Home Forums Discussions Problems Slow AC

Just installed AC 5.029 version on a dell xeon server 4 GB ram and running windows 2003 server. It runs very slow on all workstations using 100 mbps, windows XP. The speed reading to the database on the server is 0.4 sec and 80 sec from the wired workstation to the server database. I have medisoft and another emr database also on the server and both run fast. I just could not understand why. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Is it also slow when run directly from the server?

It is fast when running directly from the server

1. Change to 1Gb/s. Need Gb switch and Cat5e to Cat6 cable and Gb NICs.
2. Completely turn off all other computers and see your speed.
3. Consider using a 64-bit server OS and up your RAM to at least 8GB of RAM. I would go with 12.
4. Why the other EMR database? That seems confusing. Is it using SQL? What does Medisoft use? Turn these services off and see what happens.
5. Doubtful, but with all those databases, your bandwidth is not enough, hence the Gb/s. You can try one computer and if it is still 80 seconds, make it Gb/s. You can probably get a small Linksys with Gb capacity and a cheap NIC card.
6. Are you on a domain or P2P?
7. Do you mean mbps or Mbps? I am guessing the latter.
8. The key is to turn off ALL machines but one, then try that machine. If successful, turn one machine on at a time.
9. The fact tha it runs fast on the server proves it a network problem. 99% of these issues are due to network issues.
10. If still having issues, get a crossover cable and connect directly to the server.

I am still amazed Bert. When you are tired of solo practice and small town setting, I can refer you to work at Goog.. for a change. They allow free time to tinker, eat gourmet food, exercise during breaks, and salary not less then docs making now a day (for a star employees like you). Some prefers beautiful 4 seasons like Maine but I don't like cold so Bay area is perfect. Sorry Alex, I 've been playing tech so long, I like to have fun when reading troubleshoot topics. Bert suggestions are more than I could think off, at the moment.

Thanks a lot Bert for those recommendations. The other emr database is my old emr before I switched to AC and it is not using SQL. I just started using AC yesterday. Medisoft uses Advantage Server. I am using a domain on my network. I will try your suggestions and I will keep you posted. Thanks again for the expert tech support.

No problem. But, pseudo-expert, lol.

A domain, in my opinion -- but this has been a fun discussion on here for years -- is better, but it does bring DNS into the equation. If you don't mind, since the IP addresses will be private, can you post your ipconfig /all on your server and at least one of your slow machines? Are you using just one NIC card? When you have been running for awhile, what is your memory distribution? In task manager, how much memory is your old EMR using and Medisoft?

Here is the ipconfig for

Server: IP address 192.168.0.101
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Default gateway 192.168.0.1
Preferred DNS 192.168.0.1

One workstation
IP address 192.168.0.7
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Default gateway 192.168.0.1
Preferred DNS 192.168.0.1

SQL memory use 27,000
Medisoft 13,000

I turned off all the computers except for this one and even with one computer running, it is still very slow. If I try to search a patient, it will only allow me to type for 1 letter and will pause for about a minute before the patients are displayed.

Also it takes a long time to connect to the server, about 2-3 minutes. I am just telling what I observe ..

Thanks again.

Alex,

It's strange because it is slow but works. If your server is your DHCP server, then your DNS should point to the server, e.g. 192.168.0.101. Of course if your server were your DHCP, then the DNS would be 0.101.

Your server should also be 0.101 for your DNS and WINS servers. This, again, of course if the server is the DHCP and not DHCP enabled. Your server should have a static IP and when set up should have the settings with the 101 DNS.

If you are using your router for DHCP, I would turn that off and turn DHCP on for your server. If you are using all static IPs, I would definitely make all of your clients DHCP.

It appears as though you may be using your router.

Could you also tell us the make and model of your router?

Did you try running a LAN speed test?
http://download.cnet.com/LAN-Speed-...rt=dl-6300954&subj=dl&tag=button

I've pretty bad experiences wireless especially those homeplugs. They barely broke 5 megabits.

Try wired just to see if wireless is the cause or it's something else on the network.

Or just use a crossover cable and connect directly. XP Home or XP Pro?

Crossover cable won't tell us if the router has problems with wired LAN connections as well. It will tell us if the server/client computer is messed up though.

Yes, I am using the router as DHCP. I will make the change. The workstations are XP and all are wired. I do have a Belkin wireless router.

Thanks again for helping.

On my posts above. Fail. I must've been reading another thread because I thought the OP was using wireless. My bad. Did you try running the LAN speed test. You should be getting speeds around 70 megabits/sec.

Crossover cable will tell us if your router is messed up. I always try to avoid using 192.168.0.X subnet for the router's DHCP server. There are some functions of the Operating system that need that IP range available like ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). Change it to something like 192.168.2.1. Could you tell us the exact model of your Belkin Router? It's usually listed on the bottom.

Definitely chang, then post back your ipconfig /all

I have upgraded to the Gigabit network. Now AC is really fast. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Wow. I wouldn't have thought that would make that big of a difference. But, hey, first confirmation that it does.

Glad you got it going. Now we have a reference for others.

I find it hard to believe that switching to 1gbps network made the difference; that would mean that amazing charts needs a significant amount of bandwidth to overwhelm a 100mbps connection. I have had 2 different EMRs and 2 different instances of medisoft running over the same 100mbps connection without any difficulty or latency (different versions of soapware and different versions of medisoft --each with their own VM'd database server, on the same physical server).

If it was the sole thing making the difference, either amazing charts has inherent latency issues, or your network does (and for my sake, I hope it is the latter since I am very interested in using AC in my practice)

I have to agree. I had to take my post down until we figure this out. ng, it may not be that the network's becoming 1Gb/s that changed things. We really don't have enough information. Alex didn't tell exactly what "upgraded to a Gb network" means.

Was it just changing the switch? Did he upgrade the Ethernet cables? NIC cards?

All of which would have to be Gb capable. It is possible that only the switch was changed, and the switch was faulty. Could it be he was using a hub, God forbid, and went to a Gb switch, again limited by the other hardware mentioned above. The NIC cards could have been 10Mb/s at half duplex.

I was actually going to post something along the same lines but Bert and ng beat me to it. AC should be at home on a standard 100Mbs network. This sounds tremendously like a faulty piece of equipment was replaced.

JamesNT

I changed all the workstations network adapter to GBit as well as the switch. I have medisoft and an older EMR running also and they were both running normally on the 100 mbps network. I could not understand why only AC would run slow then, until I changed to the Gbit network, as recommended by Bert.

Well, I hate to keep flip flopping.

There are two things that are important here:

1. It works. Doesn't matter if what you did was the cause. Maybe it's True -- True unrelated, but all that matters is the last "true."

2. Your network is substantially better than it was before you made the changes.

Again, it could be that the NIC cards weren't negotiating properly or that the 100Mb switch was faulty. Doesn't matter now.
Just make sure your NIC cards are all set to autonegotiate. They will work better that way.

You could experiment if you wanted. Add the old switch to the new one and run a computer through that one. Change a NIC card back to 100. I doubt you get a full 100 when it is set up that way, nor do you get a full 1000 when it is set up that way.

Another observation:

Just installed ac on a mini-PC with 100 mbps adapter. Already using the gbit switch and all network cards set to auto-negotiate. It is also slow. So the gigabit adapter is better, at least in my network.