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Small office network problems. One pc on the network lags when accessing server apps.

Muscles

Muscles

Senior member
First I'd like to appreciate anyone taking the time to read this and help out. I'll try to explain in detail what I've done thus far and what the problem is.

A few weeks ago 1 of the 4 client workstations crapped out so I
replaced it with all new hardware and Win XP Pro. That first machine
I replaced was an experiment since I wasn't sure if I could get it to
communicate correctly over the network and on NT Server 4.0. Turned
out I had no trouble getting the new XP Pro machine to join the domain
and all the server apps ran perfectly. We then decided to upgrade one
of the other machines which I got up and running flawlessly. However,
we found out the next day one of the old win98 machines locked up when
trying to access any of the server apps. Nothing on that machine had
changed so I suspected the new XP Pro machine was causing interference
over the network and figured if I upgraded the last two workstations
the problem would be solved. So I did replace the last two
workstations except now the 4th machine (different physical location
in the office than the pc having the problem while it was on 98) is
having trouble accessing server apps. The machine doesn't lock up
like it did before on win98 but theres about a 30 second delay when
transistioning between menus. The computer ONLY has a problem with
server apps. All pings seem perfect between the pc's and it can
send/receive large files the same speed as the machines working
correctly to the server. Only when running the serverside apps it
lags.

Originally, all 4 workstations were running Win98SE w/celeron 333
processors and 64mb of ram. I replaced all 4 workstations with:

A64 3000+ Newcastles
MB Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR NFORCE3 250 socket 754
512mb pc3200 Corsair
Geforce4 MX 440
WD SATA 80gb 8mb cache HD
CDRW/DVD-ROM Optical Drive

1 of the 4 workstations is slightly different. Everything is the same
except the MB which is:
MB MSI|VIA K8T800 K8T NEO-FIS2R

Now to answer some questions.
Both the Soltek and MSI motherboards have onboard gb lan. The sole
MSI board is not the one having the problem. The problem machine is
using 1 of the 3 identical Soltek MB's.

I never checked or changed the network cables because everything
worked properly prior to replacing the last 3 workstations. If one of
the network cables was using a crossover cable or something I'd
imagine a problem would of existed before upgrading everything.

Originally, before I upgraded everything a 4-port linksys router was
present with two hubs connected as daisy-chains. I replaced those
with an 8-port netgear router. Here is a link for specs:
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=33-122-007&depa=0

The new router seems to be functioning 100%. I tried switching the
LAN cables to different ports but it didn't make any difference.

Thanks again for the assistance. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
what is the server app?

I'm thinking you may be having netbios browsing trouble or possibly DNS, adding the XP machines to the mix changed everything as far as microsoft networking is concerned.

If moving files runs smoothly/fast then you probably don't have a cabling problem, although that would be the first thing I would check.
 
The server app is an MS-DOS based program used to do Quotes for an insurance underwriter. Moving files to and/or from the shared folder on the server is perfectly smooth.

I'm thinking you may be having netbios browsing trouble or possibly DNS, adding the XP machines to the mix changed everything as far as microsoft networking is concerned.
Click to expand...
So what do you suggest I do to fix?
 
30 seconds is a common delay for name resolution timeouts, something that's VERY common. To cheat the system a bit, add the server name to your HOSTS and/or LMHOSTS file and see if that helps.

What do you do for name resolution on the network? WINS? What protocol are you using? IP, IPX/SPX or NetBEUI?

- G
 
Originally posted by: Garion
30 seconds is a common delay for name resolution timeouts, something that's VERY common. To cheat the system a bit, add the server name to your HOSTS and/or LMHOSTS file and see if that helps.

What do you do for name resolution on the network? WINS? What protocol are you using? IP, IPX/SPX or NetBEUI?

- G
Click to expand...

that's what I was thinking 30 seconds is a magic DNS timeout.

It's probably using some kind of mapped drive. But even still once its found the name it should run just fine (unless some weird direct netbios calls are being made...it could be the case with a dos program)

I agree with Garion, look at the protocols and describe how you're doing name resolution.
 
Right after I posted I found this googling.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314108

Is this what I need to do? Just create an LMHOSTS file on the workstation having the problem and see if it solves it? Couple quick questions regarding the article. It says to, " Replace 10.0.0.1 with the IP address of your primary domain controller (PDC), replace PDCName with the NetBIOS name of your PDC, and replace DOMAIN_NAME with the name of your Windows NT-based domain. "

The PDC IP is just a fancy way of saying the IP address of the server right? Also, how do I find out what the PDCName is (NetBIOS name of your PDC)?
 
Thanks so much for the links John. I'm going to try those solutions after close today and let ya know if I get it to work.
 
WOOOT I got it. The new netgear cable/dsl router I had was performing DNS and DHCP. All the workstations were set to DHCP and their DNS was pointing to the router instead of the NT Server. I fixed it simply by going into the TCP/IP properties of the client machine having the problem and specifying the DNS Server IP address. This problem needed to be fixed bad and I feel like I just got a huge monkey off my back.

I really appreciate all the help guys, I can't thank you enough.
 
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