The I.T. Department has received a huge wave of frustrated callers since early August regarding slow internet performance. Please read on as to how you can help us and your office “Save the Internet!”
We would like you to know that how the internet is handled for home use and the bandwidth that’s available and how it’s measured and managed, is vastly different than how it’s handled for a large enterprise with multiple businesses operating under its umbrella. We operate over a wide area connected network that allows us to protect our entire network and data, print commission checks directly to offices, guarantee a level of service for voice and internet, and more. The technologies and level of security that we need as a large business are completely different than what a Comcast cable connection can support. The Real Estate One I.T. Department is always working on ways to improve our office internet capacity by upgrading connections, testing, tracking down congestion issues and upgrading hardware and software. Our goals are the same but the approach is quite different than what you may experience at home or in a small office.
Since the beginning of August we have seen an enormous uptick in update activity from Microsoft and Apple clogging our network like never before. It appears it’s largely because of 4 GB (4000 MB) update for Windows 10. This is being called an “Anniversary Update.” Because of it’s enormous size, we believe they are staggering these updates and that’s why we’ve continued to have internet issues ever since early August. When we look at our logs and activity when there is an issue, it’s because of these updates. Although this has caused us to revisit the sizing of our internet bandwidth (there has never been an update as large as this or that has impacted us so dramatically), we have determined you can be of enormous help in managing the problem as well.
Our office computers are all programmed to update automatically in the off hours when the office is empty, late at night or in the early hours of the morning. We would like to encourage all of you to change your device’s auto update settings to do the same thing or prompt you to choose when they are done.
If the device is your own personal desktop or laptop that stays in your office all of the time, turn off the auto updates feature and manually run your updates after hours when your office is empty and you won’t be affecting everyone else’s bandwidth. If your device goes home with you every night, turn off the auto update feature and run your updates after hours or wait until you get home to run them while everyone is asleep. You may also just schedule them for off hours if your computer is normally connected and on during that scheduled time.
I have included links below to step by step instructions that guide you through the process of changing your desktop or laptop’s auto updates settings. I have included instructions for computers that are running Windows 7, Windows 10 and the Mac OS. We appreciate your efforts to help us to most efficiently make use of our office bandwidth and so do your fellow office mates.
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