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Here is a question any answers would be appreciated
have a new server with windows server essentials 2012 R2, domain set up, main computer at my desk(part of domain) connects to AC on the server via gigabyte switch and Cat 6 cable takes 6 secs to open a chart from my message inbox, 4 seconds to open a chart not in the inbox this computer has AMD Fx processor running 4Ghz Windows 7 pro.
have a surface pro 2 win 10 pro I take into exam rooms not part of the domain connect wirelessly to same server and chart opening times are 4 secs for chart in message inbox, 2 secs for chart not in inbox.
Tried disabling SMB signing on server didn't seem to improve speed any for domain computers.
Thoughts anyone? wirelessly no domain faster then domain wired.

Weird. I am a bit confused as well. I don't understand when you say the "main computer" is at your desk and it is connected to AC on the server. Wouldn't that make the server the main computer? If not, then why have the server.

Are your NIC cards (especially on the server) auto-negotiating with the switch. Is it getting 1000 Mbps speed?

Bad terminology on my part, the 'main' computer is the client computer that sits on my desk and I use the most thus labeled 'main'; in it's past life (like 3 weeks ago) when I ran a peer to peer network it was the AC server but alas, demoted to being a client with the privilege of being part of the servers domain . Thought about taking said 'main' computer out of the domain and then reconnecting it to AC on the server to see if unencumbered by domain policies AC would be faster but not that adventurous.

After I installed the server and loaded AC and AC database on server and before connecting any client computers to server I uninstalled AC and it's database from the 'main' computer, then reinstalled AC on 'main' computer then connected 'main' computer to server as part of servers domain.

The server motherboard has 4 NIC RJ-45 connectors(Intel i210-AT) (not using a separate card), only using 1 which connects the server to the switch so the hardwired 'main' client and the wireless non-domain client(Surface Pro 2) eventually come to the server via the same port.

Can't imagine the smart component of the Intel i210-AT decides to give a faster speed to requests it senses came from a wireless device than from requests from a wired device that has a gigabyte NIC connector(said 'main' computer) although checking the NIC on 'main' may be in order.

Well since the Nursing home called me twice in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep did take a trip to the office and did take 'main' off the domain reconnected to AC on server no improvement in speed.

Then looked at the NIC on main, it is a gigabyte NIC with 'advanced options' component that allows different configurations speed packet size etc. played around with some settings still no better. Maybe it is the AMD CPU that is the problem?

I will try to go into more detail later, but once any NIC card and switch or router auto-negotiate to a certain speed, the speed will be set at either 1Gbps or 100Mbps or 10Mbps. It doesn't matter what the traffic is. You can force the NIC or port to run at a certain speed. It's just best practice to use auto-negotiation. The main thing is just to insurance that any computer which is running slowly is running at the 1Gbps speed you think it is.

For nomenclature sake: you promote a server to a domain controller or demote it. You join clients to the domain or unjoin them.

Being on a domain should not affect its speed.

There are reasons to unjoin a client from a domain and joining it back. There are just times that this is the only way to fix an unfixable problem. It is also the only way to change the computer name, hence the FQDN. Fully qualified domanin name. So if the name of the computer is "main" then the FQDN will me "main.domainname.local" or "main.domainname.com"

It is good practice to have a uniform and organized way of naming computers, taking into consideration that you will have to unjoin and rejoin and, therefore, want to give it a new name. For instance the "main" computer would be better off called "office" but may be even better off called OFFICE-a. If you have to take it off the domain and rejoin, you can name it OFFICE-b. It is generally best to use a new name for active directory purposes. It will also let you know how many times that computer had to be taken off the domain.

But, the name (you can use the description for some of this, but it doesn't affect its relation to the domain) should make sense to anyone who sees it in the network list. For me, as a user, I would be very confused to see "server name" and "main computer" in the same list. Also, for purposes here, I think you would wish to refer to it as the client computer I use in my office, "OFFICE-a" or "OWNER-a" or whatever designation.

Being on a domain gives the domain controller (server) the ability to use group policy to control virus protection, updates, single sign-on and, of course a myriad of security issues. It's good to know that when a disgruntled employee walks out the door, you can disable or delete his/her account in seconds. ALWAYS BEST TO DISABLE AND NOT DELETE. Or to restore a password. Or to change a password.

Likely, the singles best reason for a domain is authentication of users. The users log in and the server authenticates their username and password, and they now have access to whatever resources that user has. With a workgroup, they are logging into a specific computer.

Using a domain or not should not affect your speeds. Taking your office computer off the domain will not slow it down or speed it up.

The single most important thing to keep in mind when you create a domain is to always make a local admin that will not be used, but that YOU as the administrator will always know. This is a local admin account for the particular computer. So, whether it is when you first install Windows to a computer or adding an account, you would want to have one local admin account that you will use for that computer and a thousand other computers. You probably will not have a thousand other controllers, but IT people do. Because anytime you take disjoin a client from a domain, you must know at least one local admin account's username and password. If not, you are fumbling around with some boot CDs that allow you to create a new one.

In your instance, I would advise making sure each computer (not the server) has a local admin account with a username such as "localadmin" and a password such as "KOBYLOCALPASSWORD". It doesn't need to be very secure. Just something you can use over and over. (I use all caps as no one else would and I only use it for this purpose). Because it will ask for the local username and password.

As far as being nervous about taking it off the domain, no need to be. It takes minutes, if that, and will let you, hopefully, get rid of the "main" name, if that is the name of the computer.