Windows 10 Pro Internet Speed Limitation?

Hi guys.

Has anyone figured out how to completely disable W10 from capping/limiting the bandwidth yet? All of the "options" that are in tutorials on Google have absolutely no effect on it.

@Kyle -

Windows 10 does not cap anything - unless you setup a metered connection.

Ensure that this is not set-

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-in-windows-10

What is the device connected to the internet and the stated speeds from your ISP?

Thanks.

Compumind said:

@Kyle -
Windows 10 does not cap anything - unless you setup a metered connection.
Ensure that this is not set-
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-in-windows-10
What is the device connected to the internet and the stated speeds from your ISP?
Thanks.

Hi Compumind;

W10 definitely does, by default, cap bandwidth. This is so that Windows Update downloads have priority over other applications. Windows 10 takes 80% at least of bandwidth for background downloads for the OS, hence Update Delivery Optimization and QoS Packet Scheduler "Limit reservable bandwidth". By default the OS limits reservable bandwidth for Windows Updates and other background system services that download to keep it up to date.

QoS Packet Scheduler Limit Reservable Bandwidth description:

Determines the percentage of connection bandwidth that the system can reserve. This value limits the combined bandwidth reservations of all programs running on the system.

By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 80 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default.

If you enable this setting, you can use the "Bandwidth limit" box to adjust the amount of bandwidth the system can reserve.

If you disable this setting or do not configure it, the system uses the default value of 80 percent of the connection.

Important: If a bandwidth limit is set for a particular network adapter in the registry, this setting is ignored when configuring that network adapter.

My broadband speed is 380Mbps (Usually I get almost 400Mbps) on a Fibre Optic cable connection. My router is literally right beside my monitor and uses an Ethernet cable to my PC. The only other connection that is connecting to the router is my iPhone. (2 connections, though Ethernet and WiFi are separate connections to each other and do not interact/interfere with one another)

Despite having "Limit reservable bandwidth" disabled, and Windows Auto-Tune disabled (I've followed every reputable tutorial on the Internet that is about this, and they all say the exact same thing) none have seemed to work.

My iPhone speedtest gets the full speed and so does my backup W7 OS. I've tried updating/uninstalling and reinstalling my onboard LAN driver (also have a PCI TP-Link Ethernet card) and no change.

Hi @Kyle -

Strictly IMO...

I think I know where this is going and your source of information.

W10 does not really slow your bandwidth very much. It does not "cap" it in the sense of an ISP.
Keep in mind that is a internet-centric OS and there will always be traffic going back and forth for it to do what it does.
I wish it was "less connected" as well.

There are some ways to "limit" it but you are also reducing the inherent functionality of the OS, as designed.
W10 also needs significantly more overhead than a Smartphone, due to it's complexity.

More importantly, installed applications play a large part, too, with their own I/O, resources and services.

I tried playing with the Windows Packet Scheduler on a few occasions and have noticed interactions both pro and con. I personally, leave it alone

Here is another excerpt from the article you had posted that sums it all up pretty well -

"The Windows Operating System reserves a fixed percentage of the total Internet bandwidth for the QoS or Quality of Service usage like Windows update, license renewal, etc. Thus, when you limit the Reservable Bandwidth of the operating system to 0, this will affect the operating system activities like Automatic Windows Updates. If a QoS-aware application reserves more bandwidth than it uses, then the unused, reserved bandwidth is available for use by other applications. The reservation does not ensure that the bandwidth will be available to the QoS-aware application because applications that are not QoS-aware might consume too much bandwidth."

Limit Reservable Bandwidth Setting in Windows 10

Now here is some information from Microsoft on Quality of Service (QoS) Policy -

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...qos-policy-top

As far as I know, the only real way to optimize the full potential of your internet connection is:

1) Make the upstream and downstream rate higher with your ISP and discuss the use of a Static IP and Business Class QoS. Be ready to pay much more for that.
2) The router plays a part as well - Wireless is slower than Wired and the router has to filter packets, with it's own overhead and processing speed, etc.
3) The LAN drivers in Windows 10 must be updated to their latest revision. There might even be custom drivers around for certain applications.
4) If you connect your PC directly to the Modem (as is) you will probably see a larger throughput.

