We had ittermittant slowness during one period.  Then we discovered a dev
who would at random times during the day copy 800GB-1.5TB files across the
network.

Just a thought.

On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 5:36 AM, Ziots, Edward <[email protected]> wrote:

>  I would recommend that fiddler HTTP proxy be added to 2 representative
> workstations, going to the same website, one outside and one inside, and
> look at the traffic dump to see where things might be slowing down, its
> saved me a lot of work in the past, either verifying there is a web problem,
> or debunking the web problem accordingly.
>
>
>
> Here is where to get the fiddler HTTP proxy, and there is a lot of nice
> add-ons to the utility.
>
>
>
> www.fiddler2.com
>
>
>
> Z
>
>
>
> Edward E. Ziots
>
> CISSP, Network +, Security +
>
> Security Engineer
>
> Lifespan Organization
>
> Email:[email protected]
>
> Cell:401-639-3505
>
> [image: CISSP_logo]
>
>
>
> *From:* Andrew S. Baker [mailto:[email protected]]
> *Sent:* Thursday, June 09, 2011 6:25 AM
> *To:* NT System Admin Issues
> *Subject:* Re: OTish: Need some ideas on troubleshooting web browsing
> problem
>
>
>
> Doesn't the fact that there is no consistency in the data from systems
> placed at different points in your network *helpful* to determining where
> there is a potential slowdown?
>
> Users complain about slow performance, and your logging shows that speeds 
> outside are faster than those inside.
>
> This would indicate that something on the inside is a bottleneck at that 
> time...
>
> It would seem to me that you have more than enough data to drill down and 
> find out where the issues are taking place.
>
>
>
>  *ASB *(Professional Bio <http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio>)
> *Harnessing the Advantages of Technology for the SMB market...**
> *
> * *
>
>
>
>  On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 1:12 AM, Kurt Buff <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> All,
>
> I'm in need of a new approach to troubleshooting staff complaints
> about intermittent slowness of web browsing. We have about 200 staff
> members on site, the symptoms are intermittent at best, but include
> some generalized slowness in page loads, and occasional complete page
> misses - that is, staff report that a page fails to load at all, with
> a message that the system can't find the page, but hitting refresh
> will usually bring the page right up.
>
> My current testing methodology seems to be getting me nowhere and
> causing me to lose hair in great chunks. I outline the methodology
> below because someone might spot a flaw in it.
>
> I'm not well versed in reading packets, so haven't yet resorted to
> wireshark or tcpdump, but my testing so far leads me to believe that I
> won't find much that way. If your reading of the situation leads you
> to believe otherwise, I'm all ears. But I'm also really interested in
> hearing other things all y'all might suggest on how to go about this.
>
> Network physical configuration:
>     DS3 >> HP 2524 switch >> Sidewinder firewall >> HP 2524 switch >>
> Barracuda web filter >> HP 3400cl switch >> production VLANs
>
> Network logical configuration:
>     No VLANs externally, 9 VLANs that run over the 3400cl and 18
> VLANs (the ones on the 3400cl, plus 9 for test/dev/other) that run on
> the internal HP 2524. The firewall is a HA pair (active/passive) and
> has a VLANed interface to the HP 2524 - it sees all of the VLANs.
>
> Other data:
>     I've got ntop running on two different points on the network -
> the external HP 2524, and the HP 3400cl - no load anomalies for the
> LAN or Internet connection noted.
>
> Testing methodology:
>     I have placed a FreeBSD box with a public IP address external to
> the firewall, and two FreeBSD boxes internal to the firewall on
> different VLANs. One of the internal FreeBSD boxes is on a VLAN that
> doesn't traverse the 3400cl, and the other is placed in a VLAN that
> does - both VLANs transit the Barracuda, as do all staff machines.
> Each box has cURL installed (there's a version for Windows as well),
> and is given an identical list of about 2100 unique (http://fqdn only
> - not http://fqdn/somepath) URLs to resolve and download. I kick off
> the batch files manually - and simultaneously.
>     The batch file is simple:
>          date > /root/out.txt
>          /usr/local/bin/curl -K /root/urls.txt >> /root/out.txt
>          date >> /root/out.txt
>     The entries are all formatted similarly, e.g.:
>          url = "http://www.google.com";
>          -s
>          -w = "%{url_effective}\t%{time_total}\t%{time_namelookup}\n"
>          -o = /dev/null
>     The output looks like this:
>          http://www.google.com   0.093   0.066
>     Downloaded data is dumped to /dev/null, but I capture the timings
> for name resolution and the total transaction so that if I want I can
> analyze them later. I used this method before to identify a problem
> with the DNS proxy on the firewall, so thought this would be a useful
> method to do the same thing.
>     All three boxes are using Google for name resolution: 8.8.8.8 -
> so that I can eliminate variances based on possible problems with our
> AD DNS infrastructure - I don't think there are any, but....
>     Currently, our AD DNS points to 8.8.8.8 for its resolvers, but
> was originally pointed at our ISPs DNS - that change doesn't seem to
> have made a difference in staff experience.
>     I gathered the URLs from my syslogs, so they are real sites that
> people here visit.
>
> The problem with the results from the methodology:
>     Using the same data files each time, timings across all three
> boxes have varied wildly. On Friday of last week, each of the three
> boxes took 40 minutes to run through the list of URLs. On Tuesday they
> each took roughly three hours. Today the external box took 40 minutes
> and one of the internal boxes took about 3 hours, and the other
> internal machine hadn't finished by the time I left work - cURL hung
> on that machine and I'm going to rebuild it, as it had been mothballed
> and only revived for this test, and really needs updating. Because
> there is no consistency in the data, I cannot draw any conclusions.
> I'm going to try a few more runs, but definitely feel the need for a
> different approach
>
> Any thoughts you might have will be appreciated. I'm out for the next
> couple of days, so won't be able to try any suggestions until next
> week, but would love to hear from folks on this.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kurt
>
> ~ 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
>

~ 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

<<image001.jpg>>

Reply via email to