Speed issues in Webmail are almost always caused by local factors.
EnGuard operates our servers in one of the best POPs (which means a point of presence) in Southern California. Not only is it located directly on the largest Sonet ring in Orange County, but the facility also has direct access to over 14 network providers. In terms of volume, the Sonet ring consists of nine independent OC-192 fiber loops. To translate, that is the equivalent of 90,000 Mbps or about 60,000 T1s.
We are confident that the slow speed you are experiencing is not resulting from our service. We use and monitor our email servers 24/7, so if there were a speed or network issue we would be the first to know about it. That said, we want to help you isolate, diagnose, and fix your speed issues and the below information will identify 99% of potential causes.
Here are some solutions that may help you address a slow connection:
1. Make sure you are using a supported web browser! See our tutorial for information about compatible web browsers.
2. If you are looking at an email that needs to load external images, sometimes the external server is bogged down and slow serving those images and can cause the email to load slowly, sometimes freezing up your web browser or email software. This is common with these types of emails and there is nothing we can do about it.
3. Make sure you do not have multiple tabs of your webmail open in the same web browser. You can open our webmail in different web browsers at the same time.
4. Sometimes, anti-virus programs or extensions install web scanning plug-ins which can slow down your web browser. These plug-ins can have a drastic impact on the performance of our webmail, so make sure you disable web scanning. Most anti-virus programs will slow down your computer. You can try disabling anti-virus completely to see if it makes things run faster. In Internet Explorer, protected mode and compatibility view mode will also have an impact on the performance of some sites, including our webmail, so make sure you turn those off.
5. Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc. will often install a plug-in (extension) onto your web browser. These will also impact your webmail, so you can try uninstalling them to see if it helps. There are also malicious browser hi-jacking software that can cause problems with your web browser. If your browser has been hi-jacked, you will need to get professional help to diagnose and remove it.
6. If your computer is connected to your router via wireless, make sure you are using Wireless-N and the signal is strong. Wireless-G routers are pretty much obsolete these days.
7. Make sure your office has enough bandwidth (speed) to support the number of users/connections on the local network. If users are surfing the web, checking email, streaming videos, using VOIP phones, uploading or downloading files simultaneously, it will cause an overall slowdown on your network. We recommend at least 5MB down and 1MB up per user/connection. For example, an office with 5 people on 5 computers will need at least 25MB down and 5MB up. If each of those people are also using their personal phone, tablet, or any machines connected to the internet network then you will likely need more bandwidth. If your network is running anything less than 5MB up/1MB down per connection then you will see speed issues. Contact your ISP for support or to upgrade your bandwidth. You can check your office's bandwidth speed by going to www.speedtest.net. We recommend testing three or more times over the course of five minutes, at least, to see if your connection is consistent.
8. Make sure you have enough ram (memory) in your computer. At a bare minimum, you need at least 2GB. If you typically have multiple programs open, we recommend at least 4GB of ram. Anything less than 2GB of ram will cause your web browser and email software to run slow.
9. As a last resort, try to reboot your modem, router, and computer (in this order).
10. Email our support team if you are still having trouble after checking all of the above. Describe the speed issue in detail, and provide your results of the above testing you have already performed. We can take a closer look at your address and server, help identify regional outage issues that may be affecting you, or help you diagnose a local issue.
Remote Desktop Support: If you have completed all the steps above and are still experiencing issues, we offer paid support services to access your computer and identify/address the cause of your speed issues. If it turns out to be an issue with our service that is causing your problem (extremely rare), we will waive the charge. To request this remote desktop support, send an email to our support team and be sure to include a description of your speed issue, your network's bandwidth (upload and download speed), your internet service provider, and the number of users sharing your network. We will require that you help us troubleshoot via email, first, to better understand the issue. You must be an authorized contact on the EnGuard account to request paid services, including remote desktop support. This service must be scheduled, and you must be available for at least one hour as it requires a bit of preparation on both ends.