I also want to include a nice utility than can help monitor your network connectivity:

GlassWire - Personal Firewall & Network Monitor

Hope this helps you a bit.

I also find these consumer "network optimizing" tools that are around to be worthless.

Cheers.

Hi folks

To test whether windows caps speed (I'm sure it doesn't BTW) just boot up any linux live distro from say a USB device and run the speed test on firefox (ookla) again -- even if you know zero linux most of these "live distros" are almost "more windows than windows" these days and browsers have identical commands and interfaces on whatever platform. The linux live distro will not touch your windows / internal HDD's in any way by accident.

I did experience one slow down on a LAN --seemed I had a smart TV only connecting at 100 Mbps when the theoretical connection was 1.2 Gbps. Changed it to use the 5G wifi network instead and that seemed to unblock LAN connections .

I'm not sure if having a slow device on a fast LAN effects other connections on the LAN but the TV definitely did !!!!

"The wonders of Networking" -- really makes Alchemy seem like a really serious science.

@Compumind

with new hardware and protocols Wifi is NOT always slower than LAN --Modern ac can get around 2 Gbps on wifi (theoretical max) --- older systems your reasoning is correct -- I remember typical wifi in laptops was around 54 mbps max.

Of course these are maximum theoretical -- whether real hardware on your machines can get those results is another matter though. I'm getting around 760 Mbps on a wifi connection via one of the netgear nighthawk extenders.

Here's a good wifi router with fast wifi.

NETGEAR Nighthawk Smart Wifi Router (R7000) - AC1900 Wireless Speed (up to 1900 Mbps) | Up to 1800 sq ft Coverage & 30 Devices | 4 x 1G Ethernet and 2 USB ports | Armor Security: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

You need in any case good cat 5 cabling and a modern ISP (fibre) to get connections > 1 Gbps on a LAN.

Cheers
jimbo

@jimbo45 -

I'm speaking about Wireless-AC. It should be able to handle what you had said but it depends on how it's configured.
It's the newer routers with Wireless (HEC) AX that can blow wired away.

See...

Nighthawk WiFi Routers: Best-in-Class Speed & Range | NETGEAR

Of course, your internal wireless LAN controller (or NIC) has to support it, if you are going Wi-Fi to the router, like I do:

Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 – Killer Networking | Killernetworking | Killer Control Center

Awesome.

I'm more than happy with my AC2300 Nighthawk router - bought in a rush - I'd had my main router go down on a weekend with no suitable spare "in stock" so was forced to do the rounds of the Box shifter stores open locally late on sunday afternoon.

I'm not worried about pure speed as such but want the ability to stream a 1920x1080 video stream or two whilst connecting to the net at the best speed I can and it works well.

I feed ethernet around the flat to gigabit switches for those that can use it plus I have the wifi which in reality gives throughput of almost 1Gig for those that can't, it also feeds a secondary VPN router that gives me a private connection through wireless (and a couple of Gigabit Ethernet ports ) when I need it for work.

So is there any way I can disable this bandwidth thing so my system utilises the full network speed? I can confirm that when I reinstalled Windows 10 recently (about 3 months ago) as it was loaded with a lot of crap and hadn't been reinstalled since early 2015 (so you can imagine how much shit was on my system from upgrading from XP to Windows 7 then to Windows 10). When I reinstalled Windows 10 3 months ago because of this same issue I started to get my full broadband speed of 389Mbps DL... but then after a few Windows updates the speed was slowed considerably. At the moment I'm only getting 95-105Mbps of that 380.

Again as a confirmation, on my backup Windows 7 installation (different hard disk, same system) I get the full speed. The maximum download I'd see usually is what 5 MB/s when it should be nearing 50 MB/s.