Does it stand up to Corona? .. 5 questions that worries Internet users around the world and this is its answer

Ragheed Ayoub

The world’s fears increased during the recent period that the current pandemic may extend for several months and possibly until the end of the year, and while some fear in the current crisis of food cutoffs, others are occupied by another matter, which is the internet being cut off from them.

Although the Internet was designed during the last century to withstand a nuclear attack, the current situation is completely different. Could this be the end of the Internet, and why do we face these technical difficulties in our work from home, and if the Internet is fine, then why did major companies reduce the quality of their services?

All of this will be answered in this report:

1- Can the Internet deal with a pandemic the size of corona?
The Internet is an incredibly powerful and resilient network designed specifically to cope with large traffic hikes just like the one we live in.

Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies, which monitors the network worldwide, found that global traffic was running 67% above the normal daily average.

Analysts expect that the state networks will bear this kind of traffic increase. Over the years, networks have added massive amounts of spare capacity beyond the amount needed to deal with current developments.

"The situation is good. Maybe we will not see problems, not from the main part of the network," said telecom analyst Roger Intner, founder of Recon Analytics, a Boston firm.

2- If the internet is like that, then why do we face difficulties in the home business applications or entertainment sites?
This slowdown that most users experience is due to the "last mile" which is the last level (3) of the internet that is between you and the service provider directly.

The Internet is divided into three levels, the first level, which is the backbone of the network, that connects the continents by cable. The second level is the major telecommunications companies that provide service in the same region as Vodafone. The third level or the last mile is the local service providers that connect your home to the service.

Local telecom operators are able to withstand pressure depending on their capabilities, so a slowdown in key bottlenecks on the Internet is likely.

For example, teleconferencing services may experience intermittent problems as thousands of home workers conduct videoconferencing, this type of service is choking due to an increase in the demand for the same service at the same time.

Here the Internet will deal with this bottleneck by reducing the quality of your call, while your colleague from another country may lose the connection completely because of the poor service provider in his third level.

3- How long can the Internet withstand this pressure?
From January 1 to March 22, Internet traffic rose 18% in the United States, according to data from Cloud Performance and Internet Performance Corporation Cloudflare.

This is not the same as the hike you might see during the Super Bowl, except that traffic now stays high by the day.

Co-founder CEO Claude Flare, Matthew Prince, explained to Recode that the internet architecture is designed to accommodate these sharp spikes in activity, and that given that the Internet can remain resilient with current events, it must be able to cope with the continuous rise "for four Weeks, four months, or whatever that increases. "

"It is not something like a car," Prince said of the internet. "Not that, if you are running your car too quickly for a long period of time, your car will likely break down. But networks don't work that way."

4- But if so, why did major companies reduce the quality of their services in some regions?
The main reason for this is that the Internet infrastructure in some countries is not good enough. Italy, in particular, has experienced a sharp drop in speeds since its government issued closure orders, but the speed of the Internet in Italy and many other European countries is less than half compared to what It is the situation in the United States, partly due to old infrastructure.

This worrisome situation in Europe prompted Netflix to reduce the number of visits there by 25%, and YouTube also promised to restrict the quality in order to make room for other services.

This means that Netflix users may notice a slight decrease in video quality, but this also means that their local bank website is still working properly, so this is a precaution.

4- What about the situation of Arab countries?
Answering this question to Al-Jazeera Net, a specialist in networking and operations solutions Mohamed Portamoukh, by saying, "The information technology infrastructure in Arab countries is very good, given the resources in some countries."

And he added, "Whether or not he will bear the increased loads, this depends on several factors including investing in and expanding the existing infrastructure, setting priorities for technical updates, and transferring financial resources to maintain the network infrastructure."

As for the responsibility for these updates, Portamukh replies, "Given the poor financial situation in most countries, the financial burden of maintaining the information technology infrastructure is expected to fall more on governments than on the private sector."

5- How can I work to guarantee my internet service without increasing the load on the network?
If you use the wireless router to connect to the Internet, keep in mind that your other devices are competing for the same wireless range, which causes network congestion at home.

Therefore it is advised to connect directly to the router using Ethernet to free up wireless bandwidth, or simply turn off devices that are not used until they are finished.

You can also think of "changing the time" for your internet activity, says Cork of ComScope.

As for Mohamed Portamoukh, it is important to amend the behavior of citizens towards a balanced "life" on the Internet and encourage them to remain in offline mode.

Despite the importance of using technology to provide and consume daily services, he believes that this is an opportunity to get away a little and restrict it to a minimum and to go to other activities, such as sports and reading.