Need Networking HELP..

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KevinVan
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Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:03 pm

I recently brought a practice that's 41 years old and it shows it. One of the first thing I wanted to do was get a practice management program in. I registered for Open Dental, brought 6 desktop and set up a wireless network. The wireless network was the fastest way to get a network going. Got Open Dental up and running with the wireless but it seems like the connection was in and out and open dental would show the "not responding" at the top of the window. I put up with this for the past 2 months and got some funds to pay someone to run some cat5e wires which connects up to a cisco SG100-24 switch. I thought this would solve the "no response" and slow response of OD. Sadly, it didn't.

I've played around with all the setting, research a couple things, but nothing has solved my problem. I'm pretty positive it's a Windows 7 issue. I'm ready to get windows xp on all the desktop and calling it a day, but wanted to see if you guys can offer some help or ideas.

Thanks in advance.

bcpayne
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by bcpayne » Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:31 pm

Have you tried turning the windows firewall off on the server? Also try running the program as administrator. What about anti virus software on the computers? You might try switching the antivirus off to test it. I might try setting a static ip address for the server. I havent had this problem, just some troubleshooting ideas.

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:54 pm

I'm definitely going to look into the firewall issue tomorrow morning. The last thing I remember is setting the port for the Mysql and that's when I initially installed OD. There's no anti-virus software on it now. Sometime the workstations seems very responsive, then all of a sudden it SLOWSSSSSSSSSS DOWNNNNNN... and the "not responding" shows up...

Anyone else can provide some help?

Thank!

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Rickliftig
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by Rickliftig » Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:37 am

Kevin -

This issue can drive you crazy. It happened here on Tuesday and finally fixed itself about fifteen minutes later after everything was re-booted. I brought up the task manager and found no apparent reason for the slowdown. The server was at full speed, so it was a network issue.

In the past, updates have stalled my computers (Microsoft/Adobe/Java - you name it) as has indexing. I use Windows XP machines and they do a lot of disk gyrations (disk activity for no apparent reason). I have one computer set to backup the server every two hours and suspect that this can put a load on the network, but it shouldn't bring the system to its knees (CAT6 Gigabit).

Bottom line - I have no idea what happened to your system or my system. It certainly makes an already stressful day a little more stressful.

best - and good luck with the new practice!

Rick
Another Happy Open Dental User!

Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net

teethdood
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by teethdood » Thu Nov 08, 2012 7:26 am

1. What type of router do you have? Some routers just plain suck. Update the router firmware or install DD-WRT on it.
2. Sounds like you are running your network in workgroup mode. Assign each computer a static IP, especially the server.
3. Firewall issue (not likely). Add mysql.exe, mysqlnt.exe mysqld.exe to the Private connection. Also be sure to switch your network to private (Home or Work) as opposed to public (Public). I'm almost certain it is not a firewall issue though. If it was, you wouldn't have been able to get OD to run in the first place. Check anyway.
4. Get a wireless range extender if you have a big office or if the wireless connections drop on you. You are cat5e now though so doesn't matter. Just throwing it out there.

Tell us how it goes. Good luck.
Philip H. Doan, DDS
http://www.kaweahdental.com/

atd
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by atd » Thu Nov 08, 2012 8:25 am

Glad to hear we're not the only ones with this "not responding" problem.
From the bug list:
known issues:
Network connection interruptions can causes Open Dental to become unresponsive and close sometimes.
This has been on the bug list for quite awhile (started on 12.2, still on 12.4). Can someone from Open Dental comment on the progress tracking down this bug?

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jsalmon
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jsalmon » Thu Nov 08, 2012 9:00 am

It's a beast. But the goal is to be able to take your ethernet cable and rip it out of the wall and have Open Dental give a nice "lost connection" error as opposed to an ugly unhandled exception.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.

Jason Salmon
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

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Rickliftig
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by Rickliftig » Thu Nov 08, 2012 7:09 pm

Verry interesting. Last week I upgraded from 12.1 to 12.3 and that's when the problems started. It happened again today. It's a real PITA Jason!
Another Happy Open Dental User!

Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
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drtech
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by drtech » Fri Nov 09, 2012 5:59 am

I have had no network issues at all with OD. Lightning fast. We run an Ubuntu Linux server with static IP. DHCP on all the workstations. They are all Windows 7 and two Windows 8 machines. I would upgrade any xp's..as I think they can cause some network issues...not as reliable in my opinion. Just buy a $39 Win8 upgrade online if the computer has 2GB of ram and anything greater than a P4.
David Fuchs
Dentist - Springfield, MO
Smile Dental http://www.887-smile.com

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Fri Nov 09, 2012 9:43 am

bcpayne ---- Tried turning off the firewall with no luck, but it was a good idea.

Rickliftig ----it does make the day more stressful when the computer slows down and my 2 hygienists comes knocking on the door asking why the computer isn't working. For those that used other practice management program, did y'all notice it with the other programs? Thanks.. I'm loving being my own boss, but it does take lots of work...

Teethdood -
1. I have a Cisco SG-100-24 switch and a linksys/cisco EA3500 wireless router.
2. I can try assigning them a static IP.
3. I was only told to add mysql.exe to the firewall exception. Where did you get the mysqInt.exe and mysqld.exe info from?

Thanks Guys!!!

Now that i'm done with treating patient and have the office to myself, it's troubleshooting time!!

Have a great weekend and if you think of anything else I should check, please make a posting.

Kevin

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drtech
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by drtech » Fri Nov 09, 2012 10:21 am

What virus scan/protection do you have? I know some are known to cause slowdowns. With Win7, I think the best thing is to use Microsoft security essentials. It does not ever seem to slow down the network or the computer like others I have tried on my network. (AVAST, Norton, McAfee, etc)
David Fuchs
Dentist - Springfield, MO
Smile Dental http://www.887-smile.com

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Fri Nov 09, 2012 10:23 am

I'm not running any antivirus at this time. No antivirus installed. Thanks for the feedback though..

Kevin

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jsalmon
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jsalmon » Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:33 am

When I think my network is causing a problem at home, I start with a very simple set up and start adding complexity until the culprit shows itself. One weekend or night that you have free you should do some testing by taking your network down to your router, a server and one computer. If the issue happens in that scenario I would install MySQL on the workstation and take a copy of your database and put it on it and see if the issue happens from the other direction. If it still happens in reverse, buy a simple switch or cross over cable and directly connect the computers together and test with the router out of the picture. If it still happens there then I'd start looking into settings for MySQL, particularly the my.ini file. This page is helpful for that: http://opendental.com/manual/myini.html Hopefully those simple tests will tell you something. If not start adding more complexity to the network like more computers, switches, routers etc. till you're back to the way you have it now.

The most common slowness thing besides antivirus we deal with is backup programs that run on a schedule. Anything taking up the resources of the server would cause all the other workstations to get put in a waiting line and when that happens Open Dental waits for the response before doing anything else and when it takes too long they go into the Not Responding mode. I doubt going back to Windows XP will solve this but then again I just don't like XP much so that's a personal hunch of mine. I just don't want you to spend any more money when you shouldn't have to.

When you mentioned
The last thing I remember is setting the port for the Mysql...
I pray you were "setting" it within your firewall to forward the port 3306 to your internal network and NOT deciding what port to use in the MySQL Wizard installer. If you used the install wizard I highly recommend re-installing MySQL from our trial installer and using our default settings as a starting point. If you want more control over the MySQL installation I advize doing it after the default installation and manipulating the users and passwords or my.ini file later.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.

Jason Salmon
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:12 pm

Jason,

Thank you for spending the time to make such a detailed post. After a long day at work, it really sucks to sit in the office and try to troubleshoot the system. I might give it a shot tomorrow and see what happened. As for the port setting, it was in the firewall. I haven't changed any settings within Mysql itself.

What you said makes perfect sense, and I should go with the bare minimum and see what's going on.

I was thinking maybe it's the NIC going to sleep or power save mode. What's your thought on that?

Thanks,
Kevin Van

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jsalmon
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jsalmon » Sun Nov 11, 2012 8:23 pm

I've only seen a couple NIC's go bad in my day. 90 percent of the time its a loose cable or a cable that wasn't crimped correctly. Also there are different kinds of cable, some are really durable and others can't be bent too many times or the wire will break or get pinched. In which case it can cause "finicky" network connections. I think they sell tools to test cables but it would most likely be a waste of your money to buy them. Some motherboard company's do sell drivers and software for the components that come with it so you could be onto something with that theory. The only sleep setting I've heard of on NIC's is the ability to wake the computer up from sleep. Tracking a setting like that down might be tricky. You might even have to get into the computers BIOS to start playing around with those settings. I doubt it will be that, but then again... I seem to get surprised with crazier issues every day.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.

