Fixing a Small Business Network

[sfx2000]

I may try to disable IPv6 on the PCs since we are not using it. I will if it helps with lag.

if IPv6 isn't enabled at the edge, then it doesn't matter - the Winboxes will configure as link-local...

 

[coxhaus]

Yea, I think Win10 looks to IPv6 first before IPv4. The network is setup with IPv4 only. I think I will go into Win10 and disable IPv6 and see if it helps my lag.

The other thing is my router is doing DHCP as I have not installed a layer 3 switch yet so I think I will up the leases to the maximum lease time to reduce DHCP overhead. This will help with lag also.

 

[sfx2000]

Yea, I think Win10 looks to IPv6 first before IPv4. The network is setup with IPv4 only. I think I will go into Win10 and disable IPv6 and see if it helps my lag.

Worth a try - I'm assuming one workstation first for testing...

In any event, if IPV6 is disabled on the GW, DHCP will assign IPV4 address/gateway/dns - Win10 will assume that IPv6 is link-local only, so FQDN lookups will be over IPV4, one won't see IPv6 lookups unless you're also routing public IPv6

The other thing is my router is doing DHCP as I have not installed a layer 3 switch yet so I think I will up the leases to the maximum lease time to reduce DHCP overhead. This will help with lag also.

What's your current lease time?

In smaller LAN's (less than 1000 clients), 12 hours is more than enough - DHCP doesn't have a lot of overhead.

 

[coxhaus]

I worked on my daughter's network. I added another D-Link switch to split the number of users on the one full switch. I turned IPv6 off on all the Windows 10 machines and 2 Windows 8.1 machines. Hopefully there is no IPv6 running on the local network now. It is turned off in the router also. I think we should be good and there won't be any slowdowns from IPv6.

I did not get to router to change lease times. It will be next time I go. I will change the lease times to 2 weeks.

 

[coxhaus]

I bought another couple of Dell OptiPlex 7010 PCs. I installed the latest Microsoft updates on 6 of the machines and Microsoft Edge broke. I tried to un-install the updates but when you look at the update list it is now empty so there is no way back. I had to install Chrome on all six machines. The other PCs I will not put the updates on until we solve this.

I also updated the router lease times. I added the new Spectrum DNS server 209.18.47.63 and took off the old one 209.18.47.61.

 

[sfx2000]

I bought another couple of Dell OptiPlex 7010 PCs. I installed the latest Microsoft updates on 6 of the machines and Microsoft Edge broke. I tried to un-install the updates but when you look at the update list it is now empty so there is no way back. I had to install Chrome on all six machines. The other PCs I will not put the updates on until we solve this.

Hope these help...

TL;DR - enable ipv6 on the client workstation and restart... (can keep IPv6 disabled on the WAN side, the clients should use link-local addressing if IPv6 isn't available on the WAN)

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ore-apps/75ac54dd-cd56-41d8-a205-7948e54f39be

 

[coxhaus]

I had to buy another Dell PC. She keeps hiring people. The network runs great. We have only had 1 outage and it was Spectrum hosed the modem to where we had to reboot it and then everything started working just as before.

This network runs itself as it does not require me. I have had to add an emergency firmware update which Cisco released for the RV320 router. Not bad in my opinion for 8 months.

In the future my daughter is going to re-arrange and I will need to string new CAT cables. She is going to make more room so she can hire more people.

 

[PolarBear]

This network runs itself as it does not require me.

Success !

Your daughter too !

so she can hire more people.

 

[sfx2000]

In the future my daughter is going to re-arrange and I will need to string new CAT cables. She is going to make more room so she can hire more people.

Perhaps time to start looking into Wireless and WPA2-Enterprise at some point.

Happy she's having good success at her business...

 

[coxhaus]

No wireless at her place. Wireless slows the network down. It adds latency to all the wired clients. Her network runs better without it. Plus she thinks it is a security risk. I only need to pull 2 or 3 cables. It will be easy.

You can network around the wireless and only use wireless on the outside of the network in it's own network address space. Never use wireless in your high speed core network as it will slow your servers down. You can get away with it at home but I would not use it in a business on the main network.

 

[MichaelCG]

No wireless at her place. Wireless slows the network down. It adds latency to all the wired clients. Her network runs better without it. Plus she thinks it is a security risk. I only need to pull 2 or 3 cables. It will be easy.

