Hey all,
Having some issues with my office network… does anyone know of a good Network forum for some quick answers? I tried Tom’s Hardware forum but the Network area is slow moving.
Thanks all!
A few of us here are handy in that regard too. What issue are you having?
the POS is running super slow at times across the nextwork… i tried to see if something was running on one of them during the slow down but can’t seem to trace anything down.
I’ve been pondering if it is the way the network is setup.
Here is a pic of how the network is setup now:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/integraoligist/NetworkSetup.jpg
I’m thinking the HUBs are causing the slow down, so I was thinking of this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/integraoligist/Network2.jpg
I have PC5 going straight to the router for the convience (they sit next to each other)… not sure if it would make a diffrence if I ran a line from PC5 to the Switch just like everything or not?
Thoughts on the whole chindig?
I’d start by looking at the POS server. See what programs are running on that server, defrag it.
Can you not run the hub from the internet jukebox and the internet gaming machine directly into the router instead of through the POS hub?
heres what to do first…check your system resource availibilty. My best guess…and mostly likely problem…your POS database is becoming filled with too much data. Call your pos company and ask them to check your database size…remember, when a call comes into the pos it has to search the database for that customers last order…or even a new customer has to find it space in the database…all of this takes time to process and the more data it needs to parse…the longer it will take. The next thing to do…your main computer where the database is held…make sure you have the max memory installed (not the HD size) since parsing data is a mathmatical equation, the more memory speeds up the processing.
I am sure glad I have something to do tonight since I cannot work my store with a lung infection
I’ll defrag everything tonight, I dont have any open ports on the Router, but even if I was able to move them straight to the router, they are very seldom used… mostly for about 30 sec for a music download here and there at night time, the slowdown happens at any time day or night…
Using Diamond Touch… I can’t call THEM because I bought the system through one of there halfassed compaines they deal with… and when I call them I can’t get ahold of anyone. Don’t even get me started on those idiots.
Anyways, the slowdown is not at any certian time, example: none of the systems are being used, I hit New Ticket on one of the PC’s (besides the server) and it lags a good 10 seconds… usually have I have to do is unplug the HUBS (lose connection to everything) and plug it back it… wait for it to load up, then everything is all right.
I also have issues with just random hicups… all of a sudden all PC’s lose connection with the server… few seconds later everything is fine.
Have you tried going into “utilities” to do a repair on your data base? This must be done after the day’s closed and before you take any new orders in the morning. Sounds like you have a damaged file and it’s causing your system to slow down.
are they hubs or switches??
if they are hubs, definitely replace them with switches.
I have 2 options to consider…
First, you could go to a single 12 or 16 port switch, connect everything to it. the router would be connected to it as well, but none of your computers would be.
the second option (which might be the best for you) would be to replace the hubs with an 8 port switch, connect all of the POS terminals to it. Connect it to the router, and connect your internet jukebox and internet game system to the router, not the switch. In this case, all of the POS traffic would be on their own switch with nothing else to interfere. If you are in fact currently using hubs and not switches, my guess is that all of the network traffic that the jukebox and game system are causing is creating a boatload of network collisions within your hubs, thus slowing everything down and possibly dropping connections.
As for PC 2, do you have any shared printers attached to that computer? if so, there is a remote possibility that the internet radio stuff on there might be slowing that machine down when it has print jobs to deal with.
Take 2 aspirin, with a hot toddy (short on the hot and long on the toddy), and call me in the morning LOL, get some rest and get better!
roanoke 49, i repair the Smart database and the DT database on a regular basis… so in theory it should be fine.
stebby1, yes, what i have now are HUBs… not sure what you mean by option 1 (connect everything to a switch, except the computers) ?
Option2 I see what your saying to just putting the POS PC’s on a switch by itself… but the Jukebox and Game is hardly ever used… and when it is, it’s mosly at night after 9pm. All of the slowdown happen all day and night long. I’m guessing everything on a single Switch should tighten up the times…
No printers are on PC2… all printers are straight from the Server. All PC’s talk to the Server and the Server spits out the tickets.
it’s 1am, and the network had a break down… restarted everything (all pc’s including server and the HUB’s) everything is up and running fine now. errrrrrrr :evil:
i see where i created confusion with my option 1. what i meant was that none of the computers would be connected directly to the router. All of the devices and computers would be connected to the large switch.