Jason Salmon
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:53 pm

I'm still having that network issue where my OD system slows down to a no response.

---------------- Things I've tried -------------------
A. Tried changing the settings for the network adapter.
B. Tried using a homegroup instead of a workgroup.
1. Removing the Cisco Switch and connecting my server to just one other box thru the router
>>> Results: It was initially faster, but then eventually it start getting the no response msg
2. Removing the router and connecting the server to another box thru the cisco switch
>>> Results: It was like the previous. Fast for a bit, then starts slowing down
3. Talked to Kim from OD and she showed me the latency test under tools
>>> Results: 2, 63.42, 1617... very sloooooowwwwwwww... Kim had me add opendental.exe as an allowed program for firewall and set up the port 3306 for mysql on all the boxes. Redid the latency test and we were getting normal results.. single digits. Did multiple test and they were all normal. The system start slowing down again, and did the test. results were around the following numbers 3, 427.4, 2400.
>>> Thought: it seems like after any changes, it's is very responsive, but as time goes by, it slows down.

Jason had recommended using a cross-ethernet cable and just connecting the server to another box, but I didn't have the cross-over cable handy. Might have to go buy one.

A little more background Info.

---------------Core Setup--------------
6 x Lenovo H430 core i3 Windows 7 Home Edition
Cisco SG100-24 switch unmanaged
Linksys EA3500 Router
Cat5e cable

From Time to time, I use my personal laptop and connect to the network. But what you see above is core setup.

-----------------Software--------------
Windows 7 Home Edition
Open Dental and all necessary software to run it (.net, mysql)
Antivirus was removed

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jsalmon
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jsalmon » Mon Nov 12, 2012 4:09 pm

It sounds like there is something that is making a bunch of connections to your MySQL service over time. When you go to Setup > Miscellaneous, what is the Process Signal Interval set to? I'd recommend 7 - 10. Are you using the mobile app with Open Dental? I would check the Minutes Between Synch setting under Tools > Mobile and Patient Portal Synch. Since your problem gradually starts to happen I doubt its your network but something happening on your server that is taking up resources and making everybody else "wait in line" so to speak.
There is this amazing tool called Resource Monitor http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/closer-win ... e-monitor/ that can tell you how much network resources on your server each of your workstations is eating up and what program they are using to eat it up with. You want to run this tool on your server computer and you want to pay attention to workstations and if their mysqld.exe is the "image" that is primarily taking up the resources. Or you might notice a different program eating up your disk's read and write time or even the computer's CPU in which case you'll be able to take care of that culprit from that point.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.

Jason Salmon
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:41 pm

Jason,

Once again, thanks for giving me ideas on trouble shooting this..

The Process Signal Interval is currently set to 10. As for the mobile app, I am not using it.

I took my cisco switch home and set up a testing network at home to play around and make sure it's not my switch. I got it from newegg but the serial number on it is a sticker attached to the unit. looks suspicious.. hahaha, or i'm getting paranoid cuz this problem is driving me nutss... I need to get this resolve before I order my digital sensors and hook up a digital pan.

Thanks,
Kevin Van

Can some of you guys post up some of information on your set up in terms of what server os, network switch, etc?

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Manny Ramirez
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by Manny Ramirez » Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:16 pm

Dell server T110. Dual core 4GB RAM 1TB RAID 1. Windows 2008 R2. Trendnet 24 port switch. Lenovo All In One Workstations all running Win7 Pro. Never had issues. You mentioned at first that you used to have a wireless network. Make sure you disable the wireless interface. Disable UAC in Windows 7 stations and on the server. Use a Workgroup to keep it simple. Disable simple sharing and also to keep things even more simple disable IPV6 and LLPR in all your NICS. Lastly disable SMB2 on the server. SMB2 comes at the cost of performance. You maybe even want to disable SMB2 in all your station. Turn off Firewall on your home network. Also stay away from home premium, and yes a bad switch can mess everything up. Good Luck

Sharing is caring !
Manny Ramirez
Senior Network Engineer
E-ssential Networks LLC

stjames70
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by stjames70 » Tue Nov 13, 2012 12:22 pm

Hi Kevin,

I am just throwing this theory out there since you seem to be having so many problems. Get rid of your linksys/cisco EA3500 wireless router and buy/borrow an Airport Extreme unit from Apple. Reinstall mysql and reinstall OD (we are still running 12.0.1.9). See if that helps. I used to own a USR wireless router, and that piece crapped out within a year's time and the wireless cards from USR were not all that stable either. After we switched to Macs running VMs under Fusion and using an Airport Extreme router, our problems disappeared. Of course, we had to reset the router once a blue moon,but it was not common. Network gear is worth exactly what you pay for it -- the more expensive, the more reliable it is. Your network switch is probably not the problem since it is a pretty dumb piece of hardware.

