Network troubleshooting tips? (slow file transfer)

[djarvinen]

I'm looking for some advice on how to troubleshoot a network I'm
having some problems with.

It's just a simple peer-to-peer, with about ten workstations. Most of
the PCs are WinXP Pro but the PC I'm having problems with is our
'file' server and it has Win2K SP4 installed on it.

It does very little else other than act as a File Server and a Daily
Backup (automated). It's been fine for about two years but suddenly,
and I mean very suddenly, the file copy time from one PC to another
has increased dramatically.

I have some automated jobs that copy a lot of files across the network
(a couple hundred files, ranging in size from 5kb to 20mb) and this
job used to take about 5-6 minutes. Now it takes over 20.

Also, this network is 'isolated'; it has absolutely no Internet access
(not even physically). Even so, I ran Spybot and an AV program to
check and see if something had inadvertantly been added. These
programs came up negative.

I ran Network Monitor which showed that indeed the slowdown is with
network traffic. At times, the data transfer speed is as low as
50-60kb/sec. Most of the network cards we use are 10mbs (a few are
100mbs).

I've checked the task manager and it shows very little CPU usage even
during the file transfers.

I've checked the disk space and we're using only about 50gb out of the
150gb available.

528mb RAM, Pentium IV, some ASUS motherboard.

Rebooted a couple of times, no joy.

File copy 'within' the local drive (from Drive C t Drive C) is fine.

I doubt that anyone has tinkered with the PC or the network settings
as no one really has access to that room, and wouldn't know what to do
to screw it up anyway. It's my job to screw it up.

Ugh...

I really, really, really get discouraged with Windows occasionally...

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I'm looking for some advice on how to troubleshoot a network I'm
having some problems with.

It's just a simple peer-to-peer, with about ten workstations. Most of
the PCs are WinXP Pro but the PC I'm having problems with is our
'file' server and it has Win2K SP4 installed on it.

It does very little else other than act as a File Server and a Daily
Backup (automated). It's been fine for about two years but suddenly,
and I mean very suddenly, the file copy time from one PC to another
has increased dramatically.

I have some automated jobs that copy a lot of files across the network
(a couple hundred files, ranging in size from 5kb to 20mb) and this
job used to take about 5-6 minutes. Now it takes over 20.

Also, this network is 'isolated'; it has absolutely no Internet access
(not even physically). Even so, I ran Spybot and an AV program to
check and see if something had inadvertantly been added. These
programs came up negative.

I ran Network Monitor which showed that indeed the slowdown is with
network traffic. At times, the data transfer speed is as low as
50-60kb/sec. Most of the network cards we use are 10mbs (a few are
100mbs).

I've checked the task manager and it shows very little CPU usage even
during the file transfers.

I've checked the disk space and we're using only about 50gb out of the
150gb available.

528mb RAM, Pentium IV, some ASUS motherboard.

Rebooted a couple of times, no joy.

File copy 'within' the local drive (from Drive C t Drive C) is fine.

I doubt that anyone has tinkered with the PC or the network settings
as no one really has access to that room, and wouldn't know what to do
to screw it up anyway. It's my job to screw it up.

Ugh...

I really, really, really get discouraged with Windows occasionally...

The key to your problem may lie in your last remark.
It suggests that the cause is in Windows. Most likely
it is not, so you should be discouraged by hardware-
related issues . . .

Here is what I would look at:
- Faulty hub port
- Faulty hub
- Bad CAT5 cable
- Faulty network adapter
- Electrical interference (e.g. a CAT5 cable running next to a power cable)

Each of these possible causes can be eliminated by selectively
exchanging or disabling things.

 

[goarilla@work]

The key to your problem may lie in your last remark.
It suggests that the cause is in Windows. Most likely
it is not, so you should be discouraged by hardware-
related issues . . .

Here is what I would look at:
- Faulty hub port
- Faulty hub
- Bad CAT5 cable
- Faulty network adapter
- Electrical interference (e.g. a CAT5 cable running next to a power cable)

Each of these possible causes can be eliminated by selectively
exchanging or disabling things.

it's probably nr 4
i would start by checking the NIC itself.
the other 4 while good suggestions for hardware troubleshooting
are probably not gonna give any results since the OP has stated he is in
a static isolated network environment.

while you're obviously someone who knows windows and likes/adores it
i wouldn't dismess his claim of ... software errors and i would like to
point the op at ... the event logs in computer management (compmgmt.msc)
also i would read up on netcat and try to test copying with that ...
it's a little bit more difficult than using a gui to copy files but it's
a tool with minimal overhead that when used improperly gives you an idea
of what 99.9 % performance and network clogging looks/feels like

