LAN Lag

Hello,

I am having a problem with my LAN here at my office. We have 6 cpu's (AMD 2400+, XP Pro, 256mb RAM) which all file share through the LAN. We also only run one application ( Mitchell OnDemand5) on the workstation machines. The problem we are having is that when using this application the whole LAN will lag for about 15-30 secs and we have to wait until it "catches" up to resume our work. I have scanned for viruses using norton, scanned for spyware with spybot, defragged the hdd and cleaned all the cachce and temp files. The LAN is 10mbps using a NetGear DS108 Hub and a NetGear FVS318 router. This is a very basic LAN setup. The main cpu uses AMD 2400+ and PC2700 512Mb RAM. There is no true server just a cpu containing the data that sits idle. It gets updated once every three months with new estimating information. The workstations only draw info away from the database on the main cpu. The processing of the main cpu does not seem to be lacking at all from what I can tell. All other apps on all computers run fine only when Mitchell OnDemand5 is accessed from a workstation does the entire LAN lag. Any help would be much appreciated............


EDIT: I just noticed that when the LAN lags all the stations using MOD5 will have on there title bar of the app say not responding. so it reads: Mitchell OnDemand5 (Not Responding). Then when it stops lagging the not responding goes away.........

 

I would have to say theres your problem. Network Collisions!

Upgrade to a 100 Mbps Switch so all your connections will run a 100 Mbps full duplex.

 

I agree with ssmith10pn, we had a similar problem with our Citrix server, after throwing thousands of dollars at the problem, including a new server, it turned out that the only problem we had was a bad switch. Replaced it and all has been well for well over a year now...

 

Update!

UPDATE: 1.) I went through and disabled those services that were recommended to me then also used theeldergeek.com to read up on some other services that were not necessary and deleted those. Still Nothing......

2.) Upon monitoring the LAN and the local servers performance, I did notice that when a workstation would access the database that the performance on the local server machine would spike almost 90% !! For instance: User on workstation1 will start a new work order and types in some info to be saved on the database BOOM laagggg, then the performance level wil even out at about 15-20% and all is well.

Thanks very much for everything so far and anymore suggestions would be awesome!!

 

Assuming that you have good cat5 (or higher) wiring and no overly long wiring runs, your first step is to replace the hub with a switch as suggested above. It may resolve your problems although probably not completly but it will help and if not done, the other suggestions won't take care of the problem.

I would also bring the 'server' PC up to at least 1Gb of memory and make sure you have it set as shown in the pictures below. Right-click My Computer then left-click Properties, Advanced, Settings.

You might also want to consider getting a server class machine and OS to act as your server. They will be much more efficient.