You can network around the wireless and only use wireless on the outside of the network in it's own network address space. Never use wireless in your high speed core network as it will slow your servers down. You can get away with it at home but I would not use it in a business on the main network.

What are you talking about? A wireless client does not add latency to wired clients. It will not slow your servers down. The only thing it will do is add another complication to clients when you have to troubleshoot. If your server slows down for all clients, you have other issues.

Also to note....of course you should never have wifi in your core. Your core should not have distribution in the first place.

 

[coxhaus]

Every time their is a broadcast on a network with wireless clients you have to wait for all clients to receive the broadcast. The wireless clients are very slow compared to wired. This an example. There are more. If the wireless clients are in a different network then the wired clients don't have to wait on the slow wireless clients.

 

[MichaelCG]

Nobody waits on broadcasts these days in a fully switched environment. Your wired network will not slow down to the same speed as the WiFi...just not how it works. You could slow your WiFi down to 10Mbps and it still would not impact your wired network.

I see the point you are working towards, but the description isn't quite there. In a business environment you should never have your clients in the same broadcast domain as your servers. Most business networks also would have separate broadcast domains for the client WiFi and Wired access.

 

[coxhaus]

I have seen networks with wireless and without and there is a difference so you tell me. I have pulled wireless out of a fast network and I can feel the difference. I also will not put 100 or 10 Mbps in high speed cores.

 

[sfx2000]

No wireless at her place. Wireless slows the network down. It adds latency to all the wired clients. Her network runs better without it. Plus she thinks it is a security risk. I only need to pull 2 or 3 cables. It will be easy.

It's all good - and the owner has the last say.

You can network around the wireless and only use wireless on the outside of the network in it's own network address space. Never use wireless in your high speed core network as it will slow your servers down. You can get away with it at home but I would not use it in a business on the main network.

There's a lot of ways to deploy wireless into a small business and keep traffic clean and maintain good security, but it does add a level of complexity and associated costs for quality gear.

Where things go wrong with many small business - using consumer/home gear at the router and AP, and like you mention, that can impact performance and stability.

 

[coxhaus]

I got a call from my daughter the network was slow. People were complaining about slow data bases. My daughter has 2 PCs which were bought right before she took over. They were Best Buy home PCs all-in-one. Everything is built in the monitor. They had a employee quit that was using one of these machines with Windows 10. They did a reset on the PC. What happened is the reset of the PC turned the wireless back on. It connected next door to their wireless. This some how kills the performance on her network. I had her power down the PC and the network started working fine. Problem solved. We just need to disable the wireless on those 2 PCs. Her business is in a shopping center so the building is shared. Some time in the future we will replace those PCs as the monitors are not as big as our 27 inch standard on the other Dell PCs.

 

[L&LD]

I got a call from my daughter the network was slow. People were complaining about slow data bases. My daughter has 2 PCs which were bought right before she took over. They were Best Buy home PCs all-in-one. Everything is built in the monitor. They had a employee quit that was using one of these machines with Windows 10. They did a reset on the PC. What happened is the reset of the PC turned the wireless back on. It connected next door to their wireless. This some how kills the performance on her network. I had her power down the PC and the network started working fine. Problem solved. We just need to disable the wireless on those 2 PCs. Her business is in a shopping center so the building is shared. Some time in the future we will replace those PCs as the monitors are not as big as our 27 inch standard on the other Dell PCs.

coxhaus, that doesn't sound like the WiFi was the cause of the slowdown in and of itself.

The issue seems to be that the WiFi and the Ethernet were connected at the same time.

 

[coxhaus]

Yes. It must be creating some kind of loop. Maybe using the same IP network.

 

[sfx2000]

They had a employee quit that was using one of these machines with Windows 10. They did a reset on the PC. What happened is the reset of the PC turned the wireless back on. It connected next door to their wireless.

Something doesn't sound right here...

Win10 reset puts Windows into a fresh state, so it shouldn't "automatically" attach to any WiFi network, even an Open Network, without user interaction...

Weird...

 

[coxhaus]

I agree. Home PCs don't belong in a business. Too many bells and whistles to break. Dell has plenty of PCs designed for businesses. I will be happy when I can replace these last 2 home PCs at my daughter's business. The whole shop was full of these things. I think the PO went around buying home PCs on sale for his business.