In short, I understand that you have CAT 6 cables running through your office now which should be good. We do as well, but we are in the middle so we have both wired and wireless workstations. Unfortunately the installation guys were too lazy to finish wiring the operatories so those are the wireless workstations which we use to connect DEXIS, BUT the thing is, our workstations are lighting fast. This is despite the fact that we are running VMs using Fusion on iMacs everywhere in our office. So I don't think it is a matter of tweaking, opening ports, or other such issues. Try it out, at least if I am right, you may be able to get a little dentistry under the belt :)

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Thu Nov 15, 2012 12:13 pm

Jason - would you be able to log into my computer and point me in the right direction. I'm stumped with this issue. I've used the resource monitor and saw that google chrome was hogging up some band width even though no chrome window was open.

this issue is driving me nuts...

thanks

when you go to another date on the calender, does it take like 5-15 seconds to update on a work station? Once it update, then it's a bit more responsive?

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jsalmon
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jsalmon » Thu Nov 15, 2012 1:14 pm

Jason - would you be able to log into my computer and point me in the right direction.
Sure thing, why don't you send me an email and we can set something up. jason@opendental.com
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.

Jason Salmon
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

stjames70
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by stjames70 » Thu Nov 15, 2012 1:34 pm

Another thing....

We had a problem six years ago because of our wireless networks. Since the router released and renewed the IP addresses, Open Dental would eventually give up because some setting reached its limit. There was a small config file in Open Dental which had to be modified, and I did this under the supervision of someone at Open Dental. It was only one or two lines which were changed, but that did resolve our problems.

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Thu Nov 15, 2012 3:00 pm

stjames70,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it. May I ask why you're still running 12.0.1.9 and not the latest update? I hate to say it, but I don't know why apple product seems to be more stable over time. All my siblings has converted over to apple and they haven't had much issue. They use to call me all the time to troubleshoot their issue. In the past, I've been able to fix many computer issues, but this one really got me.

Manny Ramirez,
You mentioned at first that you used to have a wireless network. Make sure you disable the wireless interface. Disable UAC in Windows 7 stations and on the server. Use a Workgroup to keep it simple. Disable simple sharing and also to keep things even more simple disable IPV6 and LLPR in all your NICS. Lastly disable SMB2 on the server. SMB2 comes at the cost of performance. You maybe even want to disable SMB2 in all your station. Turn off Firewall on your home network.
could you elaborate more on LLPR? I tried searching for information on google, but didn't come across anything.

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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by teethdood » Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:08 pm

Kevin,

Did you try changing the router and assign a static IP to each computer? Still doesn't work? Try this:
Right click on Network icon, Open Network and Sharing Center. Is your network connection "Public" or "Work" or "Home"? Change to Work.
Then click on Change Advanced Sharing Center, Under Home/Work, turn on network discovery, turn on file/print sharing, off public folder sharing. Try OD now, see if it works. Also be sure you are on the same workgroup across the entire network.
Network Connection "Public" doesn't always work nicely with OD as it is inherently insecure. Firewall setting should list mysql, mysqlnt and mysqld as open with private network on your server.
Do this for all computers on your network.
Philip H. Doan, DDS
http://www.kaweahdental.com/

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:31 pm

Did you try changing the router and assign a static IP to each computer? Still doesn't work? Try this:
Right click on Network icon, Open Network and Sharing Center. Is your network connection "Public" or "Work" or "Home"? Change to Work.
Then click on Change Advanced Sharing Center, Under Home/Work, turn on network discovery, turn on file/print sharing, off public folder sharing. Try OD now, see if it works. Also be sure you are on the same workgroup across the entire network.
Network Connection "Public" doesn't always work nicely with OD as it is inherently insecure. Firewall setting should list mysql, mysqlnt and mysqld as open with private network on your server.
Do this for all computers on your network.
Philip,

I really appreciate your help in this matter. I did set static IP to all the computers and it hasn't solved the problem. I've changed over to "work" network connection on the computer and followed your recomendations. I've double check my workgroup on all the computer and they are all set the same.
Firewall setting should list mysql, mysqlnt and mysqld as open with private network on your server.
Where do I find mysqlnt? I've tried searching the computer for it, but it's not showing up. Am I missing something here?