 

[djarvinen]

it's probably nr 4
i would start by checking the NIC itself.
the other 4 while good suggestions for hardware troubleshooting
are probably not gonna give any results since the OP has stated he is in
a static isolated network environment.

while you're obviously someone who knows windows and likes/adores it
i wouldn't dismess his claim of ... software errors and i would like to
point the op at ... the event logs in computer management (compmgmt.msc)
also i would read up on netcat and try to test copying with that ...
it's a little bit more difficult than using a gui to copy files but it's
a tool with minimal overhead that when used improperly gives you an idea
of what 99.9 % performance and network clogging looks/feels like - Hide quoted text

Thanks, guys for the help. Finally resolved it (took a while because
of the fourteen other fires to put out first...)

Turns out it was a switch between my PC and server. After determining
who had the slowdowns, it was pretty easy to determine that the common
denominator was one switch. Replaced the switch, and voila!

OK, my apologies to Microsoft. It wasn't them.

This time.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

while you're obviously someone who knows windows and likes/adores it
i wouldn't dismess his claim of ... software errors and i would like to
point the op at ... the event logs in computer management (compmgmt.msc)
also i would read up on netcat and try to test copying with that ... it's
a little bit more difficult than using a gui to copy files but it's a tool
with minimal overhead that when used improperly gives you an idea of what
99.9 % performance and network clogging looks/feels like

I never dismissed anything - I simply said that the OP may prematurely
decided it's a Windows problem when the probability for a hardware
problem was much higher. When trouble-shooting it is best to keep all
options open until some can be safely eliminated. His remark "I really,
really, really get discouraged with Windows occasionally..." set all my
alarm bells ringing.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

it's probably nr 4
i would start by checking the NIC itself.
the other 4 while good suggestions for hardware troubleshooting
are probably not gonna give any results since the OP has stated he is in
a static isolated network environment.

while you're obviously someone who knows windows and likes/adores it
i wouldn't dismess his claim of ... software errors and i would like to
point the op at ... the event logs in computer management (compmgmt.msc)
also i would read up on netcat and try to test copying with that ...
it's a little bit more difficult than using a gui to copy files but it's
a tool with minimal overhead that when used improperly gives you an idea
of what 99.9 % performance and network clogging looks/feels like - Hide
quoted text

Thanks, guys for the help. Finally resolved it (took a while because
of the fourteen other fires to put out first...)

Turns out it was a switch between my PC and server. After determining
who had the slowdowns, it was pretty easy to determine that the common
denominator was one switch. Replaced the switch, and voila!

OK, my apologies to Microsoft. It wasn't them.

This time.
=============
Thanks for the feedback. Focussing on a single culprit when there
are a few other possible ones will invariably extend the agony of
trouble-shooting.

 

[djarvinen]

I never dismissed anything - I simply said that the OP may prematurely
decided it's a Windows problem when the probability for a hardware
problem was much higher. When trouble-shooting it is best to keep all
options open until some can be safely eliminated. His remark "I really,
really, really get discouraged with Windows occasionally..." set all my
alarm bells ringing.

Well... I admit it. This time I was wrong.

And I really don't want to start a war about software/hardware/he said/
she said/Microsoft/linux/etc...

But there's nothing wrong with a healthy debate.

First, I really have been involved with software and hardware and IT
for a long time (in fact, I was in IT before there WAS IT).

In my experience, it almost always a software problem. Hardware takes
quite a few licks when in fact the problem is often the software. So
when something goes wrong, I invariably look at software issues first.

Sure, I've seen my share of hardware problems, hundreds of them. But
software... gack!

The problem I was having seemed to be related closely to similar
problems I've had in the past: too many files, or very large files
would often choke or bring down the system. Not due to hardware
issues but due to software issues. Hell, DOS couldn't even handle too
many files on the root.

So when I noticed the slowdown on our network, I took my natural (and
wrong) jump to "OK, what's wrong with Windows now...".

The switch failure behavior was a bit unfortunate. Typically these
things work or don't work. In this case, the box just degraded over
time. Quite unusual, in my experience.

So, yeh, I was wrong, but Microsoft is definitely not off the hook on
my other issues. I'll start another thread on my idiotic peer-to-peer
network where the file server seems to keep reverting back to an old
host name. That one's gonna be tough to blame on the hardware.