Update bandwidth optimisation - percentage meaning

Hi everybody

The new Fall Creator update brings the much awaited update bandwidth management but I have a question and I could not find an answer online.
The control panel allows you to set a percentage of the bandwidth - percentage of what? How does Windows know my internet speed? I am concerned it just uses the network card speed instead.



However in the activity monitor section it also shows an "average download speed (user initiated)" which suggests two things
1. Windows actually knows the speed of the internet - which creates an interesting scenario: say my broadband is 50Mbit, Windows knows that and it is also told to use 50% of that. That night that my internet slows down to 20Mbit, will Windows try to use 25Mbit of it??

2. When updates are initiated by the user, they are not throttled down.



Thanks for your help.
Tony

That's a new one on me.....where is this setting?

Hi, it's on the latest version of Windows Fall creator update - 1709. A much awaited feature - at least for me.

Limit Bandwidth of Windows Update and Store App Updates in Windows 10

Thanks.....from what I gather it's to help users that are on metered connections or if your are worried about data usage from downloads from other PC's. If I understand it correctly....I just had a quick glance at the info.

That said, I have that option turned off so it doesn't apply to me.

Windows update takes 100% of my bandwidth - 55Mbit download. I cannot do ANYTHING ELSE when the PC is updating. I had to set a manual update option via the group policies. This new feature is welcome but it is not clear how those percentages work.

I understand there are clearer options on the group policies (actual KBs) but was just wondering what those percentages are.

tony359 said:

The control panel allows you to set a percentage of the bandwidth - percentage of what?

I suppose it is QoS

Unless of course MS have used the word "bandwidth" incorrectly and "I'll use 50% of your bandwidth" means "I'll upload 50% of what I download" like a torrent client.

Windows cannot possibly tell (without repeatedly polling connection speed) that I've moved from sitting on my router to sitting on my balcony and my bandwidth (via WiFi) has therefore dropped by 90%.

I don't know the answer but it is a very interesting question. Hopefully someone more technical than me will explain.

The question is what does 100% of bandwidth mean? 56k? 100Mbps? Who knows.

This is from 2003 QoS Tools and Settings: Quality of Service (QoS)

Specifies the maximum, total percentage of link bandwidth that all QoS-aware applications on this computer can reserve.
<snip> bla bla bla </snip>
For example, the default value of the registry entry reserves 80 percent of the bandwidth for QoS-aware applications, but this does not prevent other applications from using more than the remaining 20 percent of the bandwidth.

It seems nowhere is it defined (or at least I can't find it) how 100% of bandwidth is calculated.

That makes it an interesting question.

tony359 said:

Hi everybody

The new Fall Creator update brings the much awaited update bandwidth management but I have a question and I could not find an answer online.
The control panel allows you to set a percentage of the bandwidth - percentage of what? How does Windows know my internet speed? I am concerned it just uses the network card speed instead.



However in the activity monitor section it also shows an "average download speed (user initiated)" which suggests two things
1. Windows actually knows the speed of the internet - which creates an interesting scenario: say my broadband is 50Mbit, Windows knows that and it is also told to use 50% of that. That night that my internet slows down to 20Mbit, will Windows try to use 25Mbit of it??

2. When updates are initiated by the user, they are not throttled down.



Thanks for your help.
Tony

Uncheck that box for limiting your bandwidth, then turn off "Allow downloads from other PC's" and check to see how your bandwidth works/reacts.

Plankton said:

Uncheck that box for limiting your bandwidth, then turn off "Allow downloads from other PC's" and check to see how your bandwidth works/reacts.

Did you read the question?