Limit Bandwidth / Internet Access for Specific Application?

[ZaLiTH]

As the title indicates, I'd like to restrict the amount of bandwidth or internet access speed of a specific application on my PC. Preferably during certain times only, but even a way to enable and disable this rule as I need would be fine.

I have a 1Mb ADSL with a measly 3GB monthly cap (it's painful, can't afford more at the moment though), and Steam turns out to be the nastiest, bloated, deceptive, sneaky, bandwidth-whor........<a while later>........ piece of software ever released to the world at large.

So, I keep setting all my games to "Do not update automatically" (which needs to be re-set after each time a game is run), and it supposedly doesn't download updates or patches while a game is being played... Despite this, if I decide to play Borderlands, after launching the game I have to alt-tab into Windows, go to Steam, and pause the next "Suspended" 250MB or 300MB update that it's busy downloading... I may have a slow connection by most of your standards, but at a pretty constant 100KB/s, 3GB isn't exactly going to last me that long.

Now, I do have a service from my ISP that gives me 5 times my download cap between 1am and 5am (more info, if you like).. So I can get a theoretical 15GB a month if I play my cards right. Is there any firewall out there that will allow me to limit the access speed of Steam to 5KB/s or 10KB/s during specific times...?

Please note: I've tried NetLimiter's trial, and it works perfectly, but it's a bit pricey for such a limited scope. I tried NetPeeker, and it caused a BSOD and corrupted boot files when I tried to set a new rule.

Any suggestions?

 

[ZaLiTH]

Has nobody got any suggestions...?

 

[Jacee]

Is the any way to stop Steam in services, then start it when you want to?

 

[Jacee]

You could also ask your question in their help forum Help and Tips - Steam Users' Forums

 

[ZaLiTH]

Is the any way to stop Steam in services, then start it when you want to?

Steam has to be running in order to play any games through Steam, since everything is done online (no CDs or DVDs) that's how they work the game licensing.

You could also ask your question in their help forum Help and Tips - Steam Users' Forums

I have (link), and other than someone telling me to disable automatic updates, there really isn't anything very helpful there. If you search the Steam forum, you'll see there are tons of people asking for more control of game updates, the general consensus is "why would you ever not want to update?", which really doesn't work for me...

Honestly, nobody on any of the forums I've asked for help from or any of my friends have had any helpful suggestions. This weekend (after I get paid) I'm buying NetLimiter and giving Steam a glorious 5KB/s restriction for it's downloads. I'm really sick of this crap now, I had to buy more cap (again, this month alone) just so I could get back online now, so thanks to all this my internet bill at the end of this month will be nearly twice what it normally is.