> I will try your suggestion
> with rbase.dat startup file. I also should mention that I use other
> applications on the network like MAS90 accounting and it is not slow at
> all.
Mark, you need to take a step back and find out whether your problem is R:Base
related or not. The easiest way to do this is to try a test copying a large
file from the network to your local workstation and then back again. If the
copy is very slow in either direction, you have a problem that has no
connection to R:Base.
Here's a VB script I have been using at a client recently (watch out for
wrapping, you may have to unwrap lines):
' CopyTest.VBS: Tests network speed by copying file.
' Displays time to copy file down to local computer,
' time to copy file back up to network, and
' megabytes per second when copying up to network.
' Must be run from network directory, must have file
' DISKTEST.OUT in the working directory.
Dim oFileSystem
Dim oFile
Dim iFileSize
Set oFileSystem = CreateObject("Scripting.fileSystemObject")
Set oFile = oFileSystem.GetFile("DiskTest.OUT")
iFileSize = oFile.Size
Set oFile = Nothing
MsgBox "Network throughput test should take between " + _
FormatNumber(iFileSize/(1024*1024), 0) + " and " + _
FormatNumber(((iFileSize/(1024*1024)) * 100), 0) + _
" seconds, depending on throughput."
Dim tStart
Dim tCopiedDown
Dim tCopiedUp
tStart = timer()
oFileSystem.CopyFile "DiskTest.OUT", "C:\", TRUE
tCopiedDown = timer()
oFileSystem.CopyFile "C:\DiskTest.OUT", ".\", TRUE
tCopiedUp = timer()
MsgBox "Done: Down = " + FormatNumber(tCopiedDown-tStart, 2) + _
", Up = " + FormatNumber(tCopiedUp-tCopiedDown, 2) + CHR(10) + _
"MB/Second = " +
FormatNumber(iFileSize/(1024*1024*(TCopiedUp-tCopiedDown)), 4) + _
" (should be 1.0 or higher)"
WScript.Quit(0)
To use this script, cut and paste it in notepad, and save the file on a network
folder with the name COPYTEST.VBS. In the same directory, put a large file (I
use a 10 megabyte file). Then run COPYTEST.VBS from the command line or
Windows Explorer.
It will copy the file to your local hard disk and then back up to the network
and report a crude throughput in megabytes per second for each direction.
At my client some workstations were really slow. Using this routine I was able
to demonstrate that some workstations gave a throughput of 6 or 7 megabytes per
second and some gave .03 megabytes per second (a factor of 200 time slower!!).
Because my test did not involve R:Base I was able to eliminate the "it's the
database's fault" argument -- I showed that you couldn't even copy files around
on the network.
In this case, the client was able to work around the problem by using different
switch ports for the machines running R:Base. I still don't know exactly what
the problem was.
Interestingly enough, there were some machines that would change from about 7mb
to .03mb throughput by changing the switch they used. There was another class
of machine that had a throughput of about 1mb per second no matter what port
they were plugged in to.
Anyway, I hope this VBS will be of some use to you.
--
Larry
