all at the same time

 

As i mentioned, its back on sale for $25 at the time of this posting http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Buff...sem/rpsm/oid/155054/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

 

Alright i have been so busy these last few weeks that grabbing that router has fallen to the bottom of my list as i have hardly even had time to use my computer. However, the last few days i have had a lot more time, and the internet has been a nightmare. To make a long and frustrating story short, after a million calls to and from our ISP i find out that the plan we have with them will only allow 2 computers online at any given time (they claim that our modem wasn't working properly before in allowing all 4 computers to access the internet at the same time) and that the only way to remedy this, without paying an extra 20 bucks a month for the other 2 computers to work, is to buy a different router. Doesn't really all make sense to me but i refuse to spend any more time trying to figure it out. So, my question is: regarding the router that you linked last, would we be able to hook up 4 computers to that (wired) and in the future have only 2 wired and then the 2 laptops (wireless) using that router. I plan to go to tomorrow during the day to get the router as it is not working having just 2 computers at a time able to access the internet. I just want to make sure that router will do whats needed, and struggle having that many computers using the net at the same time. Thanks much

 

Okay i went and got a router today but realized i couldn't get the particular router that was suggested because they don't sell that brand here i guess. And though it was cheaper, it wouldn't have been worth it to cross the border as far as time and gas money goes. So got a Linksys router and it seems to be working great. Thanks for the help, and sorry i posted that last question on this thread, i meant to ask it in hardware but tagged it onto here for some reason, just wasn't thinking . Anyway, you can close this thread if you like, thanks much.

 

any modern router should support many more than 4 users online at once, it is usually the internet connection that is the limiting factor. Which Linksys router did you end up getting? hopefully its one of the WRT series that supports DD-WRT or other linux firmware. Believe me, if it is, you'll want to spend the extra few minutes setting that up, it improves the router tremendously