apt-get

For apt-get you just need to create a new file:

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/76download

with the following contents:

$ sudo vim /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/76download 
Acquire {
    Queue-mode "access";
    http {
        Dl-Limit "128";
    };
};
$

The above will limit your bandwidth to 128K, adjust this figure to suit your network.

Alternatively, if you don’t want this change to be set permanently, then you can specify it in the command line:

$ sudo apt-get -o Acquire::http::Dl-Limit=128 upgrade

wget

To rate-limit wget, simply edit /etc/wgetrc or your personal configuration at ~/.wgetrc and add or edit the following line:

limit-rate=128k

other

Other packages can be configured in different ways, but you could install trickle and then read its man page to determine how to use it. For example (from the man page):

$ trickle -u 128 -d 128 ncftp