A program for distributing the Internet inside a computer. How to Limit the Bandwidth of Any Application in Windows

The development of broadband and wireless Internet access leads to the fact that in many homes more than one computer is connected to it, but several. Number of devices in the home WiFi networks taking into account smart watches, TVs and even refrigerators, it easily reaches a dozen and exceeds it. This equipment is usually connected to one external channel, which has a limited capacity. As a result, at the most inopportune moment, it is not possible to receive or send a large amount of information. It was then that users think about how to limit the speed of the Internet on a computer and by what means this can be done.

The fastest and at the same time “rough” way is related to setting up a computer network card. More precisely, with a forced change in its settings in the direction of reducing the bandwidth, which allows you to manually set the Internet speed limit on your computer. The essence of the method is that all network adapters use three standard access speeds:

up to 10 Mbps;
up to 100 Mbps;
up to 1000 Mbps (gigabit internet).

By default, the maximum bandwidth mode is selected, which is consistent with the capabilities of the provider at the hardware level. Statistically, according to the data for the first quarter of 2017, the average peak speed of access to local networks in Russia is 69 Mbps. Thus, most network cards operate in 100 Mbit mode, therefore, by limiting it by an order of magnitude, we will achieve the desired result.

Three-quarters of all Windows users use versions 7 and 10 of the operating system. They are the most popular and we will focus on working with them.

Windows 7

There are several ways to get to the network card settings. The most common is to use the network connection icon, "monitor", located in the system tray area.

In the screenshot, it is slightly “highlighted” from below, and above it is the result of clicking with the mouse. If you right-click on it, a dialog box will open with the choice of "troubleshooting" and "network control center". You can use it in any way, since our goal is to open the settings.

This is how the area of interest to us looks like in Windows 7. On the right side there are active connections. We open them and get into a window that reflects the statistics of data transfer.

The lower part shows the activity, from where we go directly to the "Properties" of the connection.

At the top of the window, our adapter is shown, using which the device was connected. Click the "Configure" button and go to the settings of the network card.

We switch, as shown in the screenshot, to the “Advanced” tab, find the item responsible for the line speed, and set the operating mode to 10 Mbps.

You can also get to the network settings from the computer control panel, which is located in the Start menu of the operating system.

Another way to get directly to the network settings is to call the "Run" menu with the key combination "Win" + "R".

Entering the command shown in the screenshot into it will send you directly to the network connections section.

Windows 10

There are differences in Windows 10 hardware settings related to the use of a new menu in this Microsoft operating system.

As you can see, the changes start with the connection icon and the mouse click window. The dialog menu called by pressing the right button has not changed. With it, you will immediately be taken to the network control center. Let's see how to get there from the window that appears. By clicking on the "Settings" hyperlink, you get to the menu of the new "Network and Internet" style, which provides settings for all cases that may occur in the user's life.

At the moment they are absolutely not interesting to us. To get to the desired item, scroll down to the very end. Here is the control center of interest to us.

The designers also worked on this place, but the picture turned out to be recognizable. As you already understand, we will choose to connect by local network. Next, we will move to the adapter settings using the route familiar from the "seven".

We perform the switching, as shown in the screenshot, thus achieving the necessary reduction in adapter performance.

The "ncpa.cpl" command described a little above still works and takes the user to the same network connections section.

By selecting the "Properties" item in the drop-down menu, you will immediately move to the connection properties, from where there is one step left to the adapter parameters.

Setting up a router

The forced settings specified in the network card parameters are rather an emergency method and work only on a wired connection. Considering that home networks are built on wireless technology, it would be preferable to set a speed limit on Wi-Fi for some devices in advance. In Windows for these purposes built-in software tools is not provided, so you will have to adjust the Wi-Fi speed on the router.

Many modern models support this feature, although it is implemented by manufacturers in different ways. We will not dwell on a specific brand of router, but consider general principles to limit the Wi-Fi speed for other users.

Guest network

Setting up a guest network on a router with a separately allocated address range has several advantages:

you can give guests the opportunity to use wireless network on their devices without worrying about the security of their data. Many users "share" folders on the computer, giving them free access to family members. Creating an isolated guest network with a separate range of addresses will not allow outsiders to access them;
for such a network, you can not set a password at all, making it available to everyone for the evening or several days. By setting a speed limit on the router, you will not allow it to be used to download a large amount of information.

When the need to allocate a separate range of addresses has disappeared, it can be disabled in a few clicks.

IP Range Limit

This method requires some understanding of networking principles. Your router receives an external IP address from the provider, which is used to access the Internet. For all home devices that have access to it, through the built-in DHCP server, internal addresses are allocated, which change with each connection. Connecting to the network, any computer will request permission to work using the DHCP Client service. The server, if there are free IPs, will automatically assign it.

The subnet, as shown in the screenshot, can be distributed within the boundaries from 1 to 254. You can find out the required range used by your router by looking at the DHCP list.

