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Windows Update (which uses the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) protocol) sometimes monopolizes our ADSL uplink. It interferes with interactive applications such as our "in the cloud" browser based accounting system.

I want to lower the priority of the BITS traffic on the uplink, relative to interactive browser traffic (and, soon, VoIP).

Limitations of Router Approach

One source¹ suggests that recognizing BITS at the router is possible. So I sought the port number(s) associated with the protocol. But BITS uses ports 80 and 443 – the very same ports (HTTP and HTTPS) used by the interactive browser traffic that I want to prioritize differently.² I do not see how to put BITS into a separate class from interactive browser traffic. The router is a Buffalo WZR-1750DHP with a preloaded DD-WRT firmware.

Limitations of Client Approach

Windows has the ability to set a QoS policy, and I can select just the BITS traffic.³ I have not gone that way yet for two reasons.

  1. Windows has no visibility into the traffic patterns on the uplink. I would have to set a hard upper limit, or a hard range of blackout hours, rather than letting BITS use free bandwidth when available.

  2. It requires a change to each Windows instance on the LAN. That will be costly: it means either a lot of bookkeeping or else buying and running Windows Server just to set one group policy.

Is there another way?

MetaEd
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  • Have you looked at implementing a WSUS server? That way you're downloading your updates to one server and distributing them from there. You can also set it to only download updates at certain time frames. – Nixphoe Sep 02 '15 at 19:12
  • @Nixphoe I think that again would require me to buy and run a server because WSUS lives on Windows Server. – MetaEd Sep 02 '15 at 21:34

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