If you have an Asus computer or motherboard, you may have noticed an application labeled Turbo LAN.
It may be in the shape of a small window on the right-hand corner of the screen or a full-sized window with a bunch of parameters.
You may wonder what Turbo LAN is and what it does for your computer.
This article tells you everything you need to know about this tool and how it can help you optimize your work.
What Is Turbo LAN?
Turbo LAN is an internet traffic shaping application that prioritizes your apps, giving them different bandwidths depending on their internet needs.
Using different applications that need internet connections to operate simultaneously can slow down your internet.
As a result, you may experience lags in specific applications that require fast connections.
With Turbo Lan, you can simply prioritize your apps in the program and give the highest priority to the most internet-hungry apps like gaming programs or streaming services.
If you play online games, Turbo LAN will help you remove your ping time and speed up other applications.
This program doesn’t allow your online games to stop other programs from getting enough bandwidth.
For example, if you want to chat online or make a video call while playing games, Turbo LAN makes sure you can perform these actions without lowering your bandwidth.
You can find Turbo LAN bundled with many motherboards under the name of cFosSpeed, but in Asus products, it’s rebranded as Turbo LAN.
Turbo LAN Interface
Turbo LAN has an easy-to-use and straightforward interface with very few and uncomplicated options.
When you open the application, you can see a window with different tabs and sections.
There are Maximum Upload and Download Speeds at the top of the window, and the status of your current connection shows the upload and download speeds.
On the right-hand side panel, you’ll have VoIP, Media Streaming, Games, and File Sharing, allowing you to prioritize and allocate internet bandwidth to each category based on your needs.
It also has a menu for advanced setting and prioritizing based on different criteria, such as file sharing, server protocols, client protocols, etc.
You can prioritize specific programs permanently or temporarily.
Another exciting feature is that you can allocate internet budgets to each application to control your internet usage and limit the time you spend on each app or program.
The traffic analysis feature allows you to keep track of everything related to internet usage for each “slot,” such as games, media sharing, file sharing, and others.
You can determine which apps connect to internet connections listed in the program.
It also allows you to monitor each app and its internet usage and see which apps are eating up your internet resources.
Another helpful feature is that it gives you a monthly report on your internet usage.
Therefore, you can graphically see how much internet you have used in previous months and compare and analyze your usage.
It’s available in many languages across various operating systems, making it versatile and easy to use for various users.
All these features allow you to minimize lags while playing games by allocating all the internet it needs for downloading and uploading.
How Turbo LAN Works
Turbo LAN, which is a rebranded form of cFosSpeed, optimizes your internet traffic allocation by dividing data packets into traffic classes.
It performs these actions in different ways:
- It prioritizes data traffic based on layer-7 protocol, DSCP tags, port numbers, or other criteria.
- It improves transfer rates and minimizes pings by reordering data packets.
- This software monitors network speed by attaching a driver to the operating system’s network stack and makes all internet data packets flow through this additional driver.
- The program recognizes when a specific application tries to slow down another application so that it can become faster.
- It rebalances the connections and returns your speed to normal by preventing programs from vying for your bandwidth.
Here are some of the other features found in the app:
- RX sharing: It involves minimizing pings, especially during downloads to prevent these operations from slowing down others.
- Minimizing packet loss: The program helps you avoid packet loss by closing TCP receive windows if it detects too much packet loss.
- Low-latency mode: The program has a Low Latency mode that allows you to adjust the traffic shaping features. It’s perfect for Voice over IP and online games. Alternatively, you could enable the “favor bandwidth” or “favor ping time” options to optimize bandwidth (while temporarily increasing ping) or reduce ping, depending on your requirements.
- Firewall: Turbo LAN also can serve as a firewall to protect against unsecured ports and packets and common online attacks. The software allows you to adjust the restrictions depending on your conditions. It’s easily accessible through the clutter-free interface via Options > Settings.
