Topic: Network changes involving SME 8.0 as PDC

[bloodshoteye]

I thank you-all for the advice I'm receiving!

@_alex

You need to collect and investigate your numbers

In hand

@hawk

setup a domain on the sme server facebook.com, with a one page website telling them it is blocked. our internet usage and network traffic speed cleared up almost instantly.

There are a few determined kids everywhere in the world. Staying one step ahead - I like it.

the bigger the HDD the slower the server runs . . .

Can't say, but I recently went from 750GB to 2TB to provide expansion. Teachers are needing archives of their material going back many years. And yes I know I could save that on a NAS but I want this available to them via one logon/password combo and in their networked home drive. At busy schools, the bell rings, teachers run. They don't have time to bugger about. I do have another SME server doubling as a Moodle server and very long term storage for specific individuals.

But I digress. I am monitoring from now on with ntop and sme8admin. However, whatever the outcome we are going to replace our core switches with manageable ones and later the remote units. Thus I can eventually monitor the entire network for hardware and workstation faults. And implement vlans should I need to create broadcast domains - which sounds like a good idea anyway. If our slowdown is not broadcast/multicast traffic, it may be fault related. No easy way to pinpoint that (that I know of).

Cheers,

[p-jones]

Symantec Antivirus: (+- 100 clients - definition updates every 2 hours)

Have you had a close look at this and it's configuration to determine / eliminate if it is implicated in your issue ?
My experiences of it indicate it is resouirce and bandwidth hungry.

[hawk]

Regarding AV's

i have removed all AV's from the network computers, we only use the one supplied from microsoft MSE / windows defender.

All Pc's run faster and we haven't had any form of virus problems. All computers getting cleaned up at end of year shut down using several other tools.

 

[bloodshoteye]

@p-jones
Symantec is most definitely a contributor. I personally don't like it. It's cpu intensive, intrusive and a hog at the best of times. However, it's what public schools are provided free of charge here in SA. AV's are usually quite expensive and annually renewable, even if discounted for non-profits.

@hawk

i have removed all AV's from the network computers, we only use the one supplied from microsoft MSE / windows defender.

I do that for teachers who bring their personal laptops in and for mine. If I could get MSE & Defender to update  through a proxy, I would. They are quite good enough (in my humble opinion) and after turning off all the "send this or that to Redmond" stuff, would do away with AV related broadcasts/multicasts.

Cheers,