Setting up a computer for ICS to allow bandwidth limiting

[n0tdan]

I'm looking for some suggestions on the easiest way to set up 1 computer to share my internet connection while also being able to limit the bandwidth available to that machine. (Mainly the upload)

Right now i have the standard Internet -> router -> computers setup using a WRT54G Linksys router.

Background: tongue

I've got the computer i want to limit set to low priority in the router QoS settings, but that doesn't seem to make much of a difference when that computer user downloads/uploads using bittorrent... (roommate sharing my internet) My assumption is they don't have an upload limit set and/or have too many connections allowed and the router can't handle it because whenever they use bittorrent latency goes up to like crazy and even basic internet browsing is horrible. I'm assuming it's their setup because when i use bittorrent i don't experience any of these problems (I configured uttorrent based on various optimization guides and did not have these problems when it was just me using the internet)

Ok, so this is what i would like to set up.
Diagram

right now, all computers connect through the router, but i would like computer 4 to connect through computer 3, and setup computer 3 to share the internet to computer 4.

I've tried using Windows XP pro and ICS in conjunction with TrafficShaperXP to limit the up/down to limit computer 4's bandwidth, and it did work initially... (I'm testing this out on machine 3- >2 with a crossover cable) but after configuring it, and testing the internet connection, i did some software installs on the ICS machine, and the internet stopped working on the computer connected to my ICS machine... a few hours of troubleshooting and i gave up, fresh install of WindowsXP, and fresh start... internet works, ICS works.. install traffic shaper... no ICS... restore back before traffic shaper and all is well... so i have no clue why it worked briefly after the first install and never worked after that.

Well, after much frustration, now computer 3 is sitting here with a nice clean formatted hard drive happy

So, I'm looking for suggestions on the easiest way to achieve my goal of providing internet access to computer 4 without killing my internet.

Options I'm contemplating:

Windows XP pro with working traffic shaping software (free? suggestions?)

Suggestions on linux builds and software allowing the same thing (only instaled openSuse briefly, didn't go into depth)
This would be an interesting option for me because i'd like to be able to say i'm familiar with linux, but I have a hard time getting myself to go away from the familiar Windows GUI.

Suggestions/advice?

 

[JackMDS]

ICS does not turn the Host computer to a real server Host, it is just a form of software Routing.

I am not aware of free for the Windows platform.

Either you do it with a Router that can do Qos or you buy this software, http://www.netlimiter.com

 

[n0tdan]

I'm open to suggestions for linux builds and software allowing me to do traffic shaping as well. Specific linux builds and traffic shaping software or setup guides would be great too.

 

[NickOlsen8390]

I use Mikrotik as my main router, it will do what you want.
Mine is running on a computer, but they make small RouterBoards that you can load it on.
I have used it to limit a computers upload to 128kbs (friend being evil)
you can do it based on the computers IP.
Now, Mikrotik can be very hard if you dont have a good idea about networking. but once its up and running it will do anything you want. and run all day (if its a stable computer)

Now its not the cheapest solution, you can use the free version but then you can only do one queue. but for $45 USD you can have a level 4 license that will do everything and more.

If you would like some more info on it. screenshots of the management utility....ect message me. i can help you set it up too if you need help.