Limit the maximum network bandwidth used for Peercaching

Policy ID
BITS_MaxBandwidthServedForPeers
Scope
Computer Configuration
Supported on
At least Windows Vista
Source
Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 11 2026 Update (26H2) (version 1.0)
Category
Network › Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)

Description

This policy setting limits the network bandwidth that BITS uses for peer cache transfers (this setting does not affect transfers from the origin server).
To prevent any negative impact to a computer caused by serving other peers, by default BITS will use up to 30 percent of the bandwidth of the slowest active network interface. For example, if a computer has both a 100 Mbps network card and a 56 Kbps modem, and both are active, BITS will use a maximum of 30 percent of 56 Kbps.
You can change the default behavior of BITS, and specify a fixed maximum bandwidth that BITS will use for peer caching.

If you enable this policy setting, you can enter a value in bits per second (bps) between 1048576 and 4294967200 to use as the maximum network bandwidth used for peer caching.

If you disable this policy setting or do not configure it, the default value of 30 percent of the slowest active network interface will be used.

Note: This setting has no effect if the "Allow BITS peer caching" policy setting is disabled or not configured.

Options

  • Maximum network bandwidth used for Peercaching (bps):

Registry

ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  • MaxBandwidthServedREG_DWORD

Other policies in the same category

View all policies in this category (17)