Network Speed
Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, Network protocols, Networking, Networking services, Performance management
Hi
Ive just started a new job for a goverment based company in london as a assistant network administrator, this is my first job after my studying. What i have noticed is most of the computers are really slow, i was wondering if someone could help me out so maybe i could put a few points accross to them.
Software/Hardware used:
Software/Hardware used:
ASKED:
February 14, 2006 11:31 AM
UPDATED:
February 15, 2006 10:53 PM
Answer Wiki:
Wow - not a lot of information here, I'm assuming you mean the computers are slow to talk on the network, but they are fine locally. Some of the things you are going to want to check for slow network access:
1. The switches the computers are connected to - what speed are they.
2. The cabling - is cat 5 or better?
3. The cards in the pc's what are they set to/capable of.
There are a myriad of other things that could be causing issues including routing and dns - we need more information to be able to assist you better.
Lirria
To see all answers submitted to the Answer Wiki: View Answer History.
I agree with Lirria here. Are the network devices managed? Can you check their error logs? I would also look for errors on the systems.
When I first came to this college I discovered a lot of duplex mismatches. They were amazed at how much faster and more reliable the network was when I fixed this issue.
Do you monitor the traffic? We installed MRTG and it has helped considerably in diagnosing network saturation.
What this boils down to is you need the tools to know what is going on before you can fix the problem.
Hope this helps.
rt
As the previous poster pointed out, not much to go on.
Also – if you’re planning on “putting a few points across”, I’d strongly suggest that you try out whatever you’re going to suggest privately, and even ask innocent questions.
I’ll get to the technical stuff in a bit, but when you come into an organization as a brand-new hire, without much experience, and start trying to solve all of the problems that you see, you may well be seen as either threatening someone already entrenched, or anxious-to-please without a clue. Since I don’t know you, one, both or neither could be true – BUT it is the perception of your colleagues that will affect things.
As for slowness, there are multiple causes. In the simplest form, there are 3 places: The workstation, the network, and the servers.
I recall one place that called me in to identify their network problem. It turned out that there WAS a slight network problem, but that was overshadowed by an Exchange server which had maxed out memory, and was trying to swap virtual memory to a fragmented paging file, on a nearly full disk.
So do your homework and make sure that you’re standing on solid ground before you say anything.
Bob
Slow – on the internet or ingeneral?
1st thing get a database of all systems, memory can always improve performance. Get updates – for security and spees, especially if win98. hard drive free space? make the database of your workstations so you know what you are dealing with.
Like it was written before, MRTG (or PRTG) is great. Also look at Nagios (brand new version 2.0) to monitor cpu, disks, etc. These are all open source tools, so you don’t have to wait for the $money to start monitoring your network.
Dan
Thanks alot people for your replys but i have never used one of these sites or something similar before so i dont know what to write.
About the computers there slow on the network, the internet connexion is fine. its just trying to open files on the network, or logging on/off its slow and opening programs or applications
Are you running switches or hubs ?
If your running hubs switches, even unmanaged, will really help. Also see if the clients are trying to connect to network drives that are no longer valid.
Windows file services and logging on can be influenced by problematic ActiveDirectory or login scripts. Is the network itself slow, or just Microsoft file services? Within XP, do the ctrl-alt-del and click on the network tab. Then do an FTP to a file server (you have read access from a Unix server there) to see what you get. If the server is local, you should get about 9 Meg on a 10-Meg link; or probably about 30 on a 100-Meg connection.
If you DO get those throughputs, look at where servers and authentication are done. If NOT, your first step could be to look at the cabling, switches, duplex settings, etc.
Hi All:
I deffinitely agree with something like MRTG (google it for the home page). I just got it set up, and it has helped me tremendously in my job. Geezer… I have a few questions for you… try to answer them if you can.
1) What type of networking units do you have?
(Switches, or Hubs)… and are they managed?
2) As for the slow logins, are the users connecting to a
Windows Domain Controller? If So, are they set up for
Roaming Profiles?
3) Have you run Antivirus programs, or things like
Spybot/Adaware, etc. on the PCs? If not, do it.
4) Do you have any tools to monitor network packets that
are coming across your network?
(if not, see http://www.ethereal.com)
5) Have you discussed this problem at all with the Network
Administrator who is over you? I find that talking with
my peers, especially face-2-face, can often reveal that
bits and pieces of what they have to say can give me
some good clues as to where to look…(ie: If you don’t
know the answer to #1 and #2, ask!)
Be as detailed as you can when you answer the questions.