monitoring specific daemons and/or network traffic

[jingo_man]

i am not a linux newbie, but i am within this specific area as i have only used network device or windows based applications.

on my debian machine (a linksys nslu2) i have an ftp server running. my friends will randomly upload videos and other files to here which i collect and use elsewhere.

additionally on the same host, i use various downloading applications, particularly overnight.

my intended scenario is that when a new ftp session starts, to either throttle/pause/lower the priority of my download applications.

i have looked into network and service monitoring applications, but know very little in this area for linux. does anyone have any useful extra information or links to guides?

many thanks,

jingo_man

[unchiujar]

Try searching for traffic shaping on Google.