If your organization is dealing with poor network connectivity, your employees are likely to be less productive as they perform their daily tasks.
If you aren’t familiar with the problems of poor network connectivity and what causes it, you may not know how to solve these problems.
Understanding these challenges will better prepare you to address them and improve productivity within your organization.
Coeo has helped thousands of customers improve their network connectivity and knows how important a reliable network connection is to an organization.
We want you to understand the problems you may face with poor network connectivity and what causes it so you can solve or be prepared for these challenges when they arise in your network.
By the end of this article, you will understand the problems with poor network connectivity, what causes it, and the solutions that solve poor network connectivity.
Problems with poor network connectivity
If your organization is dealing with poor network connectivity, there are several problems to look for. Some of these problems include:
High latency
Poor network connectivity can result in slow internet speeds and high latency. Latency is the time it takes for data to travel from one point to another.
High latency happens when data takes longer to travel than it should while low latency data travels at a fast and appropriate speed.
Typically, customers want low latency; as close to 0 latency as possible to ensure data is sent quickly with minimal breakups.
If your organization has poor network connectivity driven by high latency, you may experience slow internet speeds, call breakups and drops, or messages and emails that may never arrive.
Poor communication
If your organization relies on telecommunication solutions to perform daily work tasks, poor connectivity will have an adverse effect on your ability to communicate reliably and well within your organization.
Organizations that operate in a remote work environment rely heavily on voice and video calls, email, and instant messaging to communicate with one another and with customers and prospects.
With poor network connectivity, you will likely experience call drops or breakups, frozen video on video calls, or messages and emails that are never delivered or take longer than usual to deliver or receive.
This can be detrimental to a remote work organization that relies heavily on technology for the majority of its communication.
If your organization has poor communication because of poor network connectivity, your employees may be unable to work productively and efficiently.
If your organization is dealing with network performance issues, use this free tool to learn how you stack up against your peers and learn how to stop poor network performance, reduce outages, and learn best practices for maintaining a resilient network.
What causes poor network connectivity?
There are many issues with your network that can cause poor connectivity and contribute to poor performance. Some of the causes of poor network connectivity include:
Network congestion
Network congestion may be a cause of poor network connectivity. Network congestion happens when your network is clogged with too much traffic.
If too many users and devices are connected to a network simultaneously or if a heavy load of data is downloaded or uploaded, you may experience poor network connectivity.
Bandwidth limitations
Limited bandwidth can also contribute to poor network connectivity. Typically, an internet provider will provide an organization with a certain amount of bandwidth to be used each month.
Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be sent or received using an internet connection. The more bandwidth you have, the more data your network may consume.
If your organization gets too close to your bandwidth limit or uses more than the limit, you can experience poor network connectivity.
More specifically, if your network’s capacity is unable to handle the bandwidth your organization is using each month, you may experience slower internet speeds and other issues resulting in poor network performance.
Outdated hardware
If your hardware is outdated or broken, it may also result in poor network connectivity. Outdated or malfunctioning hardware devices may not be capable of handling the speed and volume your network requires.
Equipment such as routers and switches are important to the performance of your network and if they don’t perform properly, it will result in poor network connectivity.
Faulty software
If your network software is out-of-date, it can result in poor network connectivity. It is important for your organization to update your software when updates become available to ensure better network connectivity.
Additionally, if you have multiple software solutions integrated into your network that are not compatible with each other, your network will also experience poor connectivity.
Solutions that solve poor network connectivity
If your organization is dealing with a poor-performing network, there are solutions that can help improve your network connectivity. These solutions include:
SD-WAN
An SD-WAN solution can improve network connectivity. SD-WAN is an overlay network that can be delivered over fiber, LTE, or broadband.
The solution is also carrier agnostic meaning it doesn’t matter who your internet provider is; it can be leveraged using any number of underlying providers.
SD-WAN appliances continuously monitor the availability and performance of each network service and choose the most efficient and secure network to send data.
Using SD-WAN improves your network connectivity and allows your data to be received or sent as quickly and as securely as possible.
If you would like to learn more about SD-WAN, check out our SD-WAN Buyer's Guide for more information:
Installing a redundant connection
Another solution to improve network connectivity and performance is to install a second, redundant, physical connection separate from your primary connection.
This will provide your network with a physical backup connection that will allow your network to remain operational even if your primary network connection is down.
Next steps to improve network connectivity
Now you know what the problems with poor network connectivity are, what causes poor network connectivity, and the solutions that solve these challenges.
This will enable you to look for symptoms of poor network connectivity and understand the solutions that can improve them so you are prepared when issues arise in your network.
Network connectivity can hinder the productivity of employees who count on reliable connections to perform their daily tasks.
If you are unaware of network connectivity issues and the solutions that resolve them, your organization may fail to meet customer expectations which could lead to lost customers and revenue.
Coeo knows how important reliable network connectivity is to an organization and has improved the networks of thousands of customers.
We want you to understand network connectivity issues and the solutions that can solve them so you are better prepared when these issues might arise.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about network connectivity and the solutions that improve them or ask any questions you may have you can schedule an appointment.
Now that you understand the problems of network connectivity and the solutions that solve them, read this article to understand more about SD-WAN and the challenges it can solve for your organization:
