3 NetLimiter components

NetLimiter consist of three basic components: Driver, Service and Client.

Driver

NetLimiter uses Windows kernel driver to do all the "dirty work". It works on low system level where interrupts incomming/outgoing network connections in order to block them or limit their transfer speed.

For any reason, the driver can be stopped using system command net stop nldrv and then started with net start nldrv. To execute these command you have got to open the command line console with Administrator rights and beware the Driver should be stopped after Service, because it would not stop until Service is running.

Service

Basically, service is a proxy which connects user interface with the driver. It controls the driver with user defined settings.

Driver and Service always run together on one computer, but the Client can connect to service remotely from other machines.

If you stop NetLimiter Service using commmand net stop nlsvc it virtually stops Driver, too, as it stops to actively interrupt system network traffic because no limit or firewall rules are sent from the Service. You can start the Service again with net start nlsvc.

Client

The Client application is a main tool to control NetLimiter and monitor network activity. It consist of several visual tools and you can use it to remotely connect to other machines with NetLimiter 4 installed.

If you close Client window then all enabled rules are still active and working.