Why Your Computer Seems Sluggish, Part 1

You spend a number of hours a day using your office computer. It's attached to a local network in your suite or building, which itself is attached to the Internet.

You can't quite identify the cause, but your computer "seems slow." How can that be? It's practically new! Also, the slowness is intermittent--not all the time. What gives?

There are several possible answers to your question, depending on what, exactly, "seems slow" means. Does it mean that documents open after a few seconds' delay? Does it mean that everything from mouse clicks to keyboarding happens in slooooow motion? Or is it just an older computer than the one you use at home so that it seems slow by comparison?

Without delving into details too deeply, let's examine some common causes of "seems slow":

(Q.)What if a few people in your office are listening to the radio over the Internet, downloading or uploading files, copying folders or doing other tasks that, collectively, consume the available bandwidth of your Internet connection? Will that slow MY computer down?

(A.)Yes. You might find it difficult to open files stored on your server or access the Internet to browse a web page or collect e-mail. This can be sporadic, since network traffic is bursty rather than steady.

(Q.)If someone else has a virus can that slow ME down?

(A.)Yes, for similar reasons. Some viruses use the resources of a computer and network to generate huge amounts of traffic on the network and Internet.

So, your PC may "seem slow" through no fault of its own! The problem may be on your office network.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of "Why Your Computer Seems Sluggis".

Use Windows 2000 or XP? Do this... [updated]

Go to the Microsoft web site and download the beta of Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware software.

It's free! Bill Gates recently announced that the consumer version will remain free. There will be a fee for corporate users, but, at this time, it is unknown when or how that will occur.

Microsoft acquired this software from GIANT AntiSpyware, a leading developer of anti-spyware software. In fact, Microsoft bought the company! So this anti-spyware solution from Microsoft was already one of the best available.

If you do not use Windows 2000 or XP, you cannot use this software. (As always, before you download, make sure it's right for you. Read the system requirements.) Please do not assume that your antivirus software includes coverage against spyware--it probably does not.

The problem of spyware will continue in the foreseeable future. It can slow PCs to a crawl and is often very time-consuming and difficult to remove.

Test your backup lately? You should...

We received a frantic call from a company that saw our Office Chaos? ad in the Yellow Pages. They had lost some files and discovered that the "automatic nightly backup" had not operated properly for over two months.

Could we help?

In this case, we could not. The backup wasn't writing to the tapes so there was nothing to recover. The files had been deleted from the server and were not recoverable.

The point? It's crucial to actually restore files from your backup tapes on a periodic basis to make sure there's something there.

For our clients with comprehensive support agreements, we test backups on a monthly basis. We encourage our clients to review the backup plan quarterly, at least.