pyshaper 0.1.3

pyshaper is a simple yet very versatile dynamic bandwidth manager application for Linux platforms.
Development of pyshaper was started by a number of factors:
Broadband internet access within New Zealand is abysmal, due to the local telco mafia controlling the local loop. You have to either put up with 128kb/s up/down (with 5-15GB monthly traffic), or suffer stupidly restrictive traffic caps (as little as 400MB/month) if you want faster connections
Existing traffic shaping software is either extremely limited or extremely complicated
I like to participate in a few different Peer2peer networks (eg Freenet, I2P etc - not your typical warez/MP3-type networks, but more privacy/anonymity networks), and I needed a simple way to stop these programs from blowing out my traffic
tc has a steep learning curve, and doesnt allow easy filtering on any criteria other than source/destination host/port.
I scoured the net, and came across the wondershaper script, as well as a prototype easy-shaper program called snitch. These programs helped me to start fathoming the occult mysteries of the arcane tc utility (part of the iproute2 suite). tc in its present state is very lacking in doco and examples, so these programs helped heaps.
So, as is an Open Source motto - If you cant find it, write it! - I realised I had to pull my finger out and write something myself.
Main features:
- pyshaper lets you set bandwidth minimum and maximum limits on several criteria:
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- remote host/port, and local host/port (most shaper apps have this)
- pid of locally connected program
- username under which local program is running
- command line and arguments under which local program was launched
- country in which remmote peer resides
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- With all these filtering criteria available, you can set up some pretty sophisticated filters.
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- For instance, you can use the by program filtering to put bandwidth caps on peer2peer programs that often talk via several different protocols, to different ports (which evades most other traffic-shaping programs).
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- Or, you can set individual inbound and/or outbound limits based on specific countries (or all countries other than your own).
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- Configuration file syntax is pretty simple and straightforward. No arcane nutsnbolts TCP/IP grease-monkey bit-bashing knowledge needed. After a quick pass through the doco and examples, youll be building your shaping configuration within a few short minutes.