Improve your Broadband speed!

[Thinder]

This is something I have been at since I had to upgrade to Windows 10.

 

Windows limit the maximum available broadband to 80% by default, there are a couple of tutorials online to remedy to this, but first, you'll have to claim responsibilities if you mess up, it's not the author of the video or myself who will take the decision as to whether or not go through it.

 

So what is the gain? I went through it again after a recent fresh install and fine-tuning of my PC in view of upgrading, and I didn't forget Broadband.

 

My provider is Virgin Media and I currently have a 100Mbps optical cable connection.

 

Before I went through the diverse stages for the Broadband my speed reached barely 98Mbps, compare to this now:

 

 

I also decided to use a new DNS server and it seems to work just fine.

https://thehackernews.com/2018/04/fastest-dns-service.html

 

 

You will find the link to the Youtube video I used at the bottom of this post, it's about 4 years old but still valid in terms of how Windows manage your Broadband and what works to improve on it.

 

For the time being, even before having received the components I ordered for my upgrade, I took the following steps:

 

Turned OFF every single app I do not use. Cleaned and freed space on my C drive, and allocated 2.5 GB of paging space to Windows on this drive. Got rid of the memory allocation limits at the same time of the Broadband limits in the Registry Editor. Adjusted the amount of paging file space I already had on a dedicated partition on another disk. Turned off all app at start up in the Task Manager, disabled a good number of them in the Service Manager. Shut down Windows automatic Updates.

 

This way my PC doesn't do anything I am not aware of; I decide of the updates I want and when I want them, there is very little running in the background, at least nothing non-essential for Windows to run smoothly so memory use stays low.

 

In short, I configured my PC for gaming even before upgrading it, within a couple of days I will install a 240 GB SDD fully dedicated to the game, a budget MSI Radeon RX 5500 XT MECH 8G OC, an Eyoyo 8 Inch HDMI Monitor as radar repeater, and THRUSTMASTER T-16000M HOTAS.

Extra RAM and perhaps a larger screen (if not headset) will come later.

 

Here is the link to this video; How To Speed Up Any Internet Connection On Windows 10 PC (really easy).

 

 

It's the second time I go through this tutorial after a fresh install and it worked faultlessly every time, those on improving Windows 10 speed as well, but then again if you mess it up, it's on you, weight this before you commit.

 

Fly Safe!

Edited May 25, 2020 by Thinder

[Taz1004]

Don't just use the DNS people tell you is good. Download DNSBench and find out which DNS is best at your location.

 

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

[Thinder]

Don't just use the DNS people tell you is good. Download DNSBench and find out which DNS is best at your location.

 

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

 

Thanks for the additional information and link!

 

Yes of course, it makes perfect sense, mine happens to work fine and be local, so I'm happy with it but otherwise, people should stick to your advice.

[Aluminum Donkey]

Don't just use the DNS people tell you is good. Download DNSBench and find out which DNS is best at your location.

 

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

 

 

Wow, thanks! If nothing else, this should be mildly entertaining to play with.

 

 

AD

[FiringPin]

Was your speed improved by that video, or by the cleaning up and tune up you did (stopping some processes, re-install etc)?

 

I remember this video being flagged as a scam years ago on other forums.

 

They could have been wrong, but be careful all the same...

[Thinder]

Was your speed improved by that video, or by the cleaning up and tune up you did (stopping some processes, re-install etc)?

 

I remember this video being flagged as a scam years ago on other forums.

 

They could have been wrong, but be careful all the same...

 

I've been building my own machines since Pentium II, and never had any problems other than with some bad O.Ss, Windows 10 is one of them, sorry to say.

 

There is a clear improvement if you follow the tutorials, I always clean my system before playing to recover the disk space Windows occupies, I do it daily anyway.

 

Type run, then %temp% in the search window, and you'll figure what I mean, it is yet another temp folder, different from the temp folder, it fills up with hundreds of MB of temporary files that you can delete without any consequences, more to it, some of them are messing up drivers, mouse, graphics etc.

 

I ran the broadband speed test before and after (I think I already specified this in my first post), and there was a clear difference between the two, before I couldn't reach the provider's 100Mbps, now I'm well above it and it's logical, no amount of system clean up would give you this improvement in broadband speed.

