The present invention teaches methods and systems for monitoring and controlling bandwidth usage between an internal local area network and an external network. By providing controls from inside the external network connectivity point, greater detail in bandwidth control is possible. This in turn leads to less restrictive bandwidth restricting algorithms. Bandwidth restricting algorithms include various bandwidth limiting techniques. One such technique uses prioritized data transfer limits applied on an application, process or network interface basis. Another technique uses a configurable weighting factor for real-time prioritization of data traffic. Other techniques incorporate quality of service or model predictive control based bandwidth limiting.