Hello all and thanks in advance for any advice.

We have an office with about 30 users. Each of them connect to our "in-house" CRM server (2003 server)via Citrix. They access the CRM software which is ran on Access.

My question is this:

Since our office was wired in the early 90's with CAT3, should we be looking to rewire with CAT6? I know that the citrix links carry alot of traffic and needs bandwidth, but the CAT3 links on our switch shows that they are operating at 100MB.

Another thought:

I know that CAT3 is capable of higher speeds but also with more errors. Could these packet errors possibly be causing us to have random system crashes on our CRM/Citrix server(about 2 a week)??

Thanks again,

John

I would get it rewired to Cat5. Cat3 is only good for 16 Mbs or 10BaseT.

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget....

Stuart

Since all of our users are pullling access files off of the server, do you think that we are being bottlenecked by the CAT3? I added a gig of RAM to each of their machines and it only was a minimal performace increase. I suspect the new CAT6 wiring would be a huge performance boost??

What are some good (inexpensive) tools that I could use to test the throughput of the current network cabling?

My manager tells me that my predecessor tested the CAT3 and found the speeds in the range of 100Mbs. Could these higher speeds, but with more packet loss be a cause of the random system crashing?

Thanks

John

My manager tells me that my predecessor tested the CAT3 and found the speeds in the range of 100Mbs

I don't believe it or else the figures given in StuartS link above is wrong.

i_Xp/VistaUser

I didn't believe it either, but all of the CAT3 links on our switch are lit up as 100M links??

Could you suggest any tools (preferraby free) that I could use to test the throughput.

Thanks

John

>> I didn't believe it either, but all of the CAT3 links on our switch are lit up as 100M links?? <<

They will do. Any old bit of copper cable will do that. It's the hardware that determines the link speed and Ethernet doesn't have any automatic fall back. But will it do so with excessive errors which obviously it can't.

There is software that will monitor network connections and record errors and packet losses but I doubt if you will get any for free.

http://www.sharewareconnection.com/...

Stuart

Any managed switch will tell you by port if there are connection errors.

Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

We only have unmanaged switches -- (Netgear JFS524)

Bummer. Guess you will buy one or get a cable analyzer which is more expensive than a managed switch.

Have you actually looked at the markings on the cat3 cable to confirm it cat3?

Transmission errors would never make it to your server. This is explained by the OSI model. Data errors would only goes as far as the physical layer. What is sent has to arrive before it will be passed up stream.

Excessive transmission errors show up in poor network performance and machines getting kicked off the network. Not a server every two weeks crashing but workstations, switches dropping out daily.

Server crashing every couple of weeks sounds like a resource issue. Reboot it once a week and see if the issue goes away. If it does look for a app causing a memory leak or not returning resources when it should.

Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

Hello Wanderer and thanks for the reply.

I have looked at the cable and they are CAT3. The server is crashing 2-3 times a week and we are currently rebooting once a week (on wednesdays). I may change this to daily?

What you say about the transmission errors makes sense, but I was just thinking that maybe it was passing bad data that would cause the apps on the server to hang?? (I am just grasping for anything at this point.)

We do seem to have performance issues, but I am not sure if it is the workstations' resources or the performance of the network? I think that I will run a CAT5e cable from our switch out to the workstation to see if we can notice a performance increase?

Thanks again,

John

I would upgrade to Cat5e at the very least.

If you don't want to spend the money on a tester, you could call a local cable installation company (most elecitrical companies do that now) and ask for a quote on having one of their technicians come with his tester and test a few lines for you.

My guess is if you are getting 100 Mbps. You're probably getting half duplex at best. This would cause a lot of collisions, retransmissions and basically be a major bottleneck.

For what it would cost, it would be well worth your money to upgrade the cabling. You'll never run VoIP and data over Cat3 even if you are getting 100 Mbps and you have absolutely no chance of ever running 1000 Mbps on Cat3.

If you have unmanaged switches you will never know if you have a problem , all it takes is for someone to hardcode a server nic to 100/full and you have a speed/duplex mismatch and that unmanaged switch interface will default to 100 / half and you would not know it which causes all kinds of errors and slowness . Unmanaged switches only know auto for speed and duplex .

Cat 3 is a rating at the longest length. Short runs may provide enough quality to handle traffic.

Use wireshark, performance monitor and built in network diagnostics such as the intel pro adapter software if present to determine your usage and current state of the network. Many companies rent the proper tools such as a TDR and other cable diagnostic tools to do a proper test.

To start with you could sweep the net for all sorts of un-needed traffic and block.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Can't he just get some cat5e and new jacks then run it to some of the heaviest work loaded computers to see if it helps? If a differnece is noticed then start swapping cables on others. Use the old cable as a pull wire.

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