Throttle traffic by amount of time or amount of used traffic in GB?
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Hi,
I am totaly new to pfsense, haven't even installed it. Before I do I need to know if it fits my requirements.
I am not generally against video games and other related online stuff. But my son (age 16) is in WOW, COD, Mindcraft and the like by approximatly 8 to 12 h a day. The same is to be observed in my friends families. Our children get lost to their loved ones because of computer game addiction. Cutting of the Internet completely doesn't work. He would walk over to his friend and keep on gaming there. Talking to him for hope of reaching common sense has been a vain endeavour so far.
So I do not want to cut him off the internet completely, just limit his bandwidth so much that he is trottled if he has reached a set time limit or else if he reaches a certain amount of gb used.
So the question is: is pfsense able to cope with these requirements? And if not which distro could?
Every helpful answer is whole-heartedly appreciated.
Just one thing: I am newbie to pfsense but I am not to educational matters. So please stick to the technical focus of the question. And as far as I have seen and heard I am not the only father having to deal with these kind of problems. Thank you.
alpaca
Founding member of
"Awfully Livid Parents Against Computer Addiction - ALPACA" -
Yes could potentially use PFSense to throttle his speed. I know for a fact that WoW has parental controls that you can enable. I dont think the other games do.
You would have to throttle the connection to the point that is super super slow. I would hazard that you try other methods to limit his gaming time though and perhaps if you would game with him or show an interest , even if faked on your part , in his activity , you might have better luck at limiting his time?
You would have several options in PFSense to do this from using a schedule to traffic shaping to actually using the limiter.
Also how technically inclined is he as well? If he is pretty tech savvy then it will make the job that much harder. Most Xbox's and PS3's have WiFi so if your in a densely populated residential area , there would potentially an unprotected WiFi he could jump on and avoid your throttling altogether.
As a father myself , I find that by gaming with the kids and showing interest in their hobbies , it makes it easier and they are willing to live with limits on game time and have reached the point that for the most part they do it themselves without me having to tell them.
Good luck to you.