Why is My Network Slow?

That’s an interesting question, as there are many things that can create some form of lag in a business’ network. Let’s go into some common causes of this slowness, starting with one clear indication that something is up.

Causes of Lag

Insufficient Bandwidth

You may be demanding too much of your Internet service at a given time, leaving too little bandwidth for your desired process to complete efficiently. If you consistently encounter issues, you may consider investing in a greater bandwidth for your business. Before doing that, check to make sure nobody is misusing the company network. If employees are streaming video content, uploading a lot of data, or other things that might not be a part of their everyday job responsibilities, you might experience bottlenecks due to this overwhelming amount of unnecessary traffic. Setting up a content filter is a good way to block a lot of this.

Hardware and Software Issues

This one is straightforward: out-of-date software and older hardware simply won’t work as well as the newer stuff, which could lead to network issues.

Malware

Many examples of malware can tax your network, hindering its performance and holding you back, among other detrimental outcomes to your data security and efficiency.

Network Misconfiguration

The issue may really be within your network in the form of poor configurations. An internal audit can help you identify if this applies to you.

Issues with the ISP/Website

On the off chance your Internet service provider is experiencing issues, your performance will see some detrimental impacts. There isn’t much you can do about this other than reaching out to your ISP. The same goes for those times that you’re accessing an online tool or cloud-based database. If things aren’t working right on the provider’s end, you will also have difficulty.

Latency

Latency is just one side effect of a greater issue; and, is also one of the most frustrating for a user to experience.

When your computer reaches out to another part of a network, like a website, it sends a small data packet (known as a ping) to confirm that there is a connection made through call-and-response. Latency is the delay in the time it takes for the ping to be sent out and returned. The higher the latency, the longer it takes, and the worse the user’s experience is.

Like we said, frustrating.

There are many reasons that you may be experiencing high latency, which can impact the operation of your entire network and each of your processes.

Reach out to your IT resource for more assistance with your network’s performance, or give the team here at Preferred a call. We can be reached at 708-781-7110.