Tuesday | March 17, 2020
All News

In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, many companies are sending employees home to work. Working from home requires employers to provide a virtual private network (VPN). Many employers’ information technology (IT) infrastructure is not designed to handle the extra demand on their VPN, resulting in slow speeds for employees working from home.

 

The SVEConnect network has the capacity to handle the increased usage and has not experienced any speed decreases in service.  SVEConnect does not limit or slow VPN usage in any way.  Increased load on employer’s servers can, however, cause a slower VPN service.  

 

VPN_network.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is a VPN (Virtual Private Network)?  A VPN gives you a secure tunnel to whichever network is on the other end, which in this case is your employer’s network.  The main thing to consider right now is that many are working from home for the foreseeable future and in most cases, for large employers, this means thousands of people are on their network which will most certainly cause slower speeds.  When you are logged into a VPN all of your traffic is transmitted on the VPN network and your home internet connection just provides the secure tunnel to that network. There will most likely be some network congestion because of the increased traffic on these VPNs that are usually not present. If all other devices on your home network are working fine but your VPN is slow, it is highly likely that it is just congested due to higher than normal traffic.

 

 

If you are experiencing a slow VPN connection to your office, here are a few things to keep in mind:

 

  • VPN connections use extra encryption, and will normally be slower than the direct connection you are used to at home and in the office.

 

  • Most business networks are not designed for heavy VPN usage, and will slow down under the increased load.  This is not a problem with your internet connection, but a limitation of the systems at your office.

 

  • While we have seen additional traffic due to customers working from home, we have the capacity to handle that extra load, and have not seen any slower speeds with our internet service.

 

  • Your company's IT department is almost certainly struggling to handle this, so understand that problems do show up when corporate networks are stressed in unexpected ways. Your company’s IT department is doing the best they can to adapt to this new situation.