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Does NetworkManager have a limited bandwidth mode?

rated 0 times [ 3] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 1201 / 3 Years ago, tue, june 22, 2021, 6:05:29

As soon as I go online via my portable 3G hotspot, all running programs happily start pulling updates (e.g. Gwibber, Thunderbird, Update Manager...) and eat into my traffic quota. Is there a way to activate a network connection, but only tell specific programs about it (e.g. Firefox, if I just want to quickly look something up)? Note that I'm not looking for bandwidth limiting, I just want to prevent the automatic "ooh, I'm online, let's get some data" behavior.

EDIT: I have already received two useful answers, however, I'd still like to add some clarification: what does NetworkManager do to tell running programs they're now online? I assume it's some sort of DBus message. Can I prevent that from being sent?

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tatoethin

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2 Years ago

answered 3 Years ago deringach · Accepted Answer

One of the ways that I would do that is using a Firewall. Ubuntu comes with it own Firewall UFW. You might want to install the GUI version, just to make it easier. To install it, just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command(s) below:

sudo apt-get install gufw

Once it finishes, just type gufw at the terminal prompt, and with the application opens, click on Edit, and then Add Rule.

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When that window opens, choose Deny --> Out --> Application -->, and then choose the application that you want. For command line control over the Firewall, see UFW

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If you want to block e.g. DropBox, you can block the entire Dropbox network IP allocation listed in ARIN, as seen in the image below.

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And you can see that it keeps saying connecting..

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