It would be resonably easy to set up a QoS with either cdq or htb if you know what ports skype will use. You can classify traffic by port and set what amount of the total pipe they can use. Unfortunaty, it is my understanding this is hard to pin down. (Most of what I have seen is in the context of a net admin wanting to block skype, as you presumably control all the skype installs you may be able to limit the ports it uses). We have a HTB based traffic shaping system on our linux based router where I live, we previously used CBQ. They both are great for improving responsiveness of our network under load. Look up linux advanced routing and you will find some great howtos for setting these up. On 9/27/05, greg wm <tclug at greatlakedata.com> wrote: > hi, > > how can i best protect whatever bandwidth is needed by our skype > connections? > > skype works great usually. probably where it breaks down is when other > activity loads down our connection. > > is there any fairly easy way to address this? if it's too complicated i > suppose i may have to just punt and get a second connection. but even > that would require some serious setup, in order to divert the skype > connections. > > i had an experience a year ago or so where i noticed that under heavy > (down)load, ping turnaround could take upto nearly 15 seconds. i > interpreted that to mean the pings were waiting in a crowded packet > queue. i imagine these sorts of considerations could indeed make voip > bandwidth protection a thorny issue. > > one supposedly simple idea that comes to mind is to somehow throttle > packets as necessary so that there is always some headroom left in our > connection bandwidth. but i confess i wouldn't know offhand how to do > even that.. > > i'd like to see recommendations, pointers, experiences, ... > > tia, > greg > > Greg Whitley Mott > IT Coordinator > NonviolentPeaceforce.org > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > >