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Roommate Hogging Internet Bandwidth

S

steiney

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 6, 2009
504
36
Hello All!

I'm not sure if this is the right place for my question, but everyone here has been so helpful in the past, I figured I'd pose the question here.

I just moved into a new house at the beginning of this month, and the guy who owns the house is hogging the internet like crazy. I get no more than 0.25 Mbits/sec ever, and it's a 6 Mbit connection. I keep asking him about throttling his torrent program, etc., and he keeps acting like he's going to do it and then doesn't take care of it.

I'm getting sick of asking him about it. Is there anything I can do? I've tried logging into his router to allocate bandwidth based on MAC address, but he has a non-default password set on it. I can't think of anything else. I'm essentially looking for some way to mitigate the problem, or at least get back at him by making the internet unusable for anyone. I have plenty of internet access at work, and could live with it down at my house. I'm moving out of this place at the end of the month.

If anyone has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate hearing them.

Thank you in advance,

steiney
 
alust2013: Yeah, I understand what you're saying, and I thought about that, but it's just not right, and instead of hassling the guy over and over again until he finally bucks up and fixes it, to be able to just solve it through my knowledge (and others knowledge) of computers would be really satisfying.

miles01110: We are splitting the internet cost 50/50. He was living here by himself, then I moved in, and he won't share the internet.
 
steiney said:
alust2013: Yeah, I understand what you're saying, and I thought about that, but it's just not right, and instead of hassling the guy over and over again until he finally bucks up and fixes it, to be able to just solve it through my knowledge (and others knowledge) of computers would be really satisfying.

miles01110: We are splitting the internet cost 50/50. He was living here by himself, then I moved in, and he won't share the internet.
Click to expand...

Threaten to stop splitting the cost with him if he's gonna be such a dick about it. Money is a great motivator.
 
42streetsdown: Yeah, I definitely would have done that the second time I talked to him about it, but I'm moving out at the end of the month, and the money is already paid, so I can't really play that card.
 
well you could go into the router reset it so it goes back to the default setting and then change things on it.

Just make sure that the router name, and wireless name and password stay the same and chance are he would be none the wiser.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
well you could go into the router reset it so it goes back to the default setting and then change things on it.

Just make sure that the router name, and wireless name and password stay the same and chance are he would be none the wiser.
Click to expand...

Agreed. There should be a a reset button (possibly accessible by a paperclip) on the rear side of the router.

If you know he's going to get mad about it, I would just leave it alone. There's no point as you're about to move out.
 
Stop splitting the bill, that's complete ********. If he is going to have his own password on the router, and use up all the bandwidth, then he can pay the full bill.

If it's 50/50, you should both have equal access, and both know the router password/settings as well.
 
Yeah, I definitely would, but I'm moving out at the end of the month, and he's basically working on the logic that I'm not going to mess with it because there's only 14 more days. I just don't want to go 14 more days with ridiculously slow internet, considering I've paid for half of it.

I like the suggestions about hitting the reset button and hijacking the router, but I don't want to make too many waves because I want to be able to get my security deposit back without having to sue the kid.
 
He would know because he's into RPG gaming and such, and likely has several NAT configurations, etc. that he would notice were missing. It would solve my problem because then I could login into the router using the default usn/pass, change it to one of my liking, and allocate bandwidth based on MAC address, so that I can guarantee myself the 3 Mbits/sec that I am entitled to.
 
All this drama and angst and you'll be moving out in 14 days? Get a grip. That's no time at all. Find something else to occupy your time for the next week, and then focus on packing up all your stuff and dealing with the move. August will be here before you know it.

steiney said:
...he's basically working on the logic that I'm not going to mess with it because there's only 14 more days.
Click to expand...

Any you know what? He's right. He can absolutely out-stubborn you on this.
 
Haha. Not really drama or angst. Definitely not angst. Just wanting to find out if I can gain the upperhand in the situation. I rely on having internet to do my job from home. 14 days with limited connectivity is a big deal. And he may be able to out-stubborn me on the internet, but there are plenty of subversive ways to cause much more than 1/2 of one months internet bill worth of damage.

Frankly, the kid sells weed out of the house, and I'm considering informing the popo of his activities. In my head, as he's being escorted out of the house by the police, I'll say, "Maybe next time you'll think twice before ****ing with a man's internet". I think that would be really funny.
 
Nugget: I'm not going to take the time to explain it, but those two statements don't conflict with each other.

QuarterSwede: I think that's the first rational viewpoint I've heard in the thread. I agree. I just want to increase the chances of getting my security deposit back without having to sue the little guy, so I don't want to make waves. But I do thank you for the input.
 
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