You can change performance settings for McAfee Online Backup so that it runs faster or slower. This can affect the overall performance of your computer. If the backup software is set for maximum performance, the result might be that other programs or Web browsing and streaming are slower. If McAfee Online Backup is set for minimum performance, you might not be able to back up your files.
You can choose how much of your Internet connection McAfee Online Backup uses to let other programs use more or less of that connection. This is known as bandwidth throttling. To understand how bandwidth throttling works, imagine a set of two pipes running to and from your house. One pipe is only for uploading to the Internet, such as your backups with McAfee Online Backup, email you send, your social media updates, and so forth. The other pipe is only for downloading from the Internet, such as Web browsing, streaming, incoming email, photos, programs you download, and so forth.
Your Internet service provider supplies your information pipes and determines the size of those pipes. Internet service providers often provide a bigger and faster pipe for downloading, and a smaller and slower pipe for uploading. You can customize the upload bandwidth so that at specific times backups don't clog your outgoing pipe when you need it the most, letting other programs have a larger share of the upload bandwidth to use.
If multiple computers or other devices share the same Internet connection, they each use some portion of your upload or download pipes. Therefore, those other computers and devices can affect the performance of either McAfee Online Backup or your Internet connection. If the backup software is set to maximum backup speed, you may find that it can be even faster if no other devices use your network at the same time.
For the Windows backup software, you can also choose how much of your computer's resources (CPU) are dedicated to encrypting and backing up your files. This means you can choose fastest backups or best performance for your computer, or something between the two extremes.