I am searching for ideas to diagnose slow network speeds. The server is
an Intel CA810E mobo, P3-1000Mhz, 512MB Ram (maximum for mobo). I
replaced the old HDD's with new Seagate 37GB SCSI with Adaptec 29320A
controller. At the same time I replaced NT 4 with Windows SBS 2003. This
is in a dentist office with 10 workstations. I used timethis.exe to test
file transfers, between 2 workstations it was fairly fast, but from the
server to a workstation it takes about 4 times longer. They are using
SoftDent software, plus others related to the dental industry. I have
uninstalled antivirus, set permissions, etc. to no avail. Also disabled
LMHosts lookup for the NIC. Disabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP kills the
connection, that may be what I need to chase down why.
OK, does anyone have any experience similar to this, will gigabit NICs,
router, help me? Or anything else to try?
--
Regards,
Chester Friesen
What OS are the workstations running?
--- Chester Friesen <glentech@sunset.net> wrote:
> I am searching for ideas to diagnose slow network speeds. The server is
> an Intel CA810E mobo, P3-1000Mhz, 512MB Ram (maximum for mobo). I
> replaced the old HDD's with new Seagate 37GB SCSI with Adaptec 29320A
> controller. At the same time I replaced NT 4 with Windows SBS 2003. This
> is in a dentist office with 10 workstations. I used timethis.exe to test
> file transfers, between 2 workstations it was fairly fast, but from the
> server to a workstation it takes about 4 times longer. They are using
> SoftDent software, plus others related to the dental industry. I have
> uninstalled antivirus, set permissions, etc. to no avail. Also disabled
> LMHosts lookup for the NIC. Disabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP kills the
> connection, that may be what I need to chase down why.
> OK, does anyone have any experience similar to this, will gigabit NICs,
> router, help me? Or anything else to try?
>
> --
>
> Regards,
> Chester Friesen
>
>
>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Michael Madigan wrote:
>What OS are the workstations running?
>
>
>
All are Windows 2000 Professional.
--
Regards,
Chester Friesen
Chester,
You only need TCP/IP to r the workstations any other protocols should be
removed. Ideally you need the server set up as a DHCP server so that the IP
addresses are allocated leased from the server by each workstation. Failing
that manually allocate fixed IP addresses the workstations.
For Fixed IP addresses start off by allocating fixed IP addresses to two
workstations and see if you can ping one from the other. Once this is
working you know that you can allocate IP addresses to the other
workstations.
Also you should be running the server as a Domain controller regardless of
fixed/leased IP settings.
Dave Crozier
DaveC@Replacement-Software.co.uk
"The difference between theory and practice is greater in practice than it
is in theory."
-----Original Message-----
From: profox-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf
Of Chester Friesen
Sent: 05 March 2005 16:31
To: ProFox Listserver
Subject: [NF] Slow Network Speeds
I am searching for ideas to diagnose slow network speeds. The server is
an Intel CA810E mobo, P3-1000Mhz, 512MB Ram (maximum for mobo). I
replaced the old HDD's with new Seagate 37GB SCSI with Adaptec 29320A
controller. At the same time I replaced NT 4 with Windows SBS 2003. This
is in a dentist office with 10 workstations. I used timethis.exe to test
file transfers, between 2 workstations it was fairly fast, but from the
server to a workstation it takes about 4 times longer. They are using
SoftDent software, plus others related to the dental industry. I have
uninstalled antivirus, set permissions, etc. to no avail. Also disabled
LMHosts lookup for the NIC. Disabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP kills the
connection, that may be what I need to chase down why.
OK, does anyone have any experience similar to this, will gigabit NICs,
router, help me? Or anything else to try?
--
Regards,
Chester Friesen
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Did you say 512mb ram running SBS 2003 server? That's barely enough.
The speed from server to workstation at 4X less than the reverse is very
suspicious. I would question your network/cards/wiring which you really
didn't give details of.
As far as gig goes, ethernet is a collision scheme. You can expect about
35% of rated performance assuming collisions are kept to a minimum by using
switches. Gig is 10 times faster than Fast Ethernet, 100X faster than
regular ethernet.
