Troubleshooting Vetter connectivity issues

Troubleshooting Vetter connectivity issues

by Jeff Ulrich, Chief Operating Officer, Vetter Softtware

Background

The first question you should ask yourself when experiencing a performance issue using Vetter is, "Is this us or them?"  To assist in this question, we maintain a Vetter Software status page that we work to keep up to date.  Please check this link first to see if we're experiencing a problem before proceeding with this checklist:


Ok, you've determined it's not us, it's you.  Sometimes the internet doesn't play nice, like when Vetter may appear slow when other websites you visit are super speedy.  If you're in this situation, there are few things you can try to solve the problem.

Solutions

Solution #1: Update your default Domain Name Server setting to use Google

Your domain name server (aka DNS) provider is your roadmap to the internet.  Sometimes a DNS entry for a website becomes corrupted.  When this happens it can take the owner of the domain name server up to 24hrs to refresh their data and "fix" the underlying issue.

Based on my experience, using Google for DNS is a much more reliable way to surf the internet.  Their DNS is very well maintained.  And importantly for me, given I travel a lot internationally, the Google DNS works reliably fast everywhere.  The Google DNS entry is 8.8.8.8 and should be used as primary.  If you want to use a secondary DNS you can also use Google: 8.8.4.4.

Here are instructions for updating your DNS setting on a Windows machine:
  1. Open the Control Panel
  2. Navigate to Network and Internet
  3. Click on Network and Sharing Center
  4. Click Change adapter settings
  5. Right-click the network connection you want to configure and select “Properties”. This option must be changed separately for each connection you want to change it for. This means that, if you have a computer with both Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet connections, you’d have to change it for both your Wi-Fi and Ethernet adapters if you wanted to change the DNS server for both.
  6. Select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCIP/IPv4)” in the list and click “Properties”.
  7. Select “Use the following DNS server addresses, enter 8.8.8.8 and click “OK”.

And here are instructions for updating your DNS setting on an Apple computer:
  1. Click the magnifying glass on the top right corner of your screen
  2. Type System Preferences into the search box and select "System Preferences"
  3. Click on Network
  4. Click Advanced...
  5. Click the tab that says DNS
  6. Click the + icon and enter 8.8.8.8
  7. Remove the other DNS entry (if exists) by highlighting the value and clicking the - icon
  8. Click OK
  9. Click Approve
All web traffic will go through Google.  Internet browsing should be noticeably faster immediately after the update.


Solution #2: Restart modem and router

Modems and routers can become junked up with data which can result in slowness.  Restarting these devices will flush out memory.  At my home, where I often work with large amounts of data, and my kids stream a lot of music and video, I find that I need to power cycle by modem and router about once a week to maintain efficiency.
Tip: Try to do this when nobody needs to be online as the network will go offline for a few minutes
1.  Find the location of the modem and router at your clinic 
2. Unplug the power plugs from the modem and router
3.  Wait 30 seconds
4.  Plug power back into both devices

The internet will come online after a few minutes and you should see better performance.


If these two solutions don't help...

Please help us to collect some data to diagnose the issue.  The most important data you can collect is what is called a "trace route".  The trace route program will track each hop between your computer to the Vetter servers, along with the duration spent at each hop.  

Please run this program thusly:

On a Windows computer:
  1. Open a command window
    1. Click on the Windows button on the bottom left corner of the screen
    2. In the search box type "cmd"
    3. Open the command window
  2. Type this text and hit enter: tracert vettersoftware.com
On an Apple computer:
  1. Click on the magnifying glass icon on the top right
  2. Type in Network and select Network Utility
  3. Select the traceroute option
  4. Type in vettersoftware.com, Trace
and screenshot the output, attaching it to a Vetter support ticket.  We'll take a look and will help to get your performance issue sorted out.



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