Rivet Networks Announces SmartByte for Dell Inspiron Systems
by Ian Cutress on May 30, 2017 3:30 AM EST
In recent quarters, we have seen a change in the laptop landscape of Intel and Realtek networking options. A few OEMs, particularly Dell, are now implementing Killer networking on devices such as the XPS line of notebooks and their gaming PCs. However, given the gaming roots of the Killer design, it perhaps seems out of place to put a Killer network port into a more business/enterprise aimed device like an Inspiron. To that end, Dell and Rivet Networks have implemented a solution offering the software optimization mechanisms that Killer has developed for select Dell Inspiron models in a package called SmartByte.
At a high level, this is prioritization software aimed squarely for Dell’s business customers and moving to make video the higher priority for network traffic, especially when other software is using the network. In the metrics given for the software, it was claimed that with a concurrent download in place, whereas a base system would only offer a 320x180 Skype video call with 14% lost data packets, with SmartByte in place the system could support 960x540 video with zero lost packages and a 40-50% lower ping. Similarly, when trying to stream video online while hitting the limit on an internet connection, the SmartByte software should give zero stream freezes.
The SmartByte software is designed to work on both Intel and Realtek networking options offered in the Inspiron range, which leads to one obvious question which I put to Rivet Network: if you can do this all in software, why bother offering a physical Killer network solution at all? We were told that the physical solution allows for greater offload and packet examination, both freeing up resources and reducing latency, as well as tracking metrics better for optimization and a few other internal tweaks. The SmartByte software works primarily for video only, and will only work for select system IDs (so there is no instance to install on other machines). Rivet stated that the requirements for this software were for it to be simple, as in ‘one-button’ simple if a user wanted to disable it for some reason.
We were told to expect to see some Dell announcements in the coming weeks and months, with mentions of SmartByte in the marketing materials.
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lmcd - Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - link
Just a sad reminder that not everyone is worthy of an Intel NIC, it seems :-/BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - link
"...business/enterprise aimed device like an Inspiron."Inspiron computers are typically targeted at consumers for home use. Dell encourages business and enterprise customers to purchase Latitudes, Optiplexes, and Precisions. And finally SOHO and small businesses are served by the Vostro series.
colinstu - Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - link
Exactly.davidroberts - Tuesday, February 20, 2018 - link
Is there any difference in performance for intel and amd processors? I don't think but people p<a href="https://www.essayschief.com">refer</a&g... Intel the most.Ramrunner - Saturday, March 10, 2018 - link
Shame the software does not work. Just spent TWO HOURS trying to figure out why my customer could not upload anything larger than 1Mb to facebook or via email without it stalling. Updated the Intel drivers, confirmed wireless signal, speed tested. The available upload speed was only .86Mbps (ADSL1) but it wasn't a case of everything taking long, it simply stalled completely. After a long time searching I finally found a similar problem on the net. Removing this software instantly fixed everything. Wow. When are manufacturers going to learn that preloaded software must work 100% or don't put it on a all?FPU - Sunday, January 26, 2020 - link
This SmartBytes thing is a total disaster. Fiber access, 300 MBPS download... and 0.4 MBPS upload _only_ on my brand new DELL G3 (all other computers in the house ok at 50 MBPS). 3 hours of tshooting, wireshark tracing, etc to finally find this page and ITS COMMENT (thanks Ramrunner and all !). Uninstalled smartbytes (in fact, just stopped the service first) and upload speed went back to 50 MBPS instantly. JUST UNINSTALL THIS CRAP.murphy2001 - Monday, September 10, 2018 - link
This horrible program significantly slows my Wifi connection. I spent so much time trying to figure out why my computer wouldn't get the Wifi speed it was supposed to get and through deductive reasoning and just good old fashioned dumb luck, I figured out it was this program screwing up my computer. The minute I uninstalled, my Wifi speed went back to normal. I've uninstalled this program twice since it keep automatically downloading onto my computer. I'm sure this is a great program...when it works.brandonvmoore - Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - link
I didn't notice anything with my WiFi (although now I wonder), but it really made the audio crackle a lot and basically sound horrible. I probably would have never figured out this app was the problem but thankfully found some posts online from others who figured it out.RivetNetworks - Monday, April 1, 2019 - link
Hello there!Official support for Rivet Networks here.
We have confirmed that a large number of problems involving slow Wi-Fi are caused by using an outdated version of the Intel Wi-Fi driver. You can update your Intel Wi-Fi drivers to the latest version available by downloading and installing the appropriate package from Dell here – https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers...
If that doesn't solve the issue for you, updating SmartByte from this location - https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/rc974514/d... - may help.
Audio issues are due generally due to a faulty Realtek audio driver that causes a dramatic increase in DPC latency. This has the effect of making SmartByte appear to be the cause of the issue as the slight increase in resource overhead from SmartByte will cause the DPC latency issue from the audio driver to worsen. Updating the Realtek audio drivers will resolve this situation.
If you have any other issues with SmartByte, please tell us here - http://support.rivetnetworks.com/submit-a-ticket/
-- Anthony with Rivet Networks
tekdoc - Monday, May 27, 2019 - link
I was working on my dad's Dell Inspiron PC this weekend and ran into a problem with slow download speeds (5Mbps where it used to get 40Mbps). Upload speeds were normal at 15Mbps. This PC has a Dell 1705 wireless card which has a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 chipset. I had just upgraded his router, and hoping for better download speeds I was getting ready to add a new wifi card (a generic USB wifi adapter with a Realtek RTL8812AU chipset). With the new adapter installed (and the 1705 disabled) I was still getting about 5Mbps down. At that point I was pretty sure it was a software problem and decided to start disabling startup apps. SmartByte was the first one I tried and guess what...my download speed shot up to 140Mbps! SmartByte has now been permanently uninstalled. Problem solved!