been wondering about networking+ windows

[emmett82]

i been hearing around on blogs and forums that windows "reserves" 20% of you internets bandwidth for " background" updates. is this true if so what does it fully affect and how do i disable or atleast lower the precent

 

[Brink]

Hello Emmett,

This is really nothing to worry about or needs to be changed.

By default, Windows can reserve up to 20 percent of the network bandwidth for QoS traffic handled by the QoS Packet Scheduler. One hundred percent of the network bandwidth is available to be shared by all programs unless a program (Ex: Windows Update) specifically requests priority bandwidth. This 20 percent reserved bandwidth is still available to other programs unless the requesting program (Ex: VoIP applications) is sending data. Windows can then restrict the best effort traffic to a minimum of 80 percent of the bandwidth to the other programs so that the high priority traffic can be accommodated. 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.

(same in Windows 7)
QoS Bandwidth Reserve Limit

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[LMiller7]

The myth that Windows reserves 20% of bandwidth has been around since the early days of Windows XP. Also, Windows update does not use QOS but rather idle bandwidth. Windows Update uses the "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" which tries very hard to ensure that it's activity does not interfere with other Internet activity.