Odd problem

Hello all, I googled network help and came across this site. I have a wireless network and my roomate, my husband and I all share the internet from this wireless router. Well.. My roomate kept trying to put us on wireless N which made it so that the other two computers, Mine (which is hardlined into the router) and my husbands (wireless) could not connect. But his could.

Finally we convinced him that we needed to use our belkin router so that we could use the internet. It broadcasts in wireless G with the compramise that he could have a hardline into the router from upstairs. Whenever his ethernet cable is plugged into the router I nor my husband can connect, if we can its VERY slow. As soon as I unplug his machine from the network ours works.

Is there a way that I can regulate the ammount of bandwidth each user gets when on the network. Or another way to manage it so that we can all use the internet with some amount of normalness.

I dont know what he does on his computer, other then downloading massive amounts of stuff is there another reason for the syphon of bandwidth to his pc?

Please help,

Challenged

Welcome to DevShed.

It might be useful if you could explain the topology a bit more, e.g. list the network devices in each machine, the specific router model, etc. I'm curious as to why you state the roommate is attempting to put the router in 'N' mode if it's a 'G' router.

How much bandwidth do you have available overall? i.e. DSL connection at 768kbps? Cable connection?

Are you familiar enough with the router configuration to tell us the LAN IP/NETMASK settings and how each machine is setup in that regard? It's possible someone is using the same IP address and there are simply collisions keeping each machine from reliably connecting.

If you're really looking to 'throttle' your roommates bandwidth, you'll probably need to look at an advanced solution that your (I'm guessing) simple Belkin router won't provide. Unless you spend alot of money on an advanced router, build and configure a Linux or BSD machine for the task (which could be 'free' if you have an older machine sitting in your basement collecting dust), or use custom firmware on a specific router such as the WRT54G, the option just isn't available to you.

I obviously don't know your roommate, but I'm hoping that he isn't putting your family in jeopardy by downloading or sharing illegal materials (e.g. copyrighted movies, etc) and your name happens to be on the ISP contract when the RIAA or MPAA comes through the door. Then again, he could be doing nothing more than playing games over the internet or downloading Linux ISO's.