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Really not sure if this is the place to be asking this, but here goes..

Our company has grown exponentially in the last year. As such, our internet connection needs some serious managing and limiting to not only ban facebook and other stupification sites, but also to limit the bandwidth that is dedicated to certain services like youtube.

Setting up new firmware and limits on every single one of our routers is, naturally, out of the question, and I would now like to know if there is some kind of hardware device that would offer me this functionality (both limiting and throttling the bandwidth to and from certain resources) without fail. I would install this device between our ISP's line and our building switch, in order to control the entire company's bandwidth allocation.

Googling revealed nothing useful, except some software solutions which are inadequate for our situation.

Update:

We are in one building. The building has two entry point connections on the ground floor, which connect to the building switch. That is, we have two synchronous (up = down) ADSL connections, once for each floor basically. This switch then branches out and connects to each of the two current floors we own (that is, to each of the several routers on each floor). 99% of the company works on Macs (I know...), and those Macs are connected wirelessly to the aforementioned routers. The WANs themselves are not interconnected in any way other than the fact that they all go back to the same building switch eventually.

I had originally thought about flashing every router with new firmware and then putting some serious limiting on those, but not only is that not very safe for the routers, it is also tedious - especially if I need to change a condition later on. This would require me to run around again and deal with each one. What I'm basically aiming for here is a single device able to both limit the bandwidth to some sites (i.e. limit Youtube to 100kb/s) and block others completely (facebook), preferably by subnet (for example, 192.168.3.x would have only bandwidth throttling, while 192.168.2.x would have a complete blockade on facebook). If you could just point to such a device if it exists, we will pay up to $5,000 for it, this is how important it is to us to do this instantly and hassle free for an indefinite amount of time.

Update 2:

Info on current routers: Right now we use LinkSys WRT54GL for our routers. There are 5 in total, three on the ground floor and two on the first floor.

Update 3:

We are in a rented building. The building has a master rack to which I have no access, and must hunt down the network admin of the building. We are a part of a university campus, and we occupied 50% of a building, for now. The structure is as follows - there is a floor rack on the ground floor, into which our internet connection is plugged. From there, we branch it out to VoIP and internet access for users, in the following manner: the ground floor gets one channel, which makes a total of 3 of those SOHO routers. The ground floor rack is connected to the main building rack, which in turn spreads this connection out among the first floor rooms, of which each has its own router. So, basically, I have no control over or access to the main building rack.

Bart suggested we replace those SOHOs. What would be the optimal setup? Should I just get one strong access point for each floor? How is this usually done, what kind of hardware/software combo would you suggest? I am open to everything, even completely restructuring the entire company network if need be. I would like to learn how to do this properly from the get-go.

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    Maybe I'm missing something...several routers each floor? How many users are there? Why so many routers, not just switches? Jun 15, 2011 at 13:03
  • No idea, the last guy that was here set it up like that. As you can see I'm quite new at this networking stuff.. there are around 80 users total. First floor has around 60, second floor around 20. There are three routers on the first floor, and two on the second. We use WRT54GLs from LinkSys.
    – Swader
    Jun 15, 2011 at 13:51
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    Yes. Replace them. Replace them now. I'm surprised you're not having issues with them supporting that many people and not crapping out. They're meant for residential use. Jun 15, 2011 at 15:32
  • I'm not going to go into specific hardware recommendations as this isn't really the spot for it, but you'll want to research managed switches, and probably dedicated AP (access points) that can be managed. You might want to call in a consultant to handle it as it'll be an operation to redo your wiring if it's something that grew organically. Jun 15, 2011 at 15:34
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    ADSL where up=down is called SDSL. Jun 16, 2011 at 9:02

6 Answers 6

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What kind of routers are you using? It sounds like you're just using SOHO type routers? You might want to look at getting better routers and switches with management built in and monitorable through SNMP.

That said I'd also put in a proxy server that can log activity and block certain traffic. Proxying can help some of your speed woes, blocking can limit others.

Upgraded routers can also handle traffic shaping and limiting, as well as QoS. If you must do it on the "cheap", you could start using a Linux box (there are several turnkey solutions) to do the traffic monitoring and shaping. Install, configure, set it as the gateway for everyone's system to route through. An inexpensive box can also do the proxying work for you, and you could have options for VPN access.

We ran a SquidGuard box for awhile to filter and proxy traffic. Turned out it was also pretty good at helping track down certain malware on the network when we filtered for certain broadcasts that were scattering through the routing tables from a particular (infected) client. It was also great for getting browsing activity reports.

