Bottleneck between sites

[Snookered]

The network that I administer covers two sites approximately a mile apart.

The main school building has the servers and has its own FTTC up to 30Mbs connection; the satellite building has its own FTTC connection and its own set of IP addresses and connects to the domain given out by the server at the main building. Users on the smaller do sometimes experience slowdowns when running reports on SIMS or working on extensive spreadsheets, but for the vast majority of the time it’s more than adequate.

There is one program however that grinds to a halt, it’s called FirstSteps and it’s a management system for reporting, invoicing etc. a bit like SIMS but for Nursery’s, the Database is on our main Admin server in the school and as information has been gradually added to it, it has slowed down when accessing various pages and is now unusable on the small site, taking two hours to input basic changes for one child.

I connected a laptop that has the software on it to the main schools network yesterday and the program flew, so I came to the conclusion that there is a bottleneck between the two sites.

The connection between sites has been running for about 12 years and no one knows exactly how it works, can anyone give me an idea as to how it could be working and is there a possible fix for the bottleneck?

(short term fix is for the user to work here on the main site, but that can't be forever).

Many thanks

Allan

[SYNACK]

Long term fix could be setting up remoteapp on a server at the main site so it runs there and is controlled offsite.

 

Do you have line of site between the sites, I'd be looking for any vpn systems or at bills for virtual private circuits from your providers.

[Snookered]

Do you have line of site between the sites, I'd be looking for any vpn systems or at bills for virtual private circuits from your providers.

 

There is no Line of site and we have never had any additional bills from any provider. The original setup would have been created by VT4S now Babcock4S (Surrey's IT educational support supplier), I've asked them for info and have always been told they don't know. We have changed broadband provider twice in the last 6 years and they have never asked for information on how it works and have not supplied any additional equipment.

 

Can you give me an idea as to what you mean by Remoteapp?

Cheers

Allan

[SYNACK]

Remoteapp is an extension of terminal services server that allows you to offer an icon to a user to run a specific app remotely and windowed just like a normal app but running on a server at the Mai site.

 

It sounds odd that your system still works if you have changed isps and presumably external ips. I can only assume you have some hardware or a server at either end doing vpn that use external dns names to resolve the ips. Maybe a cisco router at each end or Isa server in site to site vpn mode unless the school has the fttc connection simply tuning between the two sites and then another or a partitioned vlan on the main site link that goes to the internet.

[Snookered]

The connection between sites has had me scratching head for 7 years now, no one knows how it works. It just does, the last ISP change was in December, I put in two basic BT modems and 2 mikroTik routerboards each with an RJ45 cable going to a separate telephone line and an Ethernet cable going to a 24 port switch in on both sites (having taken out the previous RM stuff. No Cisco routers and no additional servers on either site. I'm determined to find out how it works, maybe the ISP can help...in the meantime I'll look in to the Remoteapp suggestion.

Many thanks for the info