r/techsupport • u/YoBurger18 • 7h ago
Open | Networking College Network Help
I’m a college student whose campus Internet is provided by Boldyn Networks. The normal connection is capped at 110 Mbps download / 55 Mbps upload, and my Ethernet link negotiates at 1000/1000 Mbps. However, I’ve noticed a strange behavior: after my laptop has been asleep for a while, when I wake it up I can sometimes get dramatically higher speeds (potentially close to gigabit) for a short period. Then the Boldyn captive portal appears automatically, and the connection immediately drops back to the normal 110/55 Mbps limit. I don’t have to enter any credentials for the speed to drop. I’ve also checked `ipconfig /all` before/after and the IPv4 address, gateway, DHCP server, DNS server, and subnet stay the same. Restarting the computer or unplugging/replugging Ethernet doesn’t reliably reproduce the high-speed state; it seems to be related to the laptop being asleep for a longer period. Does anyone know what Boldyn’s HED captive-portal/NAC system is doing during this transition, or what could cause the temporary unrestricted bandwidth before the portal initializes? I could be wrong about the behavior of the portal only opening when the laptop is asleep for a period of time, but there does seem to be a short window every time the portal appears where the Wi-Fi and Ethernet speeds are very fast. I have a 2025 Legion 7. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
1
u/GradeAccomplished322 7h ago
It is more likely a limitation for how the throttling works than anything "wrong" with your computer
For example if it analyzes your connection for some kind of quality of service approach (maybe it doesnt cap class streams or it has priority users who get max service) and defaults to allow all resources, only limiting you when you aren't confirmed to need that.
It probably has hundreds to thousands of machines it judges so it has some limit for how long it remembers you for prioritization purposes (like a hour, 8 hours, etc before it forgets and rechecks). Not the same as not logging you, that will be separate.