Windows XP
Windows XP bandwidth issue
Note: This information is provided "as is". IBM does not take any responsibility for the accuracy of this tip. Furthermore IBM does not accept any liability for any damages that might arise for using this tip. This tip has been retrieved from http://www.tweakxp.com. The article can be found here.
When installing Windows XP it will take away up to 20 % from the bandwidth when using
1.Make sure your logged on as actually Administrator. Do not log on with any account that just has administrator privileges. To log in as an administrator:
•Click on Start -> Logoff-> Logoff
•In the logon screen hold Ctrl+Alt+Del
•In the user field type 'Administrator' (case sensitive).
•In the password field type the password for the administrator (if you don't have one leave this field blank)
•Click OK.
2.Click on Start
3.Expand the Computer configuration branch
4.Expand the Administrative templates branch
5.Expand the Network branch
6.Highlight the QoS Packet Scheduler in the left window
7.In the right window, double click the limit reservable bandwidth setting.
8.On the setting tab, check the enabled item.
9.In the Bandwidth limit % field, enter 0. Click on Apply, OK, Exit gpedit.msc .
10.Go to your Network connections
11.Reboot your computer.
This is largely a way to "counter what XP does". In other words, XP seems to want to reserve 20% of the bandwidth for itself even with QoS disabled. So you can use this to your advantage. To demonstrate the problem, start up a large download from a server with an FTP client. Try to find a server that doesn't max out your bandwidth. In this case you want a slow to medium speed server to demonstrate this. Let it run for a couple of minutes stablize. Then start up another download from the same server with another instance of your FTP client. You will notice that the available bandwidth is now being fought over and one of the downloads will be very slow or both will slow down when they should both be using the available bandwidth. Using this "tweak" gives both clients a fair share of the bandwidth.