Windows Bandwidth Thief
According to this video, Windows reserves 20% of your bandwidth for Windows Updates. This is how to reclaim that bandwidth by modifying the local computer policy.
This might be something worth looking at implementing via a group policy on your Windows corporate domain.
9 Responses to “Windows Bandwidth Thief”
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Ryan Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 7:00 amRead the following; it’s a pretty good description of what’s going on.
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/3688
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/450c1fec-d358-42f4-b7e4-18b3f47ef6ff1033.mspx?mfr=trueIn other words, the tweak is only good in specific situations that generally don’t affect most people.
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jorogume Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 7:18 amNice video but it creates misunderstanding, because it suggest that Windows reserves a 20% of your bandwidth all the time, and this is not true.
Here is how the QoS Works:
from the link:
Clarification about the use of QoS in end computers that are running Windows XP
As in Windows 2000, programs can take advantage of QoS through the QoS APIs in Windows XP. One hundred percent of the network bandwidth is available to be shared by all programs unless a program specifically requests priority bandwidth. This “reserved” bandwidth is still available to other programs unless the requesting program is sending data. By default, programs can reserve up to an aggregate bandwidth of 20 percent of the underlying link speed on each interface on an end computer. If the program that reserved the bandwidth is not sending sufficient data to use it, the unused part of the reserved bandwidth is available for other data flows on the same host.
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bob Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 7:52 amWell, without doing any specific research, I’m gonna guess this only comes into play when WU is actually pulling anything down. And that 20% is probably the MAX WU is permitted to use…not like a “hey go take 20% of the bandwidth to do this”.
Especially since it uses BITS (the background file-transfer service in XP), which is designed to minimize impact to user experience. Very much like bit torrent, without the swarming.
Having seen plenty of work systems pulling down updates, I’ve never seen it significantly impact anyones’ work.
Still, thanks for the info, nice to know we can manage it to some extent.
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iladelf Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 11:43 amUmm, why even have QoS activated? On my XP Home box, I have it unchecked on my NIC’s Properties. Doesn’t cause me any issues, either.
This, to me, accomplishes the same thing as your video link.
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Rob Dunn Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 4:44 pmI’ve never heard anything about the WUA and the Windows QOS being intricately related.
If you ae really worried about bandwidth and Windows Updates, it would be way more effective to reduce the amount of bandwidth reserved for BITS by doing the following:
Open Group Policy by entering gpedit.msc /gpcomputer:”" in the Run window or at the command prompt in an MS-DOS window.
BITS policies are located under Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Network, Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
Right-click the policy and select Properties.
Follow the directions for enabling and setting the policy.This particular policy setting is used for corporate environments quite often, especially for those that are connected via slow lan links. See the MS information here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa362844.aspx
I don’t think that this video has much credence, at least with regards to Windows Updates.
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Rob Dunn Says:
September 19th, 2007 at 4:47 pm…er I meant “…especially those that are connected via slow WAN links.”
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Greg Says:
September 28th, 2007 at 3:14 pmThis is not how it works. See here for more info:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316666 -
Optolog.com Says:
October 17th, 2007 at 12:04 pmWindows Bandwidth Thief
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pKay Says:
April 21st, 2008 at 8:43 amNice tip! I am not sure if it is absolutely essential but I rather it be turned of than on!
Keep up the great work
Cheers!
