How would you know if the bandwidth is distributed equally on all workstations?

[Battousai1]

Hi, I would just like to ask, is there a tool or a way to know if all the workstation is getting the right bandwidth.

Is this true? I read somewhere that on a simple LAN like ours there can be a case of unequal bandwidth sharing, what I mean is for example if one workstation is downloading a very huge file or viewing youtube videos, the other workstation might get little badnwidth compared to the one using huge bandwidth, as the one downloading might "eat" all the bandwidht available? if this is true, is there a tool or application to limit this and make bandwidth usage equal to all workstation irregardless of who is using the most bandwidth

We are using a switch, the setup is this: modem -> router -> switch -> 11 workstations

[cat5e]

The way to make sure is to use a Cable/DSL Router that allow control of Bandwidth distribution through Qos.

As an example. Zyxel 550

Alternatively, to use a Network with Real Server OS Topology (Like Windows 2003).

Or, to put this program on each computer and make sure that the users can not change it.

http://www.netlimiter.com

[Battousai1]

Hi! thanks for the reply! well we just setup a peer to peer network and used automatic settings. How would you know if the dsl modem or router supports QoS? and if it is do you have to set it up or is it automatic?

btw i see on the dsl modem "Zyxel" but forgot the full model name. the setup is like this: dsl modem (supplied by the isp) -> router -> switch -> 11 workstation.

Thanks for the netlimiter link, i will give it a try, btw do i have to install it on each workstation or just install it on one machine that you assigned as server?

[Sterling_Aug]

Most routers under a few hundred dollars do not support QoS.

I got a $70 Linksys router and the flash upgraded it to the functionality of a $600 Cisco router by following this article:

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/router/hack-attack-turn-your-60-router-into-a-600-router-178132.php

I got the Linksys WRT54GL model and it only took 30 mins to flash the new firware and set up a network. It has been running since June 2007 with needing reboot (unless I wanted to shut it down).