Control Bandwidth Usage of Users Accessing my Internal Server from the Internet

[mrito]

Dear All,
Is there any way I can Limit or Control the bandwidth usage of my customers or users accessing my website or emails from my Internet Network? As per my observation, I can only control bandwidth of my LAN users. If this can't be done in PFSense,  can someone recommend an different solution please?

Regards,
Malvin

[Nullity]

@mrito:

Dear All,
Is there any way I can Limit or Control the bandwidth usage of my customers or users accessing my website or emails from my Internet Network? As per my observation, I can only control bandwidth of my LAN users. If this can't be done in PFSense,  can someone recommend an different solution please?

Regards,
Malvin

You can only fully control the data you send/upload.

With download, you can request that the external TCP sender decrease or increase the bitrate, but there will be delay between request & the bitrate change (request sent->request received->answer queued->answer sent->answer received). pfSense is as good as anything else.

My preferred analogy is the postal service. You can send letters at whatever rate & time you want, but you cannot fully control when you will receive the replies.

[linucksrox]

I don't understand this answer. I have an internal ownCloud server which provides a web gui accessible from the internet. When a client connects from the internet to ownCloud, why would I not be able to use pfsense to limit the rate at which the client is able to download from that server? I know this is possible because I currently have a rule in my nginx configuration that limits that download rate to 300k, but obviously it's easier to manage all limiter rules in one place (pfsense).

[Harvy66]

@linucksrox:

I don't understand this answer. … why would I not be able to use pfsense to limit the rate at which the client is able to download from that server?

You can properly rate limit data leaving your interfaces but not interesting your interfaces. The term "download" is relative. I download from the server, but the server downloads from me. A less ambiguous way to describe the situation is saying you want to rate limit egress from OwnCloud to external clients.