>I have been struggling to find answers to this for a month. Any help would be appreciated.
>
>Norvel 4.1 networked LAN with approximately 6 PC workstations running Windows 95b. Application (developed with VFP6,SP2) is installed on each workstation with tables on the server.
>Problem: The application on the workstation #1, which gets the most use, slows to a crawl - takes 4-5 minutes to get a record. I can go to another workstation and log on, open the form and find the same record in less than 2 seconds while the 1st workstation is still looking. Data entry also slows to a crawl on the 1st workstation. Warm booting the system will sometimes speed the application up but within an hour or so has slowed down again. Sometimes the warm boot doesn't even speed it up. A cold boot almost always works but, again, the system slows down within an hour or so.
>Even with the cold boot, sometimes the record search is still too slow. Records being searched as less than 50,000. All tables have been checked for Rushmore. All tables have deleted() tag.
>
>Workstation #1. Gateway Pentium 350 with 132 RAM, Video card with 8 meg, Win95b (originally came with NT but was completely reformatted to Win95b.)
>Steps taken to fix
>*Changed out network card in the workstation (packets between workstation and server were much slower than other workstations . .. changing card seemed to improve transmission speed.)
>*Plugged in another network CAT5 to this workstation, didn't make any difference
>
>I hope this isn't too confusing. Any help and ideas for further checks would be greatly appreciated.
I'd bet on this being driver or Win95 networking configuration related issues; I'd start by following Evan's suggestion of looking at the network configuration in Control Panel/Networks to make sure that the same protocols and clients are installed on all stations. If I had to guess, it's probably an issue with the IPX stack or the Client used to access the NetWare server.
One thing you have not mentioned - what is the underlying network hardware environment? If you are using UTP Ethernet, and most of your hardware, including your hub and server, support both EtherNet and Fast Ethernet (you'd need a hub capable of dual speed operation and 10/100 capable NICs), the Gateway might be using the slower protocol either because of soft configuration or hardware limitations on the NIC.
George also pointed to Novell as an issue; 4.x has been problematic for me, and there's a wide variation in performance and reliability based on exactly which network client is used, and what settings have been selected for the protocol stack and client. Again, examining Control Panel/Networks will give you the most information about how the PC talks to the server.
