I'd really appreciate some assistance here. For two of these issues I was at it for around 2-3 hours with no result whatsoever, and the other just confuses the heck out of me:

1) GMail.com won't load.

This one is driving me the most nuts. When I say it won't load, I don't mean you get that page with the progress bar on the top-left, and the bar never progresses, I mean the site itself simply times out. The browser just sits there for approximately two to four minutes, and at that point it either gets to the login page for GMail (about 1/4 of the time), or it simply times out.

The user's computer was able to browse to any other website I tried and everything loaded just like normal. I was able to watch HD Vimeo videos, and her Fios connection was getting around 30Mbps on speed tests. I ran CCleaner. I ran several virus scans including ComboFix. I ran HiJack This and didn't see anything weird at all. I tried three different browsers, including a portable version of Chrome I brought on my own thumb drive. I created a new user account in Windows. I tried the existing guest account. I flushed the DNS. I reset the router to defaults. I tried my own laptop and had no problems. I tried pretty much everything I could think of, and nothing worked. I feel like I conclusively determined it wasn't on Verizon's end, it wasn't the NIC, and it wasn't a browser issue. What's left?

2) On the same computer, there are other random slowness issues.

For the most part, it's a decent computer (Dell XPS 430 w/8GB of RAM). Certain things just run terribly slowly, while others just zip along. For instance, loading IE or any of the browsers was instantaneous. But the user showed me that when she opened a photo in some MS photo editing software (not Paint, something that comes with Office I think), and simply tried to crop an image and save it, the program would freeze for several minutes before finally completing its process. It would get there, but not without taking its sweet time. The other points where it seemed to take an extraordinarily long time would be when apps would create system restore points (like ComboFix or Windows update). I tried installing Service Pack 2 (she's unfortunately very out of date on her Vista machine), but it simply timed out.

I'd hate to tell this woman she needs to start fresh, but that might be the only option. If there's anything else that can solve this, though, I'd appreciate knowing it.

3) An unswitchable network.

I'm the IT guy for my family's church. A while back they built a new building and the hub of the network was moved to it. A few connections were run underground from the new building to where the hub used to be in the old building. Essentially I replaced the router with a switch and moved it to the new hub. I hope that's all clear.

Well, last week users in the old building were experiencing very slow internet connections. Instead of their normal 20-30 Mbps, they were getting more like a flaky 1Mbps. But anyone connected in the new building were fine.

The First thing I tried was taking the line terminating in the old building and plugging it right into my netbook. I instantly started getting ~30Mbps. I then plugged that line back in the switch, and connected my netbook to the switch as well. I then got 1.5Mbps. I tried a brand new switch, and the exact same thing happened. What's going on? Why does this thing not like when I have a switch connected to it all fo a sudden?


Thanks for your help on these questions, and sorry for the looong post...

First two problems: Dell. Vista. Get rid of at least the second one. Starting fresh is my recommendation. It's going to be the most cost and time-effective for everyone involved.

Networking problem... You didn't happen to use the same patch cable that was already in place when you connected your personal machine to that other switch did you? Other than that, try a completely different brand/model of switch with a new and preferably pre-tested patch cable - with your computer.

How long is the cable between the two buildings? How good is the wiring between the buildings? Personally I'd chuck the hub and get another switch. Remember that a switch resets the maximum distance for copper, but a hub doesn't. Not to mention it would totally route-isolate both buildings. Right now the hub has to rebroadcast everything across the long run. If you had 2 switches, only true cross-building traffic would be transmitted over the long run. Less chance for collisions, too.

Frankly, I'm starting to lean towards that myself.


I did use the same patch cable, but the patch cable isn't the problem. It's been working fine for me for the past week or so that I've been using it. The new switch was a completely different brand and model.


It's pretty long, but unfortunately I can't remember the exact number now... I would have thought the wiring would be fine, it's worked fine since it was installed a year or two ago. It also seems to work just fine when plugged directly into my computer.


My apologies for confusing the matter, but there are no hubs in the network. I was using "hub" as a term to denote the central place where all the lines terminate and the router/modem are located. I realize that was a poor choice of word

There are nothing but switches in the system. The network essentially looks like:

Modem - router - switch - [long run between buildings] - switch - switch - all computers in old building

Yes, that's two switches, but the problem isn't with that. It doesn't matter if the second switch is plugged in or if that's just my computer. If ANY switch is connected to the end of that run (which used to work fine), anything connected to it will get these slower speeds. If a computer is plugged directly into the end of the run, it talks to it just fine.

Look at the blinkin' lights on the switch for clues. And/or unplug all connections except your notebook from the old switch (but do plug your notebook into the switch, not the raw cable from the new building). Any different?

For the GMail issue, clear your cache, delete cookies and restart your browser. I've had similar issues before and that fixed it.

I did note the light on the switch for the line coming from the new building, as I didn't understand what it was indicating. It was basically alternating between on and off just about every second. When it was off it was either flashing so rapidly it looked off or I was getting light bleed from an adjacent LED.


I ran CCleaner, though now that I think about it I believe that program now looks for cookies for sites like GMail and leaves them alone. Still, it should clear the cache. Also, using a portable browser should have gotten around the problem...

Personal story about experiences with cables.

I bought a cable tester, I was building cables at the lengths I wanted - and just because I wanted one.

The surprise was when a couple of cables tested wrong. They weren't ones I built, either I purchased them or they were bundled. The screwiest one was pairing wires from different twisted pairs. It passed a simple, pin to pin, continuity check, but it wasn't wired correctly at all.

Yesterday I had a scary cable experience.

Firefox crashed with a "Unhandled Exception" error. Then no application would start. Rebooted, and got a message about "Insert proper media." No bootup.

Went into the BIOS, found that the system drive (C:>) was not recognized. Opened up the computer, and hallelujah, the power connector for the C:> drive was slightly askew. I blew and vacuumed all of the dust out of the inside, reseated all power and data connectors for all drives, and voila! Computer lived once more.

This was scary because my backups were not current (they were about five or six days old) and I would have lost about 40 hours of work. Not to mention the possibility of having to reinstall all of my applications.

tanstaafl.

Do I detect the faint sounds of disk drives being stressed in the background.

I remember something vaguely like this problem. At work a rouge admin kept assigning ip addresses to machines w/o verifying he was entitled to them. He thought he owned a particular block.

Do you know that something needing an ip wasn't added or changed by one of the clueless.

Another incident had to do with the number of cables that were attached at the switch but not the far end. Remove any cable not actively in use.

Also, some switch/routers have a wan or uplink port. I have a router whose instructions prohibit using the wan port if all I want, is to use it for is extending the network.