slow client on network

[ThePiston]

I have about 9 PCs on a network at a small medical clinic. I bought 3 Dell laptops from ebay. 2 of them work fine, but one is sooo sllooowww on the network. Every click we make takes a long time to register and come back. It feels like it's a dialup connection, but this is a Gigabit network. I've reloaded network drivers, check all speed settings (set it to 100MB Full with no fix). I shut off the Windows firewall and stopped all processes attributed to the user in task manager. I did notice that "XP network diagnostics" was one of the exceptions in Windows Firewall, so this must have been a known issue when the guy sold it.

What I've done so far:

• reloaded network drivers,

• check all speed settings (set it to 100MB Full with no fix).

• I shut off the Windows firewall

• stopped all processes attributed to the user in task manager.

• I put it on another data port that I know is fast and still slow

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[spidey07]

What is the switch port set to for speed and duplex? You can't force one side and leave the other at auto, either auto both sides of the link or hard set both sides, never set one, auto the other.

Other than that cabling would be the likely culprit.

 

[ThePiston]

calbleing is OK - i tried 3 different cables. All ports are set to Auto

 

[JackMDS]

Try to optimize the TCP/IP Stack.

Optimizing the TCP/IP Stack - http://www.ezlan.net/Internet_Speed.html

 

[RebateMonger]

Try a BART PE or Linux live CD, loading the proper drivers, and see if it behaves better. You should at least be able to decide if it's a hardware problem or a software problem. As spidey07 noted, any setting but "Auto Negotiation" on a network card is usually a bad idea.

Also, be sure that any WiFi adapter is disabled when you are using a hard wire. It's not a good idea to have them both running at the same time if they are on the same subnet.

 

[imported_snikt]

Make sure there aren't any manual entries for default gateway, DNS, and WINS that don't pertain to your LAN.

 

[ThePiston]

yep - did all that. i'm going to bring a USB network adapter to work tomorrow and see if that helps, but I think it's something deeper - might need a complete reinstall which sucks because I bought this laptop with Office 2007 already on it.

 

[spidey07]

Most likely cabling. Take the machine and plug it directly into the switch with a patch cable.

 

[ThePiston]

i can do that, but I plugged it into a data port that is working properly on another PC and it was still slow.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: ThePiston
i can do that, but I plugged it into a data port that is working properly on another PC and it was still slow.

I understand, that still doesn't mean you don't have a cabling problem.

A "slow network" is almost always cabling or a duplex mismatch so it's best to just get those out of the way before moving further.

 

[ncl]

What are you trying to do on the network? Files shares, printing, apps server, internet? You haven't really described "what" is slow.

 

[ThePiston]

everything. clicking on network files, internet, anything on the network takes way longer than it should - like it's in slow mo. Even scrolling in a window is slow which obviously isn't the network. I'm so close to just reformatting.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: ThePiston
- might need a complete reinstall which sucks because I bought this laptop with Office 2007 already on it.

If it had Office installed from the factory, Office is likely pre-installed on the Dell System Restore image on the Restore partition on the hard drive (if one exists) - Ctrl-F11 during boot will take you to the Restore process. Be sure to get the Office Key using Belarc or SIW or such before restoring. I'd also get a list of all devices and drivers in the Device Manager too, just to be safe.

 

[ThePiston]

pretty sure Ofice was installed later - this is a 2004 machine D600