 

Windows 10 was never designed for gaming, as a result, its root memory management is mediocre, it also limits artificially the broadband width.

 

So once you have fined tuned it, it works a lot better, not only it is more responsive, but you also have what you paid for in terms of broadband speed.

 

I don't think this guy is a scammer, quite the opposite if people messed up their systems because they couldn't do it properly, it is not his fault but theirs.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Thinder

[Weta43]

That's interesting.

I just tried 2 machines in this room running Win 10, one Win 10 Enterprise, and one Win 10 Pro.

 

My broadband is supposed to be 100 Mb/s, and when I did a speed test I repeatedly got a ping of 3ms & a DL speed of 97 Mbps,

Both machines are running default LAN settings, which implies it's not throttled to 80 % of the available bandwidth by default...

[Thinder]

That's interesting.

I just tried 2 machines in this room running Win 10, one Win 10 Enterprise, and one Win 10 Pro.

 

My broadband is supposed to be 100 Mb/s, and when I did a speed test I repeatedly got a ping of 3ms & a DL speed of 97 Mbps,

Both machines are running default LAN settings, which implies it's not throttled to 80 % of the available bandwidth by default...

 

I'm running 10 Home edition, when I first installed it, I had to tweak it to be able to access the registry editors, it was not 80% but more around 93/98%, but not 100% either, I dont think the Pro versions of Windows 10 have the same issues...

 

In any case, now it's way better since I just passed another speed test with Ookla and reached 110.59 Mbps, so this tweak is rock stable.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Thinder

[hannibal]

because of you guys, i also did this tweak! THANKS!

[msalama]

Download DNSBench

 

VirusTotal says the installer EXE is infected. So thanks, but no thanks.

[BenniBraker]

I would say, remember to connect using an Ethernet cable instead of wireless connection. By default, wireless loses much more speed than connected directly by cable

[draconus]

I would say, remember to connect using an Ethernet cable instead of wireless connection. By default, wireless loses much more speed than connected directly by cable

thing of the past mostly

[SmirkingGerbil]

thing of the past mostly

 

Which past?

 

2.44 GHZ is slower, but has better penetration through structures, and generally a stronger signal.

 

5 GHZ is very weak by comparison, very lossy, but does have greater bandwidth.

 

Routinely build out 500K+ square foot warehouses, and pretty much put any kind of roaming clients on 2.44 Ghz, as 5 Ghz is worthless for anything except mobile phones (for games, FB etc). As far as server traffic, VoIP (handsets), etc. Always, always CAT 6 cable minimum. Wireless won't even cut it.

 

For all of our dual load balanced backbone connections from South America, through North America into Western Europe, and central Russia . . . copper or fiber all the way. Wireless for encrypted Internet connections is a no go due to packet loss, doesn't even exist on our MPLS backbone due to the QinQ speeds we obtain on L2 switched backbones.

 

Wireless is icing on a cake, but when it absolutely has to work, every time, copper or fiber is your only choice. But that is just my humble opinion of building carrier grade networks for the last 20 years FWIW.

[draconus]

Server clusters are far better too in processing power yet are not used for gaming. Same way WiFi is fine for home use these days as it won't hurt your ping or transfers in a perceivable way - that was my point. Of course one should consider cable in low signal or high density situations.

[122sqn Bruv]

Virgin Media will still let you down at somepoint.

 

 

 

Just from my own personal experience. ;)

[panton41]

Windows 10 was never designed for gaming, as a result, its root memory management is mediocre, it also limits artificially the broadband width.

 

[citation needed]

 

People have been saying this for decades with nothing to back it up except handwaving and saying "everyone knows it." For gaming Windows 10 and XBox One OS are functionally identical other than the GUI and XBox getting rid of a lot of legacy Win32 cruft. For that matter, the Game Mode in Windows 10 brings the behavior of desktop Windows more in line with the XBox version when it detects games are running.

 

I'm using default Windows 10 networking settings, other than changing my DNS, pay for 400Mbps, routinely get 450+Mbps and my pings are limited by DOCSIS overhead. And that's running a speed test with other users on the network streaming and playing online games.

