Control device and application traffic with FRITZ!Box routers

On average, there are about ten connected devices in the house (computers, smartphones, game consoles, smart appliances, etc.).

Each in turn has various applications that access the Internet and consume traffic 24 hours a day. Result? You wireless network is slower and this is especially noticeable in streaming and downloads.

Most modern routers offer features traffic prioritization (prioritize devices and apps) and traffic restriction (avoid excessive data consumption). You can set this up, for example, with the FRITZ!Box series routers.

How to prioritize device or app traffic

Having created priority rule, you can define which devices or applications should have priority when sharing an Internet connection. Do it like this:

Access the FRITZ!box user interface and click on the menu Internet And in Filters.

Then activate the tab prioritize and in the section corresponding to the priority category you want to assign to the device or application, click new rule.

You will be able to make sure that you can choose between three priority categories:

• real time applicationsA: Devices and applications will always have the required data rate and will take precedence over others.
• Priority Applications: devices and applications will be able to use up to 90% of the data transfer rate, as long as the Internet connection is not busy with devices or applications included in the real-time category.
• Background apps: Devices and apps in this category will have the lowest priority when the Internet connection is being used by other devices and apps.

Finally, select the device or application you want to set as a priority from the drop-down list and click To acceptto keep the rule.

How to block traffic from a device or app

If you find that there are devices or applications on your home network that are generating excessive traffic, you can also choose completely block them from accessing the wireless network. This is especially useful if you want to avoid unwanted data consumption in the background. And this is common in the case of some mobile apps and other smart devices.

Device lock

Re-enter the interface of your FRITZ!Box, and now click on the menu called Internet D Parental control.

In the list that appears, find the device you want to manage, and then select the “Block” entry to restrict access to it.

Application Lock

Before you can block an application from accessing the Internet, you must first know what ports it is using. Next, you will need to do the following:

Access the FRITZ!Box user interface and click Internet D Filters. Then from tab ReadyPress network applications and then in Add network application.

Enter the name of the relevant application in the field that appears and click new protocol. Next, select the protocol and connection ports used by the application. Press To accept to save changes to settings.

In any case, when performing this operation, you should always keep in mind that if the application uses different protocols or ports, you will have to repeat the process for each of them. Blocked apps will no longer be able to access the internet from the router

You can also limit the traffic of invited users

FRITZ!Box routers offer the possibility create a guest wireless network. If you want to ensure that their data consumption does not affect the performance of your devices and applications, you can limit the bandwidth available to guests.

Log back into the user interface of your FRITZ!Box and click Internet D Filters. Then click on the tab prioritize and check the option Reserve Bandwidth for LANl.

From the drop-down list that appears, you can now directly select the amount of bandwidth to reserve. Finally, to save the changes you just made to the settings, click the button Apply.

From now on, guests will still have access to the network, but only with the bandwidth you’ve allocated. In this simple and effective way, the impact of this traffic on your own devices and applications will be limited.