Windows 2003 slow serving dbf files

[RickG]

I just setup a new Windows 2003 server acting as a PDC for a small (7
PC) network. AD and DNS are running; DHCP has been turned off in an
effort to troubleshoot...all PCs have a static IP. The only use for
this server is to hold a group of dbf files used by an
accounting/inventory application. This app is installed on each PC and
accesses the DBF files on the server via ODBC using a mapped drive.
Opening a list of invoices on a workstation takes a long time. Doing
the same using the application on the server is instant. I tried
mapping using the IP address of the server (rather than the name) but it
did not help. All hardware and cabling seem OK.

The workstations are XP and Windows 98. The server is using 2 7200
Western Digital SATA drives in a RAID 1 configuration.

Any ideas on how to speed this up?

 

[Richard G. Harper]

This is probably to be expected. DBF files are often rather large, and
you're moving them down the network pipe at a speed that's 1/1000th (0.1%)
of the local hard drive's speed. As your queries are being processed at the
PC end of the pipe, that's a lot of data moving back and forth.

 

[RickG]

This is probably to be expected. DBF files are often rather large, and
you're moving them down the network pipe at a speed that's 1/1000th (0.1%)
of the local hard drive's speed. As your queries are being processed at the
PC end of the pipe, that's a lot of data moving back and forth.

If I made this server a fileserver (removing Active Directory and DNS)
would it help?

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Though it might help a little bit I doubt it will help enough to make a
noticeable difference.