Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client (Part 1) about:reader?url=http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials...

windowsnetworking.com

Improving Network Performance in

Windows Server and Client (Part 1)
If you would like to read the next part of this article series please go
to Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client
(Part 2).

Introduction

Computer users (and admins) are an impatient bunch. We don’t

want to wait around for anything. If it takes several seconds for a
page to load, a file to download, or a message to go through, we
get anxious. All those lost seconds add up to lost minutes, lost
hours, lost days – and in today’s business world, no one can afford
that.

The evolution of network performance capabilities

We’ve come a long way since the early days of computer

networking and communications. The first modems ran at 75 to 300
bits per second and ten years ago, a 1.5mbps T-1 line seemed
blazing fast. Today we have Internet connections ranging all the
way up to a gigabit per second (for those who aren’t mathematically
inclined, that’s 1,073,741,824 bits per second).

The original implementation of Ethernet, which became available in

the 1980s, had a data rate of 10mbps – and that was a big
improvement over the first token ring networks that ran at 4mbps.

1 de 7 08/07/2016 15:34
Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client (Part 1) about:reader?url=http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials...

ARCNET, another early local networking technology, was even

slower at 2.5mbps. Contrast that with the 100gbps Ethernet that
exists today, with 1gbps being the standard and 10gbps not
uncommon in business deployments.

Network performance, however, is dependent on more than just the

raw bandwidth of the connection. In the field of electronic
communications, performance measurements have traditionally
been taken to include the following:

Bandwidth: the maximum bits-per-second rate of which the

connection is capable, which is the label we commonly apply to
connectivity speeds.

Throughput: the actual rate at which data is transferred, which

can be and often is considerably lower than the bandwidth
measurement.

Latency: the delay between sending and receipt by the user at

the destination that is caused by distance/travel time (thus satellite
communications always suffer from high latency due to the travel
from earth to orbit and back). Latency is also increased by the
time required to process the signals at intermediary stations along
the route.

Performance is also affected by the error rate of the transmission.

When the bits arrive at the destination and are corrupted, they have
to be re-sent, and this slows down the overall performance. Errors
can be caused by interference such as EMI, crosstalk from nearby
cables, signal distortion, random noise, and synchronization
problems, etc.

2 de 7 08/07/2016 15:34
Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client (Part 1) about:reader?url=http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials...

Actual vs. perceived performance

The performance factors mentioned above are related to the signal

itself, the cables (or airwaves) over which the signals travel, and the
hardware directly involved in transmitting and receiving (and in the
case of intermediary nodes, retransmitting or repeating) the signal.
There are a number of ways to increase performance through
hardware modifications, such as adding more network cards to a
server to distribute the load of network traffic, replacing any hubs
with switches or replacing simple switches with more intelligent
ones, upgrading cabling, better shielding cables from interference,
and so forth.

The operating system and application software have nothing to do

with this. However, the perceived performance of the network can
be significantly affected by what happens to the bits of data before
they leave the sending computer and/or after they arrive at the
destination computer. Thus software can play a big role in
increasing perceived network performance.

Pinpointing the problem

When network performance seems slower than it should, the first

step is to determine where the problem lies. Is it really the network
that’s slow, or a particular computer system? If the problem is
consistent across many computers, you can move on to
determining whether the slowdown is occurring within the local
network, or is it a problem with Internet connectivity? In other
words, are communications between internal computers slow or
just Internet-based transmissions? If the Internet is the culprit, then
you must determine whether the problem is with your on-premises
equipment, with the Internet provider or with the particular sites or

3 de 7 08/07/2016 15:34
Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client (Part 1) about:reader?url=http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials...

services to which you’re connecting?

Obviously the source of the problem will dictate whether it’s within
your purview to do something about it and if so, what you can do
about it. There are diagnostic tools that you can use to track down
problems such as latency on the wide area connection or a problem
with an internal server. A commercial or free network analyzer can
help you to accurately diagnose the cause of the slowdown.

