wireless network (router and card)

[clio]

ok, I wanna go wireless. i need a wireless router. Does someone know of a good one?

I need one that has ADVANCED blocking capabilities. Honestly, I'm just FREAKIN' sick of my stupid sister downloading crazy japanese anime 24x7 eating OUR bandwidth. It's really annoying me. I have to work sometimes and she's not being courteous at all.

Anyway, the stupid Netgear router I have is the "Websafe Cable/DSL Router" that I bought maybe a year ago. It only has content filtering. What it does is it searches through webpages for keywords and blocks them. Because kazaa isn't really a webpage but p2p, the stupid thing is useless.

So I need a router and a wireless card. Suggestions please! *sigh* I hate Kazaa and winmx. if you know any other p2ps, please give me their names so I can block them too. Thanks.

[kiwi li]

Eh...? Do you mean that you're allocated a certain amount of bandwidth that you have to pay when you go over it, or she's downloading so much at one time that the other computer can't get through (which I don't really know of any problems that I have - we only have a total of 3 computers hooked up but I don't see a slowdown even when we're downloading stuff.)
*Even when I'm downloading crazy japanese anime stuff stuff. Hehe.

Just block the computer's mac address/ip address from going through the router... ^_^ Hehe.

[clio]

Well I worked all summer as a web developer and I was constantly uploading and downloading things. Our line has something like 700-800 kbps download and 128 kbps upload, or something. I don't remember. All I know is it takes me 15 minutes to download 30 megabytes by myself.

She's a lazy bum and doesn't work at all and my dad bought her a $1800 new computer and she didn't even say thanks (tells you what kind of person she is). But the point is since then she's been eating up all the bandwidth with no regard to everyone else using the line, i.e. the family. I need it for work sometimes and I can't wait 1 hour to upload something and see what it looks like. And I don't do it 24x7.

She runs BOTH kazaa and winmx simultaneously. if you're hitting the max upload, the download goes REALLY slowly. and she's uploading and downloading and she has NO regard for other people on the line. It's useless to have DSL if only 1 person hogs the stupid line. We might as well get 56k again. Hell, it's a lot cheaper!

And no, I'm not being mean. Everything she downloads is illegal anyway. I don't care what the content is and I don't have prejudice against anime, it's the fact that she's downloading EPISODES.

Christ, I just need to work and make money. Some people don't just sit on their asses their whole lives.

Sorry, I'm just venting. I'm really quite pissed right now. Sorry.

I can't block her IP addy from going through the router. and I don't want to block her entirely or I will get in trouble with my parents. I just want to block her from downloading illegal stuff and eating the bandwidth. I just want something advanced that will allow me to distribute bandwidth or block sites entirely, not just filter keywords like my crappy router.

[kiwi li]

Ah... nod. I never tried DSL, only have cable, which seems to work fine. ^_^ Except when it goes down. -.-;;;;

Hrm... the only thing that I would know of is to get a content blocker software that can block files. She's probably downloading things like *.avi because most um... files that are full videos are a mpeg4 format... but I wouldn't know about that... 9.9;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I think the only way is software blocking... I didn't do much research, but all of the routers that I found don't have a function to block certain files from going through... which is interesting...

Kiwi Li

[clio]

hmmm.... Well I live in Boston and cable isn't really available where I live. They only have it out closer to the burbs.

Hmmm.. Why can't I just block anything that's kazaa.com? LIke block all ports and stuff?

[kiwi li]

Yah, if you want to block KaZaA, it says it uses port 1214, and looks like it doesn't try to connect using any other port, so maybe you can just block that port perhaps?

[timechange]

If you are using WinXp (Win2k also I think) you can use the built-in firewall of that network connection to block traffic of any port, incoming or outgoing.

As far as wireless goes, I have a Netgear MR314 router that is excellent. You can block individual NICs, block http traffic based on keywords, reroute traffic based on port requests (e.g. Kazaa, mIRC etc) and it's very very fast. I have a network of 4 PCs - 2 are on wireless and 2 plugged in the router's ports.

Go to http://www.netgear.com for some great products; LinkSys are cheap plastic junk

[flipdoubt]

I use SpeedStream's wireless router, one generation back.

http://www.speedstream.com/

[Ron]

Instead of trying to stealthily block your sister's access, why not just discuss the situation with the proper authorities -- your parents?

I assume that this is not YOUR DSL line, they pay for it. If YOU pay for it, maybe then they would allow you to decide who uses what, how much, and when. But if THEY are paying for it, it is THEY who should have the decision making powers over the usage.

Try explaining the situation to them in a calm, rational manner. If that doesn't work, you can always either pay for your own line to be brought in, or wait until you leave for college, or the work world.

You definitely come across as WAY too much of a control freak, Julie. No offense!

[CeleronXL]

I've gone wireless here, and it's really a lot slower than hard-wired connections. We'll be trying to get a wire to my computer in the near future to speed it up.

[Still Shady]

I have a D-Link wire-yes router @ home! I dunno about the unwired one!

[CeleronXL]

Originally posted by Still Shady
I have a D-Link wire-yes router @ home! I dunno about the unwired one!

I have the wireless D-Link one. :P

[clio]

Yes, I am a control freak in this situation Ron, but I can't help it! My parents know not a thing about bandwidth or technology in general and totally misunderstand my point. And all they said was "just share". Yeah, that helped. *sarcasm*

Yes my parents are paying for the line, but still. And I have to share a room with her and she leaves he computer on at night to download stuff and it makes SOOOOO much noise. That's distracting. If she can't download stuff, she cannot bother me. I have repeatedly asked her to NOT download stuff when I am home and working. But she downloads 24x7.

My other friend told me to download stuff like crazy or run like SETI and some other like programs and fight back. Sigh, it's childish, yes. But I have to work, because I have to make money. I'm not sitting on my butt all day like she is.

Timechange, I like that router! It's around $200 though, but Amazon is selling it for $133. Hmmm.... Great deal. So according to you I can entirely block Kazaa? What about distribution of bandwidth? Also can I block according to a schedule? Like some things will block certain sites at certain hours. If she wants to download stuff while I'm in class I could care less, you know?

Thanks for all the responses
If I sound VERY much irritated and like a control freak, it's because I'm applying early to a school and I'm literally running around with my head cut off so I'm easily irritable. SorrY!

[kiwi li]

Kaaza I think degrades the network or something... so most likely just block the whole thing. Although that is hearsay.

Even if you did block it, and that's one of the places that she goes to, wouldn't she tell your parents that you're blocking it? Dunno.

Kiwi Li

[timechange]

Just how old is your sister? You can install Zone Alarm and block the application totally.