The hardest case to diagnose of problems of this nature I have ever come across was a network that would corrupt things, randomly from all the computers "in the back" while those "in the front" never had troubles. Somewhere or Somewhen, Someone had run the CAT 5 cable over a flourescent light fixture! Moved the cable and solved the problems. BTW, it was not I that solved the problem. I'm not that smart. --- "David M. Blocker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thanks Alastair - an excellent thread with great suggestions. We ALL seem to > face this one sooner or later! > > David > > David Blocker > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 781-784-1919 > Fax: 781-784-1860 > Cell: 339-206-0261 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Alastair Burr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "RBG7-L Mailing List" <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2005 3:24 AM > Subject: [RBG7-L] - Re: Small Network > > > > About 10 years ago, when a WAN was installed at the company that I used to > > work for, I used R:Base to prove that there was a problem on one leg by > > copying a large file between fileservers. > > > > Simply by copying the file a number of times, backwards and forwards, > > between our office in London and the offices in Europe and putting the > > destination name along with the date and start and finish times into a > table > > it was possible to build up evidence that one connection was slower. > > > > The command file run automatically for a couple of hours overnight - when > > there was no other traffic - for weeks until, eventually, it was > discovered > > that the supplying company has set-up one of the routers incorrectly. > > > > After that, if ever there was a speed problem on the network, we ran the > > thing again to check it. > > > > Regards, > > Alastair. > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Lawrence Lustig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "RBG7-L Mailing List" <[email protected]> > > Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 4:34 PM > > Subject: [RBG7-L] - Re: Small Network > > > > > > > > If you correct the scratch file issue (I learned about the scratch > file > > > > about 2 weeks ago here on the forum) and you still have issues, here a > a > > > > few things I would try: > > > > > > You can also test the speed of your network by copying a large file from > > the > > > network to a local hard disk and then back to the network and timing it > in > > each > > > direction. A reasonable network should be moving 3 to 8 megabytes of > data > > per > > > second. > > > > > > At one client where they thought they were having database problems, I > > wrote a > > > little VB script to do this and stuck it on the network. Then, when > > someone > > > had an issue, they could run the VB script and get a message saying > > "Measured > > > throughput X on download and Y on upload. Should be at least 2.0 MB/s." > > I > > > found that values ranged from 8 MB/s to .01 MB/s (that is, about 10 > > kilobytes > > > per second). The fastest machine was 800 times faster than the slowest! > > Using > > > that, they were able to locate bad wiring and switches (but by that > point > > it > > > was out of my hands). > > > > > > The point here is to make sure you have a reasonable network throughput > > without > > > involving the database at all. Once you have the network working > > properly, you > > > can deal with any additional issues at the database level. But without > a > > > properly configured and funtioning network, you will never get good > > performance > > > from R:Base. Make sure there are no slow stations at all -- since one > > slow > > > station doing an UPDATE could lock a table for minutes, slowing everyone > > else > > > down. > > > -- > > > Larry > > > > > > > --- RBG7-L > > ================================================ > > TO POST A MESSAGE TO ALL MEMBERS: > > Send a plain text email to [email protected] > > > > (Don't use any of these words as your Subject: > > INTRO, SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, SEARCH, > > REMOVE, SUSPEND, RESUME, DIGEST, RESEND, HELP) > > ================================================ > > TO SEE MESSAGE POSTING GUIDELINES: > > Send a plain text email to [email protected] > > In the message SUBJECT, put just one word: INTRO > > ================================================ > > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: > > Send a plain text email to [email protected] > > In the message SUBJECT, put just one word: UNSUBSCRIBE > > ================================================ > > TO SEARCH ARCHIVES: > > Send a plain text email to [email protected] > > In the message SUBJECT, put just one word: SEARCH-n > > (where n is the number of days). In the message body, > > place any > > text to search for. > > ================================================ > > > > > > Albert Berry Management Consultant RR2 - 1252 Ponderosa Drive Sparwood BC, V0B 2G2 Canada (250) 425-5806 (250) 425-7259 (708) 575-3952 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
