offer broadband in a pub but set a cap on usage

damolee

A friend runs a local pub and wants to offer free broadband to his customers. He is worried that if hr does, someone will come in and start downloading shed loads of movies etc and he will end up with a huge bill...

We all hear about broadband companies with 1GB download limits for examples, but they seem to allow you to download 1GB as part of the package you are on but then they charge cray money for anything over and above this..

Does anyone know a broadband option that allows you to cap usage, to ensure that you are only able to download what you are set as a limit and dont get any other bills.?

backspacer

Just from personal experience, I know that Vodafone in my case strangled the connection for me when I exceeded the limit set out.am sure if he asked his provider they could answer that.

srsly78

Landline connections don't usually charge extra for going over a cap, they throttle you. You are confusing landline with mobile, which is not suitable for this.

backspacer

I know what you mean, I am just saying that it's a case of going to your provider and asking the question as opposed to guess work.

srsly78

Sorry that was directed at the OP not at yourself.

backspacer

Sound,was assuming it was at myself, no bother

vibe666

you can set up a separate router for about 50 quid and set it up with a guest wifi network with restrictions on what people can use it for (like preventing downloading torrents and blocking porn etc.)

there's some good (although a couple of years out of date) info here: http://lifehacker.com/5791208/run-your-home-network-like-a-coffee-shop/all

a separate router will also allow you to keep your pub users separate and firewalled off from your home/business computers.

Mr. G

If you set up a ddwrt router, you can use AP isolation and block tor/torrents/skype/proxies/vpn.

He could use DNS filtering to block out websites that may hog the connection.

I doubt a small pub would have people download a lot of stuff, maybe email or youtube but that would be it.

He can set up QoS to prioritise his side of the network.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Tell him not to. There's nothing more depressing than a table full of people all ignoring each other and jabbing at their smartphones.

yoyo

Duracell Bunny wrote: »

Tell him not to. There's nothing more depressing than a table full of people all ignoring each other and jabbing at their smartphones.

Helpful advice only please.

vibe666

Mr. G wrote: »

If you set up a ddwrt router, you can use AP isolation and block tor/torrents/skype/proxies/vpn.

He could use DNS filtering to block out websites that may hog the connection.

I doubt a small pub would have people download a lot of stuff, maybe email or youtube but that would be it.

He can set up QoS to prioritise his side of the network.

https://openwrt.org/ would be better than ddwrt for what they want to do, but it's a little more complicated to configure properly.

http://www.opendns.com/ will allow them to prevent access to just about anything you want. also, don't underestimate the number of people without their own broadband who would be happy to sit in a car outside (or a nearby house) and leech off their connection.

i have friends with a bar and they ended up having to change their wifi password daily and just give it out to customers as people were on it like flies to a UV light. :pac:

AnCatDubh

Mr. G wrote: »

I doubt a small pub would have people download a lot of stuff, maybe email or youtube but that would be it.

Recent experience to share - I've been involved in a project recently providing public access in a pub area. Its not so much people downloading stuff as in tor stuff or the like, but there is every possibility (and i've seen from the project that I was involved with) where people will go to the pub (more mid week than weekend) and stream content to their smartphone - TV company player(s), netflix, tv episodes from 3rd party streaming sites (legit/non legit), etc...

Have a pint whilst watching something completely different than what the landlord has on the big screen. Yeah, I laughed too. Plus sighed a little but sure whatever you are havin yourself (pardon the pun).

Then you may have the issue where the signal is available outside of the business itself. Yes you may tune this. A few people have latched on to its availability in the project i'm familiar with, and they appear to be using it as their internet supply. It's throttled and won't win any individual speed awards but it's free to consume so they don't complain. This mightn't be such a problem but is worthwhile keeping an eye on it.

Whether the above observations will sustain in the long term or not remains to be seen.

Cuddlesworth

vibe666 wrote: »

https://openwrt.org/ would be better than ddwrt for what they want to do, but it's a little more complicated to configure properly.

http://www.opendns.com/ will allow them to prevent access to just about anything you want. also, don't underestimate the number of people without their own broadband who would be happy to sit in a car outside (or a nearby house) and leech off their connection.

i have friends with a bar and they ended up having to change their wifi password daily and just give it out to customers as people were on it like flies to a UV light. :pac:

Gargoyle firmware does this perfectly. I used it in my Grandmothers house. She has 12 Students who rent beds during the year and a 500gig cap on the broadband. I set a overall usage limit and then later applied a limit to each new client.

riclad

I think sky broadband , upc have no limits broadband, 50 euro approx.
look on the websites, upc, sky ireland.broadband
MOBILE broadband has small dl caps, 500- 2gig ,depends on the company,

http://www.upc.ie/bundles/broadband-phone/fibre-120/
quote from upc,

Unlimited usage allowance
Download 120Mb/Upload 10Mb