We would be sharing two methods (one manual and one using a tool), which would help you limit download speed on Mac. Yes, that would limit the upload speed too. Methods To Limit Download And Upload Speed On Mac. In this method, we would be using few commands on terminal in order to restrict speed. First, fire the below command. Both my kids use HP Chromebooks and Zoom for school. They have been telling me that the video freezes every 5-6min or so. I can't hardwire them because of where they are in the house and from my experience Powerline adapters are crap. My download speeds are 200Mbps and Upload 10Mbps. I have an Orbi RBR20 system that acts as both a router and AP.
A reasonably fast internet connection is essential to stop the many programs that require bandwidth from slowing your internet speed to a crawl. Doing a few things at once like downloading a torrent, downloading through your web browser and gaming online would probably cause the game to have high pings and be almost unplayable.
Is My Mac Limiting Download Speeds Windows 10
A way to get around this problem is setting limits for the programs or traffic you consider less important. That leaves more bandwidth and faster speeds for what you consider more important. A lot of software like downloaders, torrent clients, and game portal software such as Steam have a setting where you can set the maximum download limit so as not to flood the connection and let other applications access more bandwidth.
Some routers can prioritize internet traffic if they have a QoS feature built in, but not all routers can do that. Another way is using traffic shaping software so you can limit or prioritize which programs can have the most bandwidth. The amount of free software around that can shape or limit traffic is sadly very small, here we show you three we have found. All tools and methods were tested in Windows 7 and 10.
1. TMeterTMeter is quite a powerful application and one of its features is allowing you to control the speed of any Windows process accessing the network. Besides that, it has a large feature list that includes packet capture, URL filtering, built-in user accounts, host monitoring, packet filtering firewall, built-in NAT/DNS/DHCP, and traffic recording to report or database.
TMeter controls the speed of programs by assigning filters. The €99 Euro full version has unlimited filters while the free version allows you to create up to four. With a filter, you can set the overall speed limit of a process, enable a traffic limit to block or change speed, create a schedule, enable packet logging, and enable host header logging. The procedure of adding a speed limit is not quite as straightforward as you might hope and consists of several steps, here’s how to do it.
1. Download TMeter Free Edition and install it. On the first launch, you will be asked to select a network adapter to monitor. Check the box next to the adapter and select a network type, usually Private. Click OK and Apply.
2. Click Configuration > Process Definitions on the left. Two processes (SvcHost and System) are built in, click Add to attach another process to TMeter. Press the three dots on the right and locate an executable file. The Process Definition name is entered but you can change it if you want. Press OK.
3. Click Configuration > Filterset > Add > Filter > Add Rule. Press the Source drop down and choose Local process near the bottom. In the Process Definition drop down, select the definition name created in step 2. Click OK.
4. Enter a name for the filter at the bottom, then check the box underneath to enable a speed limit. Type a KB/s limit for the process into the box and optionally change the color the process will be displayed as in the traffic graph. Click OK then Apply.
5. Go to Statistic > Traffic Counters and you should see the limit being applied when the selected process is accessing the network. The Recv bps column will give an approximation of the current download speed, Send bps is obviously upload speed.
You can add another three filters to TMeter but must first delete the filters that are included by default. Just highlight ICMP, DNS, and All traffic then delete each filter. The built in process definition SVCHOST could be useful to control Windows Update download speeds. TMeter cannot apply a limit to a single process when several with the same name are running, like with Google Chrome. A workaround is applying a destination IP address in the filter to limit traffic only from that IP.
2. NetBalancer
NetBalancer is a well known and popular bandwidth management application. You can use it a couple of different ways, to either set a download/upload speed limit or set a priority. That means programs with a higher priority are given more of the bandwidth they need while lower priority programs will run at reduced speeds when required.
NetBalancer is shareware costing $49.95 and recent free versions don’t allow any rules or limits, only monitoring. Three free rules and three free limits/priorities were removed starting with version 9.3. You can still download version 9.2.7 from the website which has those free functions, but there’s an expiry date hard-coded into the software. Read below how to get around the issue.
Although there are some advanced functions in NetBalancer, it is incredibly easy to set a limit or priority to a running program. Simply right click on the entry in the window and set the download or upload priority to Low, Medium, High, Limit, Block or Ignore. The first three set a priority relative to other traffic while Block stops the program accessing the internet completely. Limit allows you to manually set the maximum down and up speed in Kilobytes.
There’s a maximum of three rules that can be applied where you can configure specific limits on a schedule. There are some default rules to get you started, including one to block Microsoft telemetry IPs on Windows 10, 8 and 7. A tray traffic monitor which runs on the task bar with visual traffic window is available to run as a separate tool.