In some cases, your organization’s usage load might just be too

much for the amount of bandwidth you have. That means you need
to consider upgrading the internal network infrastructure or
purchasing a higher bandwidth plan from your ISP (or even both).
In many cases, though, you have plenty of internal and external
bandwidth and adding more would just be a waste of money and
wouldn’t address the real problems.

Software-based performance enhancements

Many of the tweaks that you can make to increase perceived

network performance in Windows systems are applicable across all
versions of the operating systems and platforms; others are
dependent on technologies that are built into the newer OS. We’ll
look at the more broad based performance enhancements first.

Remove unneeded network protocols

Windows computers support a number of different network

protocols and many of these might have been enabled somewhere
along the way, even though you never used them or used them at
one time and don’t anymore. Yet those unneeded protocols are

4 de 7 08/07/2016 15:34
Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client (Part 1) about:reader?url=http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials...

using up system resources and generating useless network traffic,

and thus slowing down the performance of the protocols that you
do use.

Removing the extra protocols that you don’t need will minimize the
number of network bindings that have to be negotiated, reduce
network traffic and free up system resources. Best of all, it’s simple
to do.

Just access the adapter settings for each of your installed network
interface cards through the Change adapter settings option
(Network and Sharing Center | Tasks). Right click the connection
you want to modify and select Properties, scroll down to see which
network protocols are enabled and uncheck the boxes for those
you don’t need or highlight and click Uninstall to uninstall them
completely.

Note that this is less likely to be a problem with newer operating

systems than with older ones that come with a wide variety of
formerly popular protocols installed, such as IPX/SPX, NetBEUI
and AppleTalk, that are no longer commonly used. Don’t disable the
following (unless you know what you’re doing and understand that it
will shut down functionality of your network):

Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

Client for Microsoft Networks

File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks

Tweak network adapter driver software

5 de 7 08/07/2016 15:34
Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client (Part 1) about:reader?url=http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials...

Perceived performance of the network adapters can be increased

by optimizing the drivers for your NICs. Make sure that the driver
software is up to date by checking the vendor’s site for the latest
version. You can also tweak the drivers’ settings to increase the
amount of memory that can be used for both incoming and
outgoing packet buffering, as well as the settings for the buffer
counts. A larger buffer space will help to minimize performance
slowdowns from sudden bursts of network traffic that cause
congestion.

Here’s how you do it: In the Change adapter settings option in the
Network and Sharing Center, right click the connection that you
want to modify and select Properties, then click the Network tab,
and then Configure. Now click the Advanced tab. This will display
the properties that you can tweak. Some that can help with
performance include:

If performance is more important than saving energy, you can

configure the power management feature from turning off the NIC
in order to save power. Although turning off the NIC does save
energy, it takes time to start up again and that will slow down
performance. This is particular true on servers.

You should make sure that the network speed, duplex and flow
control options are set so that they match the switch that the
system is connected to. The default setting may be “Auto,” which
would seem like the most reasonable choice, but this can result in
performance hits when auto-synchronization takes place.

If your server has plenty of RAM, you can improve perceived

network performance by setting the Max Coalesce Buffers, Max

6 de 7 08/07/2016 15:34
Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client (Part 1) about:reader?url=http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials...

Transmit/Send Descriptors and Buffers and Max Receive Buffers

settings to the highest possible value.

Enable network offload features (assuming your NIC supports

them) to reduce the load on the CPU, which will improve the
overall system performance and perceived network performance.

Disable the Wake On LAN feature.

Summary

In this, the first part of a two-part series on how to improve the

performance of your Windows based network, we discussed what
network performance really means, the difference between actual
and perceived performance and some of the possible causes of
slow network performance, as well as a few tips for tweaking
Windows software settings to help increase network performance.
In part 2, we’re going to dig a little deeper into configuration
changes, third party tools you can use to enhance performance and
technologies included in the Windows operating systems (including
new ones in the latest versions of which you might not be aware)
that are designed to help you optimize network performance. See
you then. - Deb

If you would like to read the next part of this article series please go
to Improving Network Performance in Windows Server and Client
(Part 2).

7 de 7 08/07/2016 15:34