Slow Network Problems

ocathais

Hi All I run a small business with a network of about 15 computers and printers I have no computing expertise per se beyond using...my network is starting to run very slow and I'm currently looking to change my IT service contract whch is costing me a packet.

My server is running Win 2000 and is I think a 1.5ghz 256mb RAM with 30 G HD, my son tells me this is woefully underpowered for my needs. My staff use a mixture of old and new pcs but the application burden is not that high I run a bespoke software package ...OS's used range from 98 to windows xp. I use free programs to remove spyware.

Is my server a problem? Do I need a new one?
My anti-virus is Trend Micro Officescan has any one ever heard of it is it any good....how do I change from it?

Thanks.

Snowbat

What does the server do? For many situations these specifications would be more than adequate for sharing an internet connection and for a file/mail/printer server for a small network but they may be underpowered for certain other tasks. Monitor CPU usage and network usage on the server to see if either are maxing out.

It could be due to network traffic. Assuming you have a 100 Mbit switch, 100 Mbit to the server doesn't go far if all 15 users are hammering it simultaenously. You may need to get a new switch with 1 Gbit uplink and install a 1 Gbit NIC in the server. However, that could prompt a server CPU/disk/RAM upgrade to make best use of the new bandwidth.

All in all, difficult to tell without knowing more about the traffic on your network and where it's flowing.

ando

well the server is generally low spec for a file server, if your running exchange on it aswell, then I'd defiantly recommend upgrade RAM on the server to at least 512. I'm guessing the software you use is database orientated, ie your workstations do all the work and save all data to the server. When you say your network is slow, what are you doing to make you say that, is your internet slow? do you have broadband, are your files saving slowly onto the server? If your not happy with the speed of your network, get your iT people in to look at it, I know my company has been sent onto sites in the past to speed the clients network up and we have no problem doing that

fatherdougalmag

In one fell (€600) swoop you could shell out for the latest Lidl offering but then you'd have to migrate everything to it. But then, no matter when you decide to upgrade you're going to have to do it too anyway. Shell out a few quid for 100Mb/s NIC's on everyone's PC's and you're half way there.

Or you could just go to Dell's site and spec out something that'll keep you going for a few years (along with the 100Mb/s NICs above). Then upgrade each of your PCs one by one.

It all depends on how serious you are and how much you have to invest.

osmethod

Some recomendatios before shelling out Euro's

Do a tidy-up...

1. Do a virus scan on all pc's and server
2. Do a spyware scan on all pc's and server
3. Run "Scandisk" on the win98 clients / Chkdsk on 2K or XP pc's
4. Clean down all temp directories, IE temporay internet folders's, etc
5. Defragment all PC's and server
6. Set all pagefiles to a fixed size, twice the size of physical ram in each respective pc.

If you are using a 100MB Hub - Change it for a 100MB Switch... you would notice considerable improvement.

osmethod

BigEejit

And another question would be:
Was it always this speed? .. or was it faster before and slowed down over a period of time?

Also osmethod's advice is good .... basic housekeeping on all machines can have noticeable effects. A switch is far better than a hub for connecting a lot of PC's, read the product type off the unit that all the network cables go into and write it up here or put it into google and see if its a switch or hub.

If these basic steps dont get any performance gains I'd say you may need an expert or two ....

ocathais

Thanks for all the advice guys, unfortunately my dad wouldn't be the most technically minded so I doubt he will be able to answer your requests for clarification on his own. I will be home at the weekend and I'll post up some more info at the weekend. Once again many thanks for the replys. One thing though this Trend micro office scan...I had never heard of it and it doesn;t seem to up date automatically like most of the big name AVS. I logged on to his server and tried to do it manually but found myself being prompted for login details (that weren;t to hand) etc...all seems a bit too difficult, no? Has anyone heard of or used this AVS?

ocathais

Hey had a look around so here's some more detail

Broadband: Netopia 3346 EIR ADSL gateway with 4 switchports
Speed: 1.72 Mbps down, a miserly 104 kbps up
Didn;t do a ping dunno how to do it but test also gave following info
Quality of service 98%; Round trip time 4543 ms; Max Pause 50 ms


Switch:
Zonet ZFS3016 16 port 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Switch

Server Dell poweredge 600sc running Win 2000
P4 1.8 ghz 256kb Ram 70 gb HD with three partitions

The backup utilitily is Novadisk + v6.7 does that make sense? the server has a Seagate STT 3401A tape drive


Pc slowness I think can be put down to obsolecence in the older pc and the usual diet of spyware, adware and uncessary crap being run at startup which I'm pretty sure I can handle.

The main problem seems to be the printer setup - there are four....two of which have an 10/100 ethernet ports and two older ones...all are connected to the older pcs via parallell cables (in one case a truly ancient looking parrallel adaptor for RJ 11 cable) surely this is the problem?

How do I connect these printer to the network and assign them IP adresses etc? Will this make a big difference?

One other thing is there any majoradvantage in converting PCs running win 2000 and xp home to the respective pro editions in terms of Networking

thanks for your help and patientce
seosamh Ó Cathail.