It’s a question that comes up frequently during our customer meetings: connection quality and speed are major factors in your satisfaction, and can instantly make you feel like you’re back in the Stone Age.
We’d like to take a closer look at the various factors that can influence this phenomenon.
First of all, it’s important to identify the underlying problem: whether the slowdown is due to your Internet connection (Google, page loading, file downloading, etc.) or your network (connecting to the server, opening a document or folder on the shared server, etc.).
Your Internet connection
A Microsoft article on the subject provides some excellent information.
We’d like to go over the main points with you:
Your connection
It may sound simple, but the connection you choose will have a big influence on the speed of your data.
It’s not just a question of the Internet subscription you choose, but also of your connection method.
In the vast majority of cases, a DSL or cable connection will be faster than a dial-up connection.
Of course, if your service provider offers fiber, it’s worth asking about it, as this means of connection is often faster than any other.
In this case, don’t hesitate to contact VTX, which offers fiber connections in several areas of Switzerland.
The problem may also lie with your telephone line, which may be damaged.
In this case, you should check that your cables are in good condition and not tangled up with other cables, for example.
However, if you hear crackling noises on your line, you can ask your operator to check the condition of your cables inside and outside your home.
Finally, the WiFi connection can be influenced by the presence of other electrical or wireless equipment using the same frequency as your computer (e.g. cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc.).
The distance of your device from the WiFi network distribution source also has a strong influence on the quality of WiFi wave reception.
Your browser
Your computer, and more particularly your web browser, constantly records a multitude of user-related information such as passwords, so that you’re automatically connected to your mailbox when you open it for the 2nd time, for example.
This information, while useful, takes up space and can slow down your connection, so be sure to clean up your Internet history and connection data from time to time.
What’s more, some web browsers are reputed to be faster than others. For example, according to a study carried out by the Tom’s Hardware website, Chrome is the fastest browser, while Internet Explorer, in addition to its security flaws, comes last in the competition, despite the fact that it continues to be used in over 60% of cases.
Your equipment
Apart from the most common factors – your available memory, updates or the number of programs running – the quality of your computer equipment, and more particularly your protection against viruses or malware, is the first thing to bear in mind to ensure a smooth connection.
To do this, you can check your equipment regularly with anti-spyware or anti-virus software.
Your corporate network
Connecting to your company’s network can also cause slowdowns.
You may notice this when you want to open a document available on a shared server and it takes a while to open…
Corporate network components
Your company’s network is made up of several components:
- A fleet of several computers
- A server
- A switch
- A router
- Computer cabling
The homogeneity of these components
IT equipment communicates with each other via “packets”.
These are transferred via network cables and/or wirelessly (with Wifi technology, for example).
To guarantee optimum transfer speed from your machine to the corporate network, it’s important to take into account the uniformity of equipment transfer speeds.
Older servers may have network cards whose throughput is calculated in Mbs, but this is generally not the case with new IT equipment (computers, switches, etc.), whose throughput is now usually calculated in Gbs.
This kind of difference can lead to slowdowns due to poor network traffic management.
To put it another way, it’s a bit like having only one lane of traffic open on Geneva’s Mont-Blanc Bridge at rush hour: most traffic (in Gbs) has to wait until it crosses the bridge (in Mbs), so it’s slower…
Easy, isn’t it?
In-building cabling also plays a role: only cables certified to 5e and above accept Giga data rates, which can also influence the balance and homogeneity of the network, causing slowdowns.
>>>Spoiler… sometimes you can’t help it! <<<
And neither are we.
Yes, the Internet is your connection and your personal use, but it’s also other people’s use.
So it sometimes happens that certain sites are saturated (for example, when your favorite band’s ticket office opens).
What’s more, if you’re not infected by a virus, it doesn’t mean that others aren’t too.
This means that the web can sometimes fall victim to intense virus attacks, which can slow it down.
Finally, rush hour exists, even on the Internet.
On a local level, if several people connect at the same time (e.g. at the end of the day), then the connection is potentially more likely to be saturated.
In companies, for example, the network administrator may even propose rules of use in which he specifies, for example, that it is forbidden to download heavy documents during these famous web “peak hours”.
