How to improve internet speed for container jobs

Container jobs need a reliable connection, and faster connections qualify for more of them. Here is what matters, most important first. The minimum requirement is on What is the minimum recommended internet speed for Salad?.

Why Salad shows a lower speed than my speed test

When Salad starts it runs its a speed test against servers hosted around the world, primarily in the US and Europe - which more closely reflects how Salad will operate on your machine. Speedtest.net picks the closest server to you. So Salad's result is normally lower than yours; that is expected and is the number jobs are matched on. Only worry if it is far below what your connection should sustain to a distant server.

Use a wired connection

An Ethernet cable to your router is faster, lower-latency and more stable than Wi-Fi, and it avoids drop-outs that make a running job fail. If you must use Wi-Fi, use the 5 GHz or 6 GHz band and keep the PC close to the router.

Avoid USB Wi-Fi adapters

USB Wi-Fi adapters are a known cause of very slow downloads inside the container environment, even when Windows itself browses fine. If your job downloads crawl, switch to Ethernet or a PCIe/built-in Wi-Fi card. See Downloads slow or failing.

Reduce other traffic

• Stop downloads, streaming and large uploads on the PC while it Chops.
• Pause cloud backups (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox) and game-launcher updates.
• Disconnect devices you are not using, and avoid heavy streaming or gaming elsewhere on the network when possible.

Check your router and PC

• Restart the router if speeds have degraded over time.
• Make sure no VPN or proxy is active on the PC; both add latency and can route traffic through a slow exit.
• On recent Windows 11 builds, the Hyper-V firewall can block traffic from WSL (and so from the container environment) even though Windows itself is online. In an administrator PowerShell, run Get-NetFirewallHyperVVMSetting -Name '{40E0AC32-46A5-438A-A0B2-2B479E8F2E90}'. DefaultOutboundAction should be Allow or NotConfigured; if it is Block, a security product or policy on the PC has changed it. See Container networking issues for the rest of the networking checks.

Check your plan

Run a speed test on the PC itself. If it is well below what your ISP advertises, contact your ISP; if the plan is simply slow, you may consider upgrading it. Salad cannot lower the bandwidth a job requires.