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I just purchased 3 new managed Dell 5424 power connect gigabit switches to replace my 3 older Dell 10/100 unmanaged switches. Everything was running fine on the older switches except we now have about 70 workstations on the network and network performance was getting very sluggish.

I have a new Windows 2008 server and a SBS 2003 server. the SBS 2003 server is the DC and also runs Exchange. other than that we just store files on the server. The 2008 server is a member server that runs a Pervasive Database Server that handles all the data for our ERP application that all our workstations pulls data from.

My network is very basic so from my understanding no special setup should have been required on the new switches. I basically left everything at defaults , just assigned IP address to each switch so i could login and manage them. I have 2 seperate closets out in the building where i have 1 switch in each closet. These switches have a fiber link back to the server closet where the 3rd switch is located. I picked a Saturday when i would not have any traffic and could test. I only hooked up 2 workstations to test connections etc... here are the problems i run into.

  1. I have an ERP application on each work station connects to pervasive database server running on Windows 2008 Server. When i try to run the ERP application on my workstation it takes forever for it to open if it opens at all. I tried to run it on 3 different workstations , and have same problem on each one.

  2. I also noticed that when i opened an excel file from the 2003 server it took an unusually long time to open. It usually pops right open on the old 10/100 switch.

  3. I also noticed that it corrupted a different application on my workstation that just runs locally. It did this on a second workstation as well. i had to re-install those programs to fix that issue. Very Strange.

all cabling has been tested and is certified gigabit capable with no opens,shorts, improper mapping etc.. most cabling is cat5e and some new cabling is cat 6.

all network cards are gigabit cards set at full duplex.

I have talked with ERP app support, and they have tons of users running on gigabit networks with no issues .

any ideas what could be going on.

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  • As a test, I would set NICs to autonegotiate instead of 1000/FD. Once done, look at the switch to see what speed/duplex the PCs connected at.
    – jftuga
    Jul 12, 2011 at 17:52

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Is there possibly a switching loop that's causing the problems? How many connections exist between the 3 switches? How many paths are there from each switch to every other switch?

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  • switch 1 is in a closet switch 2 is in a closet switch 3 is in server room. switch 1 connects to switch 3 switch 2 connects to switch 3 i do not have all 3 switches connected togeter.
    – TRaymond
    Jul 12, 2011 at 17:02

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