If the network is not concentrated in a switch, change it out immediately.
In ethernet, one bad NIC on a hub can cause all the symptoms you're
describing.
Best practice: This is way too many workstations for such an old server.
They should have at least 2 gigs memory in the server of a newer machine.
Upgrade the networking if it's not gig and get a switch which is all gig
(autoswitching for the legacy machines). Make sure you put at least one gig
NIC in the server no matter what you do after upgrading the hub/switch.
BTW, find out if the wiring was field installed by somebody who had a
scanner to certify it or if it was done ad hoc by a shlep. If the wiring
isn't factory terminated or certified in place you could have a problem
there.
Andy
-----Original Message-----
From: profox-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com]On
Behalf Of Michael Madigan
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 11:43 AM
To: ProFox Email List
Subject: Re: [NF] Slow Network Speeds
What OS are the workstations running?
--- Chester Friesen <glentech@sunset.net> wrote:
> I am searching for ideas to diagnose slow network speeds. The server is
> an Intel CA810E mobo, P3-1000Mhz, 512MB Ram (maximum for mobo). I
> replaced the old HDD's with new Seagate 37GB SCSI with Adaptec 29320A
> controller. At the same time I replaced NT 4 with Windows SBS 2003. This
> is in a dentist office with 10 workstations. I used timethis.exe to test
> file transfers, between 2 workstations it was fairly fast, but from the
> server to a workstation it takes about 4 times longer. They are using
> SoftDent software, plus others related to the dental industry. I have
> uninstalled antivirus, set permissions, etc. to no avail. Also disabled
> LMHosts lookup for the NIC. Disabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP kills the
> connection, that may be what I need to chase down why.
> OK, does anyone have any experience similar to this, will gigabit NICs,
> router, help me? Or anything else to try?
>
> --
>
> Regards,
> Chester Friesen
>
>
>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
A fiver says this is something related to the server, not the network per
se. Off the top of my head check these:
- DNS - The server should be pointing to itself and the clients to the
server for this, not something in the outside world.
- Check the SBS2003 security settings - does setting them to Low make any
difference?
- Also look at MSKB articles 822219 and 321169
Chester Friesen wrote:
> I am searching for ideas to diagnose slow network speeds. The server
> is an Intel CA810E mobo, P3-1000Mhz, 512MB Ram (maximum for mobo). I
> replaced the old HDD's with new Seagate 37GB SCSI with Adaptec 29320A
> controller. At the same time I replaced NT 4 with Windows SBS 2003.
> This is in a dentist office with 10 workstations. I used timethis.exe
> to test file transfers, between 2 workstations it was fairly fast,
> but from the server to a workstation it takes about 4 times longer.
> They are using SoftDent software, plus others related to the dental
> industry. I have uninstalled antivirus, set permissions, etc. to no
> avail. Also disabled LMHosts lookup for the NIC. Disabling NetBIOS
> over TCP/IP kills the connection, that may be what I need to chase
> down why. OK, does anyone have any experience similar to this, will
> gigabit NICs, router, help me? Or anything else to try?
============
Brian Abbott
ACA Systems
============
If workstation-to-workstation is fast, then the network is probably
okay, isn't it? I presume this was an in-place upgrade, and that these
machines were all working together fine before the upgrade. Further,
I'll presume after the upgrade performance was noticably slower,
provoking you to perform the tests you described. (Hint: a little more
information would have let me concentrate on the problem, instead of
trying to figure out why you were asking).
What's the network configuration? Ethernet 10/100, switched or hub?
Hubs are so nineties, and can be replaced with a switch for less than
$100.
Since you did all the work on the server, I'd suspect one of the
components there is causing the problem. SCSI systems are far easier to
work with than they used to be, but could the problem be a
misconfigured hard disk, driver or cable? Examine the server logs,
event logs, device manager, disk manager, etc. Did you replace multiple
drives with one? Why?
Ping the server from a workstation and workstation to the server to
confirm basic networking speed is okay.
