This soft copy for use by IBM employees only.
Figure 121. Monitoring Data Received via the Network
To measure these values accurately, we recommend that you use any one of the commercially available network monitoring and measuring devices available. Fluke is only one of many companies that produce these devices in a wide variety of models.
8.8.1 Network Design Issues
Network design and stability issues are often the cause of the perception that a server is slow. It is more difficult to measure some of the common problems that are experienced on networks but Windows NT has some tools to expose possible problem areas.
One of the most common mistakes is the overuse or incorrect use of protocols. The basic principle to follow is that least is best. The binding order will influence how your server performs. Having your most commonly used protocol set as the default protocol will give your system more time to attend to requests originating from the default protocol.
8.8.1.1 Changing the Binding Order of the Protocols
Performance benefits can be gained by optimizing the binding order. For example, if you have a network of 12 users or less, NetBEUI will perform faster than most other protocols. If, however, you also need to communicate with remote servers via TCP/IP on a less frequent basis it would be to your advantage to change the binding order so that the most frequently used protocol is used first.
In this example NetBEUI should be given higher priority. A general rule of thumb is that NetBEUI is fastest up to 12 users and for larger networks, TCP/IP should be considered. However, experimentation in this regard should be done to establish the optimal binding order for a particular environment.
As shown in Figure 122 on page 145,
144PC Server and Windows NT Integration Guide
