We’re going to reveal the topic of the Technology This Week at the bottom of this blog to make a point. In 1996, Twister became the first motion picture released on DVD in America.

The digital video discs soared in popularity and by 2005 garnered 64 percent of the home video market. Since then, that number has declined by 84 percent. Many say that DVDs are obsolete (but don’t throw out that original copy of Twister!)

On the flip side, subscription streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and HBO+ are booming. The primary reason for the overwhelming popularity is the rapid advancements in network technologies.

Even 10 years ago, watching a movie streaming over the Internet could be very frustrating. Popping a disc in a Blu-Ray player made for a much more satisfying experience.

Now, with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering up to 1 Gig fiber connections almost everywhere, those streaming services make a lot more sense. 

 Let’s use this DVD analogy to discuss a recent problem JitterWorks was able to diagnose while working with an MSP. Their client was having intermittent issues with their network services.

In the course of performing a Network Performance Assessment, we noticed an interesting occurrence.

We saw both a fiber Internet connection and a cable Internet connection running to the company’s router. Not a problem at first until we determined that there was traffic on both. 

The first issue we discovered was that the client’s router was configured to load balance the system. That is to equally distribute data over both the fiber and cable connections.

The 50/50 data split between the fiber line and the cable line was causing performance issues. Because the cable line is half duplex – where data can only travel in one direction at a time – we saw four to five times higher latency and jitter than the full duplex fiber line where data can travel in both directions at the same time.

After monitoring utilization on both interfaces, we were able to determine the primary line had more than enough bandwidth to handle normal traffic and spikes without load balancing.

The issue was easily resolved  by reconfiguring the router to only use the cable connection as a backup – or failover – in the event there was a problem with the fiber connection.. This allowed all data to travel solely over the faster, more reliable fiber connection and eliminated the latency and jitter issues.

Like the DVD, advances in network technology made load balancing in this case unnecessary and even detrimental to the network’s overall performance. We suggest that as you improve your network with more advanced technologies, you reevaluate existing equipment and protocols.