Source
r/sysadmin•
InHaUse

How to get around bad network performance?

Question

Hey guys,

Just for some background, I'm not a professional like you guys and I've had to learn everything on my own in order to help my team since most of them are dinosaurs.

With that in mind, what I do is build very small MS Access (terrible I know) applications with VBA code to automate weekly and monthly tasks.

The problem is that we use a lot of linked files that live in the shared/network drive and performance is terrible. Our upload speed to the network is about 1 MB/s and it takes minutes to do something simple like replace a linked 40MB text file for the new report.

The funny thing is that we work for a fortune 100 company... I might be able to get my boss to complain to someone in IT, but if that doesn't happen does anyone have any tips on what I could do to help mitigate this? Thanks.

Posted Jan 3, 2023, 11:44 PM UTC

022
St0nywallSr. Sysadmin•
  1. What you are doing is absolutely the wrong way of handling this.
  2. Do NOT complain to IT, instead ASK them for help.
  3. Ask your boss to tender out for an appropriate application to handle this workload.

Stop what you are doing, do not re-invent the wheel and most importantly STOP what you are doing.

14
InHaUseOP•

Getting additional software is out of the question. For perspective, we have a 64-bit windows installation and yet all apps are 32-bit. I'm new to the team and they aren't tech savvy, so maybe there's a chance IT isn't aware and it gets fixed quickly, but what should I do if they don't?

-1
St0nywallSr. Sysadmin•

You don't do anything but let your manager know so they can talk to IT.

This is not your job and you shouldn't be doing and end-run around IT.

Talk to your boss/manager about your concerns.

Oh and a little perspective back at you... 32-bit apps work just fin on a 64-bit OS. There's only so much of a benefit to running 64-bit only apps, and usually a lot of compatibility downsides that preclude using 64-bit apps.

Again, the decisions behind software and what's being deployed is NOT YOU JOB.

I knew a couple people that took it upon themselves to obtain software they thought they needed. When IT found out, they were reprimanded and told not to do it. They continued and are now looking for work elsewhere.

The moral of the story is; This isn't your business, you are hired to do a job. Do just your job and if you have issues doing it, talk to your boss.

If you can't follow simple instructions like that, you need to go polish up your resume. I'm sure you'll need it soon.

4
tankerkiller125realJack of All Trades•

By default C# apps still compile in 32bit. The only reason to ever use 64bit apps honestly is if you deal with really big data sets or huge integers.

Even apps that install into the 64bit program files folder often aren't actually 64bit.

3
InHaUseOP•

Well even if I wanted to, I couldn't install other software. I know it's not my job to fix it, and maybe I'm too cynical and used to things not being done properly by other people, but that's why I'm trying to find a workaround.

-4
sandrews1313•

Shadow IT, straight to a woodchipper.

6
Devilnutz2651IT Manager•

Ask if you can sit closer to the server so it goes faster

4
InHaUseOP•

Funny, but most of us are remote so that wouldn't help. Although some of the team go to an on-site location from time to time and performance isn't much better there either.

-1
anonymousITCoward•

You have given us very poor information to try to help...

Take St0nywalls advice... he says the right thing nicely.

4
alpha417•

you don't get around bad network performance, you fix it. find out what the bottleneck is, and you work on that.

the only time you deal with it is if you have insurmountable technological barriers in your way... like youre on a boat and only have intermittent satellite connections, etc...

fortune 100 and using VBA/Access for weekly tasks? ugh..

3
dldwcSysadmin•

Sometimes licking the Ethernet cable on both ends can help with the performance. If that doesn’t work, definitely ask your IT team what network cables they use. Sometimes you need someone with a higher iron intake to lick them.

3
hoilday42•

"I'm not a professional like you guys and I've had to learn everything on my own" Sounds like us IT guys to me! But I can only speak for myself.

couple quick ideas:

1: Is the network fast otherwise? I seem to recall that MS access is a super chatty client/server app. Would your IT move both the DB and app to a server, and RDP to that server? I suppose you could test this first with a workstation you can RDP into. See if that even helps.

2: I believe MS access won't scale up very well. See if your Dev team can Migrate this to a more robust Client/Server solution with a proper relational sql DB.

3
InHaUseOP•

  1. No, the specific network drive we have to use is pretty slow in general. Just uploading any files to it takes a while, but downloading from it is super fast so might something to do with security checks?

  2. Yeah I know Access doesn't scale, but most of the stuff I do is small scale for individual teams. It's more about automating small scale reporting than it is about storing large amounts of data.

1
GMgingerSr. Sysadmin•

Reading a couple of comments you've said - downloading is quick, but upload is slow, and you're remote - is it your own home Internet upload that's causing the slow part?
There's ways around that, but that'd certainly be for your IT department to put in solutions (VDI of some sort etc).

4
InHaUseOP•

No because my upload speed is around 10MB/s so about 10 times what I'm getting from work, and everyone from out team is suffering from this. I just have to pray corporate fixes it.

Would giving us like an old computer as a server work? I've been reading suggestions like that. We would do our work there, and copy the important files back to the main drive for backup.

1
Sweet-Sale-7303•

That seems like a hardware error somewhere. Cable or switch. I would seriously get your boss to talk to IT.

2
zneves007•

My advice to you is to not spin your wheels on this. This NOT something you can solve. You NEED your company’s IT on this and a funding to scope a project out, build/purchase a proper app and implement.

I’m sorry you are going through this.

2
InHaUseOP•

Thanks.

1
Reacti0n7•

Open communication with either your boss and or IT.

Also remember, that as long as you are able to complete your job, this might be a back burner thing.

This could be a number of things, your speed is going to depend on the slowest link in your chain. It could be that data is not where you think it is, it could be on slower drives, there could be a slow switch somewhere. Your remote account could be throttled. A solution that IT might be willing to try and implement would be setup a system for you to remote into, and then you do your work from there - that may resolve some latency issues.

Are you pulling the data from the most efficient place/way?
I'm just saying if queries are being made, are they specific or are they doing like a select * and then trying to pair the data down later.

Also fortune 100 doesn't mean much in terms of what is there. I worked for a 500 that we had to talk to the boss for 2 years to get (2) gigabit switches versus 100 meg switches.

2
SGT_Entrails•

Based on the information provided I believe this may possibly be attributed to problems in layer 8. I would suggest reaching out to management.

2
headcrap•

If you are remote and using Access with linked files, you're going to have a bad time like you would with SQL queries in SSMS or most client/server apps. The latency alone will be a problem for speed.

You need a machine at the office which you can remotely use.. ask IT about RDP options and use Access on it instead. This machine at the office could be physical or virtual.. for you it won't much matter either way.

2
Ad-1316•

Get data on solid state drives. Update network switches to GIG speed. Replace cables with pre-made better ones.

1