We are running two servers with around 30 workstations as follows:
- 1 x UNIX Server
- 1 x HP Proliant Server – Windows Server 2008
- 30 x Windows XP Professional SP3
- 5 x Axel Thin Clients
- 16 x Avaya IP Phones
They are all interconnected with the following:
- 4 x 25 port Patch Panels
- 1 x Nortel 2550T-PWR
- 1 x Netgear ProSafe 24 port 10/100 Switch
- 1 x Netgear 16 port 10/100 Fast Ethernet Switch
All of the phones run through the Nortel switch (as it's PoE with QoS), all of the switches are daisy chained.
I am trying to get everything up to a decent standard and am wondering if upgrading the two Netgear switches to gigabit switches would improve the general speed and performance of the network.
One area in particular is logging in and out of the domain.
I have already put the two servers into the two gigabit ports on the Nortel switch.
Best Answer
Network performance problems are rarely attributable to the size/speed of the links, in my experience. In an earlier post, you mentioned you're using roaming profiles approaching 250MB and larger. That's a big profile to load on logon and to unload on logout. Faster links are not likely to help, and I'm willing to bet that if you look at the network tab of Task Manager on your profile server that it's going to show utilization is very low.
Start by analyzing the current usage/saturation of the links. If they're not saturated then bigger/faster links aren't going to help.