How to Configure ARP and NS Protocol Offloads on Windows 11 Network Adapters Using PowerShell

Modern mobile laptops and desktop workstations running Windows 11 utilize advanced power states such as Modern Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) and Sleep (S3). When a system enters these low-power states, peripheral components and the central CPU throttle down to conserve energy. However, local network routers, switches, and peer hosts continuously broadcast IPv4 ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) queries and IPv6 NS (Neighbor Solicitation) requests to maintain active ARP cache tables. Without hardware offload support, every incoming broadcast would wake the host CPU from sleep, severely degrading battery life. In Windows 11, hardware-based ARP and NS Protocol Offloads delegate these responses directly to the network interface card (NIC) firmware.

Understanding Protocol Offloads (ARP and NS)

Protocol Offload enables the network adapter to act autonomously while the operating system sleep state is active:

• IPv4 ARP Offload (PMARPOffload): The network adapter hardware retains the host\u2019s assigned IPv4 address in its on-chip memory. When another device broadcasts an ARP request (“Who has 192.168.1.100? Tell 192.168.1.1”), the NIC generates and sends an ARP reply directly from its firmware without waking the CPU.
• IPv6 NS Offload (PMNSOffload): The adapter caches the system\u2019s solicited-node multicast addresses and IPv6 link-local addresses, responding to Neighbor Solicitation messages autonomously with Neighbor Advertisements.
• Wake on LAN (WoL) Compatibility: Protocol offloading prevents spurious broadcast traffic from triggering false wake events, ensuring that only genuine targeted magic packets wake the system.

Inspecting Current Protocol Offload Status Using PowerShell

To inspect your network adapter\u2019s power offload capabilities and current configuration, open PowerShell with administrative rights:

Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -like "*Offload*" -or $_.DisplayName -like "*ARP*" -or $_.DisplayName -like "*NS*" } | Format-Table -AutoSize

To view properties specifically for an individual adapter (such as "Ethernet 1"):

Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet 1" | Where-Object { $_.RegistryKeyword -in @("*PMARPOffload", "*PMNSOffload") }

The command lists the configuration attributes:

Name       DisplayName                DisplayValue RegistryKeyword RegistryValue
----       -----------                ------------ --------------- -------------
Ethernet 1 Protocol ARP Offload       Enabled      *PMARPOffload   {1}
Ethernet 1 Protocol NS Offload        Enabled      *PMNSOffload    {1}

Enabling ARP and NS Offloads via PowerShell

If protocol offloads were disabled due to legacy diagnostic troubleshooting or clean driver installations, re-enable them to optimize standby battery consumption:

To enable IPv4 ARP offload:

Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet 1" -DisplayName "Protocol ARP Offload" -DisplayValue "Enabled"

To enable IPv6 NS offload:

Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet 1" -DisplayName "Protocol NS Offload" -DisplayValue "Enabled"

The network connection will restart briefly (taking approximately 1 to 2 seconds) while the driver updates the hardware registers on the NIC.

Verifying Power Management and Modern Standby Support

For protocol offloads to function during standby, ensure that the adapter\u2019s power management parameters allow low-power states:

Get-NetAdapterPowerManagement -Name "Ethernet 1"

The output reports the operational power flags:

Name                     : Ethernet 1
WakeOnMagicPacket        : Enabled
WakeOnPattern            : Disabled
DeviceSleepOnDisconnect  : Enabled
SelectiveSuspend         : Enabled
ArpOffload               : Enabled
NSOffload                : Enabled

Verify that both ArpOffload and NSOffload report Enabled.

Troubleshooting Stale ARP Caches and Network Isolation

In rare networking environments\u2014such as high-security 802.1X enterprise networks, virtual machine bridges, or environments with IP conflict detection\u2014faulty NIC firmware might reply to ARP queries with outdated MAC addresses. To test whether protocol offloads are causing communication drops when waking from sleep, temporarily disable both properties:

Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet 1" -DisplayName "Protocol ARP Offload" -DisplayValue "Disabled"
Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet 1" -DisplayName "Protocol NS Offload" -DisplayValue "Disabled"

To restore factory vendor-defined power management and protocol offload states at any time:

Reset-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet 1" -DisplayName "Protocol ARP Offload"
Reset-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Ethernet 1" -DisplayName "Protocol NS Offload"

The adapter re-synchronises its firmware registers, returning to default manufacturer operational profiles.