OK if the apps is hosted on the internet, is it safe to assume it's a web-based application? If so, it probably invokes Java on the workstation to do some of its function. Java, Unfortuntely, is a notorious PIG of an application, which could be leading to some of your application issues ( especially if the code being called within the web session and interacting with the java instance to do its bidding isn't optimized)
You can look at the web-traffic happening on a client by using the FIDDLER HTTP Debugging Browser plugin for IE/Firefox, www.fiddler2.com Which if it's a web application will let you know exactly what is happening in the browser, and the response from the server ( or if you are seeing 400x or 500x errors ( Client side and Server side issues) The other thing you will probably want to put on a representative workstation is Wireshark, and do a sniff while you are working with the web application, and see if you are getting timeouts, a high number of retransmissions, or resets ( which means you got congestion, bandwidth issues, drive issues, packet loss etc etc, that you need to deal with at Layer 2-3, before you really see what is happening at layer 7) Also the thing you really need to see is what the traffic metrics and types for what is coming in and out of the internet pipe ( maybe using NTOP or other bandwidth analysis tools) which could give some insight about the traffic types, and the source IP's. Could be a lot of bit-torrent activity or dropbox, or Audit Streaming, or Malicious malware based traffic ( someone is using you as a amplifying site, or with Skype you might have just become a SUPERNODE and others are pointed your way which you might not know) Again a lot of possibilities, I am sure these aren't the only things you could look at but it's a good start. Z Edward E. Ziots CISSP, Network +, Security + Security Engineer Lifespan Organization Email:[email protected] Cell:401-639-3505 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 2:26 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: strange hosted app issue Finding this issue to be a bit perplexing. Have an application that is hosted on the internet. App uses a java interface run on the client machines (both PC and Mac and even iPads). The app sometimes takes forever to load up and users often get booted from it during normal use of the app (if they can even get into the app). Using the hosted app off-hours never shows any slowness. The internet pipe is 10mb up/down. Their doesn't SEEM to be an issue with bandwidth conjestion, but we're still determining that (customer had NO tools in place to monitor that traffic - live). When people are having problems running that application, they can still browse anything else on the internet without problem -- which makes it seem like bandwidth isn't an issue, possibly. The customer even tried swapping out to a different firewall for test purposes, and completely removing the web filter too. Neither helped. Aside from bandwidth, is there anything else worth looking at here? Something overlooked? App provider isn't helpful as the site in quetion is the only place experiecing the issue it seems. Perhaps trying a different java version, etc.? Grasping straws. Thanks! -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
