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Windows SBS network with XP Clients

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by serg meister 1 view

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Hi there all Hope you can help...
My friend is running Small Business Server 4.5 with 8 Client matchines, recently after upgrading 3 units to New Dell's with Window XP Pro he's noticed slowness in the network. I've had a look it, configuration seems straight forward but database applications & even Excel documents do seem to take quite some time to open up (on both the New & Old systems).
The other factor I found could be part of the issue is that there is no defrag software installed on the server (it's been up & Running for about 2.5 years) could it be a conflict or incompatibility with XP or is just that the server is fragmented & the noticeable slow down has been building up till now?
I know the information is light, please ask for any other information you may require to have an educated answers,
Lastly ? a) if it is Defrag issue, any suggestions on which software is best for Win SBS? B) How do I determine if it has the latest service patches?
Thank you in advance...

3 replies

by timwalsh

Easy answer first:

Service Packs - There are no Service Packs or patches for the entire SBS package. Service packs must be installed for each piece of SBS (i.e. NT4, Exchange, SQL, etc.).
How to tell which service packs are installed:
NT4 - during bootup, from the Version tab in Windows NT Diagnostics, Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.
Other applications: from the Help menu | About... , Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.

Slow down problem: Are the database and Ecel files hosted on the SBS server? If so, fragmentation could very well be causing your problems, especially if the server has never been defragmented. Heavily used DB and spreadsheet files tend to fragment a lot. Any defragmentation software designed to work with NT will work with SBS. My favorite is Diskeeper from Executive Software. There are other programs available.

While I can't say that XP ISN'T causing any problems, usually any XP problems manifest themselves only on those computers runningXP, not the entire network.

Also, if the apparent slowness only happens when opening certain types of files, or only files hosted on the SBS server, then it is really more of a problem with the server vs. with the network in general.

Hope thishelps.

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