Network Performance

[wiegertjd]

Hi,
I recently was put in charge of cleaning up a network for a small business. The network consists of about 8 workstations and a dell powervault server which is used solely as a fileserver at the moment. One of the workstations is connected to the internet via a dsl connection and that connection is bridged with the internal lan so a few other computer can have internet access. The main problem that I'm having is when pulling files from the dell powervault server. It takes FOREVER like an hour for 500 mb. What types of things can be boggin performance? Also some of the computers have statica IP's while some use DHCP, could this be affecting performance?

 

[JonathanAnon]

You would be better sharing the DSL connection by connecting the DSL router directly to the switch. And not bridging the workstation.

Regarding the slowness. Make sure you dont have viruses or spyware, check the network connections, cables, drivers etc. Thats what you should start with.

 

[wiegertjd]

Okay, I'll try that with the internet connection. The biggest problem that I'm working on right now is the dell powervault server. Its basically just used to archive files before they're copied to tape. When copying files to the server transferring is pretty fast, however when copying files from teh server to another computer it is painfully slow almost unusably slow. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

 

[wiegertjd]

Only two of the workstations have internet connection and they are spyware free so I don't think thats whats bogging the performance. However, I noticed a couple of cables coming off the switch leading to nothing. What effect does a cable plugged into the switch, but nothing on the other end, have on a network, if any?