Hello everyone,
I've recently started looking into link aggregation to try to boost up my transfer speeds since it's a possibility offered by most modems, switches and NAS systems (using 802.3ad / LACP). 2.5Gb switches are still expensive (not mentioning 10Gb), but dual RJ45 cards are cheap ($40), some MOBOs even offer two RJ45 ports, and you could potentially even aggregate an RJ45 connection with a WIFI - haven't tried - to get a 2Gb/s link instead of 1. Plus it's nice to have the option to boost your existing hardware.
To my surprise, I learned after a bit of research that link aggregation is no longer supported by Windows 11 since... 2020.
However, a brillant guy named Graham Sutherland had a look into it and figured out a way to reimplement this feature by extracting it from the freely available Windows Server 2019. His tutorial is based on Windows 10 but it works on Windows 11 as well.
To make it even easier, another folks called Maxim Kiselevich bundled all the required files together on the related Github post with instructions, and after trying it for myself, I can confirm it works 100% on the latest version of Windows 11 pro.
The reason I'm sharing all of this is that I was pretty upset to see this feature disappeared. It helps use available technology to most of us in house, for free, to boost transfer rates or use fail over capabilities. I do not understand why Microsoft would deprive us from these benefits, so I'm spreading the word in the hope that more people become aware of it and someday maybe Microsoft decides to reimplement it back All props go to Graham, Maxim and all the others on Github for the remarkable work they've accomplished. Hope this helps someone looking for this solution down the road.
I've recently started looking into link aggregation to try to boost up my transfer speeds since it's a possibility offered by most modems, switches and NAS systems (using 802.3ad / LACP). 2.5Gb switches are still expensive (not mentioning 10Gb), but dual RJ45 cards are cheap ($40), some MOBOs even offer two RJ45 ports, and you could potentially even aggregate an RJ45 connection with a WIFI - haven't tried - to get a 2Gb/s link instead of 1. Plus it's nice to have the option to boost your existing hardware.
To my surprise, I learned after a bit of research that link aggregation is no longer supported by Windows 11 since... 2020.
However, a brillant guy named Graham Sutherland had a look into it and figured out a way to reimplement this feature by extracting it from the freely available Windows Server 2019. His tutorial is based on Windows 10 but it works on Windows 11 as well.
To make it even easier, another folks called Maxim Kiselevich bundled all the required files together on the related Github post with instructions, and after trying it for myself, I can confirm it works 100% on the latest version of Windows 11 pro.
The reason I'm sharing all of this is that I was pretty upset to see this feature disappeared. It helps use available technology to most of us in house, for free, to boost transfer rates or use fail over capabilities. I do not understand why Microsoft would deprive us from these benefits, so I'm spreading the word in the hope that more people become aware of it and someday maybe Microsoft decides to reimplement it back All props go to Graham, Maxim and all the others on Github for the remarkable work they've accomplished. Hope this helps someone looking for this solution down the road.
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