Network Performance
Improving Network Performance
Data cannot travel through a network faster than the slowest piece of equipment it meets. Cables, switches, routers and servers all take a turn handling it, and each has a top speed that caps what the rest can manage. To improve performance, find the part holding everything up and either replace it or take some of the load off it.
What holds a network back
An old switch, router or network interface card (NIC) has a low maximum speed, so every device sending data through it is held at that speed. Fitting a fast NIC to a new computer gains you nothing if it plugs into a switch running at a fraction of that rate. A server short of processing power or memory is a bottleneck too: when many clients ask it for files at once, its queue of requests grows and everyone waits, even though the cabling is fine.
Matching the fix to the problem
| Slow part | Improvement | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| A slow switch or router | Replace it with a faster model | Traffic no longer queues behind it, so devices work at full speed |
| An old NIC in a desktop | Fit a newer NIC | More data is sent every second |
| A server that cannot keep up | Add memory or upgrade it | It handles many requests at once, so clients stop waiting |
| A low-bandwidth connection | Pay for higher bandwidth | More data moves each second, so pages and files arrive sooner |
Signals and busy times
A device that needs high bandwidth but never moves, such as a media suite desktop, is best on a wired or fibre link rather than relying on Wi-Fi. For the devices that must be wireless, adding an access point or moving an existing one closer gives a stronger signal and a faster connection. Cutting sources of interference, such as a cordless phone base unit left beside an access point, helps in the same way.
Some fixes cost nothing. Spreading out a group's afternoon video exports, or moving a nightly backup to a quieter hour, frees bandwidth for everyone. If the server is still the slowest part after that, upgrading it is the answer.