limit traffic based on type of connection

[VJ]

Hello,

I have a weird situation.
My laptop is used with a variety of internet connections: via LAN, 100 Mbps; via Wifi, 54 Mbps and via GPRS 48 Kbps).

Just recently, it started downloading the latest FireFox-update 1.5.0.5 over my GPRS connection, which has resulted in 2.5 MB in a relatively short time. My subscription however only provides for an included 10 MB, so such downloads are costly.

Is there a way of limiting what various applications do, based on the type of connection?

The problem is: I can't just block out internet access for FireFox or ThunderBird, for obvious reasons (Netlimiter is installed on the PC ).
I have already changed these applications from "automatic download" to "ask me", but are there other suggestions/ideas?


Jörg

[MultimediaMan]

Limiting different parts of an application use of an internet connection can only be controlled with the software itself, unless it uses a different TCP port.

I think the biggest part of your problem is that there are several connections which have a default gateway: you have discovered that Windows will sometimes behave badly and use the "wrong" connection. One possible fix is to to assign a Metric to each adapter.

Go to Start-> Run -> Type "control ncpa.cpl" (no quotes)...

This will open the Network Properties Window.

Select the connection you want to be your Primary Internet connection. Go to Properties, then Select TCP/IP connections for the network adapter...

Go to Advanced -> IP Settings Tab. Uncheck The Automatically Assign Metric box. Manually Assign a Metric of 5 to your Primary interface.

Repeat the steps above assigning a value of 10,15,20, etc... for all of your other network connections. This will force your machine to try the interfaces in a specific order. You can also assign a Metric to each of the default gateways (if you have any connections which use static IP settings...).

This should put things right permanently.

BTW, Firefox is now at version 1.5.0.6: It's not a security-related update; Mozilla found a small bug in a the built in Media Player Plugin.

[VJ]

Limiting different parts of an application use of an internet connection can only be controlled with the software itself, unless it uses a different TCP port.

I feared as much.
Guess I'll have to look out better in the future.

I think the biggest part of your problem is that there are several connections which have a default gateway: you have discovered that Windows will sometimes behave badly and use the "wrong" connection.

Well, usually when the GPRS is used, it is the only available connection at the time. So I'm not sure the metric thing (which I didn't know) will work.

Jörg