[THIN] KB: How to use the throttling mechanism to control network performance in Windows Vista

From: "Jim Kenzig ThinHelp.com" <jkenzig@xxxxxxxxx>
To: THIN <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, vista@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 16:02:36 -0400

These days just about every page you hit has some kind of media file on it
be it shockwave or midi or whatever. The below article shows you how to
modify a registry key on a Windows Vista SP1 machine to throttle the speed
of media loading especially on a saturated network.
Check it out...
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948066&SD=tech
How to use the throttling mechanism to control network performance in
Windows Vista
View products that this article applies
to.<http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948066&SD=tech#appliesto>
Article ID : 948066 Last Review : February 21, 2008 Revision : 1.0
*Important* This article contains information about how to modify the
registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make
sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more
information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click
the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge
Base: 322756 <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/> (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/) How to back up and restore the
registry in Windows XP and Windows Vista
On This Page INTRODUCTION<http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948066&SD=tech#>
MORE INFORMATION <http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948066&SD=tech#>
Multimedia
traffic <http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948066&SD=tech#>
Windows throttling
mechanism<http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948066&SD=tech#>
How to improve network performance in Windows
Vista<http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948066&SD=tech#>
INTRODUCTION This article describes how to use network throttling to
control network performance on a computer that is running Windows Vista.

MORE INFORMATION
Multimedia traffic The processing of network packets on a computer is a
resource-intensive task. On high bandwidth links, network traffic consumes
even more system resources. Additionally, multimedia programs are time
sensitive, and such programs require prioritized access to CPU resources.

For more information about processing that is prioritized for multimedia
programs, visit the following Microsoft Developers Network Web site:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684247(VS.85)<http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684247%28VS.85%29>(
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684247(VS.85))

Windows throttling mechanism
Because multimedia programs require more resources, the Windows networking
stack implements a throttling mechanism to restrict the processing of
non-multimedia network traffic to 10 packets per millisecond.

The throttling will come into effect only when you are running multimedia
programs that are time sensitive. However, this throttling mechanism can
potentially cause a decrease in network performance during the active
multimedia playback period. This decrease in performance is likely to occur
only on high speed networks that are saturated to maximum capacity.

How to improve network performance in Windows Vista
*Warning* Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry
incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These
problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft
cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at
your own risk.

In circumstances where you experience a decrease in network performance, you
can control the throttling rate to improve network performance in Windows
Vista. However, you must do this with caution because this may affect the
quality of multimedia playback.

To configure the throttling rate, change the value of the
NetworkThrottlingIndex registry entry under the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile\
Name : NetworkThrottlingIndex
Value type : DWORD
Value data : From integer 1 through integer 70 (Decimal) (Decimal)

By default, the value for the NetworkThrottlingIndex registry entry is set
to 10. When the NetworkThrottlingIndex registry entry does not exist, the
behavior resembles the default behavior. Network throttling can be
completely turned off by setting the value to FFFFFFFF (hexadecimal). You
must restart the computer after you make a change to the value of the
NetworkThrottlingIndex registry entry.

*Important *The default value is unlikely to cause degradation in network
performance in most common Internet usage scenarios that use broadband
connections. We recommend that you only use the throttling mechanism after
you fully understand the tradeoff between multimedia playback quality and
network performance.

APPLIES TO
• Windows Vista Service Pack 1
Keywords: kbhowto kbinfo kbperformance kbnetwork_generalbroadband
kbnetwork_latencyperformance kbexpertiseadvanced KB948066

--
Jim Kenzig
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Services
http://www.thinhelp.com
Citrix Technology Professional
CEO The Kenzig Group
http://www.kenzig.com
Blog: http://www.techblink.com

[THIN] KB: How to use the throttling mechanism to control network performance in Windows Vista

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