May 31st, 2006
How to Take Back 20% of Your Bandwidth From Windows XP
Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for its own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc..) Here’s how to get it back:
Click Start–>Run–>type “gpedit.msc” without the “
This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:
Local Computer Policy–>Computer Configuration–>Administrative Templates–>Network–>QOS Packet Scheduler–>Limit Reservable Bandwidth
Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the ‘Explain’ tab :
“By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default.”
Source: Google Community
j'nrik says:
This does not work in XP Home.
May 31st, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Nagaru says:
Finally this explains why my Linux systems can download faster.
May 31st, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Rob says:
From what I understand, this “reserved” bandwidth is only used when your connection is idle. This isn’t going to magically give you 20% faster downloads.
May 31st, 2006 at 5:24 pm
John says:
if it only does it when the connection is idle, then there is no point in reserving any bandwith, as an idle connection has 100% free for windows to use for whatever it wants…
May 31st, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Jasper says:
Ok, must be a Joke, if the policy’s is not enabled it not working and no reservation is made,
Enable is to set it to 0 might cosy you some bandwidth and you now have enabled the QoS that will cost you something
my 5c
May 31st, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Baa Baaa, Sniff My Butt Again! says:
From Microsoft:
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.
So as usual, some unqualified idiot on this WebSite has a miracle cure, get something for nothing (just like the asanine article on adding acetone to your car, giving your car better gas mileage!). I REALLY wish that RTN would verify what they are posting as FACT on their pages, BEFORE they post it. Do you know how many sheep (Baa Baa!) just changed their “Limit Reservable Bandwidth” setting based on this BOGUS “Tip”? This is a trivial setting to change, but who knows what these morons are going to suggest next? Delete your Registry and make your PC run faster? Better yet, do the world a favor and just unplug your PC and leave it unplugged, it is probably already being used as a Zombie SPAM/Spyware/Virus Server. I got it!!! Unplug your PC, turn the plug over and plug it back in… Now your car will get better gas mileage!!!
Just remember, you sheep, if you lined your helmet with tin foil (like we told you to!), you wouldn’t hear the voices in your head telling you to do these dumb, follow all the other stupid sheep things!!1
May 31st, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Jasper says:
Ok, I was wrong,
From the manual
“If you disable this setting or do not configure it, the system uses the default value of 20 percent of the connection.”
Jasper
May 31st, 2006 at 7:45 pm
John says:
No. 6: So, do you believe everything Microsoft tells you? You don’t believe anyone else.
May 31st, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Infinity says:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/450c1fec-d358-42f4-b7e4-18b3f47ef6ff1033.mspx?mfr=true
Specifies the maximum, total percentage of link bandwidth that all QoS-aware applications on this computer can reserve. If no QoS-aware application reserves any bandwidth, then this setting has no effect and all bandwidth is available for use by other applications. 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. 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.
June 1st, 2006 at 2:01 am
Yan says:
Yeah, this setting has not much effect, unless you have QOS enabled applications on your box..
June 1st, 2006 at 4:48 am
woany says:
It would be better to just uninstall the QoS element from the network adapter.
Start Menu, Control Panel, Network Connections, Select your network connection, Properties, Select QoS and hit Uninstall…
June 1st, 2006 at 5:01 am
MissingFrame says:
Hey, I remember doing all these things, having some app start acting weird, then retracing my steps until everything was fixed. Some saying like “if it ain’t broken” came to mind, but I can’t remember the full details.
June 1st, 2006 at 6:14 am
Infidel (the unbeliever) says:
ok so those of you that think M$ is lying or whatever lets see some benchmarks to show 20% higher dl and surfing speeds.
post away!
June 1st, 2006 at 7:09 am
Al Coholic says:
you’re all dumb
June 1st, 2006 at 8:28 am
ben0000 says:
You guys aren’t being very nice. It’d be a great trick if it were to work on most systems. Some people can just be misguided. Don’t be so harsh. Note: There are some hacks out there for making your bandwith increase, but its mainly related to the firmware of your cable/dsl modem and/or router.
June 1st, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Mike says:
This really smells like misguided tweaking of a setting that doesn’t have the effect that everyone wishes it does.
I wish RealTech editors would check into this kind of stuff before posting it as fact….
