Bandwidth nazi

[Richard Cottrill]

I've had an idea that's really a bit impolite. Basically I get ADSL and
sublet to my neighbours... This is all ok for me (the deal is unfettered -
not an imitation of it).

I'm presented with a potential speed bump in the form of my house mate who's
being very cagey about computers since he started using OS X - on a dual
processor G4 - so much potential wasted :(

He's decided our otherwise pleasant neighbour would hog the line and leave
him stranded with an ADSL line he can't use whenever he wishes. Arguments
about subsidies don't make much sense to him (don't know why). He also has
this weird idea that the other people would hack into his machine and
destroy it. He has all kinds of theories about computers that are quaint and
amusing the first time you hear them.

To overcome these potential hassles I was wondering how to set up a
firewall/NAT router to give preferential bandwidth. I recall that this sort
of thing is technically shaky, and it's unlikely there would be a problem
anyway, but rationality hasn't really been an issue so far and I'm not too
sure if it will be a factor in future.

Anyway it just sounds like a nifty trick. I'm a complete newbie at this
whole firewall/throttling/NAT/ADSL gig so please write in small words of
only one or two syllables.  A quick grep of 'man ipchains' didn't turn up
anything relevant for me.

Thanks,

Richard