I would have to say that the use of hubs are causing part of the problem. watch them sometime and see if you have many collisions (most of the hubs i have seen have a collision light that blinks whenever there are collisions occurring). If you do have a large number of collisions, thats bad and everything starts slowing down and crashing.
the thing with hubs is that they are “dumb.” they just repeat all of the traffic that goes through them to every device connected to them. If more than one device tries to send information at one time, you get a collision (think of 5 people in a group trying to talk at once). everything then has to resend the information that was lost in the collision, thus the slowdown.
a switch on the other hand is “smart.” it can look at information coming into it and direct it to the proper port to its destination. multiple devices can talk at once as the information is only going to where its intended, rather than to every device on the hub. (think of people talking one on one)
Definately an issue with using a “hub” instead of a switch, if this is being cause by the network. I’m suprised it even works at all connecting 2 hubs together like that.
Pick up one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6833122004
Connect the uplink port (port 16) to your DSL router. Everything else you can connect to the switch. I don’t think you will “overload” it. If you want you could continue to connect the jukebox and game directly to the DSL router, I assume from your drawing it has more than one port.
well i’m a complete dumba$$
the 2 “HUBS” are actually 5-port Switches
this is what I get for listening to the jacka$$es that put them in when they installed the setup 3 years ago.
Anyway, the above diagram is still correct on how it’s all cabled togeather… but they are 2 small Switches.
Thoughts? Sorry all for the confusion!
How are your power management settings configured? I would turn all of them off.
Turn off all power management options in control panel on all computers. Having the server or workstation hard disc power down can cause a pretty big delay in seeing software responsiveness.
Turn of the power management options for the network adapter on all computers. Start > Control Panel > System > Device Manager. Go to the Properties window for the network adapter and you’ll find the Power Management tab.
There really is no such thing as the database being “too full.” Modern software uses database technology that is not crippled as data accumulates. Reports may take a moment longer to run or functions that search through large amounts of information could be a tiny bit less responsive, but nothing near the range of a 10 second delay. This delay is related to the computers (most likely) or the network.
ok, i checked all the PCs for the power managment… all Hard drives and everything was set to ON ALL THE TIME… but when I went into the Network adapters, they were all set to Shut Down when not in use. So NOW, they should all be up and running all the time.
Hopefully this was the only cause… i’ll let you know if there are any more slowdowns… but other then that, any other suggustions?
Thanks!
well one of my cashier station motherboard took a dump on me 2 days ago, so I went and got a top of the line mobo/processor with a mox 4gig of Ram and replaced the Server mobo with this new one… and took the server mobo and put it in the cashier station.
Configured everything, and everything was running perfect.
Till this afternoon, then all the stations EXCEPT the Server were at a slow down again.
I’ll go up top tomarrow and move the network cables around so that PCs 1-4 are running through 1 switch, then take the 5th port and move it to the 2nd switch which will hold the jukebox and game… and port that to the Router.
Now all but PC5 “should” be up to speed with nothing else to clog up the pipe lines… right?
What else is there to do? I dont know, this is starting it irritate.
Just getting back in town. Lets get back on this thread and see what we can do.
Lay it all down for us again, and lets try to look at it with a fresh set of eyes.
ok, here we go.
I setup the power managment software on all 5 PCs, and the day after I did that PC2’s motherboard shot… so I moved PC1’s motherboard to PC2 and installed a new top-notch motherboard & processor with the max 4 gig of RAM. I also upped the RAM in PC2 from 500meg to 1 gig, and did the same to PC3 (from 500meg to 1gig).
PC4 already has 1gig RAM, and PC5 has 4 gig.
This is the setup right now:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/integraoligist/Network.jpg
The radio on PC2 has not skipped once since I replaced the motherboard however the network “slowdown” and hicups are still there… the other PC’s still lose connection with the server.
So I was planning on setting up the network this way:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/integraoligist/Network3.jpg
Thoughts?
for some reason i can’t seem to find the EDIT button anymore so… the "HUB"s in the first Pic, are actually SWITCHES
Thanks all!
Does the POS software on the other computers use a database that is on the “server”? If so, I assume it is a simple network drive from the other PC (like z:\dir\database)?
If you want to absolutely eliminate a hub/switch issue, I’d go ahead and buy that switch I posted the link to and simply connect everything to the switch as I described. Either way, even if that isn’t the problem - it will make for a much cleaner system.