[olug] Traffic prioritization

[Christopher Cashell]

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 9:52 AM, Obi-Wan <obiwan at jedi.com> wrote:
> Is there a good way, preferably using my existing firewall box, to
> prioritize traffic by port or IP without strictly limiting the bandwidth
> if nothing else is contending for it?

The Linux kernel has built in QoS support.  However, trying to setup
QoS by hand can be a rather complicated and involved process.  The
direct tools used are tc and tcng.  The URL already given,
http://lartc.org/, is probably the best documentation online (that I
know of) to get going with it.  Although a little dated, it's still
almost all applicable and accurate.

> Any suggestions?

Luckily, there are a handful of relatively simple scripts and tools
that can make setting up basic QoS easier.  My recommendation would be
to start with 'wondershaper'.  It's a fairly simple little script that
you plug your upload and download speeds into, and it then sets up
basic QoS to ensure that a big upload won't negatively affect your
download/interactive activities.

It, and other similar scripts, can also be extremely useful for
providing examples and a framework to build on for extending and
adding your own additional rules.

> Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth                             obiwan at jedi.com

-- 
Christopher