Network Saves Slow / Unreliable

[organic]

I have a small network of 4 - 6 pc's (2 being repaired atm!) linked by a 10 mbps hub. I use one machine as a server where I store all my development work so's I can back it all up from 1 place regularly. Over the past 2-3 months saving files to it has become very slow and sometimes fails, with error messages such as 'network is busy' or 'network resource is no longer available'. A file of several megs will show a progress bar saying something like 3 minutes but take 10-15 mins if it doesn't just fail.

Server is Windows 2000, other pc's have 98SE Thai or ME. Pretty confident no viruses / spyware present.

Any ideas as to what it could be?

[MadFrankie]

win 2k server had a network monitoring tool.. Perhaps use that to see exactly what sort of traffic is cloggin it up?

[Topprofile]

Huah, could be many different reasons and could take hours to troubleshoot, but could also be as easy as just correcting a single setting somewhere...

What does the eventlogs show? Any yellow or red signs in the system/applicationlogs?

When did the problem start (if you check the eventlog can you see when it started?)? Installed any new applications? Do you have Anti Virus software ("pretty sure" doesn't count...)

What happens if you unhook all computers but 1 and the server and try to save a file? Could be a hardware failure on the server or a faulty network card on any of the other PCs sending a bunch of crap on the network which is clogging up the wire.

I would start by checking out the eventlogs on the server and you might get some info on what's going on...

[moonman]

I would start with checking the cables. Did the maid stretch or bend a cable? I have seen some awful home made cables for sale in Pantip. These days I make them myself or buy factory made.

[organic]

I would start with checking the cables. Did the maid stretch or bend a cable? I have seen some awful home made cables for sale in Pantip. These days I make them myself or buy factory made.

Good call, moonman. Replaced the cable going into the server and copying a 15meg file has gone down from 35 mins to 4. I'll be replacing the rest of the cables soonish.