Setup a manual cap on internet speeds

[bigshorty]

Hi All

Just wondering if any of you helpful guys can tell me if it's possible to manually cap my incoming internet download and upload speeds, and if so how would I go about doing this?

I'm currently running a Billion 8800NL as a bridge modem, connected to an Opnsense firewall, which then feeds a gigabit ethernet switch which is used to provide internet access to wired devices and also sends internet access to my Asus RT-AC86U and RT-AC51U which are both in access point mode used for wireless devices. As the Billion and Asus devices are in bridge and/or access point modes, a lot of their features are disabled, meaning the only device that seems likely to be able to do this would be my Opnsense firewall. From what I've researched it seems I need to configure Traffic Shaping within Opnsense, but the guide seems more specific to limiting speeds to individual devices, and not to an internet connection as a whole.

If there is any advice on how to do this, if it can be done, I'd be very grateful to know.

Many thanks in advance.

[Ciprian]

From the docs:
https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/how-tos/shaper.html#share-bandwidth-evenly

From what I've researched it seems I need to configure Traffic Shaping within Opnsense, but the guide seems more specific to limiting speeds to individual devices, and not to an internet connection as a whole.

Not true: the link I gave you upon is about limiting the total bandwidth first, and then share it evenly and dynamically (based on simultaneous individual needs) between individual devices.

Let me hear back if it works for you.

[bigshorty]

Many thanks for the advice and link, much appreciated.

I'll have to give it a go tomorrow, Friday night is party night for me!!!

I will definitely update you tomorrow as to how I get on though, thanks again.

[bigshorty]

From the docs:
https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/how-tos/shaper.html#share-bandwidth-evenly

From what I've researched it seems I need to configure Traffic Shaping within Opnsense, but the guide seems more specific to limiting speeds to individual devices, and not to an internet connection as a whole.

Not true: the link I gave you upon is about limiting the total bandwidth first, and then share it evenly and dynamically (based on simultaneous individual needs) between individual devices.

Let me hear back if it works for you.

Ok, I've followed the guide in the link you gave me and I think it partly works. What I've done is a number of speed tests just to check the bandwidth figures set in opnsense traffic shaper are my actual download and upload speeds. Download speeds seem to be spot on, every speed test I have done will show download speeds at 0.05 to 0.10 Mbps of the actual speed set in opnsense. Upload is a different matter though, if anything the upload speeds I'm getting now are higher than they were before I configured traffic shaper. Any thoughts as to why this might be happening? I've attached a pic of my traffic shaper stats in case that might help.

UPDATE: I've just removed all the traffic shaper settings, just to see if speeds will revert back to what they were before configuring traffic shaper, and my download speed won't go above what I set it to when using traffic shaper. I've rebooted opnsense just in case it needed it to update new settings but this has not made any difference. I've even tried wired connection speed tests on various devices and my download speeds won't go above traffic shaper settings, even though they should be at least 5mbps faster. Any advice?

[Ciprian]

Upload is a different matter though, if anything the upload speeds I'm getting now are higher than they were before I configured traffic shaper. Any thoughts as to why this might be happening?

Very very weird! I don't know what's happening here, I never encountered such a thing. If anything, I encountered the upload to be lower (~2/3) then pipe limit, but not equal, let alone higher.

Download speeds seem to be spot on, every speed test I have done will show download speeds at 0.05 to 0.10 Mbps of the actual speed set in opnsense

If you like, and can, maybe test with multiple users simultaneously?!? It might be only me, but while DLD limit is spot-on for a single client, that DLD limit is per client, not per group of concurrent clients. Check and see if your limit is respectively 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 ... 1/10 for every added simultaneous download session from a new/ different client (IP address). In my case the limit is always 1/1 (100%), no matter the number of concurrent downloading clients, as long as there is room up to the maximum WAN bandwidth (of course).

my download speed won't go above what I set it to when using traffic shaper

This is even weirder! Never happened, when I just disable (let alone delete) pipes and/ or queues the shaper will have no effect in a matter of seconds. At most, a "Reset" (flush) in the interface will just speeds things up.

[bigshorty]

It seems the speed test site I was using was the reason why my download speeds were so close to the rate I configured into traffic shaper. I tried various other tests and a few were reading around 3.5mbps above the traffic shaper rate I configured. Panic over!
Thanks for all your help though, at least I know how to configure traffic shaper now which should prove very useful.