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TP-Link Router Setup: Bandwidth Control and P2P Configuration
P2P stands for peer-to-peer. It can be defined as a class of systems and applications that use distributed resources in a decentralized manner to accomplish critical tasks. There are two points to explain in this definition:
Resources – including computing power, data, network bandwidth, etc.; Critical tasks – distributed computing, file sharing, platform services, collaborative communication, etc. For the average user group, file sharing is undoubtedly the most used. Typical examples of this type of software include: BT, eMule, Xunlei, QQ Live, PPStream, etc.
Bandwidth Control Method 1: Block Ports
During TP-Link router setup, using the port blocking method for bandwidth control can only limit P2P software to a small extent, and the effect is not very good; because many P2P applications can manually specify a listening port. Even if the listening port cannot be manually specified, the software itself typically utilizes a wide range of listening ports, usually from 0 to 65535. If you only use applications like web browsing, email, and QQ, you can simply block most of the unnecessary ports.
Of course, with so many ports, exactly which ones to block depends on your own needs, as long as it doesn’t affect your work or daily life. The effect of restricting these ports here is: the number of external network hosts that P2P-using machines on the internal network can connect to will be greatly reduced, but it cannot completely restrict the use of P2P applications. You can set this up in “Security Settings – IP Address Filtering”. Since Xunlei servers typically use ports 3076, 3077, and 3078 to communicate with clients, blocking these three ports will significantly reduce Xunlei download speeds. The method for blocking the listening ports of other P2P software is similar.
Bandwidth Control Method 2: Block Access to Well-Known BT Websites
This method can prevent access to BT websites, for example: btchina, Ys帝国, and others. At the same time, you can also block tracker servers. Some larger tracker servers include: btfans.3322.org, bt.5qzone.net. You can set this up in “Security Settings – Domain Filtering”.
Bandwidth Control Method 3: Limit Per-Device Bandwidth
Using this method will uniformly limit the speed for all hosts on the internal network. Each host has the same bandwidth usage status, with no priority distinction. Since ADSL upstream bandwidth is inherently limited, it is especially important to limit the upstream bandwidth per device. This method is suitable for broadband routers with “IP QoS” functionality.
Bandwidth Control Method 4: Limit Per-Device Connections
Using this method will limit the number of connections for all hosts on the internal network. This is mainly based on the fact that when a broadband router performs NAT translation, it maintains some connection entries for applications. P2P software requires many connections when in use, while the number of connections a broadband router itself can tolerate is limited. Therefore, limiting the number of connections per host to a certain range effectively maintains the router’s connection entry count. This method is suitable for broadband routers with “Connection Limit” functionality.
TP-Link Router Setup: Wireless Router Password Setup
This article uses TP-Link wireless routers as an example. The wireless password setup process is similar for other wireless routers. The router part of the wireless router password setup: (The router address and access password only provide default values; please replace them with your own set values).
1. Open your browser, type 192.168.1.1 into the address bar, and press Enter. A wireless router password setup prompt window will pop up.
2. In the password prompt window, enter the username and wireless router setup password (default for both is admin. If different, the corresponding values should be given on the label under the router) and click OK. At this point, two web pages will pop up: the setup wizard and the settings interface. You can close the setup wizard. Next, we will enter the specific wireless settings section.
3. Click “Wireless Parameters” in the list on the left to enter the “Basic Wireless Network Settings” page.
4. On the right page, you can see some basic parameters for the wireless router setup password.
For the SSID, you can enter a name you like or leave it unchanged. The purpose of modifying it is to distinguish your wireless router from others when setting up wireless devices. For the channel, modify it when there are multiple wireless routers nearby (it is generally recommended to set it to a channel +/- 3 relative to others for the wireless router password setup. Using channel 13 is not recommended because some WiFi-enabled phones or PDAs cannot recognize this channel).
Make sure to enable the wireless function; the “Enable Security Settings” checkbox should be ticked. (Allowing SSID broadcast is recommended for novice players to prevent forgetting their router’s SSID, causing unnecessary trouble.) For wireless router password setup, generally, for home network security, select “WEP” as the security type, and choose “Automatic” for the security option.
For Key Format, select “ASCII” (Hexadecimal is more troublesome, making it hard to remember the password). Choose a corresponding value for the key type behind Key 1 (128-bit is recommended). Enter your password in the box corresponding to the key content. Pay attention that the number of characters must be exact, no more and no less.
Selecting a 64-bit key requires entering 10 hexadecimal characters, or 5 ASCII characters. Selecting a 128-bit key requires entering 26 hexadecimal characters, or 13 ASCII characters. Selecting a 152-bit key requires entering 32 hexadecimal characters, or 16 ASCII characters.
After confirming the above setup steps are complete, click the “Save” button. The wireless router part of the setup ends here. The setup on the computer side is basically the same as setting up without a password, except you need to enter the corresponding SSID and password (please translate yourself for English system versions) when prompted.
TP-Link Router Setup Password Notes: If you cannot access the internet after completing the setup, please use a wired connection to go online (wireless network cards and local wired network cards cannot be enabled simultaneously, otherwise it may cause IP address conflicts. Simply put, unplug the network cable when using wireless internet; use the shortcut key