Network Issue *For the Experts*

[RosemarysBaby]

Aloha 5.3.29
Back in the 90's when all the terms were W98 with an NT server everything was smooth. Now I've got a network issue that even the dealer can't seem to figure.

File Server is W2K (reg, not Server)

8 terms, 6 are W2k, 2 are XPE (Radiant 1510)

Back office machines on the Ibertech group(not sure if that matters) 1 is W2K and 1 is Vista(yuck)

The problem is, when trying to run any kind of Aloha BOH report, is takes a long time for the date selection box to appear, about 40 seconds (normally it takes 2 seconds). A reboot of the File Server will solve this problem temporarily, usually from minutes to hours. Other File server functions are slower too, but we don't use the server for much other than Aloha. The FOH operates fine while in the slow state, no problems at all.

Between myself and the dealer all obvious procedures have been done. IP schemes, log ins, removing dated Aloha dir, Del CDX's, examining memory issues, services, computer master browsers and more.

The things that changed in the network environment around the time this problem aroused is a W2K terminal was changed out to an XPE (this would be XPE #2, I had an XPE term working good for 6 months prior) and an office PC went from XP to Vista. These 2 computer changes happened within days of each other.

Dealer thinks possibly a 10 user W2K limit may be happening due to the 2 newer OS's added to the NW. They recommend an upgrade to Aloha 6.4 saying that it uses a 10 user logon work around with RPC( or something).

I'm not too thrilled about the upgrade idea at this point because my last upgrade created huge downtime issues with my Frequent Diner compatibility, an oversight on their part.

Dealer says maybe upgrading to Server 2003 25 license would fix. Again if I only knew for certain the outcome, it wouldn't be a problem.

I'm hoping that this forum could shed some light or other ideas.

One thing I tried to do was downgrade the new XPE (Radiant) to W2K but when trying to install the OS it went to the Blue screen of death. I abandoned that idea. Does anyone know if you can successfully downgrade XPE Radiant to W2K?

Please, how would you proceed to troubleshoot / fix this issue?

 

[bigblok403]

Issues where the system is running slowly can be hard to determine the cause. When I get a system where all the obvious has been ruled out, I use a file, registry, and network monitor combined with a performance monitor to see what files are being accessed and why they are taking so long to pull up. It's never failed me yet. Check out Windows Sysinternals for the utilities and run them on the BOH.

 

[DTSMAN]

First of all turn off server and master capable on the Xp machines. IMHO, get rid of the Vista machine. Format and load Win2k or xppro. 8 terminal system should not have license issues. If rebooting the Aloha server helps the reporting issue you have a problem with the server. Could be a virus or some other program eating up resources. Ctrl Alt Del and look to see what is accessing the CPU. But as Bigblok said, slow issues can be caused by many different things.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

http://www.redgreen.com

 

[RosemarysBaby]

Thanx for the quick help.
Server and master capable have been falsed on both XPE terms. Server is super clean, no virus, malware, spy etc. CPU never runs high, even while watching the CPU monitor as a report is being triggered. No memory bleeding (as far as I can tell). I'll look into Systernals Utilities too.

With 8 terms + FS + EDC (dealer said W2K sees EDC as a PC connection) I'm at 10 computers, then add 2 more office PC's. Do you guys see this as the issue here running W2K? What would be the symptoms of an over numbered network? Dealer thinks that too many higher OS's (XPE and Vista) on the network over the W2K file server could be causing issues. Do you think?

One last thought. I used to only run computer browser as a service on the FS. Then when I got the XPE's I found you must run it on them. Could there be a master browser problem/conflict going on? I never really understood if the master browser thing is that important on the network.

 

[mixerjv]

I had a similar delay problem with one of my POS systems, it turns out of all things it was a lynksys 10/100 switch.

 

[zahead31]

We run 12 terminals + EDC + FS, so I have seen the ramifications of exceeding Windows 10 license capability!!!

I have never seen it slow down our system. What I will see is random terminals flashing the "Cannot locate Master Terminal" screen. It will happen when the master terminal gets 10+ connections trying to connect and it will drop everything over 10. Once we power down the master and fire up a master terminal with the licensing capabilities (Win98), everything runs smoothly.

I would tend to think your system running slowly is not the result of a Windows licensing issue.

 

[RosemarysBaby]

I'm putting closure on this one.
Thank you everyone for some good pointers.
I did however end up changing out my W2K file server with a fresh install of 2003 Server 25 user on a new PC (home built, of course). Seems to have fixed everything. There's nothing like a fresh install with the correct OS!