End users often complain about what appears to be poor application performance, but a number of reasons could create problems. It's important for network administrators to understand the most common network issues and how to troubleshoot them.
Users sometimes complain the network is too slow. Several factors can slow down a network that provided adequate performance in the past. For example, if administrators add a new application -- such as video conferencing or online training videos -- to the network, it could increase bandwidth consumption and cause congestion. Another cause of congestion could occur when a failing switch port or link causes traffic to route around the failure and overload another link.
Suppose the network is part of a larger organizational network. A change in the larger network could result in more traffic through the internet connection point, which slows responses to cloud-resident applications.
Also, employees might prefer to download files at work because their office network is faster than their home internet connection. This could create another network speed issue if the amount of available bandwidth on the network isn't enough to support the number of processes happening. Network monitoring tools can help administrators monitor and manage these common network issues.