Here is the network layout.......
I have three floors of users. The setup as is now is 1st floor has a Catalyst 4006 switch, 2nd floor has a 3Com Switch, 3rd floor has three 10mb hubs. Here is how every thing is connected at this time....Servers are on the 1st floor and are connected to the 4006 switch. The servers have the speed and duplex hard-coded both on the servers NIC and on the 4006 switch port they are connected to. Users on the first floor are connected directly into the 4006 switch. The users PC and Laptop NIC settings are auto and the switch is hard-coded to 10half for the users ports ( I will explain these settings later). On the second floor, users are directly plugged into the 3Com switch, I do not have the speed and duplex settings for the 3Com as of yet but I do know the users PC and Laptop NIC settings are Auto and the 4006 switch port is 10half. The 3rd floor users are plugged into the hubs and the PC and Laptop NIC settings are Auto and the 4006 switch port is 10half. Now the switches and hubs are connected as follows.....The Catalyst 4006 switch is the main switch, the 2nd floor 3Com switch plugs directly ( via CAT3) into the 4006. The hubs on the 3rd floor are a 3Com hub, Lattisnet Hub, and a Bay Networks Hub. The 3Com hub is daisy chained to the Lattisnet hub and the Lattisnet hub is plugged directly into the 4006 switch ( via CAT5) and port setting is 10half. The Bay Networks hub is plugged directly into the 4006 switch ( via CAT5) and the port setting is 10half.
Now the problem......
We are running Windows XP pro on the desktop and Windows 2000 server on the servers ( no, that's not the problem...quit laughing). When Windows boots up it goes through some steps, one of them being, Preparing Network Connections, and when it gets here it takes 30-40 seconds to get past this, then from there it is very quick, less than 5 seconds. I need to find out why and fix it.
Why I am not sold that this is a Windows problem.....
This happens to the people on the 1st floor and 2nd floor only. The ones connected into the hubs go very quickly through the, Preparing Network Connections, about 5-10 seconds. Also, the servers on the 1st floor connected to the 4006 switch get through, preparing Network Connections, in 5-10 seconds.
Now the kicker.....
I have a Catalyst 4003 switch ready to put in place on the 3rd floor to replace the hubs. The switch has a fiber backbone to the 4006 switch on the 1st floor and all ports are set to 10half. When I take users and move them from the hub to the 4003 switch....the, Preparing Network Connections, jumps from 5-10 second to the 30-40 seconds like everyone else. Also, we have the same, or at least very very close, setup in other offices ( switches...no hubs) and do not have the 30-40 second problem, it runs 5-10 seconds.
Now....Why are the PC's and laptops are set to Auto and the switch set to 10 half....
Believe me I ask the same question all the time....but here is why. We have multiple offices and the offices have everything from CAT3 to CAT5...and even some that run through phone line. Some offices have new wiring so it is very good and others have not-so-good wiring. Their reasoning is that people travel with their laptop from office to office so if we hard-coded everything it would not work because if they came from and office that had good CAT5 wiring and was hard-coded to 100Full and went to another office that had not-so-good CAT3 wiring it would cause problems. So I used Cisco's paper on Troubleshooting Cisco Catalyst Switches to NIC Compatibility Issues. I used Table 1, and looked at the three choices I had where the NIC was set to Auto. Choice one, Switch set to Auto and NIC set to Auto. This would be good if all offices had CAT5 good wiring but we don't so I could not do this one. Choice two, NIC set to Auto and Switch set to 100Mbps Full duplex, not good...duplex mismatch. So this leaves us with choice three, NIC set to Auto and Switch set to 100Mbps Half duplex. This choice defaults down to 10Mbps half duplex so what I did was to set the switch to 10Mbps half instead of 100 half. I am still fighting to hard-code everything and/or upgrade the wiring, but that will be a while.
Any help, thoughts, directions, recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Here are the Configs ( both 4003 and 4006).....
4006 config
XXX4006> (enable) show run
This command shows non-default configurations only.
Use 'show config all' to show both default and non-default configurations.
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begin
!
# ***** NON-DEFAULT CONFIGURATION *****
!
!
#time: Thu Jul 17 2003, 09:04:53
!
#version 6.4(2)
!
!
