XPS 8960, Killer network card services break networking

XPS 8960

Very common problem. Lots of threads about Killer software/services slowing internet speeds.  Happens on my XPS 8930 too.

Just keep in mind, every single time Killer (Intel) updates their software, which is automatically installed via Windows Update, all those Killer services will be reset to Automatic startup in services.msc.  So if your internet speeds suddenly slow down, first thing to check is if those Killer services are running again.

BTW: If any xTend services, also installed by Killer/Intel, are listed in services.msc, you should set their Startup type to disabled too. 

Thanks for the heads-up @RoHe .  For me, it wasn't just slow speeds; some games didn't work at all.  The question remains:  Why does Dell ship a new PC in a known broken state?  Seems very strange.

It's not a "known broken state".  They ship PC with drivers and software that Intel provides for Killer hardware.  Some users say they don't have these Killer problems... 

The Killer Control Panel has some options a user can change/configure for their own needs. IIRC, there are gaming settings, and Quality of Service (QoS) settings to give a device access to more bandwidth, which you'd need for gaming. I don't game so I've uninstalled the Killer Control Panel and disabled those services.

At least it's easy enough to disable Killer (and xTend) services in services.msc, until the next time Intel sneaks another Killer update onto our PCs via Windows Update. After all these years, you'd think Intel would have fixed these issues...

@RoHe​ Thanks.  Interestingly, from my research on older postings, I haven't found anyone who claims not to have these problems with the Killer drivers.  Everyone with a wired internet connection has been broken, but folks with wireless connections seem to work fine.  In any case, it's been known for years that these issues exist with Killer.  So, maybe Dell could find a different brand network card to include in their PCs.  While it may be easy for you or I to solve the issue by disabling services, I can guarantee that many users either won't know that this workaround is needed or won't know how to do it.

That's why we have a forum like this one to help users solve these issues...

I don't have a Killer WiFi card, but a Killer ethernet controller is embedded on my motherboard. That's why I keep getting force-fed Killer/Intel updates by Windows Update.

So it's not like Dell could just plug in a different ethernet controller. They'd have to re-engineer their motherboards to embed a different ethernet controller, eg Qualcomm or Realtek. And that doesn't even consider the financial deals they may have with Intel to embed Killer ethernet vs somebody else's.

BTW: It's not the driver that's the problem, it's the Killer Control Center software causing these issues. KCC is totally unnecessary to use either Killer WiFi or Killer Ethernet. Intel seems to focus on KCC, ignoring hardware drivers. 

The Killer ethernet driver I'm using is the latest for the ethernet controller in my PC and it's dated 2019.  There have been numerous KCC  updates since I got this PC, but none have updated the actual (necessary) driver.  And every new KCC update kills my upload speed.  So the onus is on Intel to fix their bloody awful software.