Home Forums Discussions General Discussion AC slowness

We are so slow I have connected the Dr. directly to the router to try and help his speed. We have contacted AC support many times have increased our internet speed up. Still super slow. AC says the program is running fine that it must be our network. Everything is working together our internet company has checked their end and says its fine. I don't know what else to do......we have no IT person we are a really small office. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Is Internet access to anything else slow? For example, if you watch a YouTube video does it play smoothly?

JamesNT

Another way would be to use speedtest to check your internet speed to verify you have the internet speed that you are paying for. When did these issues start? We had problems with Rx writing for 1 day, appears to have improved since yesterday. Look at the shout box for others complaining of slow speeds or AC slow.

Dear Chmc,

If AC tech support thinks that your local network may be the problem . . .

Inside Amazing Charts is a well-hidden option to test your local network connection speed to the database:

View
Administrator options (requires your AC admin password)
Tools
Amazing utilities
Advanced
Test speed

Run the speed test a few times (it's quick).

You should get something like 0.300 seconds on a gigabit cabled local network.

If it's much slower, your local network isn't working right.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Just so we understand, AC is running locally on your network, or are you running AC "In-the-Cloud"?

I'm in the office this afternoon if you want me to log in and check on some of the typical culprits.

its like his computer is talking to the server slow. getting timeout msg ect his speed is good. is it possible that his computer isn't on the office network correctly? How do I make sure its all talking to each other correctly?

If Indy offers to remote in I'd take him up on it.

Koby, thank you for the kind words, just want to occupy my down time while we try our first 9.3 upgrade. ;-)

Still slow, still crashing, still no support.

http://amazingcharts.com/ub/images/icons/default/thumbs_down.gif AC in 2017

By connecting to the router, you have the router in the way. If you really want to know, grab a cable and connect it to the server. Sometimes AC is right and it is the network.

Do you have a networking computer place who can come over with a very expensive fluke meter and check the speeds.

Check your network card and make sure it is autonegotiating with the switch.

If there is a problem with your network card, you can plug it into anything and it will be slow.

Plug it directly into the server.

AC said to plug it directly into the router. I'll get a splitter and plug it into the server this afternoon.

AC couldn't even get a speed test done on it this morning it timed out??

Indy can you help me this afternoon? I'll go get a splitter to give us the option of plugging it directly into the server. Can you help me determine if its the network? I not an IT person and am lost.

I'll be glad to take a look, I just need the document back so that we are cleared to access your network, and some contact information, along with time zone.

Tangentially, can you get out to the Internet from client machines, the AC main machine? We will need connectivity, even if slow, to take a look.

For those coming to this thread in the future, Internet speed and AC speed are two separate issues. The only time Internet speed has DIRECT bearing on AC performance is when AC is calling externally - e.g. eRX (as soon as the window starts to open), and calls to Updox for portal interactions.

There is the 'beloved' phone home that AC does when starting, but I haven't instrumented AC in a while to see when else it calls out.

Note Bitte - this is a VERY different discussion if you run ACPM.

It wasn't clear that it was speed. I went back and read it. Plugging it into the router makes sense IF the router is fast enough. Check the speed of the router.

Do a speed test from other computers and see what the download speed and upload speed is.

You say they say it is fine. They may be checking from the node. They are probably checking from the modem. You can connect directly to the modem, but generally you have to connect to port one.

How can it be AC's fault if you have slow Internet speed? Take a laptop and connect it directly to the modem. Test your speed. http://www.speedtest.net/

We've suffered, mostly silently, with the sloth of AC. Our ver 9.1 resides on the local server in our office. Neither our ethernet cabled workstations nor our wireless laptops approach anything like reasonable speed. We've become accommodated to this, but, since the subject arose again....

Marc -

Couple of questions, knowing what I know about v9.1
<>How many computers connected?
<>When you look @ the SQLServer process on the server, how much memory is it using? (Task Manager->Processes)

Can you plug a laptop into the modem
Can you run an ethernet cord from the computer to the server
I just don't see how it's not the network
It must run back to a switch or router -- you can connect directly to the modem or router. Run a speed test.

Where is it connected to get to the server "main computer"
Eliminate all that and then run a speed test.
Why can't you connect to the modem?
The router may only be 1Mbs up.
Do you have a laptop?

typically 3 at a time.
335,768 k on active machine
175,756 k on inactive but open machine
thanks for taking an interest, Indy
Marc

Alright, @ 3 connections, performance really shouldn't be an issue.

On the server/AC main machine:
processor (i3, i5, i7)?
installed RAM
how much RAM is SQLServer using?

