Speed Up Network Sharing in Windows 10

Network sharing allows users to share resources over a network.

In Windows 10, this comes feature comes as a native feature and can be easily accessed via the Control Panel. A typical network sharing environment consists of a wired or a wireless network, multiple devices, and supporting software. If configured properly, the devices and the files which are known as resources in a networked environment can be shared with each other. The speed of data transmission depends on many factors, including the speed of the Ethernet port/wireless device, HD read and write speed, RAM capacity and speed as well as the quality of the software used to transfer the files. This article teaches how the users can tweak these factors to speed up the data transfer in a networked environment with ease. You can use the Windows cleaning software, ST Cleaner. 

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Solutions

Solution 1: Disabling “Large Send Offload (LSO)”

A file can vary between a few Kilobytes (kBs) to several Gigabytes (GBs) in size. While it is being transferred over a network, it’s broken into pieces known as segments. Each segment is put inside of a frame and sent over the network through the switch or the router to another device. The size of a frame is 1500 Bytes which is the standard size for MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit). Sending a frame larger than this size often causes the frame to be dropped, and thus the overall speed of the network goes down drastically as the frame must be re-sent.

When the Large Send Offload option is enabled, the segmentation takes place in the Ethernet adapter instead of the server. Since the Ethernet adapter is unable to identify the MTU of the switch, sending a wrong frame size leads the frame to be dropped. However, if this process happens in the server then the MTU size can easily be identified, hence data equal to the MTU size is despatched, and consequently, the overall data transfer speed is improved at the expense of the CPU’s performance.

1. Right-click on the Network adapter icon in the taskbar and select Open Network and Sharing Center.
   
   
2. Click on Change adapter settings to access the list of all adapters present in the computer.
   

• Right-click the currently active adapter and select Properties.
• Switch to the Networking tab and click on Configure.
  
  
• Now switch to the Advanced tab. Locate both Large Send Offload v2 (IPv4) and Large Send Offload v2 (IPv6) in the Property list, and select Disabled for both of them in the Value dropdown menu.
  

  

 

Solution 2: Update Network Driver

Updating the Network Driver not only improves the overall network sharing speed, but also secures the network from anyone accessing it unauthorized. Usually, the drivers are available from the manufacturer’s website, so all the user needs to do is to identify the Network adapter’s brand name and the model. If it’s an onboard Network adapter, then downloading the drivers from the motherboard’s website is the best option.

1. Open up Command Prompt.
2. Type the following command and press Enter to execute it:
   wmic baseboard get product,Manufacturer,version,serialnumber
3. Note the product name from the output result.
   

   

4. Google up the motherboard’s name and open its official website. Download the LAN driver for the platform currently in use (Windows 10 in this case), and then install it.
   
   
5. Restart the system for the changes to take effect.

 

Solution 3: Update Windows 10

Windows 10 frequently rolls out updates through its Update Center, and installing such updates often brings about a big improvement in the overall system performance. Therefore, it’s recommended to keep Windows up-to-date at all times. Even though Windows 10 is designed to update itself automatically, but if the user has disabled automatic updates, performing the following steps becomes necessary.

1. Search for Windows Updates in the Start menu.
2. Located the Download button and click it to begin the process.
   

   

 

Solution 4: Use A Better Transferring Client

As stated earlier, the application which is used to transfer the files across the network bears heavily for a better speed of the network sharing; hence either updating it or using a better client can improve the overall file sharing speed. This does not only speed up file sharing, but also boosts other resource sharing such as printer if printing is done through the client.

In Android, one of the best file transfer applications is ES File Explorer File Manager. If files are being transferred either from or to Android devices, simply use this app for an exceptional experience.

 

Tips to Improve the Network Sharing Speed

1. The more you invest in your system’s RAM, the better it gets as the files are temporarily kept in the memory instead of the HD during data transfer.
2. Purchase high speed write/read hard drives instead of slow hard drives. Having SSD (Solid State Drives) helps a lot to obtain better data transfer speed than traditional mechanical hard drives.
3. If files are transferred to/ or from a phone, then it’s better that they are kept in the internal memory rather than the SD card for improving the data transfer speed, as SD cards usually have low read/ write speed compared to the RAM.
4. Purchase 802.11n (or higher) wireless routers and supporting devices for an optimal data transfer experience. The maximum speed for 802.11n model devices is 150 Mbps. Currently, the most popular wireless model is 802.11ac, which has speeds as high as 866.7 Mbps! So ensuring that the wireless router and devices support 802.11ac can do wonders for you.