real network problem

I have some old 333mhz machines with 32 to 64 megs of memory. 22 of them, running win 98, 11 per classroom. data closet has a broadband connection into a router 2 drops out of the router 1 20ft 1 30ft into hubs. (i TRIED switches did not work well) Problem is speed, they take a long to paint screens and open pages. Other than buying new machines what can I do to speed thing up. PLease help this is for a poor little school without a lot of money for new equipment. More memory should help, I am trying that now. Does any one know if it is anything I can add to the network config to speed things up. repeater or something. Lets see who gets this one right

 

The PC specs you posted should not cause things to be slow over the network. The slowest PC you have will be easily able to run many times faster than any reasonable network connection can feed it data. T5 to a single machine might cause problems but since T5 is quite a few thousands of dollars per month to lease, not many of them around.

Memory should improve overall PC performance but I'd estimate about zero improvement in network performance on a small network.

I think the least expensive way for you to get a dramatic improvement will be a combination of things (and some may already be this way).

To speed up general network traffic:
- Wiring all CAT5 or higher. But Cat5 is fine unless you can get better wire for a lower price.
- Network cards all able to run 10/100Mbps.
- Switches (and for that number of machines, the low-end, less expensive ones will be fine.
- Set each NIC to run at 100Mbps Full-duplex.

To speed up internet performance without going for more lines or very expensive lines, you should seriously consider running a proxy server that will cache data for you. That way, quite a few internet calls never have to leave the building since the proxy server can provide the requested page from cache. This is a perfect situation for Linux since in it's basic form it will run nicely on minimal hardware and I'd imagine there are free or very low cost server apps that will do what you need.

I'm not current on Linux but we have others who are so if you want to get details, someone will provide the information you need.

If you want details on the hub vs. switch thing, do a search in this section for threads containing both terms and you should find several. Generally, with low-end hubs (which you probably have now) vs. low end switches, if you can run 100Mbps full-duplex and if you have 5 port hubs now that you replace with 5 port switches, you should see an immediate speed increase of at least 20 fold (2000%) and probably more. If you are running larger hubs (10 or 20 port) it will be even more dramatic.

 

I do not understand what you mean here.. Can you cite some specific examples of problems and times to execute. I'd especially like to see you download something large from a fast internet site to see what speed you are getting.

Making an assumption that you are talking about web browsing.. You have a broadband connection. Is this like a cable modem, what speed did you get? I could easily see 22 kids surfing the web running a 'buisiness class' 5mb cable modem into the dirt. (heh, i can run sustained 3mb by myself). Have you run netmon/lanalyzer on it, to see what your average and peak usage is?

 

Thanks for your Help

I guess we must have been brain dead...
We had a bad hub. Running as it should now

Thanks again

 

Good news and glad to hear it.

 

Sounds like a classic case of bad wire terminations. When the NICs try to negoiate to 100 Mbps full duplex all heck breaks loose.

Have someone with good equipment test each segment of cable.