"Remote access is slow" covers two different complaints, and they have different causes. One is that the connection itself is slow, so everything from web pages to email crawls. The other is that the remote session feels laggy: the mouse lurches, typing appears a second after you type it, screens redraw in bands. Sorting out which one you have gets you to the fix much faster.

Work out which one it is

• Everything is slow, including ordinary websites and streaming, on the same computer and on your phone: that is your internet connection at home.
• Websites are fine but the remote session lags: the connection is probably fine and the problem is in the session, the route to it, or what you are asking it to do.

Try this first

1. Test your home internet speed. Search for "speed test" and run one. Note the download and the upload figures. Upload matters more than people expect for remote work, because your keystrokes and your video go up the line.
2. Plug in with a cable if you can. A network cable from the computer to the home modem removes Wi-Fi from the equation entirely, and it is the single most effective thing you can do for a laggy session. If a cable fixes it, the problem was your home Wi-Fi, not the office.
3. Check what else is running in the house. Streaming video, a game console updating, someone else on a video call, or a large cloud backup uploading will all take a bite out of the same connection. Pausing them for five minutes is a fair test.
4. Close what you are not using. Inside a remote session, a dozen open spreadsheets and twenty browser tabs cost real memory on a shared machine.
5. Disconnect and sign back in. Sessions that have been left open for days accumulate problems. Sign out properly rather than just closing the window, then reconnect.
6. Restart the computer you are sitting at, and restart the home modem once if the speed test looked poor.

Slow files, or a slow session?

This distinction is worth understanding, because it changes the answer entirely.

If the whole session is sluggish, the cause is usually the link between you and the office, or the machine you are connecting to being busy.

If the session itself is responsive but opening or saving a file takes forever, the problem is the file, not the session. Large spreadsheets and databases that are opened across a remote link are the usual suspects, and so are folders with thousands of files in them.

Do not copy big files over a remote session

Dragging a large file into or out of a remote desktop is the slowest possible way to move it. The file has to be squeezed through the remote display channel, which was never designed for it, and it will often fail near the end after tying up your session for an hour.

There is nearly always a better path: a shared cloud folder, a proper file transfer link, or copying to a location that syncs in the background while you carry on working. If you regularly move large files between home and the office, tell us how big they are and how often, and we will set up something that takes minutes instead of hours.

If that didn't fix it

Log a ticket and include your speed test numbers, whether you are on Wi-Fi or a cable, the time of day it is worst, whether other people are affected, and whether it is the whole session or one particular file or program. That last detail saves the most time.

Still stuck?

Log a ticket at portal.yougrowit.com.au or email support@yougrowit.com.au. If it is stopping you working right now, call 03 9028 4358.

Support hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm Melbourne time, excluding Victorian public holidays.