Here are some other features offered by this application:
- Multi-User Features
- self-calibrating
- broadband limits
- automatic router detection
- real-time traffic analysis
- Optimal dial-up connections
- Firewall
- Layer-7 Analysis
- VPN – WLAN – WiFi – MTU-Optimization
- You can use these internet management features for many internet protocols, including mobile, ADSL, DSL, VDSL, Cable, Modem, and ISDN.
Is Turbo LAN Effective?
Although some users have reported problems with cFosSpeed, aka Turbo LAN, many other users are happy with how they have increased their gaming speeds.
According to this test conducted by the cFos team, it’s highly effective.
They measured ping times during uploads and downloads on a VSDL connection, comparing the average data transfer time with and without this program running.
The results showed that cFosSpeed could increase speed by 3–10 times.
Turbo LAN Disadvantages
Although Turbo LAN comes with many exciting features that gamers love because they help reduce lags, it’s not without issues.
Ironically, some users have reported that the program led to lowered download or upload speeds that increased significantly after uninstalling the program.
That’s why many users who get it bundled with their motherboards consider it bloatware.
They complained that this application clogged their systems instead of optimizing their internet usage.
In addition, some users believe that it just takes up their RAM and CPU resources, slowing down their systems.
If you decide that Turbo LAN is the main reason behind your slow internet, you may not be able to uninstall it easily.
That’s particularly the case if it comes bundled with your motherboard, and many users have complained they had to do a system restore to get rid of the app.
However, the developers have been working to address the bugs, including frequently reported display issues, throughout the years, and they have fixed many problems in the cFosSpeed 12.00 version.
Other problems that may require you to uninstall the program include:
- Incompatibility with some other applications
- Frequent crashes
- Recognized as potentially malicious by antimalware programs
- The program not working or appearing in the Control Panel or the main screen
How To Uninstall Turbo LAN
Uninstalling Turbo LAN shouldn’t be a hassle for some systems, and you can uninstall it like you do other programs.
You simply go to the Control Panel, click on Programs and Features, scroll down to find Turbo LAN, and click Uninstall.
Alternatively, you could go to Turbo LAN’s installation folder (typically at C:\Program Files\ASUS\Turbo LAN) and look for its uninstall.exe file.
Now, you can simply start the uninstallation process by double-clicking the uninstall file.
However, as mentioned, this process hasn’t been easy for many users because it’s more of a motherboard driver than a simple program.
In addition, it doesn’t come with an uninstaller.
In such cases, your best bet would be doing a system restore because some users have reported that uninstalling doesn’t remove all the app’s components from your computer.
However, if you have an MSI motherboard, you could uninstall it through the company’s companion app—Dragon Center—which comes preinstalled on MSI computers and motherboards.
If it’s not preinstalled on your system, you can download it here and sign in.
After launching the app, run a system scan to find all the functions installed on your computer.
After finding cFosSpeed, you can simply click Delete to uninstall it permanently.
Restart your system and check if it’s been uninstalled successfully.
However, certain problems may occur when you try to uninstall Turbo LAN.
For example, another program or process may prevent it from getting removed completely.
In addition, some of its processes may remain in the system and run in the background.
In such cases, you could use a third-party uninstaller to take care of the whole process.
For example, Revo Uninstaller Pro is a perfect tool to help you uninstall Turbo LAN and remove all its processes.
Although it’s a paid tool, you can use its 30-day free trial to get the job done.
All you need to do is enter Turbo LAN or cFosSpeed, depending on what you have installed on your system, in the Log’s Database and look for Turbo LAN’s logs.
Go to the All Programs tab and look for Turbo LAN’s appropriate log by selecting the Uninstall option.
If you can’t find it in the All Programs section, you should go to the Logs Database.
Remember that you should only select the logs compatible with your Windows type.
After selecting the right log, click Uninstall, and the tool will remove all the processes and files related to Turbo LAN.
How To Install Turbo LAN
In addition to the internet traffic optimization benefits of Turbo LAN, you may want to install it for other reasons.
