What could be the reason for slower communication in a newly linked branch site?

The scenario of slower communication in a newly linked branch site can indeed be attributed to specifying the wrong subnet, leading clients to request services from a remote server. When clients on the branch site are configured to use an incorrect subnet, they may be trying to communicate with a server that is not local to their network. Instead of effectively using the local resources, their requests get routed to a remote server over a potentially less direct path.

This misconfiguration means that all traffic intended for local resources is inefficiently sent to a distant server, which can lead to increased latency, slower response times, and overall degraded performance. Proper subnet configuration is critical for ensuring that clients can communicate quickly and efficiently with local resources, thus promoting optimal network performance.

While there could be other factors like server misconfiguration, network latency, or bandwidth issues that might affect performance in different contexts, the specific issue of a wrong subnet directly impacts the fundamental routing of network traffic, leading to the symptoms described.