Correction of some incorrect claims about Windows XP QoS support
There have been claims in various published technical articles and newsgroup postings that Windows XP always reserves 20 percent of the available bandwidth for QoS. These claims are incorrect. The information in the “Clarification about QoS in end computers that are Running Windows XP” section correctly describes the behavior of Windows XP systems.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q316666
Microsoft doesn’t always lie.
June 1st, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Rich says:
Ok, I just have to jump in and point out that Windows QoS is based on percentages of each network interface’s link speed. The network interface for most people is on ethernet, so you’re getting either 10, 100 or 1000 megabits per sec. Does anybody here have a 10 mb connection to the internet at their house? For home users, 20% of their network bandwidth could very easily be as much or greater than their internet link. This means that if the system wants it, it can saturate your network link. Does it actually do this in practice? Not really, maybe if you have Windows Update configured to automatically retrieve updates - but then you’re utilizing the Background Intelligent Transfer Service, which is designed to yield to other network consumers. Your typical Windows install is not sitting there constantly exchanging data with peers or chatting up that cute HP it saw down the hall. If you fancy tweaking, try changing the setting - if it helps you then great. Chances are very high you won’t be able to measure a difference.
June 1st, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Gord says:
I remember when I started with xp three years ago… that tip was going around. But from what I read, it only might kick in for streaming audio (ala media player) or for auto updates (BITS).
I found these, maybe they’ll help
http://forum.pcstats.com/archive/index.php/t-27379.html
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=174096756&m=2390974465&r=2390974465
June 2nd, 2006 at 4:43 am
Gord says:
Just to add. It is a good thing that RTN is not Digg. Those blokes would have ripped the post apart.
It might fall under ‘old news’ or ‘misleading’
I’m actually afraid of those people.
June 2nd, 2006 at 4:47 am
scubie says:
This is not the first time LockerGnome has posted some lame ass tweak that does not work.
I like comment #1 which is true.
I love comment #6.. which is also true
Also true is : only the tweakers complain there machines are not working well enough… lol
June 2nd, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Gerry says:
When I first saw this claim I was very excited , I printed 20 copies and distibuted them to my colleagues. Soon as I got home I tried it and received a windows cannot find “gpedit.msc” blahblah woof click search. Man this is the first time you guys put out something that didn’t work and all my singing praises about you made me look like an ass to 20 fellow workers who are trying the same thing.
June 2nd, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Palomar Jack says:
Quote:
made me look like an ass to 20 fellow workers who are trying the same thing.
Dumbass.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
zqwerty says:
Actually, closing off the Qos bandwidth does make a difference, no matter what anyone says including MS, I KNOW it does increase the download speed.
I used to dual boot Win98SE and Win2K, identical hardware used by either OS. For months I tried to puzzle out why the Win2K system was making slower downloads than the Win98SE one. Tried everything, asked on help forums, asked experts, no-one could say.
This was the tweak that fixed the problem.
Also for whoever has many icons on the desktop and is always having icon corruption problems and slow loading, try increasing the size of the icon cache. Another fix that nobody seemed to know about.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Jon's Rambling Musings says:
Web Site of the Day
Microsoft reserves 20 percent of your available bandwidth for its own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc..) RealTechNews shows you how to get it back.http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3113
June 16th, 2006 at 1:17 am
andrey says:
for XPhome users you can use fresh ui if you wish to try it without going to gpedit wich does not exist in home version
June 18th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Nick says:
People still believe this?
This so called tweak first emerged not long after Windows XP was released….in 2001!
Whatever some people may (want to) believe this does not give you faster download speeds. It doesn’t. Really.
Just like for years people believed the BootVis tool decreased your startup time.
June 19th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
olga says:
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July 25th, 2006 at 2:40 am
yasmin says:
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July 26th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
rude dogg says:
That’s why there is a computer called a MAC!
November 8th, 2006 at 10:24 am
richard_drahcir says:
Correction of some incorrect claims about Windows XP QoS!
Dumb:
It seems Microsoft reserves/wastes 20% of your internet/network bandwidth for
the QoS (Quality of Service) Packet Scheduler, even if this service is
disabled.
