I manage an apartment complex and we're about to start offering free internet access to our residents. I've done this in the past with different properties and have had to some problems with network congestion from p2p downloading. Since the residents will primarily be younger people, I don't expect the Internet usage to be any different. So, rahter than wait for the problem to present itself, I'm going to install a bandwidth shaping appliance from the start. And, yes, this information will be included in our internet service agreement. We won't be blocking P2P, just shaping it when the network is being used heavily.
Right now we're looking at netequalizer as a potential solution. Does anyone have any experience with these? Is there any reason to pay $50,000 for another brand when the equalizer is running for aroud 2 thousand?