Sopcast and outgoing internet traffic

[blackjack]

I have a question regarding how Sopcast and other such p2p programs might affect my outgoing traffic. I'd never used this kind of program before, but a couple of days ago, I finally downloaded Sopcast and used it to watch the Chelsea-Derby match.

I live in a college dorm, and a few hours after the match, I got an email telling me that my outgoing traffic on the college's network was incredibly high, and that if I continued to maintain such high numbers, my internet would be disconnected.

I have friends in the same dorm who use p2p to stream soccer games all the time, and none of them have ever gotten any such warning from our ITS department. What I'm wondering is if there is any way to mitigate my outgoing traffic when using such a program. Also, why would my traffic be so high as to receive a warning when none of my friends, who use the same type of program, have ever gotten one? I would really like to be able to continue streaming games, but I really can't afford to get my internet disconnected. Do any of you tech guys have any advice?

[Kryptonite]

Maybe you were just the unlucky one? It is p2p, so maybe they know better times to log on? I'm thinking that if they log on during less popular times, then perhaps there's fewer people to connect to them.

Just a few random guesses.

[kcscsupporter]

you might try something like peer guardian 2. it's basically blocks anyone from connecting to you, or something like that. that might render sopcast useless though.

[Kryptonite]

It's my understand that with the p2p software, you all share the connection by connecting to each other's computers. The more people connecting, the better off your connection is.

Therefore, if you block anyone from connecting, I would think that you would be SOL.

[blackjack]

Thanks for the help, guys. I haven't tried streaming any matches lately but I'll give your suggestions a try next time I do.

[Foosinho]

Here is what you do.

Get a router. It must have "traffic shaping" or "QoS (Quality of Service)". It need not be expensive - you could find an old router that DD-WRT (http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php) can be installed on.

You install the router between your PC and the network link. Then you tell it to limit the bandwidth for your p2p applications to keep your university happy.