bandwidth management on a Linux gateway

Hi,

I'm going to use Linux + NAT to provide Internet access to my local network. I'm also going to develop a central download manager.

The idea is to use the un-utilized bandwith to download files, specially at night, so that downloading large files will not affect the interactivity of the line.

In essence, what I'm trying to do is prioritizing(?) my downloads so they don't consume the bandwith.

What is the easiest way to do this?

TIA.

 

 

 

 

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