Half-a-gigabyte is a huge amount of memory, when you think about it. On
the other hand, SBS 2003 will easily use that all up. Why are you using
SBS, and what are you running on it - Exchange, SQL Server, IIS,
Firewall, etc? What else runs on this machine? Is the dental software
client-server or dbf-based?
Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
> As far as gig goes, Ethernet is a collision scheme. You can expect about
> 35% of rated performance assuming collisions are kept to a
> minimum by using
> switches. Gig is 10 times faster than Fast Ethernet, 100X faster than
> regular Ethernet.
>
That's why I still use 100vg instead of 100BaseTx. No collisions, ever.
Even with a fully loaded network with the maximum of 1,024 devices connected
at up to 5 layers deep, one is assured of a net throughput of 98mps! Too
bad it lost the marketing wars (like BetaMax vs VHS). I use an HP j3100b
Switch 2000 to bridge between 100vg, 100BaseTx and 10BaseT, and the j3100b
has a 1Ghz backplane to prevent any degradation in signal processing. Cool
technology. I NEVER have any speed issues on my LAN, ever.
Gil
Gilbert M. Hale
New Freedom Data Resources
Pittsford, NY
585-359-8085
gil@gilhale.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com
> [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com]On Behalf Of Andrew Weiss
> Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 1:20 PM
> To: profoxtech@leafe.com
> Subject: RE: [NF] Slow Network Speeds
>
>
> Did you say 512mb ram running SBS 2003 server? That's barely enough.
>
> The speed from server to workstation at 4X less than the reverse is very
> suspicious. I would question your network/cards/wiring which you really
> didn't give details of.
>
> As far as gig goes, ethernet is a collision scheme. You can expect about
> 35% of rated performance assuming collisions are kept to a
> minimum by using
> switches. Gig is 10 times faster than Fast Ethernet, 100X faster than
> regular ethernet.
>
> If the network is not concentrated in a switch, change it out immediately.
> In ethernet, one bad NIC on a hub can cause all the symptoms you're
> describing.
>
> Best practice: This is way too many workstations for such an old server.
> They should have at least 2 gigs memory in the server of a newer machine.
> Upgrade the networking if it's not gig and get a switch which is all gig
> (autoswitching for the legacy machines). Make sure you put at
> least one gig
> NIC in the server no matter what you do after upgrading the hub/switch.
>
> BTW, find out if the wiring was field installed by somebody who had a
> scanner to certify it or if it was done ad hoc by a shlep. If the wiring
> isn't factory terminated or certified in place you could have a problem
> there.
>
> Andy
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: profox-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com]On
> Behalf Of Michael Madigan
> Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 11:43 AM
> To: ProFox Email List
> Subject: Re: [NF] Slow Network Speeds
>
>
> What OS are the workstations running?
>
>
> --- Chester Friesen <glentech@sunset.net> wrote:
> > I am searching for ideas to diagnose slow network speeds. The server is
> > an Intel CA810E mobo, P3-1000Mhz, 512MB Ram (maximum for mobo). I
> > replaced the old HDD's with new Seagate 37GB SCSI with Adaptec 29320A
> > controller. At the same time I replaced NT 4 with Windows SBS 2003. This
> > is in a dentist office with 10 workstations. I used timethis.exe to test
> > file transfers, between 2 workstations it was fairly fast, but from the
> > server to a workstation it takes about 4 times longer. They are using
> > SoftDent software, plus others related to the dental industry. I have
> > uninstalled antivirus, set permissions, etc. to no avail. Also disabled
> > LMHosts lookup for the NIC. Disabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP kills the
> > connection, that may be what I need to chase down why.
> > OK, does anyone have any experience similar to this, will gigabit NICs,
> > router, help me? Or anything else to try?
> >
> > --
> >
> > Regards,
> > Chester Friesen
> >
> >
> >
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Hey, thanks, guys, sounds like I have some homework to do! The next time
I go there I'll have some things to try. I appreciate your feedback.
Regards,
Chester Friesen
ug ug -
I'm a big fan of tracking just what the hecks a going on - so I would
suggest to you that you
use filemon on your server, from sysinternals - main web site is here:
hth - mondo regards [Bill]