Network Slow and Computer's Freezing

[jimboscomp]

Hi,
I run a small business providing tech solutions for businesses. Recently I revamped a client's network by replacing their old switch with a new one (the old one was about 7-8 years old and running on 10 BaseT). But I also replaced their Windows NT 4 server with a 2.66GHz Dual Core Xeon server running Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition.

Their computers since the move to a domain instead of a workgroup have been having problems freezing up while working, and being slow just in general. I do know the program they all use (DVM Manager for Veterinary) is not a completely user-friendly program, but this was not happening before. The server is running 2048MB of RAM, I disabled virtual memory. It has 3 250GB hard drives. Primary and Secondary are mirrored, the 3rd is strictly a data backup.

It is also connected to the network by 2 network connections, one using 192.168.1.105, the second using 192.168.1.145. The DHCP server on the network is their router, which is also set as the DNS server as well. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know; I have never experienced this before when moving things over to a domain before.

 

[hmallett]

Set the domain controller as the DNS server for itself and the clients. Might as well use the server as the DHCP server too - disable DHCP on the router.

http://www.BackupExecFAQ.com

 

[FloDiggs]

Well, I see a bunch of problems.

1) Virtual memory shouldn't be disabled.
2) If it is actually a domain, the DC needs to be doing DHCP and DNS for the PCs, not an off the shelf router.
3) I wouldn't have two NICs with seperate IPs on the same server...especially a DC. If you were running software so that they would fail over and share an IP, that would be one thing, but not configured the way you have it.

I'm guessing the problems you are experiencing have to do with DNS and the server having two seperate IPs.

 

[pgaliardo]

Agree with the 2 posts above. Disabling virtual memory was definitely bad. I think the majority of the problems have to do with DNS. I thought when you installed the Windows 2003 server as the first domain controller for a new domain, you were forced to configure it as the DNS server, I could be wrong on that. Definitely make the server the DNS server and make sure the clients use the internal address of the server as their primary DNS - make sure they are not looking to the ISP for DNS.

 

[jimboscomp]

OK sounds good, I will go ahead and do those. The virtual memory was disabled this morning, as a test to see if things would improve. On W2k3 it does install the DNS server role on the server, but I went ahead and disabled that as well. I will this weekend when they're closed go ahead and apply those changes.

 

[jimboscomp]

OK! went ahead and manually set every workstation to find the server as the DNS server for the network, and set it as the DHCP server as well. I also removed the secondary NIC from the network. Everything appears to be working just fine at the moment. So we'll see if the long-term effects are improved.

The reason why I hadn't thought to do this before, a client that brought me in as his main computer guy, had his Linksys router (not commercial-grade cisco) doing the DHCP and it was working fine. This setup at the client's office that was having problems was almost identical, which is why I didn't go ahead and setup DNS or DHCP on the server. Maybe I'll go ahead and get rid of the linksys DHCP at my other client's office too!

 

[FloDiggs]

To save you a little time later on, you can also configure the DHCP server in to assign the DNS server address to the clients so that you don't have to manually punch it in. Glad to hear everything is working.

 

[jimboscomp]

Yeah, I could have done that too. I decided, since they also got a new digital x-ray machine that has its own 2 workstations and server, that I would setup everything to have its own address that never changes on the network, and it's a small business, only 8 workstations. Thanks guys for all the help! I most of the time can figure out the problem and have it fixed, but it helps to have second opinions once in a while.