To avoid speed reduction on the desired computer, you can set a static IP for it, which it will be guaranteed to receive every time it goes online. You can impose a restriction on the rest of the address range by creating a corresponding rule in the router settings.

Control by MAC address

Most effective method creation of flexible restrictions, control of network devices by unique MAC addresses. Their peculiarity is that they are assigned at the time of production and remain throughout the entire period of operation.

In this case, the distribution of IP addresses will be performed not dynamically, but statically. For each computer or mobile device, you will need to register the MAC address of the network card in the router settings and assign the corresponding IP to it. This setup will take longer, but will allow you to properly configure your network.

The screenshot shows an example where the MAC address field is filled in to assign a static address. After that, you can enter the Internet speed limit on the router. For TP-Link, this procedure is performed using Bandwich Control, for Zuxel Keenetic, using the bandwidth management firmware. As you can see, the name of this function may differ for different manufacturers and the procedure for setting it up also differs.

Program control

As we have already said, OC Windows does not have built-in tools for limiting Internet speed, but find a specialized software not difficult. Typically, such software is shareware, with a trial period during which you can decide on the need to use it and the advisability of purchasing it. The most popular are the following:

traffic inspector. The test period is 30 days;
NetLimiter. A month is provided for testing the features.

It should be noted that any program for limiting the speed of the Internet has additional features, which add up to its cost. Given the price, it is much more profitable to use it to control traffic consumption in a small office or Internet cafe than at home.

Finally

We told you about the ways that allow you to drive hardware and software restrictions on the use of the Internet by various devices. most convenient for home use is to control access using the capabilities of the router. Pay attention to its settings and, if necessary, configure the network for your needs.

The NetBalancer program combines tools that allow you to quickly and easily distribute the consumed traffic between specific applications. In other words, the utility sets the Internet connection speed limit (for both incoming and outgoing data packets), and also regulates the network activity parameters set by the user. If necessary, you can even block incoming Internet traffic in full. Among other advantages of the NetBalancer application, it should be noted the possibility effective management independent processes and the creation of detailed statistics. Additionally, you can get information about the speed of the Internet connection and the amount of transmitted or received data.

The user interface is characterized by a relatively simple graphic design and a convenient navigation toolbar. The NetBalancer application supports a large number of language packs, including a Russian-language location. and therefore to understand the settings will not be difficult even for an inexperienced user. To restrict direct access to the application, it is possible to set a password. The presence of a built-in scheduler will allow you to more effectively manage the distribution of Internet traffic and control the processes taking place on your computer. You can download the NetBalancer program for free and without mandatory registration using the link located after the description.

Compatible with various operating systems Windows family practically reduces the probability of unforeseen system failures or critical errors in the process of work to zero. Software components are updated without user intervention - in automatic mode.

Key features of the NetBalancer program:

Intuitive and friendly interface;
Minimum system resource requirements;
Ability to limit traffic consumption;
Control over network activity priorities;
The presence of a built-in task scheduler.

Thus, the NetBalancer program is a completely professional product with which you can create a schedule for accessing the Internet, as well as effectively distribute traffic.

A program for accounting for incoming and outgoing traffic on your computer. It will help not to exceed the traffic limit and not be without the Internet at all.

ATTENTION: starting from the 6th version, the program has become paid, so in order to avoid misunderstandings, do not update it. Here is the latest free version 5.5.5.

Who used the Internet five years ago, he probably remembers the main problem of the user - to constantly control the amount of traffic. After all, at that time there were no unlimited packages, and Dial-Up connection required money for each downloaded megabyte of information.

As a result, if you do not control the consumption of traffic, then you could "fly a pretty penny" :). But the people are resourceful and they came up with many programs to measure and limit the flow. Today, the need for such utilities has diminished a little, but they are still in use, because during their existence they have acquired many additional useful functions.

Thanks to such programs, today it is possible to measure the speed of an Internet connection, check all processes that have access to the Internet, measure the use of traffic in corporate networks and much more.

All of the above functions have a small program - NetWorx. In addition, it has a number of additional features that will be useful to both a system administrator and a simple user. The same simple but powerful tool can be called a paid program - DU Meter.

Comparison of a free program for accounting NetWorx traffic with a paid analogue DU Meter

In addition, NetWorx can impose a quota on the amount of traffic, as well as run various applications on a schedule. The program itself comes in two versions: portable and installation. I think it's easiest to use the "portable" version, although if you're into installers you can easily install NetWorx using the standard setup wizard.

Installing NetWorx

I will assume that you have downloaded the portable version. To get started, you need to unpack the archive with the program and run the executable exe file. Before starting NetWorx directly, let's make a couple of settings. The first is to specify the language of the program, and the second is to enable or disable checking for new versions. That's all:).

After that, the program icon will appear in the tray (the place next to the system clock), with the help of which we will manage it.

NetWorx will be controlled through the right-click context menu.