Just make sure any filtering or whatnot is allowed in your policies and employees are made aware of network monitoring. Sometimes it's the law, other times it's just a nice courtesy to your users to be reminded they're using company resources, not personal resources.

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  • Updatet main question with router info. Trying to process and translate what you just said, will get back to you. Price is not an issue, what's primary is an easily manageable long-term solution.
    – Swader
    Jun 15, 2011 at 13:54
  • The Linux router idea is economical and extremely flexible, and there are appliances that are basically Linux systems with friendly interfaces. It depends on your experience and comfort as to what's manageable. Jun 15, 2011 at 15:36
  • From your edits, I'd focus on replacing those SOHO routers and getting your network mapped out to proper closets/racks first, and then I'd look at a router/proxy appliance to deal with the traffic issue. Jun 15, 2011 at 15:37
  • Thanks, some very valuable information here. I have updated the main question with more information
    – Swader
    Jun 16, 2011 at 6:20
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A Linux gateway, complete with iptables and the netem kernel module will do the trick for you. However, there would be quite a bit of configuration work involved, so essentially you would be exchanging money for time. Plus, this will require somebody with halfways decent linux skills, it's definitely not something for a newbie to try.

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  • I see. This interests me, and I will look into it. I would rather learn how to do this properly myself than pay someone to do it and walk away, so I'll definitely look around for more information.
    – Swader
    Jun 16, 2011 at 6:23
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Here's a situation update a couple months after. Many thanks to @Bart Silverstrim for suggesting this approach.

We made a new linux magic box, a PC gateway running CentOS x64. This machine serves as the router for the entire network. We equipped it with a high end Intel NIC, and used that to distribute our LAN company-wide. This enabled us the following setup:

  1. We now have 4 VLANs, spread over 4 SSIDs, one for each network tier. (For example, our publishing department has its own SSID, our Head Office has its own, etc.)
  2. We bought several WRT54GL routers, and converted them into powerful Access Points with dd-wrt firmware. All 4 VLANs/SSIDs are thus available with 100% signal strength in every single part of the company, and one can walk through floors without losing connection.
  3. We installed Radius to get WPA2-ENT access restriction, that is, our users can now log in with a username-password combination, which lets us see who is connected where and when.
  4. We installed a bunch of awesome software on the gateway machine to enable delay pools, limitations, and bandwidth throttling. With the help of Squid proxy, we also have a very powerful, very fast cache enabled which handles all HTTP traffic.

Now when the company grows again, all I have to do is clone the AP configuration, set up the device's IP and add it to the huntgroups on the Gateway, and the network has been extended. What's more, I have full overview over network stats, website visits, bandwidth usage, packet classification and more.

The whole thing cost us a week of planning, and around 5000€ total.

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A little bit more information would be helpful like are there multiple locations? Are they VPN'd? WAN'd? If each location has a seperate public access, then theres really no way around accomplishing anything that doesn't require going to each site.

But, if you have some extra Windows Server boxes (a Linux box would also work if your so inclined), you can always setup an RAS as you gateway and do some throttling that way. I think it even plays into group policy. As for content filtering, you can always use a proxy (either setup through your router or individual machines) that are setup to block inappropriate/non-work related sites. Theres free and paid sites, but you usually get what you pay for. Let us know a little more about your setup. ;)

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We have been assessing the PacketLogic device from Procera Networks and it's been going very well.

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  • I am unable to find a place that sells them, even online, and their website is a chaotic disaster with no truly relevant information. Do you perchance have any links I could check out?
    – Swader
    Jun 15, 2011 at 14:02
  • Have you tried reaching directly via their posted contact information? proceranetworks.com/about-procera/contact-us.html
    – user48838
    Jun 15, 2011 at 18:22
  • Not yet, I would rather have a look at some thorough reviews and suggested prices first, then contact them.
    – Swader
    Jun 15, 2011 at 19:46
  • You might check with them for their reseller network information.
    – user48838
    Jun 15, 2011 at 19:59
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With an expanding company like yours sound like a proper proxy / content filtering system is the best long term solution. The capex can look high but the cost of ownership is very low for a good solution, the IT team has better things to do than read logs and being the Internet police.

I'm a big fan of BlueCoat proxy servers, they include the services you require and more. You can have bandwidth limits based on the on the content class, for example we limit online video streaming web sites to 2Mbps to avoid contention during sporting events. Another example is blocking all social networking websites, the bluecoat proxy appliance downloads web-site category definitions nightlty to have up to date rules day, the day to day maintenance required by the IT team is minimal.

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