Mulitple files copying slowly over network

Hi there,

I hope someone can help.

We have a problem with windows networking, we have a 2003 SBS Server and
about 10 clients (all running XP Pro) some (including the server) running on
a gigabit network provided by a Netgear GS108 switch and the rest connected
via a 100mb FS517TS Netgear switch through a gigabit uplink port.

The problem is this - when we connect via a certian client (client01) on the
gigabit network and copy some files to the server it sometimes runs about 20
times slower than normal, this has only happened on other clients a couple
of times, once when trying to replicate the problem. Interesting when the
problem was happening on this other machine it wasn't on the first one!

We have tried to copy the same directory using another client and it worked
fine and yet when we tried it again with the first one it still didn't work.
We tried changing the port in the switch, moving it over to the 100mb
switch, logging in as someone else, changing the network cable and now we
have replaced the entire machine and it stills happens! The only thing that
remains the same is the SBS server, but it works fine for everybody else.

When the 'slow down' switched to another machine (client02) we had just
rebooted the switch and client02 and when it came back up it wouldn't get a
ip address from the server (via dhcp) and the only way it did get one was by
rebooting again and when it came back up it had gone into go slow mode it
also seemed to affect its network browsing speed whereas that didn't happen
on client01, however the files copied very slowly and at the same rate as
when it was running slow on client01. Client01 however was super quick again
for a while, this changed later when they switched places in the speed
stakes for no particular reason that we could see.

Client01 and client02 both have gigabit cards in them (Abit IC7-G's builtin
card the 3com 3C940 and Netgear GA311) and when they were running slow
changing the port in the switch, the actual switch or the cable made any
difference. It has only happened on client02 once but it is happening pretty
much consistently on client01 even when we changed the entire computer! It
has also been reported to happen on another computer in the network which is
connected to the 100mb switch.

This has been driving us crazy, can anyone shed any light on the problem or
even suggest something we can try?

Many Thanks

John

Hi John -

A couple ideas for you:

Smallbizserver.Net > SBS 2003 > Server issues > Slow file copy to the SBS
2003 server:
http://www.smallbizserver.net/Default.aspx?tabid=98


Also, make sure that you have the most recent drivers for all nics, and
experiment with setting nics to set speeds (e.g. 100 Full Duplex) AND
setting everything to Auto-Sense. I have some sites that need to be hard
set, and others that need to auto-sense to get the best performance. I've
found that Dell machines work best configured to Auto-Sense

--

Chad A. Gross - SBS MVP
SBS ROCKS!

www.msmvps.com/cgross
www.gosbs.org


John Pugh wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I hope someone can help.
>
> We have a problem with windows networking, we have a 2003 SBS Server
> and about 10 clients (all running XP Pro) some (including the server)
> running on a gigabit network provided by a Netgear GS108 switch and
> the rest connected via a 100mb FS517TS Netgear switch through a
> gigabit uplink port.
> The problem is this - when we connect via a certian client (client01)
> on the gigabit network and copy some files to the server it sometimes
> runs about 20 times slower than normal, this has only happened on
> other clients a couple of times, once when trying to replicate the
> problem. Interesting when the problem was happening on this other
> machine it wasn't on the first one!
> We have tried to copy the same directory using another client and it
> worked fine and yet when we tried it again with the first one it
> still didn't work. We tried changing the port in the switch, moving
> it over to the 100mb switch, logging in as someone else, changing the
> network cable and now we have replaced the entire machine and it
> stills happens! The only thing that remains the same is the SBS
> server, but it works fine for everybody else.
> When the 'slow down' switched to another machine (client02) we had
> just rebooted the switch and client02 and when it came back up it
> wouldn't get a ip address from the server (via dhcp) and the only way
> it did get one was by rebooting again and when it came back up it had
> gone into go slow mode it also seemed to affect its network browsing
> speed whereas that didn't happen on client01, however the files
> copied very slowly and at the same rate as when it was running slow
> on client01. Client01 however was super quick again for a while, this
> changed later when they switched places in the speed stakes for no
> particular reason that we could see.
> Client01 and client02 both have gigabit cards in them (Abit IC7-G's
> builtin card the 3com 3C940 and Netgear GA311) and when they were
> running slow changing the port in the switch, the actual switch or
> the cable made any difference. It has only happened on client02 once
> but it is happening pretty much consistently on client01 even when we
> changed the entire computer! It has also been reported to happen on
> another computer in the network which is connected to the 100mb
> switch.
> This has been driving us crazy, can anyone shed any light on the
> problem or even suggest something we can try?
>
> Many Thanks
>
> John