To increase your bandwidth do this:
1. Log in as Administrator.
2. Click the Start button -> Run -> type gpedit.msc -> hit Enter or click OK.
3. Go to Local Computer Policy -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> QoS
Packet Scheduler.
4. In the right hand pane double-click on “Limit reservable bandwidth”.
5. On the Setting tab check the Enabled box.
6. Change “Bandwidth limit %” to read 0.
7. Click OK and close gpedit.msc.
8. Go to Start -> My Computer -> My Network Connections -> View Network
Connections -> right-click on your connection -> select Properties (where your
protocols are listed) -> make sure QoS Packet Scheduler is enabled.
9. Reboot for these changes to take effect.
Truth!
Microsoft does NOT reserve NOR use ANY amount/percentage of your bandwidth for
the QoS Packet Scheduler, UNLESS this service is actively
transmitting/receiving ANY data/packets between your computer and the
internet/network.
Therefore this is NOT a “bug” and its so called “fix” above is NOT necessary!
Moreover, 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.
The solution to this issue is to have the computer that is running Internet Connection Sharing on the edge of the network automatically set the receive window to a smaller size that is appropriate to the slow link. This setting overrides the receiver’s specification. This setting will not adversely affect traffic, because the window size is being set as if the receiver were connected directly to the slow link. The QoS Packet Scheduler component that is running on the Internet Connection Sharing computer makes this window adjustment.
November 21st, 2006 at 2:56 pm
The Old New Thing : Placebo setting: QoS bandwidth reservation says:
[…] Placebo setting: QoS bandwidth reservation A placebo setting that has been getting a lot of play in recent years is that of QoS bandwidth reservation. The setting in question sets a maximum amount of bandwidth that can be reserved for QoS. I guess one thing people forgot to notice is the word “maximum”. It doesn’t set the amount of reserved bandwidth, just the maximum. Changing the value will in most cases have no effect on your download speed, since the limit kicks in only if you have an application that uses QoS in the first place. QoS, which stands for “quality of service”, is a priority scheme for network bandwidth. A program can request a certain amount of bandwidth, say for media streaming, and when the program accesses the network, up to that much bandwidth is guaranteed to be available to the program. The setting in question controls how much bandwidth can be claimed for high priority network access. If no program is using QoS, then all your bandwidth is available to non-QoS programs. What’s more, even if there is a QoS reservation active, if the program that reserved the bandwidth isn’t actually using it, then the bandwidth is available to non-QoS programs. Consider this analogy: A restaurant seats 100 people, and it has a policy of accepting reservations for at most twenty percent of those seats. This doesn’t mean that twenty seats are sitting empty all the time. If ten people have made reservations for dinner at 8pm, then ninety seats are available for drop-in customers at that time. The twenty percent policy just means that once twenty people have made reservations for dinner at 8pm, the restaurant won’t accept any more reservations. Here’s an example with made-up numbers: Suppose you are downloading a large file over your 720kbps connection. Since there is nothing else using the network, your download proceeds at 720kbps. Now suppose you fire up a program that uses QoS, say, for streaming media. (I don’t know whether Windows Media Player uses QoS.) You connect to a streaming media source, and the media player does some math and determines that in order to give you smooth playback, it needs a minimum of 100kbps. (If it gets more, then great, but it needs at least that much to avoid dropouts.) The program places a reservation of that amount through QoS. With a default maximum reservation of 20% = 144kbps, this reservation request is granted. Playback of the streaming media begins, and your bandwidth is now split, with 100kbps going to your media player and the remaining 620kbps going to your download. Now you hit pause on the media player to answer the phone. Even though the media player has a 100kbps reservation, it’s not using it, so all 720kbps of bandwidth is devoted to your download. You get off the phone and unpause the media player. Bandwidth is once again divided 100kbps for the media player and 620kbps for the download. Now, sure, you can set your QoS maximum reservation to zero. This means that when the media player asks for a guarantee of 100kbps, QoS will tell it, “Sorry, no can do.” The media player will still play the streaming media, but since it no longer has a guarantee of bandwidth, there may be stretches where the download consumes most of the network bandwidth and the streaming media gets only 50kbps. Result: dropped frames, stuttering, or pauses for buffering. So tweak this value all you want, but understand what you’re tweaking. Published Thursday, November 23, 2006 7:00 AM by oldnewthing Filed under: Tips/Support […]
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:00 am
sandy says:
When i type in the command
“gpedit.msc” my pc does not show the keys as stated.
i tried several times it does not
show the network button or key at all.
what would the solution be for such a case.
