How to prevent skype from hogging bandwidth?

Question

ADSL (6 Mbps / 768 Kbps )

D-Link DIR-625 Router

Hi Guys,

Whenever one of my family members uses skype video to chat with friends it interferes with other internet tasks... particularly:

• SIP / Asterisk Voip Phone calls (conversations are broken up)
• GoToMeeting screen sharing connections get interrupted
• General downloads

I'd like to adjust my QOS rules to reduce the amount of bandwidth Skype consumes but I'm not sure what port its using for outbound communication. Any ideas? Or perhaps there's a better way to handle this? I don't see any throttling options in the Skype config itself.

Any/all suggestions are welcome.

Solution

As Randolph Potter commented, you can shape at the router level, or you can use something like netlimiter to shape traffic on the particular machine.

Comments

[Admin]

I'd switch to Google Talk video. It uses far less bandwidth than Skype. Failing that, you could probably shape your traffic at the router level for whichever port / protocol Skype uses as the highest priority.

[John T]

Worth nothing that the free version of netlimiter does not allow shaping, you need to buy the full version.

[Jakub]

Whats wrong with buying something the User needs?

[user78465]

i think, John T. wanted to say 'worth noting'. and of course there is nothing wrong with buying a program that is worth using. some people write code for a living :) oh, and +1

[Mike B]

Thanks guys. I'm going to build a pfsense box and try more traffic shaping that way.

[Mike B]

Just an update: the pfsense box has done wonders... still need to test more (and bandwidth has been more limited) but I don't have to worry about it monopolizing all of my network's bandwidth.