Network Lag / hangs accessing shared network drives

[Drax]

Hi all, can anyone help me with a really frustrating problem we have atm.

 

We're running Win 2K3 and 2K8 svr, XP Pro clients on a mix of Managed & unmanged Pro Curve switches to a HP gl core with STP enabled and are getting a load of PCs hanging when accessing shared network drives on our main shared area svr (running 2K8) from our ICT dept. via either a fibre connected HP2524 or fibre connected Netgear Gigabit sw.

This is a new server and was a replacement for a really old poor spec. device that we have had the same issues with.

 

Network mapping when logged on to the shared drives appears ok but when a number of PCs access the Public area e.g. 1 class of 28 accessing a limited number of shared files this basically lags and some don't later recover the PCs in the room. Result - 10 - 15mins of lag and the switches show what looks like from the activity lights a stack of broadcasts.

 

Odd though - other rooms can be working on their home drives (networked to a different svr) and be fine. Other related issues have been lengthy log on times - upto 20 mins! and application crashes - normally when accessing shared areas.

 

We've looked at managed switch logs - nothing of note but packet captures show have shown a big proportion of ARP requests.

 

Any ideas anyone? we've looked at most things we can think of and well ...