Gargoyle Forum

Gday eric & team

My request is for user groupings of ip/mac addresses.
I have 3 teenagers & their assorted boyfriends/girlfriends/friends, my partner & myself all with multiple computers/consoles/network mediatanks etc.
Even with only a few of the systems connected so far, the "quota usage" page & the "quotas" page is a little confusing.
Add to that the "peak" quotas & the "off peak" quotas that are imposed on us & it becomes very hard to follow.
all ips are dhcp given & linked to mac addresses & host names.
hosts can be in multiple groups.
groups can be in other groups.

What I would like to see is something like this:

User Both Download Upload
son1 <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
daughter1 <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
daughter2 <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
wife1 <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
lord1 (me) <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
family <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
all_others <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
kids_total <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
all_total <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb

etc..etc..

press the <radio button> for "son1" and you see:

User Both Download Upload
son1 <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
|-- son1_ps3_wireless xxmb xxmb xxmb
|-- son1_ps3_wired xxmb xxmb xxmb
|-- son1_lappy_wireless xxmb xxmb xxmb
|-- son1_lappy_wired xxmb xxmb xxmb
|-- son1_desktop_wired xxmb xxmb xxmb
|-- son1_xbox360_wired xxmb xxmb xxmb
|-- son1_girlfriend_lappy xxmb xxmb xxmb
daughter1 <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
daughter2 <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
wife1 <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
lord1 (me) <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
family <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
all_others <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
kids_total <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb
all_total <radio btn> xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb xx%/xxmb

etc..etc..

as you can see in the above example its the user group "son1" that has the quota for a range of ips & it is easy for him & I to see.
when a user checks the router's start page they see whatever quota stats that they are a part of (with or without <radio button> details) eg. son1 would see "son1" branch & "kids_total" & "all_total". (if his host is part of the user group he gets the <radio button> to see details, if his user group is part of another user group eg. "all_kids", he just sees the rolled up total with no <radio button>)

if I need to explain it better, let me know

cheers 2 all

edit: that didnt format well now ive seen it on the forum, sorry

The way I see it the multiple quotas per IP feature is the first step towards addressing this concern. The final step will be when the captive portal feature is finally implemented. Users will then be required to login before using the internet.
However you will need to be patient as the programming is complex and takes a lot of time. And Eric also has other things on his plate...
For more info see: http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi ... 2190#p2104

thanks for the reply unclejohn.
im not sure about the captive portal from the little i read about it. for example how does an xbox or ps3 logon as a user to get access to the net?
my sugestion was mostly about asthetics & trying to track each piece of equipment to a user/user group. i have no problem with setting static ips to mac addresses (hell, id be impressed if 1 of my kids worked out how to spoof the mac address of a sibling & steal their quota )

im thinking more along the lines of being able to have usable names for the quotas & also creating a usable name for an "ip range or list", then having the ability to use that name when setting quotas.

in the main, every piece of equipment here can be tracked to a single user (have you ever tried to get teenagers to share a ps3?? & god forbid my sons girlfriend should impact on my daughters quota ).
when the system is all connected i have a 24 port switch that has few ports free plus wireless connected equipment. trying to follow the quotas pages is a nightmare

cheers

Hi,
Do you actually want quotas and visibility of usage for each individual IP, or only require it for each group?

eg. do you want to give a single quota to "son1" devices and he can use it as he pleases, for laptop, ps3 or girlfriend? Or do you really need to know exactly what device is using it?

I think the latest versions can have a quota applied to an IP range... so perhaps you keep each group within a specific range and apply the quota that way.

I agree with "naming" the quotas, I have started a separate thread about this requesting the hostname be shown wherever it's corresponding IP is shown in quotas, web usage etc.
http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi ... ?f=7&t=454

Cheers,
Mike

gday mike
i guess i only "require" to see the quota for the whole group/range but as i dont allow access whithout a recognised ip/mac combination already setup in the router, i already have each individual piece of equipment named. so it would be good for me & "son1" to know that its "son1_girlfiend" thats eating his quota with her downloading of "glee" episodes & that "daughter2" should not leave her desktop on all night with p2p software running

interesting side note. since i have setup gargoyle, & the kids know i have, we have gone from using all our quota up in a week & then being shaped for 3 weeks, to only using 10% of it. (its no longer a race to the end of the quota)

cheers 2 all

zygo wrote:thanks for the reply unclejohn.
im not sure about the captive portal from the little i read about it. for example how does an xbox or ps3 logon as a user to get access to the net?
....

Presumably the xbox or ps3 used by say son1 and daughter1 is the same device. If so the son1 or daughter1 would have to identify themselves to gargoyle before starting the session so that usage could be alloted to the correct quota (eg. son1_ps3_wireless xxmb xxmb xxmb). Captive portal enables this.
I know that there are web browsers available for xbox and PS3. However I doubt whether Eric would intent to support them. If not you would have to be content with allocating a preset shared quota for these devices.

Giving this a little more thought...
For a household network a captive portal is more of a luxury than an absolute necessity.
It would be reasonable to expect household members to know that they need to go to 192.168.1.1 and login first in order to gain internet access.
Including this feature would also be a nice stepping stone to implementing a full-blown captive portal feature.

I will keep hoping that the internet access improves in Australia.

You guys/gals have to go through some hell to manage all this.

I'm looking at all these situations and thinking wow, I'll never see
or have to worry about something like this myself.

Feel bad for you all down in AUS!

DoesItMatter wrote:I will keep hoping that the internet access improves in Australia.

Actually we are not that different to places like New Zealand and South Africa etc. which also apply quotas and have comparatively high prices.
This article suggests one reason suppliers in some places charge comparatively high prices is because they can rather than it being purely a reflection of the cost to provide the service.

I don't think I'm really going to be able to do captive portal in pieces. I'm going to have to implement basic functionality and then integrate it with everything which is going to take a while.

The downside is that there's going to be a period where I'm working on it where there are very few updates because it's going to break everything to begin with. There may be an awful lot of "dead time" without too many updates when I start, so I've been putting it off a bit.

Before I start on captive portal (which I DO want, but will take a while) I intend to update the qos section, and maybe link it with quotas, since this is a highly requested feature and won't take quite as much time as captive portal. I may add a few other polishes too (e.g. adding option to specify hostnames as well as ips). I'm going to have to pick a good stopping point though, when I just say "enough" and actually start working on the captive portal beast...

This is just an update on my current/thinking plans... which are subject to change depending on a lot of other factors.