Intermittant Network Performance

[CrazyBoy]

Hi,


I work as a network admin on contract for a mid size company with about 25 computers including 5 servers, we've been experiencing some intermittent network performance issues and i'd like to have your opinion on what tools you can suggest that will help me find the issue.

Your input is much appreciated,

 

[PeaB4YouGo]

Nearly every enterprise level router and/or switch I've worked with could provide tools to monitor network performance. I would check the maker's website for tools and suggestions. I'm sure they provide a support forum similar to this where problems that are common to your architecture are discussed, and techniques for fixing them are offered.

Describe the issues. There is probably someone here who has dealt with familiar issues.

 

[CrazyBoy]

We have a couple of D-Link DES-1024D Gigabit Switches, 1 Files Server (Intel S1200BTL M/B w/Xeon E3 1235 3.2G CPU / 8G Ram / LSI SAS Controller w/SAS Drives), 1 Redundancy File Server (P4 3G CPU /2G Ram), 1 Symantec Endpoint Anti-Virus Server (P4 3G CPU / 3G Ram), 1 Remote Desktop Server (i5 CPU / 4g Ram) and 1 Catalog Server (i5 CPU / 4G Ram).

We have a VPN connection between 2 offices (Netopia R910 router) where 3 basic computers connect to this one (head office) hight speed DSL w/5Mbps connection, most workstations have gigabit NICs either Duo Core or i5, some P4s. When we install an Anti Virus to the main server, in house DOS accounting software slows down on workstations, specially on remote stations so we uninstalled it.

This basically sums it down..I will be made aware of which managed switch will be replacing current D-Links shortly, this is the biggest customer i deal with thus have not had network performance issues in the past and am not sure how to deal with this intermittent issue, any suggestions on what software i can use for testing other than the management s/w of the switch?

 

[vgchat]

I would look here.
http://www.flukenetworks.com/enterp...ed_Performance_Monitoring_and_Troubleshooting

 

[2xg]

Hi there,

In addition, are there disconnection issues when transferring files? Is the transfer rate slow? Any internet issue as well, slow browsing, etc...? What type of server roles (File, Database, Print, etc.) do you have configured and being used?

We will be more of helped if you can provide us some detail performance issue similar to what I've mentioned above.

 

[CrazyBoy]

The server is running Windows server 2k3 as a file server only, there are times network slows down (bottlenecks) ..this is all the info i have at this time from my boss.

Thanks for your help

 

[2xg]

Heavy usage of file server - transferring huge amount of files during peak time when almost all employees are accessing the Server might results to a bottle neck. What type of network switch do you have - hopefully it supports Gigabit? Gigabit NICs on all Client computers are highly recommended this goes with your Server. The specs of the server's hardware plays a big role. What's the RAM? Do you have RAID configured?