How To Get NetBalancer Free To Run
Install and run NetBalancer 9.2.7 and a message box will pop up.
This version of NetBalancer is outdated, do you want to download a new one from our website?
Selecting No does nothing and NetBalancer will not run. We found out the expiry date for NetBalancer 9.2.7 was the 18th of October 2016. The tray or UI components won’t run when the system date is more recent. The NetBalancer service will run but not function correctly.
To get around this, we’ve created a batch script that temporarily sets your system clock to October 2016, starts the service, launches the program, then sets the clock to the current date. It’s not a perfect solution but is currently the only way we know to make use of the free bandwidth limiting functions in NetBalancer.
1. Download NirSoft RunAsDate and extract the Zip to a permanent location. This tool tricks NetBalancer into thinking the date is 2016 on launch and will run every time you open NetBalancer. Make sure to use the correct 32/64 bit version for your system or the process will fail.
2. Download the NetBalancer scripts. There are three scripts in the archive but you only need to use the one that matches the date format of your system clock. Place the script and included shortcuts in the RunAsDate folder.
3. Download NetBalancer 9.2.7 and install. Right click on the batch script and run as administrator. Once NetBalancer opens, optionally accept the predefined priorities, refuse the update, go to Edit > Settings and uncheck start tray icon with Windows and check for new version at startup near the top.
Now use NetBalancer’s free functions as required. It’s best to minimize the program window to the taskbar rather than close it to the tray. If you do that, run the included shortcut to open the window again.
To use the tray network monitor, run the script then the tray shortcut that came with the script. Note that if traffic data in the main window or tray display disappear, restart the service using the batch script. This is part of the date issue for the service and does happen from time to time.
3. cFosSpeed (ASRock XFast LAN)
cFosSpeed is a well known commercial traffic shaping and balancing application. The full version costs $17 but it’s also often licensed to third party motherboard manufacturers like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock. We’re looking at ASRock XFast LAN because it’s quite a recent cFosSpeed version. The only real difference from cFosSpeed itself is each vendor has its own custom UI skins.
cFosSpeed does not limit traffic to a specific speed like NetBalancer or TMeter can. Instead, it prioritizes internet traffic so important programs can have a higher priority. There are hundreds of built-in presets for different types of programs. For example, VOIP and streaming software is set to a higher priority along with many games. Other software like P2P clients, download managers and game portals (Steam, Origin etc) are set lower.
Most functions are controlled from the tray icon, double click the icon to open a network activity monitor. From the right click menu, you can change the activity monitor look, enable/disable traffic shaping, get ping stats and show a usage graph. Use Options > Settings to open the configuration window where the built in priorities can be edited or new ones added. The Preferences window also has an overall download and upload limit for the connection.
To change priorities on the fly, select Current Connections from the tray menu. A browser window will open with a list of connections, use the plus and minus buttons to adjust the priority. For more precise usage click the Advanced link. This window splits the connections, so for instance, you could change the priority of a single download in your browser. Click on it and adjust using the slider.
Using ASRock XFast LAN On Any Computer
By default, XFast LAN will only install on a computer equipped with an ASRock motherboard. However, there are ways to force it to install on any computer, giving you the full but slightly older cFosSpeed software. If you have an ASRock motherboard, the program can be installed without the steps below.
1. Download ASRock XFast LAN from the ASRock website.
2. Launch the XFast LAN installer to bring up the “Installation cannot commence…” message box. DO NOT close this box.
3. Type %temp% into Start, the Run box or Explorer’s address bar to open the Windows Temp folder. Find the folder $cfsfx.0 and copy it to another location. Click OK to close the Cannot install message box.
4. Open the $cfsfx.0 folder and then open Install.ini in Notepad or a compatible text editor. Search for the string mainboard_manufacturer=ASRock.
5. Delete ASRock from the string so it reads mainboard_manufacturer=, then save the text file.
6. Launch the installer by double clicking Setup.exe in the $cfsfx.0 folder and cFosSpeed will install.
For convenience, you can skip steps 4 and 5 and download the modified Install.ini file. Unzip it and copy to the $cfsfx.0 folder overwriting the old ini file.
Final Note: Traffic Shaper XP is another traffic shaping application we’ve mentioned in the past. Sadly, it’s not been updated for nearly a decade and is incompatible with most of today’s operating systems. It does not work in any version of Windows 10 or any 64-bit operating system but will work in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8.1 32-bit. There’s also limitations placed on this free version such as a maximum of 5 rules, support for TCP only and shaping up to 3,687 KB/s. However, you can still download Traffic Shaper XP if it satisfies your requirements.
