FAQ 011: Can ClinicOffice run over a wireless network?

Although ClinicOffice will work over a wireless network, we STRONGLY advise against it.

ClinicOffice is a database application and requires constant network availability. An intermittent wireless connection will cause stability issues and (at worst) could even cause data corruption. Even if your wireless connection is rock solid, the performance will still be MUCH slower than a wired connection.

Here’s a technical explanation in case you’re interested!

@Technical Explanation wrote:

Running ClinicOffice over your local network is NOT the same as opening a Word document or Excel spreadsheet over your network. In those scenarios, the network is only accessed (a) when you open the document and (b) when you save it.

A database application like ClinicOffice requires constant network access and is continually performing database lookups (such as checking for new messages, reminders, scheduled tasks, emails, flag popups etc.)

STABILITY
Even with a strong signal, wireless networks can still drop out. They will usually reconnect quickly, but this will still cause problems if ClinicOffice was trying to access the database at the time.

The worst case scenario is that you could potentially suffer data loss if your wireless connection drops while ClinicOffice is in the middle of writing a record to the database. ClinicOffice does have safeguards against this, and data loss/corruption is incredibly rare, but it is still something to bear in mind if considering a wireless network.

PERFORMANCE
The current standard for a wired network is a “10 Gigabit” network. This means that the network runs at a theoretical rate of 10,000mbits per second (mbps).

By comparison, most wireless networks run at 1300mbps. This is a “theoretical” maximum. The true speed is usually much slower especially if your network is encrypted (which it should be) or if the signal strength is variable – click here for more information.

Furthermore, wireless “bandwidth” is shared between all the devices on your wireless network.

Think of it this way: when a PC is connected via a Gigabit cable, then that computer has a direct pipeline to your server running at 10,000mbps. Each computer has it’s own pipeline. With a wireless network, there is only ONE “pipe” running at (theoretically) 1300mbps… and it is SHARED between all your computers and all your wireless devices (Smart Phones, Tablets, Kindles, streaming TVs etc.)

In our real world performance tests, even a good wireless network is between 20 and 40 times slower at accessing a database than a wired Gigabit network.

So… back to the original question: Can ClinicOffice run over a wireless network?

Indeed it can, but we STRONGLY advise against it and recommend a wired Gigabit network as a much better alternative.