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Internet Performance
Advantage for Windows
Copyright © 2012 by The Advantage Software Company, Inc.
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Reasons for Internet Performance Issues: 1) Hardware ‐ Old hardware can place a bottleneck on your Internet speed. This includes items such as: a. Server b. Workstation c. Network switches d. Network routers e. Firewalls 2) Wired vs. Wireless ‐ A wired connection is much faster than a wireless connection especially in a multi‐user environment. You may also experience signal interference when using Wi‐Fi. 3) DNS Server ‐ A DNS server provides name resolution for both internal and external servers and URLs. A slow or misconfigured DNS server can not only impact performance but stability as well. 4) LAN Cable ‐ Although a length of up to 50 m should be ok, try to keep the cable as short as possible. If you depend on a long cable, go with a gigabit rated shielded network cable (STP Cat5e or STP Cat6). In any case, avoid bending or stretching as both affect performance. As LAN cables age their quality will degrade and can be the cause of problems. 5) Bandwidth consumption ‐ With the number of applications, services and devices connecting to the Internet today you may be running out of available bandwidth even if you have a high speed Internet connection. a. Review Firewall logs and active connections b. Be aware of heavy Internet consumption functions such as: i. Media Steaming; music, video ii. Online gaming iii. Web cams iv. File sharing; FTP, P2P 6) Malware – Malware infected computers and devices can impact both Internet performance and system stability. 7) ISP – There are a number of ways that your ISP can impact your Internet performance some of the more common issues are: a. Bandwidth throttling b. Local service saturation c. Poor routing d. Equipment failure 8) Firewall – Firewalls provide a barrier between the Internet and company or personal networks. Firewalls do their job by inspecting the data packets that come in through their network interfaces and making decisions on whether to drop the packet or allow it to proceed. Modern firewalls are tuned for speed and efficiency but there is some delay the packet and comparing its information to the rule base. This can be especially true if the firewall is providing deep packet inspection, proxy or content filtering services. 9) Anti‐Virus – Anti‐virus applications provide protection from malware and network attacks at a computer level but doing so will impact system and Internet performance. The impact on performance will be greater on older computers that have less idle resources available. The system impact will also vary on the anti‐virus solution provider. Some anti‐virus solutions have shown to slow Internet browsing by up to 40%. 10) Browser – Each browser has its own features and method to handle the processing and rendering of browser pages. Newer browser versions will generally outperform older versions. In regards to HTML 5 and Webvantage performance we have found browser performance to be in the following order (fastest to slowest); Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer. Debugging Internet Speed Issues: 1) Check Anti‐Virus solution: a. Ensure Anti‐Virus solution is installed and enabled. b. Ensure engine and definitions are up to date. c. Perform anti‐virus scan. 2) Check Firewall: a. Ensure firewall does not have any active warnings or alarms. b. Ensure firewall is not at capacity. c. Review firewall logs for any unusual activity. 3) Check if there is a routing issue: a. Run trace route from the client to one of our public IPs b. Run trace route from our site to the client’s IP c. Run trace rout from various Looking Glass sites: i. http://xostats.xo.com/cgi‐bin/xostats/diagtool‐pub/trace ii. http://lg.above.net/lg.cgi iii. https://www.sprint.net/lg/lg_start.php iv. http://as3561lg.savvis.net/lg.html v. http://lookingglass.level3.net/traceroute/traceroute.cgi 4) Check to ensure TCP and UDP the port(s) are open: a. Citrix; TCP 1494, 2598, 80 UDP 1604 b. Webvantage; 80, 443 c. Citrix Port test application http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122450 d. Telnet 5) Check if the issue occurs in one or multiple locations: a. Have them try testing from alternate locations and compare performance. i. Allows us to look at all of the sites / offices from a performance standpoint and allows us to isolate the issue to one office or a system wide issue. ii. Have them run trace routes from the multiple locations to confirm that they are not going through a metro‐e or some Internet routing from one central choke point. b. Have them try HTTPS and HTTP to see if there is an issue with SSL packet inspection. c. Their IT can see what kind of rules they have in place for HTTP and HTTPS i. Proxy ii. IPS iii. Deep packet inspection 6) Check the clients Internet bandwidth. Have them run bandwidth / speed tests from multiple sites to multiple test sites. Speed results should vary slightly based on the speed test providers speed cap themselves but if they are under 20 MBs they should be well under the providers cap. i. http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ ii. http://www.speedtest.net/ iii. http://speed.io/index_en.html iv.
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http://www.bandwidthplace.com/ http://www.internetfrog.com/mypc/speedtest/ http://www.att.com/speedtest/ PC Application: http://www.myconnectionpc.com/lite.html Additional Reading: http://windows.microsoft.com/en‐US/windows‐vista/Why‐is‐my‐Internet‐connection‐so‐slow http://www.delete‐computer‐history.com/slow‐internet‐connection.html http://www.hostmycalls.com/2011/02/15/top‐7‐causes‐of‐for‐a‐slow‐internet‐connection http://www.av‐comparatives.org/ http://html5test.com/results/desktop.html