#system web interface version(s)
set password XXXXXXXXX
set enablepass XXXXXXXXX
set banner motd ^C
This is a XXXXXXXX computer system that is FOR OFFICIAL XXXXXXXXX USE O
NLY by specifically authorized personnel and includes XXXXXXX confidential
, proprietary and privileged information.
This system may be subject to monitoring.
No expectation of privacy is to be assumed.
Unauthorized attempts to upload download or change information on this system ar
e strictly prohibited and may be punished under applicable law.
Individuals found performing unauthorized activities are subject to disciplinary
action including termination and criminal and civil prosecution.
^C
!
#test
!
#system
set system name XXX4006
set system location XXXXXX
set system contact XXXXXXXXX
!
#frame distribution method
set port channel all distribution mac both
!
#vtp
set vtp domain XXX
set vlan 1 name default type ethernet mtu 1500 said 100001 state active
set vlan 1002 name fddi-default type fddi mtu 1500 said 101002 state active
set vlan 1004 name fddinet-default type fddinet mtu 1500 said 101004 state activ
e stp ieee
set vlan 1005 name trnet-default type trbrf mtu 1500 said 101005 state active st
p ibm
set vlan 1003 name token-ring-default type trcrf mtu 1500 said 101003 state acti
ve mode srb aremaxhop 7 stemaxhop 7 backupcrf off
!
#ip
set interface sc0 1 10.15.1.2/255.255.0.0 10.15.255.255
set interface sl0 10.15.1.4 255.255.0.0
set interface sl0 down
set interface me1 down
set ip route 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 10.15.1.225
set ip alias default 0.0.0.0
!
#syslog
set logging console disable
set logging level ip 2 default
!
#set boot command
set boot config-register 0x2102
set boot system flash bootflash:cat4000.6-4-2.bin
!
#module 1 : 2-port 1000BaseX Supervisor
!
#module 2 : 48-port 10/100BaseTx Ethernet
set port speed 2/11-22,2/25-48 10
set port speed 2/1-9,2/23-24 100
set port duplex 2/1-8,2/23-24 full
!
#module 3 : 48-port 10/100BaseTx Ethernet
set port speed 3/1-48 10
!
#module 4 : 48-port 10/100BaseTx Ethernet
set port speed 4/1-48 10
!
#module 5 : 48-port 10/100BaseTx Ethernet
set port speed 5/1-48 10
!
#module 6 : 48-port 10/100BaseTx Ethernet
set port speed 6/1-48 10
end
XXX4006> (enable)
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4003 config
XXX4003> (enable) show run
This command shows non-default configurations only.
Use 'show config all' to show both default and non-default configurations.
............
..................
..................
..
begin
!
# ***** NON-DEFAULT CONFIGURATION *****
!
!
#time: Thu Jul 17 2003, 09:05:40
!
#version 6.4(2)
!
!
#system web interface version(s)
set password XXXXXXXXXX
set enablepass XXXXXXXXXX
set banner motd ^C
This is a XXXXXXX computer system that is FOR OFFICIAL XXXXXXX USE O
NLY by specifically authorized personnel and includes XXXXXXXXX confidential
, proprietary and privileged information.
This system may be subject to monitoring.
No expectation of privacy is to be assumed.
Unauthorized attempts to upload download or change information on this system ar
e strictly prohibited and may be punished under applicable law.
Individuals found performing unauthorized activities are subject to disciplinary
action including termination and criminal and civil prosecution.
^C
!
#test
!
#system
set system name XXX4003
set system contact XXXXXXXXXX
!
#frame distribution method
set port channel all distribution mac both
!
#vtp
set vtp domain XXX
set vtp mode client
!
#ip
set interface sc0 1 10.15.1.3/255.255.0.0 10.15.255.255
set interface sl0 down
set interface me1 down
set ip route 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 10.15.1.225
set ip alias default 0.0.0.0
!
#syslog
set logging console disable
set logging level ip 2 default
!
#set boot command
set boot config-register 0x2102
set boot system flash bootflash:cat4000.6-4-2.bin
!
#module 1 : 0-port Switching Supervisor
!
#module 2 : 48-port 10/100BaseTx Ethernet
!
#module 3 : 34-port 10/100/1000 Ethernet
end
XXX4003> (enable)
Thank you,
Mike
