Sluggish Business Internet? Try These Troubleshooting Tips

According to Forbes, your business could lose nearly 40 hours of work due to slow Internet speeds. This could potentially cost a small company of around 20 employees more than $10,000 a year. If your various departments have been complaining about sluggish online connections, there are several ways to test what the source of the issue may be. Here are a few questions to ask your team or whoever’s in charge of technical issues the next time your wireless broadband goes out:

Is the connection still slow when using a different modem or router?

If you’ve tried to switch the router on and off multiple times and still get a lousy connection, try switching your router out with a different one and see if the problem persists. Sometimes, the slow speeds and constant disconnections are due to modems that are incompatible with the type of connection your company uses. Before you report your slow connection to your provider, make sure to double-check if you are using the appropriate modem for your Internet plan of choice before moving on to the next step.

Have all computers recently gone through in-depth virus scans?

At times, it may not be your provider or router, but a malicious virus on your computer causing all sorts of things to go haywire, including your Internet speed. They can hog all the resources of your CPU, causing everything to slow down to a crawl. Run a quick virus check to eliminate any unwanted software that could be messing with your system. Better yet, ask all of your employees to run in-depth virus scans on their computers. Not only will this potentially speed up your connection, but it could also protect your entire work network from viruses that could easily spread and compromise your data security.

Are there any other programs on the PC that are using up resources?

If it’s not a virus, it might just be your regular old programs routinely running processes that eat up your computer and Internet speeds. The usual culprits are bloated virus scanners and any other software that requires online connectivity at all times. To find out which program is causing the Internet to slow down, try turning programs on and off and see if it makes a difference. However, we would not recommend turning off your virus scanner completely, especially for any extended period of time. Instead of removing it entirely, perhaps you can exchange it for a more lightweight computer security solution.

When online speeds slow to a stop, nobody can blame business people from pointing to Internet providers. After all, they’re the ones who are supplying you with the service. But before you pick up the phone to complain, try to troubleshoot the problem within your company first. If you don’t have to wait on the line for a customer service representative to solve the issue, you’ll find your people will be much more productive, more independent, and most of all, much less stressed out.