Limit bandwidth per device on Windows

Set one device slower, keep the rest at full speed

A single device saturating the connection is a common problem: one machine running a large download or backup, and everyone else’s calls and pages slow to a crawl. YTS Control lets you put a ceiling on just that device — for example 5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up — while the rest of the network keeps the full line.

Each device you select can have:

• An independent download limit and upload limit, set separately.
• A limit that applies only to that device, not to a whole class of traffic.
• A limit you can raise, lower or remove at any time while the app is running.

How it works, in plain terms

YTS Control discovers the devices on your local network and places your PC in the path of the device you choose, so it can measure that device’s traffic and shape it to the limit you set. Because the work happens on your own computer, you don’t need the router’s administration dashboard — which is useful on networks where you don’t have that login. You can read more about that approach in controlling devices without a router login.

What you need

• A Windows PC on the same local network as the device you want to limit.
• Administrator rights on that PC.
• The Npcap packet-capture driver installed. It is a separate, third-party download that YTS Control does not bundle — see the guide to installing Npcap.

Honest limitations

Per-device limiting depends on your PC being able to see and reach the other device on the local network. It will not work in every situation, and it is fair to know that up front:

• Networks that deliberately isolate clients from each other — many guest Wi-Fi networks, and access points with client isolation switched on — prevent one device from reaching another, so limits cannot be applied.
• Security features such as dynamic ARP inspection, or a device sitting behind a second router or NAT boundary, can also stop it working.
• Some Wi-Fi adapters and drivers do not cooperate with this kind of traffic handling.
• YTS Control manages IPv4 traffic; it does not control IPv6.

The homepage’s compatibility section lists these conditions in full, and the device-discovery troubleshooting guide covers what to check if a device does not appear.

Windows and Linux

YTS Control runs on Windows and Linux. This page focuses on Windows because that is where the Npcap requirement applies; the per-device limiting itself works the same way on both. For the current state of each platform — what is published, what is in preparation and what has no date — see the downloads section on the home page.