CompuServe Messages

I don't have a Lantastic LAN here, but I do run a Novell 3.11 Ethernet LAN with about 45 users. Under normal circumstances the 30 or so users that are on the system at once use maybe 20 – 30 percent of the bandwidth. This covers uses like EMAIL, Word Processing, some light database work, etc. We are getting ready to run Geographic Information software over the network. The file movement will be very heavy. As a test I put a few users up on it and watched the network traffic and I was using 50 to 60 percent of my bandwidth, more than enough to cause very noticable slowdowns. When it peaked higher than that many systems timed out. With Novell they were told they had lost the Network connection. I don't know how Lantastic would report it. On an Ethernet network each card is watching the state of the cable. If it needs to access the cable it waits for a "clear moment" and then sends out packets. If it misjudged due to a software or hardware problem you get a collision and then the two colliding units backoff for a random amount of time and then try again. The more traffic there is on the network the more likelyhood there is of collisions. If a station encounters too many collisions it will abort the attempt to send and your station might report either the network connection has been lost or file not found, depending on how network aware the software is. I don't know how Lantastic handles collisions. If the problem is chronic the solution is to split your cable into several segments with a bridge or a router. I wouldn't do this without using a protocal analyzer first to see if this was really the problem. the analyzer can help you determine if the problem is too much traffic, a faulty driver, a faulty Network card or a combination. If you suspect bandwidth utilization and collisions may be a problem but don't have an analyzer you might try taking one of the 3 machines in question off line and see if the problem still occurs with just 2 machines. As I said earlier…3 machines pumping GIS data brought me to 60% of bandwidth. ADESK could tell you if a hard core render with 3 machines could result in similar traffic. If you suspect a bad card or driver is causing excessive collisions try removing 1 of the 3 machines, work awhile, then put it on line and try again with another machine removed, then again with the third. Removing the machine with the bad card or driver should result in a more pronounced improvement than removing a fully functioning machine. A quick check of cables and connectors might also be in order. My last suggestion is based on my experience with Novell. I don't know if this applies to Lantastic and other Peer to Peer's. If a Novell Network doesn't have enough RAM in the server to handle the number of users, processes, and the number of directories and the size of the disk it complains mightily by turning into a molasses network. Acess times slow way down and can cause stations to report file not found or network connection lost. Lantastic should be able to tell you if you have adequate RAM for your system resources. Hope this helps…..Holler if you need more! Let me know if you want to talk too. I think your initial message said you had severe time limits?