• Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 55

Topic: slow internet & networking issues

My boss and I work in the same office using the same internet connection and have noticed that sometimes when we are both browsing, emailing, etc there are major slowdown periods.

What could be the reason for such hang ups with only 2 users? Any network tweaking ideas?

We are also trying to network using our public-drop box folders under 'sharing'. I've tried turning on AppleTalk, 'connect to server' using his computers IP address, and made sure file sharing is turned on under system preferences but neither of us are showing up on the others computers...

  • From: 0172
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 748

Re: slow internet & networking issues

So when you have such a slowdown and pull the network cable out of one pc, then it's fast again?

3 Reply by ramos (edited by ramos 2008-10-24 11:25:27)

  • ramos
  • 2bots 1 oil can
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 507

Re: slow internet & networking issues

As Sander suggested, try a process of elimination.
Switch one off and see how it runs, then turn that one off and try the other machine.

Are both machines Mac's?  Are you running a server? Is it a wireless network?

  • Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 55

Re: slow internet & networking issues

Both are Mac laptops, and yes its just a wireless connection. My boss has said that when I'm not there the connection runs smoothly/faster.

  • Registered: 2008-07-23
  • Posts: 76

Re: slow internet & networking issues

I have 2 PCs on the same internet connection and there is a certain slowdown if one of them is streaming video or audio. I think it's normal unless you really have big bandwidth.

  • From: chroot
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 680

Re: slow internet & networking issues

@ricemilk
Stop downloading with aMule when you are in the office big_smile I'm joking, but I can tell you something that happened
to me some days ago... I bought a 5 ports gigabit ethernet switch, since I converted all my cards to Gbit...
As soon as I plugged it in, all the network behaviour started to be erratic... sometimes 20ksec, some other 300k...
But never up to the real Gbit speed... Morale: trashed the switch and bougth another one from a different brand,
which is working perfectly big_smile

So check your devices, sometimes these cheap boxes fail without any apparent reason!

  • From: Duduk of the north
  • Registered: 2008-10-07
  • Posts: 60

Re: slow internet & networking issues

In the end, check your DNS settings for your network as well... might not be setup correctly to handle your setup.. Usually it would impact on slow "hanging" responsetimes but often mistaken with a slow connection....

To listen is to learn

Mike Salta's Website

  • From: the centre of the universe
  • Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 377

Re: slow internet & networking issues

alex_d_steak wrote:

So check your devices, sometimes these cheap boxes fail without any apparent reason!

good advice!

best possible solution is obviously to throw out those garbage computers and buy yourselves a couple of nice ASUS pcs.
:-)

no-fi's Website

  • ramos
  • 2bots 1 oil can
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 507

Re: slow internet & networking issues

like 3apkob said, it sounds like you are just using up your bandwidth..

try a download speed test to confirm

  • wasubot
  • Sanctuary runner bot
  • Offline
  • From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 130

Re: slow internet & networking issues

Hmm well first question that should be asked is what is your internet bandwidth? Check your contract or log into your router modem and look at the connection speed. If you have like 256k link download or something well then no need to ask any further questions or fiddle with devices..your bandwidth is suffering from overload with 2 users.

Notes: Special Sequence Mixed For Dancing

wasubot's Website

  • From: the centre of the universe
  • Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 377

Re: slow internet & networking issues

aaaah... so then the best solution is throw out the garbage computers, replace them with some nice ASUS laptops, AND upgrade the internet plan?
:-)

One other thing to check - what's the distance from your laptop to the access point??  if you are a fair way away from it, and you can see you have low signal strength could that be an issue?

Wireless access points don't always have that much bandwidth to start with, compared to a wired network.

If your computer is always losing contact, or dropping packets, and generally needing a lot of resends, and taking a lot of network traffic just to work, you could be clogging the wireless network with transport level mess, too.

a nice network packet analyser program would show you how good the network is... just set it up to look for retries, bad data, etc... http://www.wireshark.org/

no-fi's Website

  • wasubot
  • Sanctuary runner bot
  • Offline
  • From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 130

Re: slow internet & networking issues

alex_d_steak wrote:

@ricemilk
So check your devices, sometimes these cheap boxes fail without any apparent reason!

There is always an actual reason though and even ultra high end devices fail.

Notes: Special Sequence Mixed For Dancing

wasubot's Website

  • From: chroot
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 680

Re: slow internet & networking issues

@wasubot:
I can tell you countless stories about NEW Cisco 4900M switches (as well the 6500 series) failing in a way that neither Cisco (with which my
company has full support 24/7) could understand by looking at the device logs tongue