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Cable Internet

Internet Speeds Affected By Coronavirus?

Shaun Tanger

Is internet speeds affected by the coronavirus?

This has been a question that’s been asked quite a bit. Is there a connection or service interruption as a result of the virus and what can be done to restore normal service.

Fortunately, internet speeds are not affected by the virus. The situation you’re experiencing is most likely caused by a computer-wide issue that has long been resolved. The reason that internet speeds have been restored to normal is because the software in your operating system has been updated.

Internet speeds do not seem to be impacted by the virus as much as people would like to believe.

As mentioned before, the problem lies with the software that your operating system uses to maintain communication with the Internet. Every time you access the Internet, it’s sending out a series of data packets to and from the servers for that service.

This all happens without your knowledge as the Internet Service Provider knows how to do it so they control the speed settings that you’re permitted to use. This allows them to determine how much bandwidth and how much latency their customers will require and then match the appropriate set of options for the customer based on the speed they’re using at that moment. Each time you make a request of the Internet you’re requesting an entry into a pool of data sent out over time and these packets come back and are stored in packets as they’re received.

Every time you access the web this is happening and the server knows it so it matches the speed settings for your connection. While there are a variety of different speeds that are available the speed you are experiencing now is an average. As the data packets travel through the link between your connection and the server, the longer the connection stays open the more time it takes to receive the data and when it’s received it’s transmitted out the same way.

Servers have a queue system, which can move things around quite quickly as the data will be processed when it becomes available to enter the queue. If you have an ISP that supports higher than average download speeds you can expect that the server will have a slightly longer window in which to process your request for information. This doesn’t mean that your speed is going to be any slower and it doesn’t impact the speed of the connection itself.

The speed of your connection is measured in bits per second (bits). This number is the speed of data that can be transmitted every second. The larger the amount of data being processed the greater the average speed and the larger the portion of the data in the queue, the less likely the server is to send all of the data to the client right away.

It’s actually the average speed of the connection that is impacted by the virus as the virus only affects the main component of the virus and not the average speed. Since the virus is not affecting the average speed any longer, the server has a larger window in which to process data. This is why internet speeds seem to be normal.

Although there was a large portion of the virus that blocking the connection, there were still a great many of the files that were able to be downloaded. Since the virus didn’t affect the average connection speeds, the numbers were able to be downloaded by the normal means necessary to download a file.

You might be wondering how your ISP can increase your speeds without yours changing. There’s an answer to that question too, and it comes in the form of a program called Frontline Speed Test. This program is updated regularly to check the connections and then display them to show what kinds of programs you have gone through them.

These software programs are scheduled to be run on a regular basis to be able to look at your connections at any given moment. They look at all of the bandwidth and latency that are there on your connection and the programs that are taking up the bandwidth and try to use the bandwidth that they have available. They get updated frequently so they continue to provide you with the best possible quality of service and they will tell you if your connection is affected by the coronavirus.