Comments on: Network solution

By: guardian

guardian — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 07:36:22 +0000

Yes you have to change to Switches it provides better controll over traffic (and broadcasts), maybe try creating broadcast domains. Since you already know where the most traffic is, try and place them in a Group (subnetting well thats another matter-but for the future its a possibility)of their own, whilst the other less traffic creators (users) can use the other range of addresses with little interfence.
You have to plan your network setup correctly. Poor planning will affect you and the network (and prepare for any future user relocations- especially those in you third floor)

By: rigveda

rigveda — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 03:32:53 +0000

If you are anyway considering reconfiguring your network, then why don’t you look into the future and use a 10GbE solution (switches as well as NICs) to provide better performance and take care of clogs.

As one of the replies stated, “it is your business, so invest in it”. Better secure your future.

By: byteknight

byteknight — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 12:47:57 +0000

Hello,

Based on what you have said you have 60 clients, plus 3-5 servers – Please respond if that is correct.

If the above is the case, then it’s time to start looking at a little higher end switches (Noting less the $200) that can handle larger MAC tables and a little manageability would be nice.

Get a manageable switch as your core, put smaller workgroup switches at the edge of your network, feed one link from each floor down to the central Managed Switch, then plug in all Servers into that Central managed switch. I would suggest you get managed workgroup switches at the edge also so you can see problem quicker (SNMP and Logging back to a Logging server (Small application on one server)).

Cat 5 or Cat 5e cable would do fine (300 Feet Max distance) that could also be your problem, if it?s over 300 Feet then look at an even larger switchs with Fiber Uplinks.

With 60 clients your running a business, invest in it.

Regards,

By: aliyani

aliyani — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 03:40:13 +0000

Hi,then acording your comments I must connect clients to switches but how about Servers?
Thank you.
—–
Regards
Mahnaz

By: engineerit

engineerit — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 00:16:19 +0000

There may be a possibility that any node on 3rd floor is infected by virus/worm and causing heavy traffic on that part of the network.
Make sure all the computers are having upto date security patches etc.
You definitely need to change the HUB from the central position and must have switch there.

By: aliyani

aliyani — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 23:52:51 +0000

Hi,but why I only have traffic in the third floor and users in this floor couln’t connect and use of network as quickly as others!!!????
Thank you.
—-
Regards
Mahnaz

By: poppaman2

poppaman2 — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 08:16:34 +0000

All good answers – I do agree that the network should be set up with a switch as the central device – preferably a gig-E swithc to which your other 10/100 switches connect…

One thing to add to what ItDefPat1 said: if your network has any Mac clients on it (and in an apartment block with 80 clients, chances are good that a few of them are Macintosh machines), DO NOT impliment spanning tree protocol, as ethertalk will break (the Mac client will not be able to obtain an IP address from your DHCP server or will duplicate the IP address of an existing client). If you give Mac clients a static IP address, STP is OK. As late as early 2005, Apple still had issues with this network protocol (ref: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/PowerMacG5_(Early_2005)_UserGuide.pdf)

By: itdefpat1

itdefpat1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:23:21 +0000

Autonegotiate has been a trouble for years, despite the standard. I have seen sometimes that different brands of NICs don’t always autonegotiate to work together. This is not supposed to happen. IF you can test, try setting all to 100. compare to when all are autonegotiate. I hate to say if this is very likely (it isnt supposed to happen) but it might be worth a try.

By: joelsplace

joelsplace — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 12:54:58 +0000

They are right. Get rid of the hub! Use QCheck to test speed between your clients and the servers. I have found many (at least 3 dozen of various brands but all WinXP) network cards that would slow down to around 1-1.5Mbs if you set the speed/duplex to anything but automatic. Unless your users are moving huge amounts of data I’ll bet you will be fine with 100Mbs once you get it working correctly. Quickbooks and Peachtree are real pigs even on a Gigabit network with 3 users. Joel

By: itdefpat1

itdefpat1 — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:15:38 +0000

Yes, you are probably getting collisions at hub. how manageable are the switches – do they support VLANS? where possible, break users into VLANS (joining VLANS requires routing capability). this may also help congestion – all client ports are going to a single port for each server. you might want to set up gigabit links between switches and gigabit for the servers. the links between switches and to the servers could be getting high loads, lots of latency. If too hard to upgrade cable for GB, try trunking which combines multiple 100mb (might be switch upgrade).

It doesnt sound like you have a loop of switches (switch a connects to switch b, switch be connects to switch c, switch c connects to switch a) – if you do, does your switch support spanning tree protocol (STP). this could also help.