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Stephan Vierkant
Asked: 2015-02-19 01:17:05 +0800 CST

Limit bandwidth for background applications on slow network

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When I am at slow and/or paid networks (i.e. in public transport wifi of while tethering) I want to browse as fast as possible, so I don't want Ubuntu to download software updates, torrents, etc.

There are many apps that monitor or limit applications, but I can't find an app that works like the 'disable background usage' or 'disable while not on wifi or while roaming' like Android has. I would be great to have an app that disables/limit certain applications when the wifi network is considered as a slow/expensive network.

networking

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Just create a firewall profile that blocks everything except http and dns and set your update mirror to one that only accepts the ftp protocol:

    1. Firewall configuration:

      apt-get install gufw

    Now go to the dash, and type firewall and click the sole icon remaining and you'll see:

    Firewall public

    Begin warning: From now on, until you see End warning, you will not have access to the Internet!

    • Take the "public" profile (or another one you're currently now using) and set everything to "reject" (as in the picture above)
    • Click the + below "rules" and click on the "Simple" tab and fill out the screen as follows:

    DNS traffic

    and press Add

    Then fill out the screen as follows:

    HTTP traffic

    and press Add, then Close

    End Warning

    Your rules section should now look like this:

    Minimal rules

    1. Mirror config

    In the Netherlands, there is only one mirror that supports ftp only: Ftpserv-tudelft-nl, for all other countries, look here for the full list and choose your own.

    Now go to the dash again and type Software Updater and again, click the sole icon available, click Settings, the "Ubuntu Software" tab, "Download from:" and choose Other, take the country of your choice and the server of your choice:

    NL,TuDelft

    And voilà: you can only surf the Internet and nothing else can happen any more!

    No updates, no email, no Skype, no FTP, no HTTPS, no nothing! Only DNS look-ups and web surfing If you would like to have more then the absolute minimal available, have a look at IANA assigned port numbers and add any other protocol numbers you would need.

    To revert back to normal use: just open the firewall in the dash again, Click on Public and then click on Home and you're back to where you were!

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