[Thinder]

[citation needed]

 

People have been saying this for decades with nothing to back it up except handwaving and saying "everyone knows it." For gaming Windows 10 and XBox One OS are functionally identical other than the GUI and XBox getting rid of a lot of legacy Win32 cruft. For that matter, the Game Mode in Windows 10 brings the behavior of desktop Windows more in line with the XBox version when it detects games are running.

 

I'm using default Windows 10 networking settings, other than changing my DNS, pay for 400Mbps, routinely get 450+Mbps and my pings are limited by DOCSIS overhead. And that's running a speed test with other users on the network streaming and playing online games.

 

Yeah right, which part of mediocre memory management did you not comprehend?

 

It's easy to say there is nothing to back it up when your PC has 64 GB of RAM and 400Mbps broadband, but "people" with experience who have used Windows O.S professionally for ages knows the difference between one O.S and another and it's my case since Win NT.

 

The main reason memory management is so bad with Windows 10 is the number of applications running in the background, it forces people who are into gaming to run more memory than strictly necessary for gaming only, at minimum requirements, something Microsoft O.S were more than happy to let you do before they started to ad more and more "multimedia" stuff to them.

 

Then, since I do not work in CGI anymore, I have the Home edition and it didn't offer the possibility to access the functionality needed to change those stock settings, it got better but with updates came MORE stops which prevent control over what Windows is able to do without your knowledge, mainly downloading updates even when it can't install them which result in crashing games, even if automatic update is disabled, so is scheduling, but update facilitator is locked and will still download temp files by the hundred without warning.

 

At the moment, I run Windows 10 with 16 GB, since it was enough to play games such as WoWP or else but totally marginal even at the lowest graphic settings, and to be able to do so, I had to disable ALL applications I didn't need, which is a lot with Windows 10, when my system is slowing down, or I experience drivers issues, I checked the temp files, sure enough, I have to delete hundreds of MB of them in TWO different folders, temp and %temp%.

 

I'm about to order another upgrade, specifically an MSI B450 GAMING PLUS MAX Motherboard, a Ryzen 3 3200G Quad-Core 4.0GHz, 32GB of DDR4-3200, all of that for being able to play a game which is supposed to run with half of it.

 

So before assuming that "people" don't know what they are saying, try to play with the minimum required for this game and an untweaked Windows 10 Home edition, that would be 8GB (16GB for heavy missions), Windows 10 32 will need a quarter of this minimum RAM simply to run normally, double that for Windows 10 64.

 

Then when you'll have experienced crashes after crashes because you run out of memory or your broadband speed goes down by 50% because Windows download yet another set of updates, then fill up your temp folder with 100 of MB of temp files, then you will really know what mediocre memory management means. With 64BG you just don't.

 

https://www.minitool.com/news/windows-10-ram-requirements-009.html

Edited June 21, 2020 by Thinder

[Thinder]

For those interested: There is a very simple way to figure memory leaks in windows (10 or other), just open the task manager and select memory usage.

 

When I took this screenshot, all Apps were closed, no folder opened, mouse rested idle etc, that's 2.56 GB just to do.... nothing.

 

And this, with a fair amount of apps disabled in "services", 32 in total.

 

 

[Taz1004]

For those interested: There is a very simple way to figure memory leaks in windows (10 or other), just open the task manager and select memory usage.

 

When I took this screenshot, all Apps were closed, no folder opened, mouse rested idle etc, that's 2.56 GB just to do.... nothing.

 

And this, with a fair amount of apps disabled in "services", 32 in total.

 

Those are not memory leaks but background apps rather. Memory leak is when a program is supposed to release memory it's used but does not. And keeps piling up. Happens while the program is running and will not show up on Task Manager.

[BuzzU]

I get this without doing anything.

 

Result ID 9641706434

PING ms

41

DOWNLOAD Mbps

113.67

UPLOAD Mbps

11.23

[erniedaoage]

Those are not memory leaks but background apps rather. Memory leak is when a program is supposed to release memory it's used but does not. And keeps piling up. Happens while the program is running and will not show up on Task Manager.

 

Every memory leak i came across so far was clearly indicated on the taskmanager with using ram without releasing it. Why wouldn't it be shown in taskmanager when you already see which program use how much ram? How else would people find memory leaks?

[Taz1004]

Every memory leak i came across so far was clearly indicated on the taskmanager with using ram without releasing it. Why wouldn't it be shown in taskmanager when you already see which program use how much ram? How else would people find memory leaks?

