Can I reduce Netflix Bandwith?

[Geek-9pm]

Some ISPs offer lower cost, but they will not allow total monthly bandwidth use to go over a modest amount. This is a bum deal.
The total usage by a streaming movie is a product of the instantaneous bandwidth of the steam and the amount o time it takes to watch the movie.
If I could tell Netflix to stream me at the lowest acceptable spree, my usage would go done. Do you see what I mean?

Can it be done? How? 

[DaveLembke]

DD-WRT flash a router and then for the device you want to throttle such as a Roku you enter the MAC address and set a bandwidth limitation rule. I have done this with my router to limit certain people in households bandwidth as well as set the VoIP phone to have a bandwidth priority and allocation.

[Geek-9pm]

Dave Lembke,
 - That is brilliant! Never do you could do that.
So happens I have a DD-WRT router I can use!
Thanks. 

[DaveLembke]

No problem 

The setup is not the easiest though. It might take a few tries to get it configured the way you like.

More info here which is along the same lines... http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=164182&sid=1e1b16833ff670ee8c274c81ca46c45c


Prior to this I throttled everyone else by using an OLD 10mbps HUB. Most would think that an old 10 mbps hub is a piece of slow trash. Replace that with a 100mbps switch for less than $10. BUT it can be used as a very effective bottleneck!!!!!! 

This worked well when i had 25/5 bandwidth and was paying $80 a month for internet, but when I dropped that cost for internet to $49.99 and went with the 5/1 bandwidth, now all of a sudden that 10 mbps bottleneck wasnt working so well because the bandwidth of the 10mbps HUB exceeded the maximum bandwidth from the ISP. I had the choice of going back to 25/5 for $80 a month or figuring out a better way to throttle in which DD-WRT was the free solution to making everything work without issues on 5/1 bandwidth. I like saving $30 a month! And for downloads of ISO images etc, I can always time that to happen when I have to go walk away from computer and have it download through the straw of a connection without waiting. When I get back to the PC after dinner or going to bed etc its done and ready for me when i get back. Im use to doing this from years ago with dial up, setting a download and go take a break and come back. Fortunately though you dont have to worry about the disconnect of the internet at 99% though like the days of dial up unless you have a network problem.

The 25/5 bandwidth was more than I was really ever needing. 5/1 was just about the bare minimum though and required a traffic cop of DD-WRT to keep everything working flawless when a single Linux ISO download or streaming netflix it would grab that fastest connection at the get go and choke off my Vonage VoIP telephones bandwidth and make the phone choppy or unusable. I have mine configured with the following rules for 5/1 bandwidth.

QoS dedicated slice of bandwith for VoIP phone 1MB/384k ( * Note this rule activates when phone is used and grabs this slice of the bandwidth so all others have to use the remaining 4MB/640k )

QoS dedicated slice of bandwidth for my computer 2MB/384k ( * Rule is active only when there is traffic to and from my system ) * I am never choked off of bandwidth no matter what others are doing, uninterrupted online gaming.

Throttle config set bandwidth limitations for specific MAC addresses for wife and daughters PC and their portable devices to 3MB/640k maximum. Where when phone is in use it drops to 2MB/256k maximum shared among all these devices that are configured to this pool and all devices have to compete for this remaining bandwidth that varies depending on phone in use or not.

By the way I throttled my roku down for netflix and other streaming content to test to see what the minimim bandwidth is before it starts to get bad. If I go lesser than 1.5MB/384k it starts to get bad. At this lesser bandwidth the picture quality isnt as sharp as it adjusts itself to best quality for the limited bandwidth available.