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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jordansparks » Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:40 pm

I don't understand why you're not running antivirus. Have you considered that you simply have viruses? I can understand turning off your antivirus for 5 or 10 minutes as a troubleshooting step, but it's absolutely critical that you always run antivirus software. So I would take the time to install Kasperski on all your computers. When you install, they will do an initial scan and hopefully come up clean, although I suspect not.

It's not a Windows 7 issue. Lots of users run Windows 7. Great operating system. On your server, the only firewall setting you need is mysql, which you obviously already have, or the workstations would never work.
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Sat Nov 17, 2012 7:54 am

I don't understand why you're not running antivirus. Have you considered that you simply have viruses? I can understand turning off your antivirus for 5 or 10 minutes as a troubleshooting step, but it's absolutely critical that you always run antivirus software. So I would take the time to install Kasperski on all your computers. When you install, they will do an initial scan and hopefully come up clean, although I suspect not.

It's not a Windows 7 issue. Lots of users run Windows 7. Great operating system. On your server, the only firewall setting you need is mysql, which you obviously already have, or the workstations would never work.
Jordan,

All the computers are new and came with McAfee, which I read somewhere that causes alot of problem with OD. Therefore I unintalled it and blocked all the computers from accessing the internet except my computer and the one other computer for insurance purpose. I'm sure there's a possibility that a virus might have slipped through the cracks there. I'll get my hands on Kaspersky and installed it to rule out the virus factor.

if you have any other ideas, please let me know.

Thanks,
Kevin

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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jordansparks » Sat Nov 17, 2012 9:30 am

Another major problem with not having antivirus is that you can't do your Windows updates. Doing the Windows updates is usually one of the very first ordinary maintenance jobs that you perform on a new computer.

Just to recap, your network looks like this?:
internet modem ------ router ------ cisco SG100-24 switch ------ all 6 workstations.
All of the connections shown above are hard-wired. All 6 workstations are about 3 months old and are running Windows 7. One of the workstations is acting as the server. The slowness problem is intermittent and affects all 6 workstations equally. All computers are using Administrator for the user, and all with the same password. You're on a workgroup (I don't even know what a 'homegroup' is).

Did I get all the details right?
Does the problem also happen when you are using OD on the server? In this case, no network is involved.
When it gets slow, do you open the resource monitor on the server to see if the CPU or memory is maxed out? That's the best way to tell if the problem is the server rather than the network.
Have you looked through this page?
http://www.opendental.com/manual/troubl ... wness.html
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com

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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:24 pm

Another major problem with not having antivirus is that you can't do your Windows updates. Doing the Windows updates is usually one of the very first ordinary maintenance jobs that you perform on a new computer.
Just to recap, your network looks like this?:
internet modem ------ router ------ cisco SG100-24 switch ------ all 6 workstations.
All of the connections shown above are hard-wired. All 6 workstations are about 3 months old and are running Windows 7. One of the workstations is acting as the server. The slowness problem is intermittent and affects all 6 workstations equally. All computers are using Administrator for the user, and all with the same password. You're on a workgroup (I don't even know what a 'homegroup' is).

Did I get all the details right?
Does the problem also happen when you are using OD on the server? In this case, no network is involved.
When it gets slow, do you open the resource monitor on the server to see if the CPU or memory is maxed out? That's the best way to tell if the problem is the server rather than the network.
Have you looked through this page?
http://www.opendental.com/manual/troubl ... wness.html
Jordan,

I really appreciate your help with this. I love OD, and really want to get this slowness resolve. THANKS A MILLION! Oh yeah, your employees are AWESOME too!

Here's some info on homegroup - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... /homegroup

The network is exactly as you mentioned. The slowness only acts up on the 5 workstations which are hardwired with cat5e. As for the user and password, it's all the same on all the computers. All my computer are on the same workgroup. I've double, triple check it. I installed free avg antivirus and did a window update on all the computers also. The virus scan on all the computers came back clean.

