Does Your Network Work for Peanuts?
Think of your network as a bowl full of peanuts. Each time a user
performs a task that requires a portion of the network, they take
a handful of peanuts. As more and more traffic occurs on your network,
the peanuts disappear more rapidly. Eventually, you will have to
take one of two actions. Either you buy a bigger bowl and put more
peanuts in it, or you reduce the number of peanuts each person takes.
This article is about reducing your peanut needs.
 TOPS
Installation
One of the first things you want to identify is your TOPS installation.
There are two primary ways to install TOPS – as a full install,
or as a workstation. A full install moves all of the program files
for TOPS 2000™ onto the user’s machine. In this scenario,
the only traffic traveling across the network is the community data.
A workstation install, on the other hand, only installs the absolutely
essential files to the users machine. All other program files, and
the community data must then travel over the network. For slow or
overburdened networks, a workstation installation can be a death
toll, causing extremely slow access for the workstation user, and
slowdown for all other users on the network. Remember that the more
users who have this type of installation, the larger the burden
you are placing on your network.
The Internet
These days, probably the biggest problem when it comes to hogging
network bandwidth, is the Internet. If you are experiencing a lot
of network slowdown, you may want to take a look over your users
shoulders to help you identify the problem. Some of the major offenders
here are chat programs (such as AOL IM or ICQ), streaming video
sites, MP3 download sites (such as Napster), and Internet radio.
These Internet services seem to offer a great benefit to users,
but they are constantly sending packets of information back and
forth from the user’s machine to the server to the Internet
and back again, causing an enormous traffic load. A good way to
check this is to disconnect the Internet from your network and check
your network traffic. If it is greatly improved, you may need to
make an Internet policy.
Too Many Programs
Another problem that is easy to fix on the user side is machine
capacity. Are you sure that the slowdown is on the entire network
or just your machine? If the answer is the latter, check out the
number of programs you have running. An easy way to do so is the
press the CTRL+ALT+Delete keys simultaneously. This can bring up
a task list displaying the processes currently running in memory.
If there are dozens of line items here, you have identified your
 problem.
Every program that runs on your machine takes up memory. The less
memory you have the more evident this type of slowdown will become.
Many programs run in stealth mode when you boot up your machine.
You may have 20 programs start up each morning when you turn on
your machine! To deactivate these programs, delete them out of the
startup group in your start menu.
Incompatible Hardware
The last check that you can use to diagnose your network involves
a little extra work. Have your computer person open up the cases
on the computers in your office and check the speed of the NIC cards
(Network Interface Cards). One of the more common reasons for network
slowdown is incompatible cards. If all of the machines in your office
are running at 100 BASE T4 (100 megabits per second) speed, and
one older machine is running 10 BASE T (10 megabits per second)
speed, your entire network is likely to run at the slower speed.
(Some hubs can accommodate for this, but most do not.) Sometimes,
the best remedy for a slow network is simply to make sure that all
of your equipment is compatible.
Follow these steps, and you will see more peanuts in your network
bowl, making TOPS 2000™ and other networked applications run
faster..
Andrea
Drennen is the Internet Services Manager.
|
