Network slowing to a crawl!

[Floribunda]

I hope someone can help me. We have a LAN (W98 se) at work - ten users in all on a peer-to-peer network. Over the last month, the network has slowed down to a crawl. If only one or two people are on, it is not too bad, but it can take as long as a minute to open a file. I don’t understand it, since we haven’t changed any settings or anything like that.

It has gotten progressively worse, instead of a sudden or intermittent thing. I tried switching the connecting cable for my computer from the original hub to the secondary hub and that didn’t make any difference. I have copied files from the server to each person’s hard drive, so that they will not have to use the server so much. Unless it is imperative that they use a file on the server, I am asking them to remain logged off until we can determine what the problem is.

Has anyone had this happen and if so, what was the cause? Could it be a hardware problem (i.e., the hub)? BTW, if you sit at the computer which is the “server” and access the files on the shared drive, there is no delay whatsoever.

Please shed some light if you have any – Thanks, Judy

 

[rockerfellerz]

Two things to do first: run full virus scans with the latest definitions on all the computers, and run the latest version of adaware, from

http://www.lavasoft.com

this cleans up spyware which can slow things down.
you say the network is all peer to peer, but you have people accessing the " server " Is that just another computer on the peer to peer network? If everyone is hitting on that machine for files etc. then it will get very slow as it isn't a server and isn't designed for that task.

 

[Floribunda]

Thanks, rockerfellerz. Each computer is set up to automatically virus scan on startup, but I have not heard of the adaware...will try that.
Actually, the "server" is just another computer on the network where all the files are shared, BUT it does have more memory, larger drive, etc.
The funny thing is, everything was hunky dorey until about a month ago - and we are not using it any more or less.
This morning I had one computer log on and it was able to open several large files on the server immediately. I had her log off and I tried to get the files to open and it took more than a minute. One file I never could get to open.

 

[Kjonnnn]

1. Is is a certain time of day it slows down?

2. Test it (time consuming I know), with only certain computers online ... one by one or two by two accessing your "server." See if its only one computer slowing the network down. Maybe a NIC is going bad and creating "chatter."

3. Check your temp folders and defrag. Sometimes a seemingly slow network is really a slow computer.

4. Install TCPIP and see if it makes a difference. 10 connections is suppose to be OK for netbeui... but you never know.

 

[ff1048]

My guess is that you have either a bad hub or somebody has a bad NIC that is giving you a nice storm, those are the 2 things that I would look at first.

 

[snootalope]

Hold up.. Before you get into changing all the protocols, virus scans, registry wipe's, and bla bla bla.. Change the patch cable on your 'file server'. In fact have you tried disconnecting the 'file servre' and testing pc<->pc directly? If nothing has changed, why change something else to fix something that never changed? Confusing huh, thats why you don't need to get into the confusing crap and just do the obvious!!
sorry if I came accross rude there RockerFellerz.. &quot;tis better to be thought of as a fool then open your mouth and remove all doubt&quot; Mark Twain

&quot;I should of been a doctor..&quot; Me

 

[Floribunda]

Well, there are many suggestions here - thank you to all...you're the best! I believe I will try the process of elimination...and so far, there are two computers that whiz into the shared files and two that do not (mine is one of them)! grrr Also will try the cable thingie last mentioned.

Time of day did not seem to make a difference.

Also, new development: I tried to copy a large file from my computer to the shared drive on the server and after a couple o minutes it said the &quot;network is busy&quot; and it would not copy the file. The other slow computer today got the following message when trying to open a file on the shared drive: &quot;Low memory condition: 1003&quot;. (the top of the box said &quot;protoview&quot; whatever that is.) That is the first time he has gotten that error message, and I have not seen that either.

More testing tomorrow...

 

[Floribunda]

Thought I'd let you all know what the problem turned out to be -- a bad hub.

That was actually our first thought, but initial tests of switching cables around failed to identify that - the reason was that the cables were MIS-LABELED...ask me how I know...(sheepish grin) Naturally, switching computers from one hub to the other was non-revealing as a diagnostic procedure.

Once the computer cables were properly identified, it was rather simple to pinpoint the problem - the original hub had given up the ghost. All is well now.
Thanks to everyone for their help.
Floribunda