RE: OT? network speeds

["David Irwin" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry for the late response, but well, work and all that!! (some poor
bugger
has to ;-) )

In addition to the below, which covers most of what I have found, I would
like to add a few comments.

1. End users think everything is caused by a slow network.. I once had
someone say to me the reason their computer was loading word slowly was
because of a "slow network" - in reality it was caused by the DVD
they were
trying to encode to MPEG4 on their machine in the background! The moral
here
is check what they are doing and running on their local machine.

2. If it really is a network operation something from the network (opening
a
file from a network drive for example) do some tests;
Does 20Mb of small files take the same ammount of time as 1 20Mb
file?
Is it traffic from only one server / NAS device? (check
server/device load)
Is the speed the same from client -> server?
Is the speed the same from client -> client (on same switch / hub /
etc)

With regards to the DNS point below, I can highly recommend a WINS
server as well as a DNS server for local lookups - Even on WinXP machines I
have seen them sit doing broadcasts when there is not one even if they
should have checked DNS first!

If you have managed switches, an SNMP monitoring tool like PTRG on
the uplink ports to check load levels on the switches
(http://www.paessler.com/prtg)
may help show areas where the network is
heavily used - perhaps you have an errant computer flooding the network?

By this point I hope you have narrowed things down?

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Ian Lowe
Sent: 29 December 2005 12:08
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] OT? network speeds

Generally, it's more of a hands on thing - on most networks that I have
worked on "slow" doesn't actually relate to network throughput,
but rather
user experience: which is a much more nebulous beast.

People complain about the darndest things, usually with little or no
understanding of what's happening underneath, or without the language to
describe what they actually mean.

One thing to check as a first step - get the user to show you stuff, and
watch carefully - what's slow? Is the PC generally slow, or is it fast for
local stuff slow for network operations - secondly, and most importantly of
all - is it slow consistently, or is the "slowness" in connecting
to a
network resource? During sustained copies? During "busy" periods
such as
early morning logins etc?

The single biggest "slow network" issue I see is where some
uneducated but
well meaning "my mate does IT" bod has configured the ISP's DNS
servers on
client PCs (whether directly, or handing them out via DHCP). If you are
running an active directory (like an SBS or most windows server 2000/3
installations) you pretty much *have* to make a Directory Controller your
DNS Server for clients. Otherwise the clients will sit *forever* waiting
for
a network connection, as the client tries (and fails) to get _SRV records
from the ISP's DNS servers (or the gateway router like a vigor etc).

Finding out the profile for the slowness is probably more important than
measuring raw throughput.

I.

Ps> just my 2p ;)

-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
bodothemeerkat
Sent: 29 December 2005 11:39
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] OT? network speeds

Hi all,

I have been tasked with trying to find out why some peoples network speed
is
"slow"

You know the feeling, you go onto site and someone stops you and says the
"network is slow today"

What do any of you network administrators use to test this? I have a
feeling
it is an infrstructure issue but I need to check this by technical means
other than what the user thinks is slow.

Thanks all,

B.