You might also like:
15 Free File Copy Tools Tested for the Fastest Transfer Speeds5 Free Tools To Monitor And Log Your Internet Traffic4 Tools to Increase TCP/IP Half Open Connection Limit2 Tools to Decrease Download and Increase Upload Ratio in BitTorrent TrackersBypass the Hotpost Shield Free Bandwidth Limit and Ad BannerHere is a free and easy way to do it using native PowerShell NetQosPolicy no need for any third party software!
New-NetQosPolicy -Name OneDriveLimits -AppPathNameMatchCondition OneDrive.exe -IPProtocolMatchCondition Both -NetworkProfile All -ThrottleRateActionBitsPerSecond 5000000
Set-NetQosPolicy -Name OneDriveLimits -AppPathNameMatchCondition OneDrive.exe -IPProtocolMatchCondition Both -NetworkProfile All -ThrottleRateActionBitsPerSecond 3000000
Replywow. Didn’t know this even exists. Thanks ♥
ReplyNetQosPolicy is for outgoing traffic only!
Replythanks very helpful
ReplyBest article out there got netbalancer following your steps thanks
Replythe xfast lan workaround still works, thanks man!
ReplyHi,
In my Network 30+ systems are connected, i want to control downloading from every system and if some one downloaded more than 10mbps means they have to take permissions from the admin. How this is possible and is there any tool to control it.
Please help me out.
Hi Ashok,
An easy way to do it would be through a transparent proxy, where all incoming/outgoing network traffic goes through the proxy server. You’d be able to do bandwidth allocation by setting up rules. There are commercially available solutions for such as Sophos UTM. I am sure you can find other proxy solutions that are equally good/even better.
Is My Mac Limiting Download Speeds Test
Cheers!
ReplyWELL ITS 2017 and THANK YOU
ReplyThank You NetBalancer Works Great, I Finally limit the upload speed for steam , so that i can download in steam as well play at the same time
ReplyIs My Mac Limiting Download Speeds Speed
you rock!
Replythank you!
ReplyThank you..
Reply
Interesting programs however on my Windows 8 computer I now have the ability to look at how much bandwidth I use from the new Internet taskbar application, right click what network you’re connected to and select “estimated data usage”. This will tell you what your bandwidth is over however not for specific programs as offered with these programs. Thank you Raymond.
You should turn off your WiFi when you’re not using it if you want to save bandwidth, even when you put your computer to sleep turn off the WiFi during the duration. Bandwidth even on websites with few or no high-level bandwidth-suckers (ads, sounds, auto-playing videos or streaming) will save be taking data like a tap in your bathroom would if left on long term.
Replynetlimiter – is veri good too.
Replythanks for sharing
ReplyI finally found what i’m looking for, thanks
Replythank you for the great information.
Replyyes excellent software….
ReplyIt’s very useful
Thanks a lot for these applications and information
Replythanks man….
Replyworking great thanks.
ReplyThanks really Thanks a lot
Replythanks for infomation .
Is My Mac Limiting Download Speeds Free
ReplyLeave a Reply
I was helping my friend again with his Mac he complained his internet speed is not as advertised. I went ahead and tested my internet speed via Ethernet and I resulted 250 Mbps from fast.com When testing his Apple iMac Pro I only resulted in 50 Mbps via Ethernet. I was baffled, I went ahead changed/checked the following:
- Changed the MTU. No improvement
- Manually set IP. No improvement
- Changed Ethernet cable to a fancy CAT-7 cable. No improvement
- Checked to see if there was any malware or viruses. None.
- Nothing was downloading.
- Checked if there was any issue with the writing speed on the SSD. Writing speed was good.
The breakthrough was when I decided to ping to google.com on my Windows laptop. What I realized was that I was getting IPv6 from google.com instead of IPv4.
So I decided to go back into the Ethernet settings and enable IPV6 since it was not enabled
Steps to enable IPv6:
- Apple menu
- System Preferences
- Network
- Choose your connection type. For me it was Ethernet
- Advanced Button
- Select the TCP/IP
- Change the Configure IPv6 drop-down box from Off to Automatically.
After enabling IPV6, I speed test the iMac and to my surprise it was finally getting 200+ Mbps. I decided to turn off IPv4 and use IPv6 alone, but unfortunately that did not work. So I left IPv4 on. Most likely when he configured his network, he accidentally enabled IPv6. At the same time I’m pretty baffled on why IPv4 is slower than IPv6.Almost 4x as slow. Maybe he configured his network wrong and so the IPv4 takes a longer route to respond? Or maybe IPv6 once enabled has a higher priority than IPv4? I decided to leave it as is since he was happy the internet was finally up to its advertised speed. Hopefully, this post becomes helpful for someone with a similar issue.