Good wireless router for limiting bandwidth

[TheInternal]

Howdy,

I have a crappy roommate. One of the many crappy things he does is hog all the friggin bandwidth (streaming TV while playing LoL while loudly talking over voice over IP). I'd like to be able to limit the percentage of bandwidth he's allowed to by device(s), IP, or (even better) MAC address. I've not fiddled with fancier routers for awhile, so I'm a bit out of the loop.

I'm thinking of picking up a newer AC router. I have TWC's crappy "turbo" internet package (50 megabits down) and have been getting terrible ping, and I'm guessing at least some of it is due to the roommate.

I've heard Belkin is a brand to avoid these days (and that internal antennas in general just aren't as good), but am otherwise open to suggestions. I'm leaning towards Asus or Netgear.

All thoughts / suggestions welcomed.

 

[smitbret]

Howdy,

I have a crappy roommate. One of the many crappy things he does is hog all the friggin bandwidth (streaming TV while playing LoL while loudly talking over voice over IP). I'd like to be able to limit the percentage of bandwidth he's allowed to by device(s), IP, or (even better) MAC address. I've not fiddled with fancier routers for awhile, so I'm a bit out of the loop.

I'm thinking of picking up a newer AC router. I have TWC's crappy "turbo" internet package (50 megabits down) and have been getting terrible ping, and I'm guessing at least some of it is due to the roommate.

I've heard Belkin is a brand to avoid these days (and that internal antennas in general just aren't as good), but am otherwise open to suggestions. I'm leaning towards Asus or Netgear.

All thoughts / suggestions welcomed.

I don't think the crappy roommate is the problem. It would take a lot of NetFlix/Online Gaming/VoIP to saturate a 50mbps download speed and shouldn't affect your ping.

With that being said a crappy TWC router with poor or no QOS might not be up to the task. More info would probably help.

OTOH, if you are just looking for an excuse to pull the trigger on a shiny new router then the usual list will pop up:

As much router as you will probably need:
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Arche...UTF8&qid=1454545146&sr=8-1&keywords=archer+c7

Two really good AC1900 routers:
http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Night...&qid=1454545181&sr=8-1&keywords=netgear+r7000
or
http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC68U-Wire...&qid=1454545200&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+rt-ac68u

More features than you will probably use:
http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-MU-MI...F8&qid=1454545239&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+ac2600

Overkill:
http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-AC3200...&qid=1454545262&sr=8-1&keywords=d-link+ac3200
or
http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC5300-Wir...&qid=1454545262&sr=8-2&keywords=d-link+ac3200

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah. Unless roommate is torrenting, and bogging down your router, it shouldn't affect your ping much. VOIP and gaming don't take a lot of bandwidth, and streaming video on top of that shouldn't take much more either (unless it's 4K).

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Don't know if limiting bandwidth will really help, but you really don't need any fancy router, just one running DD-WRT or Tomato. They both have multiple ways to limit bandwidth (by IP, MAC, schedule, etc), block services (eg, bittorrent, skype), or even block some or all internet access on a schedule. Do you have your own router, or are you using the one provided by TWC?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm leaning towards Asus or Netgear.

All thoughts / suggestions welcomed.

I'm running an Asus router with Tomato. I would recommend something similar, although I would suggest a higher-end router than the one I have. (It's one of the lowest-end Asus routers, that accepted Tomato.)

 

[JackMDS]

Don't know if limiting bandwidth will really help

.

It will Not.

Rather then (in principle) "behave" like the Roommate, get yourself a separate Internet account.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

.

It will Not.

There is still a possibility it could, especially if said roommate is also torrenting. The best way to test would be to run speed tests with and without roommate's PC connected. Also, check TWC's Internet Usage Tracker to see if it's excessively high.