Hi all,

     I have a quick question, we have medical software that communicates to over 500users and is on a server with just one 10/100 mbit card.  We get server not responding alot in the software but if we go to run some basic networking tests like ping, tracert, etc. the server comes back fine with low ping times.

     Is there any way I can test this server in more detail and get down to the problem?

yes u can try to monitor the ethernet interface on the server with the network monitor and see what is keeping ur ethernet busy by analysing the type of traffic.
to reduce load u can try nt load balancing by putting in another card in the server .u can get alot on this by searching in the forums using keywords.
Kapil

Technical Director
Infovalley Interwebspiders Pvt. Ltd.
Microsoft Certified System Engineer
visit http://www.interwebspiders.com

If u find the information provided here useful to u then let me know by clicking on the link below

What else is the server running?

Sixthsense is correct. Try sniffing the card to see what type of packets are transversing the card. Also run performace monitor to trace memory, processor, and disk bottlenecks. From the client end, you may want to configure the application to connect to the server through IP broadcast instead of name resolution. This should speed up connection time.

Thanks,
Danielle

A couple of other things to take a look at -- when you are having problems connecting to the server, do you see any other indications (ie is the entire network slowing down, or is it just requests to that particular server), also is it just that particular service (ie are you running another service on that box - FTP, HTTP, etc, that you can/cannot still attach to).

The reason I bring this up is that it more than likely is what the others have mentioned, but there are many cases of buggy software that cause just that particular piece of equipment to slow.  Or it could also be a piece of network equipment going bad.  Pings and traceroutes only use very small packets by default.  Try pinging with a larger packet -- if you are on an ethernet network, use a packet size of about 1450 bytes and see the response times.  Also, try doing the same ping to a different client/server during this time (again to rule out any buggy network equipment) - this could better emulate the packet sizes that are being used for that program.

Try and do this while you are sniffing the network as the other above pointed out.

Hope this helps,
Paul

Newbiegirl has the right idea. WHile a sniffer is great fun on something like this, perfmon logged over time can be a great help. If you do not know how to use perfmon.. really use it, not just start it, then there is a book about tuning windows NT which uses it a great deal with nice desciptions.

This link will take you to several copies on half.com for *cheap* prices :)  I paid full price 2 years ago it was worth every penny.

http://www.half.com/cat/buy/prod.cgi?cpid=403557&ad=1444

MikeS

"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin