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Slow Login over WAN links

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by mbatty 1 view

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I have a Novell 5 server in a head office location and a WAN link to a small office with 5 PCs. The small office has more users that PCs, so when the user logs on their profile is downloaded from the File Server in the head office. The profile is not large (c. 512kb) but logon times are in the 3-4minute mark. This also effects file downaods and appliciaton starts (e.g. Notes)

The WAN link is 256kbps and I am using TCP/IP for the client protocol with the Novell Client. With a WAN link is 256kbps I would not expect the login time to take so long (should be no longer than 60 seconds).

A sniffer trace of the problem shows the connection being established within 5 secons, but when the profile downlaod starts it shows every NCP packet being acknowledged and the files being downloaded three times each. Also, there are instances of files being downloaded one byte at a time.

The question is what can I do to improve login times?

4 replies

by pgm554

Sounds like Nagle's Algorithm issue.
Try this ,it should work on a 5.0 server,but 5.0 is no longer supported,so you take your chances.

Turn off Delayed Acknowledgement:
NetWare 5.1 SP2a and below: SET TCP DELAYED ACK = OFF
NetWare 5.1 SP3: SETTCP DELAYED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT = OFF

Turn off Nagle's Algorithm:
NetWare 5.0: Set TCP nagle Algorithm = off
NetWare 5.1: Set TCP nagle Algorithm = off

by pgm554

Also turn off client side caching.
This can also be solved by turning off the set parameter NCP | Client File Caching Enabled =OFF.

by tressdetector

a bad port at remote office or a looped port has been accidentally inserted to the switch or hub there. Also a bad NIC would also cause this problem. Try to disconnect all ports and insert one at a time to see which machine may cause this delay.

by mbatty

This is definately not at LAN hub or wiring issue. It is the behaviour of NCP that is cuasing the problem.

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