Dear Experts,
I have run into a problem that i need help with and would be eternally greatful if you can please help me.
I will first explain the situation. With what we need urgent help, please!
We had four workstations. These are set up as the following.
XP Pro
SP2 (At the time of our problem) Updated via windows update
Gigabyte EP35-DS3
Quad Core Q6600
8500gt
2Gb 800Mhz RAM
We setup a domain controller(ACER Altos G330) with Active Directory(Roaming Profiles) for 4 users as requested. This also included shares of documents files on the server including MYOB.
We set up a mapped drive to a user space on the server where they could drop files they routinely wanted backed up.
We also set the back up to run twice per week.
The server is in a RAID 1 configuration.
We installed a gigabit switch(Netgear 16port) and four network printers.
To the problem: We had clean installed windows XP pro on all the computers, then installed the updated drivers from gigabytes web site for the EP35-DS3. Then updated windows via Windows Update to nearly all the latest updates.
We then installed Office 07, Nero 8, MYOB, A few utilites including Diskeeper.
Lastly We installed Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0, without firewall and anti-spam. As we have a hardware firewall! Although we did leave the default windows firewall on like we have done before!
Everything was going well in the integration of the server to to the desktops.
We joined workstation1 up and logged in to the domain. The inital login of the first user took a while as usual, becuase the roaming profile of the user gets dragged accross to the local machine.
This is where things went pear shaped.
We completed a few tasks and logged off.
We joined up workstation2 and logged in with another user. Again it took a while to login. But we assumed that it was normal for the first time as it would be dragging accross the roaming profile for the first time!
We completed a few more tasks
We then joined up workstation3 & workstation4 and logged in, again it took a fair while!
We then went back to workstation1 and logged in with the same user we were loggin into this machine. It took a long time. 5 plus minutes.
We then tried it several times on the other workstations and they were all really slow(3 to 5 minutes logging in) Now again they might take two minutes to log in.
We were distraught and then logged into the local administrator account on the machines, It then seemed liek usual. Quick login. We then attempted login to the domain and band very slow login again!
We then joined the server up to a different switch and joined a laptop up to test if it was wiring or the gigabit switch. But again it took atlest 5 minutes to login. The laptop was a clean XP install, sp2. No other updates.
We decided to get the network up and running for "Monday morning" we took out the server and just set up a workgroup for the time being. So we disconnected the server.
We again were distraught a little later when we noticed that two of the brand new quad core workstations experienced what i would could extreme slow down. To descrive this i would say that the you could click the start button but then it would take say 10 seconds to come up. Then hover over all programs and it then would take another 10 seconds to come up! When it usually is instantaneous! Then hover over say acceessories with the mouse and it would then take another 10 seconds to appear!
We were very worried that the server possibly may have "Done something to these workstations(workstations 1 & 4)" so we decided to reinstall windows and drivers. This time we installed SP3.
We got the workgroup "up and running" for monday morning in the end. But are still trying to work out what went wrong!
We are planning to do a clean install of server 03 and re do active directory, dhcp etc.
I would first like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this, as i am in deep need of help. Any replies and/or ideas that could help diagnose and solve this would truly be appriciated.
The workstations have now been running for a week without issues in a workgroup. Just worried if i re-introduce the server it might cause issues again!
This time we have SP3 on the workstations!
Could you please get back to me as soon as possible as it's urgent! Thank you again for taking the time out to read this!
Cheers,
Jason
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