T.A. Q&A 003 – Help With Slow Network From Remote Location to Server

Being one of New York City’s top IT Consulting firms, we have many of our clients (and non-clients) asking us for help with problems that require research, experience and, at times, plain luck.

Today we continue with T.A. Q&A 003

In our third installment, we help out a client who has a question about a slow connection between a remote location and server.

If you find this post and/or find it helpful, we would love to hear from you. Comment the post or contact us! Enjoy.

Network Connection Speed Question

Client

Why is Our Network Connection From Our Remote Location to Our Server so Slow?

We have our primary location server and our secondary location which is off site. We have two T1 line running through from the network connection to our server where we keep our database. However, when the offsite location attempts to run our ERP system, there is a VERY long delay before the information is displayed. I haven’t got a clue as to why this delay is occurring. I’m hoping you can offer some suggestions and that I can start to test some possibilities.

Our ERP system is installed locally on each client but points to our server at the HOME location. This server is called TF01. On the off-site location they’re running through a local server called SF01. I’m wondering if there is a port that is closed or if something is filtering and looping prior to releasing the connection to the server. I know I’m vague, inexperienced, and am sincerely hoping you can point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!

Tech Alliance

In order to find out if there is something slowing down your connection between locations and how much it is slowing it down by, you would need to measure your maximum TCP and UDP bandwidth performance. Our recommended measuring tool for this is Iperf.

Iperf was developed by NLANR/DAST (National Laboratory for Applied Network Research/Distributed Applications Support Team) as a modern alternative for measuring maximum TCP and UDP bandwidth performance. Iperf allows the tuning of various parameters and UDP characteristics. Iperf reports bandwidth, delay jitter and datagram loss.

Once you use this tool, you should be able to diagnose the problem between both your connections and be able fix it.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/iperf/

There is a windows version as well if you need it.

If you’re having similar problems as the user above and need help, do not hesitate to contact us here at Tech Alliance. We specialize in troubleshooting network connections problems and optimizing such connections.

Give us a call at (212) 727-2100 or contact us today!