help me on this networking question from my sister

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 19, 2007 Posts: 1

My Sister is Doing Networking and she is new am into programming, can you please help he out in this Networkng Question

Q:Your work at small pics were so successful that a chain of
sweat shops ask you to provide network advice to them. Sweaties already
has a server-based network. The server that holds the company
inventory, ordering ,sales, time,tracking and employee information and provides
internet connection is located at the store across the street from a
small pics.Three other sweaties is having stores in town connect to a
modem on the central server through dial-in phone lines.

Sweaties is having problems with heavy traffic and slow server response
at 08h00 and 15h00 each day. they do not know wherethis traffic
originates from or what type of traffic it is .they also do not know whether
this will warrant a change in their connection methods .####what kind of
service do you suggest will help them assess their traffic situation
and provide answers about possible network expansion ? what type of
things can they find out ? what other kinds of service might they also use
,given their network configuration?

Posts: 60 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 19, 2006 Posts: 60

Your questions has nothing to do with Vonage or Voip in general, but here's my answer. This will probably be locked or deleted from the forum soon.

Questions:
1) You fail to mention if the "slow server response" is internet traffic or actual traffic to/from the stores over the dial-up phone lines. Which is it? You mention they do not know what the traffic is, but where are they seeing the slow down - when they surf the internet or on transactions to/from the other stores or on everything?

2) What type of "network connection" are they utilizing? DSL/Cable/T1 or dial-up or wireless to all their stores? If wireless, it is prone to interference from outside sources such as cordless phones other wireless networks and could explain traffic problems at certain times of the day.

Assumptions/Recommendations:
1) If they are using dial-up for their internet connection, they would be better served to have DSL/Cable or T1 access to the internet - this will increase productivity and speed network processing time.

2) If the stores are connecting to the central server via dial-up, again, they need to have a high-speed connection from all the stores to the central server in the way of DSL/Cable or T1. DSL is priced comparable to dial-up and offers more bandwidth which equals faster speeds.

3) Once they have a high-speed connection to/from the internet and all their stores, they can implement bandwidth analysis through the use of sniffers and packet shaping appliances like Packeteer or other similar products. This will allow them to see what type of traffic is being sent/received across the network and allow them to block or limit access to/from sites or connections deemed questionable. Eventually through the use of bandwidth analysis they will be able to tell if they have enough bandwidth to handle their applications/needs and whether or not they need to increase bandwidth or block sites not business related that will decrease load on the network.

Hope this helps some.

Posts: 16 · Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:49 pm Post subject:

well said !!!