For example, when you decide to upgrade your Windows 10 to Windows 11, you may get the message that you need the cFosSpeed driver to do the upgrade.
Here again, if you have an MSI device or motherboard, installing the cFosSpeed is hassle-free because the Dragon Center app will automatically install the cFosSpeed.
All you need to do is download Dragon Center from the MSI website and install it.
If you don’t have an MSI device, you can download it here, which is currently the program’s latest version.
If the system can’t install the program completely, you could try the beta version by finding and clicking on the Download current beta (12.01. build 2516 version) option.
After the program is installed, you’ll see a small status window at the bottom-right corner of your screen showing essential data.
What’s Traffic Shaping?
Even with today’s high-speed internet connections, network resources are still limited, restricting your ability to run several applications simultaneously.
Internet traffic shaping is a technique that helps manage bandwidth by delaying the flow of some internet data packets.
This way, the programs with the highest priority in terms of connection requirements will get the most packet flow to ensure they’re performing optimally.
Traffic shaping is precisely what it sounds like: it controls the traffic flow’s speed and configures the flow rate to its desired rate specified by the user.
When the incoming traffic is in the shape of the configured form, the program will allow it to flow.
If it’s faster than the specified configuration, the program buffers and delays it until it’s ready to be sent under the specified rate.
As a result, the prioritized programs will be held in a queue, each getting their share of allocated traffic to avoid clogging the system.
Traffic Policing Vs. Traffic Shaping
Traffic shaping and traffic policing are two terms frequently thrown around in the world of internet traffic management.
While both are closely related, they’re not the same.
As mentioned earlier, traffic shaping refers to the congestion control mechanism that increases the latency of some packets to remove bandwidth limitations.
It introduces delays in some packets to make them conform to prespecified rates.
On the other hand, traffic policing controls excess traffic by discarding or removing packets higher than the specified rate.
Much like the literal policing of traffic on the road, internet traffic policing performs actions against packets that violate specific rules and restrictions.
That’s different from traffic shaping, which delays and buffers the packets that are higher than the specified rate.
For example, suppose your internet connection hardware, such as internet cables, can accept more internet traffic than the rates you purchase from the ISP.
In that case, they can limit your internet connection by dropping anything that goes beyond what you’ve paid for.
Other Traffic Shaping Applications
There’s a wide range of traffic shaping applications in addition to Turbo LAN, which can help you prioritize apps based on their internet needs.
Here are some of the best of these tools:
1. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor
Paessler network monitor is a bandwidth monitoring tool that allows you to control the internet usage of certain apps and devices.
You can easily see these consumptions through graphs and set bandwidth limits for each one.
It automatically detects the devices connected to your internet connection, and you can distribute bandwidth among these devices and set limits on them.
2. Solarwinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
Solarwinds is one of the best traffic shaping tools that offers performance analysis tools, monitoring features, and automatic traffic management utilities.
You can even enhance these monitoring capabilities by adding other modules to the pack.
On the minus side, it features so many plugins and tools that users believe it’s not the best option for home use because these features make it complicated.
3. NetLimiter
NetLimiter is another effective tool for monitoring internet traffic designed for Windows.
It allows you to set limits for the applications’ download and upload transfer rates.
You can also block some applications entirely if they hog your internet.
You can assign applications four priority levels, including critical, high, normal, and low.
It’s also easy to use and clutter-free, giving you a visual arrangement of processes and prioritized traffic.
You can give each application a set quota and decide to block the app or take other measures when it reaches the quota.
4. NetBalancer
NetBalancer is another Windows application that uses the Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology to block BitTorrent traffic and set time-based rules.
It gives you a history of your uploads and downloads to see how much traffic you’ve consumed exactly.
Through pie charts and color-coding depicting the top processes in the last 24 hours, the visual representations make the software easy to use and navigate.
The most important feature of this tool is that it encrypts all your data by TLS and SHA2 protocols.
It also allows you to sync your data with its web-based console and access your data on the go.
All you need to do is determine which settings, events, or traffic to be synced and when the syncing takes place.
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