SEVERE Web-Application Slowness

Hello.


This is a Windows Network. I have about 25 users who connect to a web-application used for form processing, and database manipulation etc. We go through a wiring closet which I am not authorized to alter (for further reference).

These users on my Switch experience severe slowness when accessing this application. Anything that is reitivly large such as a Biography part of the database record can take an extremely long time. Much longer then it ever did in the past.


Although when I got to a different part of the building and use on of the Lab computers, the application appears to run seamlessly. I am assuming this is because they are not on the same switch (which they aren't, i know from a tracert i preformed). Now i thought it was my computers, but nothing has changed with them, they have been the same for months and this problem only started a month ago.

I beleive that my Switch's ports are set a 10mbps/Half-Duplex, and I am trying to find out what the ports of the other switches are set at, but it is very difficult.


Does anyone know what might cause this problem, or give me any advice of how they would approach it?


Also, anyone know of any free software to monitory packet collisions and the network?


Thanks.

Speed/Duplex mismatch between the switch and the PC can have a major impact on performance. For the best results it should be fixed on both the switch and the PC.
If you can logon on the switch you should be able to see any transmit/recieve errors because of this mismatch.

You could also hookup a sniffer and see what's going on. Sniff traffic from a machine that does perform and sniff from one that doesn't perform and compare those 2.

Edit: Why did you post this twice?

Accident, I posted it the first time in the wrong forum.


ANother thing that happened was the building where the server is housed got a new router, and this happened days before this slowness began. Do you think there is any chance of a switch to switch slowness. Is this possible, what I am trying to so is can switches be mismatched; Speed/Duplex, like the PC and Switch can?



Thanks.

I deleted the duplicate post. Next time, pop a note to a moderator (myself or Neg) and we'll move it. :D

Oh Okay thanks MsMittens! Also do you suggest any programs that are preferably free that I can use to monitor my network?

WinDump is the classic packet sniffer for windows. It is a port of the original tcpdump.

Ethereal is a graphic packet sniffer (has linux/windows support).

You'll need to ensure that the port that these listen on -- when on a switch -- is mirrored with the other ports so you can see everything. Does the switch itself not come with monitoring software?

If it's your network why can't you check the switches? You don't need physical access so there's no need to open any closets. If you don't have access to the switches, who does?

The switch is owned by a different department, who crontrol almost all of the network equipment in our building. Its an absoulte mess dealing with them. I can't access the switch, because i dont know the login/pass and I am going to have to request this information and it is going to take days for them to get back to me.


Although, if it where a switch/pc problem wouldn't I see slowness throughout the internet, but I don't I only see it accessing this one Web-Application. Yet the same application runs fine from a computer on the next floor (diff switches).

Sigh, Do you think there is any chance of a switch to switch problem/slowness. Is this possible, what I am trying to say; is can switches be mismatched; Speed/Duplex, like the PC and Switch can?

Thanks for your help.

Everything and anything is possible as I don't know how your network is setup (and neither do you ;) ).

But I would contact the people responsible for the network. It's their job to monitor any congestion/errors/mismatches. If they don't respond within a normal timespan complain to their boss. Whatever you do don't try to do their job.

I used a Packet Sniffing program today, and I found that when it starts to get slow, there seems to be alot of ARP transmitions. How many ARP transmitions are normal? What do they do, and can they give me a hint to what the problem is?

Quote:

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Originally posted here by ilevakam316
I used a Packet Sniffing program today, and I found that when it starts to get slow, there seems to be alot of ARP transmitions. How many ARP transmitions are normal?

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It depends on how big your broadcast domain is and how much traffic is on it.

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What do they do, and can they give me a hint to what the problem is?

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Quote:

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Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a mechanism that can be used by IP to find the link-layer station address that corresponds to a particular IP address. It defines a method that is used to ask, and answer, the question "what MAC address corresponds to a given IP address?". ARP sends broadcast frames to obtain this information dynamically, so it can only be used on media that support broadcast frames. Most LAN's (including Ethernet, FDDI, and Token Ring) have a broadcast capability and ARP is used when IP is running on those media. ARP is defined in RFC 826. That definition assumes an Ethernet LAN. Additional details for ARP on networks that use IEEE 802.2 frame formats (IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD, IEEE 802.4, IEEE 802.5 Token Ring) are in RFC 1042. ARP on FDDI is described in RFC 1390.

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Taken from TCP/IP Frequently Asked Questions.

I dont think that a WEB application can be severe impact due to some kind of overload or misconfig on your network (but it will be good to know the topology as all senior members asked :) ). Web protocols were designed to be robust and run on low speed networks.
Im telling you this because, except you are experiencing performance problems with OTHER applications, i cant see how everything is running OK, but this application' response time just sucks.
is there any kind of bottleneck etween your network and server network? like a router or a switch? is there any other application on same server network (or even on the same server)?
if answer is yes, what is the response time you r experienced on those, comparing with the bad one?

(shooting in the dark)

Listen to this 'temporary fix' that we have going. We set up a Proxy Server within in our office, running behind the same switch, as the workstations were etc. We then set all 20 users up to the proxy server through Internet Explorer (happens to be the only browser this web-app works with), so now all traffic is going through the proxy server (of course only that that comes form IE). The WEB-APPLICATION is fast. We have the same amount of users connected to the proxy server, that used to be connected to the Web-App Server indicidually.


Why does this work. Could it be high packet collision? (whats the fix/cause of that) Could it be router table corruption?



This is mind-boggling. For me at least.


Thanks

Also, once we come off our router we go to a redundent backbone. And if you hit he1, before your hit he2 then your packets will go through that router. Could this be a problem, and be a factor in the slowness?

Are you sure the proxy isn't caching the webpages? That would account for a significant speed increase.

Nope, its not.

Get this. We brought a Mac and a Linux machine into the building and tested using the databse with a Windows, Mac, and Linux Box all at the same time. The Windows machine was extremly slow, but the Mac and Linux was fast, and worked fine. Is this a protocal problem? Does this make any sense? Anyone understand why this could be happening?


Thanks Alot.
I am preplexed at the moment.

I am going to post another topic in the Windows forum, to see if anyone could give any information on the differnece between Linux and Windows protocols while connecting to the internet. And I will link them to this post in case they want to understand what I am talking about.


Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by ilevakam316
I am going to post another topic in the Windows forum, to see if anyone could give any information on the differnece between Linux and Windows protocols while connecting to the internet. And I will link them to this post in case they want to understand what I am talking about.

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No need to open a new thread. Both use TCP/IP to connect to the Internet. Since the Internet is build up using TCP/IP there's no other way to connect to it.

Why is it that Linux works fine (as well as Unix) while windows does not work? What would be the main difference between the two as far as handling internet connections goes.


THanks.