Windows 10 Wifi tweaks

I wrote this a long time ago and use an ethernet connection now, use with caution

Wifi has never been great on windows 10, especially after the latest 'fall creator update'. One of my wifi cards no longer works at all, despite working on this same exact version of windows before a clean install! Anyway, I've found a few ways that seem to make the wifi slightly more consistent, so here they are..

Step zero: Wifi adapter name

We will need the short name of the wifi adapter and the easiest way is with netsh. To list wlan settings run the following in a cmd or powershell (Win+X):


PS C:\Users\Dexter> netsh wlan show settings

Wireless LAN settings
---------------------
    Show blocked networks in visible network list: No

    Only use GP profiles on GP-configured networks: No

    Hosted network mode allowed in WLAN service: Yes

    Allow shared user credentials for network authentication: Yes

    Block period: Not Configured.

    Auto configuration logic is disabled on interface "Wi-Fi 3"
    MAC randomization not available on interface Wi-Fi 3

Look for the quoted part after interface, in this case my adapter name is Wi-Fi 3. Alternatively, you can go to Control Panel -> Network Connections

And that will have the same name. We'll need it for the rest of the steps.

First: Wifi autoconfig on/off bats

Save these two in batch files so you can easily run them as needed:

WIFI_AUTO_ON.bat


netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=yes interface="Wi-Fi 3"

WIFI_AUTO_OFF.bat


netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=yes interface="Wi-Fi 3"

NOTE: Replace "Wi-Fi 3" with the adapter name from the first step! Now you can right click on WIFI_AUTO_OFF.BAT and run as admin before playing an online game. For me, this seems to help with the persistent, roughly 1 minute apart ping spikes.

Second: disable tuning heuristics

This one is a bit harder to quantify but in my highly non-scientific testing, my ping appeared to be more stable overall after turning off auto tuning. Note this is machine wide and seems to be related to TCP window sizes. I've encounted no side effects but..


netsh int tcp set heuristics disabled
netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled

Disable dat heuristic tuning! Hopefully this helps others eek out a a better usable wifi experience on windows.

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