Hi, we’re a GP surgery in the UK. Total # of PCs (almost all of which XPSP3) connected 50, in use concurrently averages 30 or so. There is a 2Mbps SDSL link into the NHS N3 network. The majority of PC’s are 10/100/1000 Mbps NIC’s. We have 4 switches. 1xHP2650 46 ports 10/100Mbps 2x1Gbps, 1xHP1800 24×10/100/1000 Mbps ports, 1xHP2510 24×10/100/1000 Mbps ports. The 4th switch is a Netgear FS524 24×10/100Mbps which plugs from 1 port into the HP2510 & supports 10 PC’s almost all of which 10/100/1000 Mbps NIC’s. The cables have been added to over the years and as far as I can tell by differing suppliers. No backbone all go to one of the switches above.
Issues I have:-
Overall throughput is not good in my view. A rated 1Gbps NIC even if it connects at 1Gb, has a throughput of 120-140Mbps. Any NIC that drops to 100Mbps has a throughput of 40-60Mbps. Some have problems at boot finding a domain controller, eventually they get a connection most of the time but this can either make the boot time go out to about 6-8 minutes or not at all!
When I’ve been swapping things around in an attempt to improve things, I get the feeling that cables play a part. Example: PC performs badly in one place. Remove PC take it next to the switch & plug it into a port. Manage to get the higher performance of 1Gb & throughput. Take it back to where it was having made sure the cable to that location is plugged into the port providing the good throughput. When PC located back to original place throughput drops to 100Mb.
The network is lightly loaded. Servers (Windows 2003 Server) are way over specified for what they do so I’m confident the problem doesn’t lie there.
Have had PRTG (full version provide by the support Co) running for a few days & nothing suspicious there.
Any ideas out there?TIA.