The computer that acts as the server is never slow. I've never seen the "Not responding" on the server. The CPU and Memory never spikes when there's a "not responding" on any of the workstation. I did notice a spike in the network and disk when the "not responding" occurs on the workstation. I'm going to try to post a video of the resource monitor.

I've gone through that "trouble shooting slowness" page a while back and reviewed it again about a week ago.

Thanks,
Kevin

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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by bpcomp » Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:16 am

Have you reviewed the log files on the workstations for the times that the network is slowing down? You might find something in there. You might also look at playing with Wireshark. Just as a warning, some antivirus programs will throw out a warning for the program because of the deep nature of sniffing all your network traffic. Wireshark will tell you what your network traffic is doing on a computer. It might be hard to interpret that into what is causing the problem, but it might point you in the right direction.

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jordansparks
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jordansparks » Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:24 pm

Grrr. This only seems to affect a few users and it only happens intermittently. We run OD very intensively on many dozens of computers at our HQ, and it never happens. But I did just think of one thing we do differently here. We have this line:
max-connections=1000
in our my.ini file. See the bottom of
http://www.opendental.com/manual/myini.html
for information on how to edit the my.ini file. Please do let us know here if that change solves your problem. I'm running out of tricks.
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com

KevinVan
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by KevinVan » Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:36 am

I've been working with Derek to try to troubleshoot this issue. He tried a lot of stuff. Our next step was to get new networking cards and see if it would work better. Being out in rural Florida, I couldn't just run to a store and get a network card. Would have to wait till Wednesday, but I wasn't going to sit around and hope that was going to do it. Derek gave me some reasoning and justification about why it couldn't be some of the things we thought it was. It got me thinking so i decided to do a little digging on the integrated network card. I was wrong to assume Lenovo or Windows would have the best driver for the built-in NIC. I went to Realtek's website and saw that they had a different driver for that chipset. It was 11:30 pm, but I was excited to go out to the office, install it, and try it.

IT WORKSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! I'm definitely going to have a good Thanksgiving now. This issue has been driving me nuts for a long time. VERY THANKFUL for the people at OD and here on this forum! You guys definitely try to help those in need.

NOW I can buy my digital sensors and hook up the digital pan!!!

Thanks a Million!
Kevin

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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by jordansparks » Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:03 pm

Holy cow. It was the network card driver. Looking at this conversation in hind sight, I should have mentioned that it doesn't help troubleshooting when all the computers are exactly the same. Because one typical troubleshooting step is to make a different computer the server to help eliminate individual computer hardware and drivers. But in your special case, that wouldn't have worked.
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com

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Justin Shafer
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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by Justin Shafer » Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:29 pm

Reminds me of a problem I once had with schick.. It was the network card driver..

Something to be said for using Intel..

Same problem as in 2005.. It was a realtek driver problem... They fixed that driver problem since then. Also good to use WHQL certified drivers...

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Re: Need Networking HELP..

Post by stjames70 » Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:12 am

Hi Kevin,

So glad you resolved your networking issues. Jordan's reply a few posts ago about changing the maximum number of connections in the ini file was what I had to do many years ago when our computers were solely wireless. I set the number of maximum connections to something like a million so this problem would never occur again. I think you also asked me why we were still on 12.0.19.0? Well, we haven't needed any new features since that version, so I just didn't update.

Also, I agree with you on Mac wireless hardware. It is hard for things to go very wrong when you have a vertically integrated vendor. Granted we use VMs on VMware Fusion, but as I have posted previously, VMs can be restored almost instantaneously (ok, an hour maybe), and with a fairly simple set up you can ensure automated backups of your VMs (we use Carbon Copy Cloner -- of course that is a Mac application, but it copies your hard drive bit by bit, so you can boot up from the back up drive if necessary). I agree with Dr. Jordan as far as antivirus software, but that being said, I don't run it on our VMs. My past experience was that most antivirus software require a lot of system resources which slow down the whole machinery. They are intrusive. Since we use the MacOS to go to the internet, check email and so forth, our exposure is limited on the Windows side. In case one of our VMs become infected, we simply trash it and replace it with a pristine copy that has not been tainted.

When your practice grows and your replacement cycle for your hardware comes in, go visit Dr. Jordan in Oregon (no sales tax), pay him visit, and buy a nice MacPro Server along with lots of iMac workstations :mrgreen:

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