>I have just upgraded a client peer to peer Win 95 network to a NT 4.
>The application was running OK on a non dedicated P75 station. Now I have a Pentium II 300, 128 RAM, 3Com NIC, and upgraded the other users PC and my application us running slower!.
>
>Could somebody explain me this. Any help will be very apreciated, customer invested a lot on new hardware, and users are complaining about the slower performance.
it's entirely possible; there's more to tuning NT's performance.
What version of NT are you running, and how do you have the system configured?
If you are not an experienced NT person, it's easy to make a less than optimal system configuration accidentally. I'd make a trip out to
The NT FAQ Web Page; there's a great deal of incredibly useful and up-to-date information available there. Other rtesources include
Info NT Home Page and
SysInternals.
The Microsoft core curriculum for the MCSE certification is a good source of information as well.
A few things to do that may make a big difference quickly:
(1) Get rid of screen savers, especially anything like the OpenGL stuff, which eat CPU cycles in a big way.
(2) Adjust the performance tab of the System Properties page to be appropriate for the tasks mix you're running. If you want to improve network service, set the Application performance slider as far to the left as possible; this will minimize the priority of the foreground task and make more memory available to the operating system for caching.
(3) Adjust the size of the virtual memory allocation. As a general rule, you want to have at least a swap file that is (physical RAM + 11MB/CPU) set aside in the swap file.
(4) Use NTFS as a file system. This allows for finer granularity and better network security, as well as better reliability.
FWIW, this should not have cost much - to give you an idea, a typical extremely low-end server from my primary vendor (PCNut Computer -
http://www.pcnut.com) would be a PII/350, 128MB RAM, 8GB drive, 32x CDROM, AGP video card, 3COM 3C905B (10/100Mbps) and 56Kbps USR modem (npot a WinModem) runs well under US$1300 without a monitor. Add an appropriate copy of NT Server to get an idea of cost.
If your client bought something like BackOffice or Small Business Server, it's not surprising that performance is hurting; you have much more going on with SBS/BackOffice fully installed (SQL Server, IIS, Exchange Server, Fax Server, etc.) If you're running NT Workstation, realize you didn't buy a server. You bought a more stable client, but one with a great deal more overhead than Win9x has.
Good luck,