Are ALL of the hubs (hopefully switches) all GIG?

In the middle of a code push, so time slicing when I take quick breaks. Glad to help.

I understand- I'm seeing patients as I correspond w you.
Server is Windows 2008 v2
processor xeon cpu E3-1225 v3 @3.2 GHz
16 Gb ram
sql 894,832 k
don't know about hubs

Hubs are switches from years ago. When 10 computers went to a hub, the bandwidth was divided 10 times. With a switch there was no splitting of the bandwidth. And, it knew where everything was going.

Here's the deal:

1. If the Internet to the modem is fast, then it is a network problem
2. If it is slow, then it is a ISP problem.

We can do the conversions, but if you can do things in Mbps, it's easier to just see.

Everything is on local server but,
speed test shows 5 up and 35 down
ARRIS modem/router TM822

Damn we were 5 down and 2 up forever. Now, we are 70 down and 6 up. Can't even tell the purpose.

If you are 35 down and 5 up, it is your network.

Try the modem, get your speed.
Then try your router (good bet as far as upload)
Then try your switch (good bet -- maybe it's 10Mbps instead of 1,000Mbps.
Certain ports make a difference.

I doubt it's the server. But, try the speed test from there. Then run a speed test after running a cable from there to modem or router.

Remember, NIC cards should be 1000. But, generally they autonegotiate.

Make sure under your NIC properties, you go to Advanced, use the property Speed and Duplex. It should say Autonegotiation. If it does great. But, you may need to force it by using 1Gbps.

thanks Bert, Indy.
I'll have to try over the weekend. I 'll let you know how it goes.
Marc

It it?s only one computer, check the NIC card. That is easy.
Google your router and find out its speeds. Sometimes, you will get a forum and people will say, ?Gee my modem has terrible up speeds?
Goodgle your switch.

Not trying to brag, but my router costs $200 and my switch is $900.

We're 250 download and 100 upload but AC is still quite slow in the clouds. Probably off topic, but AC needs to work on speed! I wonder how fast their speed is to receive and send data on their side???

David Lee, MD
IM
Dallas, TX

Are you really faster upload?

I updated/reversed Bert.

David

Figured. Just thought they did things differently in Texas.

did some in-house testing:
Speed to open up prescribing after hitting Write Scripts button-- on server 4 seconds, on clients cat6 wired to server via a DLink gigabyte Switch 8-10 seconds;
time to open a chart on server 3 seconds, on clients 4 seconds;
time to open IE(Internet Explorer) server 3-4 secs, clients 4-5 secs.
So why the extra time for prescribing is there some extra verification going on as both the server and the client need to be verified for prescribing?? Just a question.

Koby,

When you first open AC, you will see it say, "Loading data for speed." It is bringing over most of the demographics, etc. I do not believe it brings over the scripts. So, if you have a patient with a lot of scripts and you open the chart the FIRST time, it has to the client on AC has to query the SQL database and get the scripts. That takes time. SQL should store a page or keep the meds in cache, and my guess is the second time you open it, it should be faster. Of course, on the server, the database is directly on the hard drive.

You should have three speeds:

1. The slowest speed when you right click on from the chart, you open the meds for the first time, because AC has to go all the way over and find the path to the meds and then load them.
2. If you are working in the chart, they should be loaded in cache and should be quicker.
3. Even if you close the script writer and open another chart, it should be quicker to load because SQL will have saved a "page" in the SQL memory which remembers where the query went, i.e. went to this tablet, then that column, etc.

Even on the server, once closed, reopening it should be faster due to caching and paging.

now takes 13 secs to open scripts the same patient whose chart I just wrote a script, then closed the chart then reopened the chart
maybe my managed switch or me has become dumb

So you opened scripts wrote a script closed it and then reopened it?

yep immediately after I wrote a script I closed the patient chart then reopened it and went to Write Scripts 13 seconds before prescription page came up ran Speed Test .353 secs

13 seconds is a long time. So one last question. You write the script. You close the script writer. You open the script writer -- 13 seconds. Now close it and re-open it.

I wonder if it is something with permissions in the smart switch, gonna put an unmanaged gigabyte switch in later and see

As I mentioned in the other thread, we have had to run down sporadic issues with NewCrop, and in the process, we were encouraged to use fiddler2 ( a web-proxy/testing tool) to observe the traffic in the background between AC and NewCrop. I'll buy a round if the variability isn't right there.

Some of our infrastructure happens to be in the same dark Tier-4 co-location facility, so we get 10-20 millisecond response (small world), but that makes the response time from their systems that much more noticeable.

Checking local network is always essential, but sometimes it IS the other guy.