Here in this menu all the functions of the program are listed, but before use, you can make some settings. To do this, click on the menu section of the same name.

NetWorx Settings

"Settings" consists of several tabs. In the "General" we can configure the speed units, the information displayed in the tray, and (most importantly!) Which of the connections to monitor (by default, all traffic is counted).

The Graph and Graph Colors sections allow us to customize appearance schedule of incoming/outgoing packets of information. In "Notifications" you can enable and configure service messages from the program, and in "Additional" we have the opportunity to configure the collection of statistics.

The very last tab, Dial-up, allows you to set a default connection and add applications that will run with NetWorx.

After the settings are made, first click the "Apply" button for them to take effect, and then "Ok" to exit the settings.

Traffic Monitor

Now let's go directly to the NetWorx tools. The first and main one is the traffic monitor. It is presented in the form of a graph, which is called by the "Show graph" button.

The graph can be presented as a histogram (in my opinion, the most convenient), curved lines or just numbers. In this case, there will always be two numbers at the bottom. The number with the index "D" (default blue) shows the amount of incoming traffic (from the English download), and "U" (green) respectively outgoing (from the English upload).

Corresponding colors on the graph show curves of speed change, the numerical value of which can be correlated with the scale on the left.

Speed measurement

The next button - "Speed measurement" - measures, unfortunately, not the overall speed of your Internet connection, but only the current speed of the background packet transfer. This may be needed to compare (saving is available) the results at full load on the channel (for example, downloading a file) and in the “rest” state.

To start the test, just press the "Start" button and detect a certain period of time. Then the result can be saved to a text file, and then compared with the new data obtained during the “loading” of the channel.

Statistics

Most of all, system administrators will like this feature, since it is possible to conduct both a general traffic count and display detailed statistics for each network user. Results can be exported to xls format ( spreadsheets Excel) and save to your computer.

There are also tools for backing up statistics and its further restoration (for example, if you need to save all data after reinstalling the system).

Traffic quota

Moving on, let's move on to the "Quota" section. This feature is most suitable for users with a Dial-up connection or limited traffic (for example, Mobile Internet). It allows you to set the maximum amount of received or sent information and will always warn the user about overspending the specified limit.

By default, the quota is set to 0.00 KB, so if you want to use this function, you will need to "Configure" it first :).

In the settings, we specify the type of quota (daily, weekly, monthly, last 24 hours) and the type of traffic (incoming outgoing or all). You can leave the clock as it is, and then specify the units of measurement and the quota itself.

To save the settings, click "Ok", and in the quota monitoring window, do not forget to check the box "Notify me when the quota is used up, by %" in order to receive information about overspending in time.

Trace route

We have already considered the "Settings" item, so let's move on to the next one - "Trace route". If you suddenly lost access to some Internet resource or you need to find out which path you are going through before you get to a particular site, try tracing this path. This can be done with regular Windows features, but with NetWorx it is much easier and more visual.

To start tracing, enter the name of the site (remote computer) or its IP address. Now you can set the response timeout (although often the default value is more than enough) and you can press "Start". In this case, we traced the site yandex.ru and saw that to access it, you need to go through 11 intermediate servers, and total time traversing this path is 31 ms.

ping

The next option is "Ping". The window interface of this function is very similar to the interface of the previous one, but its purpose is somewhat different. Ping, simply put, is the speed at which a remote computer responds to a request you send. The ping built into NetWorx is inferior in capabilities to the “regular” one (there is no way to set your own keys to change parameters), but it copes with the main task.

The minus of the function is that you cannot directly enter the Internet address of the site - you need to know its exact IP (you can find out from the previous utility). Now specifically about the use: enter the address of the remote PC, select the waiting time and the number of echo requests and click "Start".

In our example, the site was pinged vkontakte.ru. The average response time is not calculated automatically, but it can also be calculated mentally by adding all the values obtained and dividing by three :).

It turned out about 45 ms, which, in principle, is good (ping up to 50 ms ± 10 ms is considered good). The TTL value is the “time to live” of the echo packet. The number 64 means that the sent packet of information can go through 64 intermediate servers.

Connections

The last tool is Connections. It allows you to monitor all applications that require an Internet connection.

Immediately I advise you to enable the option "Convert addresses to names". So you can see where this or that application “climbs” and stop its attempt to connect to a suspicious resource. Pay special attention to "established" connections (ESTABLISHED) and listening ports (LISTENING), as they can carry a hidden threat.

If a suspicious connection is detected, you can immediately terminate the application that installs it by right-clicking on it and selecting the "End application" item.

conclusions

Thus, we can sum up some of the above. NetWorx is not just a program for monitoring your Internet connection, but also a complex for security and comprehensive network diagnostics.

Therefore, if you have a suspicion that some application uses traffic irrationally or even transmits confidential information, try to monitor your network with the NetWorx program and you can easily figure out the "spy" :).

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

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