April 9th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Jimmy says:
Windows XP Home Edition!
[Start][Run]Key In [Regedit]At [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]
SOFTWARE?[Policies][Microsoft] [Windows]
Right Click on [Windows] Add New Key and Name [Psched]
At [Psched] Right Windows Add a DWORD Value, Name it [NonBestEffortLimit] Value Data is [0]. Done! Remember restart ur PC!
April 14th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
xudpfhzhqr says:
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! whcvnwymoounld
June 19th, 2007 at 7:16 am
JMD says:
THANKS TO ALL COMMENTATORS.
NOW, ARE U ALL SAYING THAT WHAT WINDOWS XP MANUFACTURER OBSERVED IN INCREASE IN BANDWIDTH RATE IS TOTALLY LIES,OK LET ME SAY AGGRE AND OR DISAGREED,BEACUSE I TYPED “gpedit.msc” IN MY COMMAND RUN WHICH LINKS ME TO GROUP POLICY WINDOWS,SO WHICH ONE DO YOU WANT ME TO BELIEVE.
THANKS.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:15 am
JMD says:
I FOLLOWED ALL THE STEPS LISTEAD ABOVE,BY THE TIME I FINISHED THE SETTINGS, I RESTARTED MY SYSTEM FOR NEW EFFECT TO TAKE PLACE, BUT I WAS TOLD TO ENTER SERVER NAME BEFORE MY SYSTEM CAN BE AUTHENTICATED, PLS HELP ME OUT.
THANKS
July 24th, 2007 at 8:22 am
vir says:
atleast i was able to open my website www.skillsheaven.com because before that it was too slow to open.
thkx.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:05 am
Kenny says:
what about the home edition, every site I visit only gives info on home edition
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Ross says:
Mac’s are for gays.
March 8th, 2008 at 5:00 am
mpaok says:
mPAOK!!!!
gamw tis manes sas floroi!
March 13th, 2008 at 9:00 am
strangeratrandom says:
This will speed up your internet connection, in certin instances. Like if you were DL a torrent and were maxing out your bandwidth, And something that utilitizes QoS, Say microsoft Updates??? decided it needed to get a update, POOF there goes 20% of your bandwidth that you were using for the Torrent.
So for all you computer illiterate people out there proving just how little you know about computers
You need to stop talking like there lips don’t match, Oh Microsoft is wrong, because I changed it and nothing happened,, Well you morons, you actually have to download Qos while in the process of using 100% of your bandwidth, to be able to see what will happen..
TIP :: Before you post your opinion, just to make yourself look good. Get out from behind that sheep, and GOOGLE IT..
March 20th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Rizzy says:
Okay i was downloading a big file ( not illigally fyi ) and i disabled my QoS.. It went from 40mins to 10hrs then 15 hrs lol, dont think this speeds anything up
April 6th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
JAB_au says:
I hate this 20% Myth. Windows doesn’t actually reserve 20% of your bandwidth all the time, it priorities 20% to programs that request high priority access to your network connection. This is part of QoS.
100% of your connection is always available, however if a high priority program requests bandwidth Windows will force at least 20% for that programs use.
April 26th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Full Free Game Downloads says:
wow amazing trick it really works
because the original winxp pro really take the bandwidth and the service is on by default.
i just made 0% reserve.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:23 am
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May 18th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Chris says:
I admire your exploring but here is an explanation. MS Windows CANNOT tell your router to reserve 20% Bandwith.
Example:
I have a 20Mbit Internet connection.
I have a 100Mbit Network Connection.
If it is going to take 20% of your bandwith your left with 80Mbit of Network port bandwith. This 20% only comes into effect on IDLE.
If it didn’t and you had a 100Mbit connection and depending on your line distance etc from the exchange. You would see a diffrence. But only happens at idle.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:43 pm
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August 15th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Beresdeh says:
Thanks, Good Articles
September 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Beresdeh says:
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September 15th, 2008 at 10:46 am
ace says:
thanks a lot
October 15th, 2008 at 11:14 pm