 

If a program or app terminates, it does not show up on task manager. As such, whatever memory it was holding on, will not show up on task manager.

 

If a process still remains on task manager even after closing, then it's most likely a background process and intended feature. Yes those do eat up your memory and it is always recommended that you close unnecessary background apps. Yes some people call these "Memory leak". But that's incorrect as those are working as designed.

 

Actual memory leak will continue to pile up until your whole system runs out of memory. "People" normally would not find memory leak. The programmers would find them. If memory leak can be found that easily through task manager, it wouldn't be such a problem for developers and programmers.

 

From Wikipedia.

 

A memory leak has symptoms similar to a number of other problems and generally can only be diagnosed by a programmer with access to the programs' source code.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak

Edited June 21, 2020 by Taz1004

[Taz1004]

For those interested: There is a very simple way to figure memory leaks in windows (10 or other), just open the task manager and select memory usage.

 

When I took this screenshot, all Apps were closed, no folder opened, mouse rested idle etc, that's 2.56 GB just to do.... nothing.

 

And this, with a fair amount of apps disabled in "services", 32 in total.

 

 

 

By the way, you should disable Cortana. Unless you use her... which would be rare. Disabling her via group policy editor is best way.

[Thinder]

Those are not memory leaks but background apps rather. Memory leak is when a program is supposed to release memory it's used but does not. And keeps piling up. Happens while the program is running and will not show up on Task Manager.

 

That's exactly what Windows 10 does, more than 2 GB of RAM used for a system in idle, when the minimum required for running this game is only 4 X that is way too much, and I reiterate, that's with 32 apps disabled, keeping only the essential to save memory.

 

You can see the amount of memory used vs the CPU usage being mostly at 0, in comparison, Windows NT which could run complicated CG programs needed a minimum of 12/16 MB of RAM, a little up the scale of "multimedia" and you got Windows 2000 with a minimum of 64 MB.

 

Special effects for movies such as 7 Days in Thibet or Lost in space could be run on a 252 MB machine, rendering was done in-network with those and a few 512 BG machines.

 

When we had to upgrade from one to the other, we didn't notice any improvement in terms of performances while working in CGI programs such as 3DS Max or CAD, if anything, even with double the memory (512 MB at the time), our systems were slower.

 

Since we were constantly looking for performances increase and knowing our systems rather well, building them ourselves, it was pretty obvious that the introduction of those multimedia gizmos was the cause of our issues, soon enough, word was, "Windows is designed to screw you", dixit my ex-boss one of the top 3 CGI guys in the country.

 

In fact, if you try to play this game on a 16 BG system you don't have 16 GB to allocate to it even before starting the game, so you can forget about high graphic settings, meanwhile, there is nothing you need other than the O.S, broadband graphics and the game itself.

 

Considering the fact that your average player plays on 16 GB systems, you can see where the problem is.

 

By the way, you should disable Cortana. Unless you use her... which would be rare. Disabling her via group policy editor is best way.

 

Yeah, I forgot about this one, the result of the last update, Windows reset everything to "normal" unless you can prevent it to install...

 

 

In any case, I'll have my PC fully upgraded in the middle of next week, but it doesn't change those facts, especially for those who can't afford top-end systems and have to do with low/mid-range PCs.

Edited June 21, 2020 by Thinder

[Taz1004]

Yea, but I look at your list in the screenshot, none of those in the image are memory leaks. They're all background apps. Most are necessary. dwm.exe is a bit high but that happens if you have a lot of monitors. It's what you pay for features like virtual desktops. And those are the RAM reserved by those process. So even tho they're not doing anything, they're claiming those RAM in case you need those features. That's different than not letting go of the RAM it already used.

 

If you're saying Windows 10 uses too much RAM, I'd agree with you. But that's just the way it's designed. Is Google Chrome shitty software because it uses tons of RAM? That's just the way it's designed. For speed. Developers know very well how much RAM Windows uses. And if they require 32GB for the high setting of their game, then it's the game developer's doing. Not OS.

 

People love to criticize Windows but there's no better options out there.

 

And Ubuntu uses about 1.6GB of RAM at idle and MacOS uses a lot more. 2.5GB of Windows is not THAT much.

Edited June 21, 2020 by Taz1004