75

I am getting complaints that I consume lots of internet bandwidth.

Is there any software that can limit internet bandwidth on my computer from my own computer? I use Firefox as browser and use bittorrent and download software from software center.

(Is there also a way to monitor it?)

2
  • Setting a firewall for advertising or non-wanting IPs would also diminish the bandwidth
    – user123456
    Oct 3, 2016 at 7:58
  • use the tc command with iptables, use tcpump or iperf to monitor it
    – user610658
    Jun 13, 2018 at 6:14

1 Answer 1

88

You have 2 easy to use via terminal. Wondershaper and Trickle. There are more here: How to limit internet speed?

Anyway the basics are:

sudo apt-get install wondershaper

In terminal find out what is the name of the interface connected to your internet by using ifconfig. Could be eth0, eth1, eth2, etc... In my case is eth1. So, I would do this:

sudo wondershaper eth1 1024 256

This will give me a Download speed of 1024 Kbits and 256 Kbits Upload. Which are 128KB and 16KB.

If you want to reset that do this sudo wondershaper clear eth1

NOTE: That will limit ANYTHING in your PC, for example the torrent downloader, firefox, etc..

Another program is Trickle

To install do this:

sudo apt-get install trickle

To run firefox with a maximum of 120KB/s download and 32KB/s upload, run

trickle -d 120 -u 32 firefox

In my case I recommend wondershaper.

If you want more info for any of the two after installed type man wondershaper or man trickle depending on the one you installed.

12
  • 1
    Is it possible to limit/reverse internet bandwidth for each program instead of per device?
    – Nur
    May 2, 2013 at 1:41
  • @Nur For what I know, it is possible but involves some kernel editing and other stuff outside of the user space. It would be awesome to have a similar approach as tools like the Windows Netlimiter. Of course netlimiter connects a process that manages the connection sharing, but the idea remains the same and would help a lot in network cases where this applies. May 2, 2013 at 1:43
  • 1
    Trickle can do that askubuntu.com/questions/776/… trickle -u (upload limit in KB/s) -d (download limit in KB/s) application
    – kenn
    Jan 25, 2014 at 13:06
  • 1
    WARNING: as of writing this comment trickle only works for 32-bit operating systems, it does not support 64-bit Jun 29, 2015 at 18:52
  • 1
    I might have to rephase because a person was able to get it working on 64bit vivid apparantly. I put a bug report in the github if you want to see more. Im running 14.04 and it does not work. Jun 30, 2015 at 8:13

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .