Abrupt Slowdown in 2012 R2 Essentials Network

About a month ago, we installed a small Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials network (one server, eight workstations).  Everything was fine and the speed was excellent (gigabit Ethernet).  Yesterday around noon, the communication speed between the workstations and server dropped dramatically.  Now even simple things like changing directories on the server (from a workstation) and opening and closing MS Office files (Word, Excel) housed on the server takes a very long time.  The primary line-of-business application is on the server (client/server configuration) and takes several minutes just to open.

The server itself works fine.  It loads the primary business application immediately, as it always has.  Both the server and the workstations (Windows 7 Professional OS) can access the Internet, email etc. fine.  The problem seems to be very sluggish workstation access to the server.  This process worked flawlessly for over thirty days, then all of the sudden became mired in quicksand.

There is no sign of a hardware problem (although I am going to bring in a new Ethernet switch and piece of CAT-5e cable for testing purposes).  Assuming that this is not due to a hardware failure, could it be a local DNS problem stemming from the server?  If so, what can we do to fix it?  Would it be easier/more efficient to restore the entire server image from a recent backup?  As I say, everything worked fine until yesterday afternoon.  Nothing was added or changed at that time, as far as I can determine.

One more thing.  The workstations do properly set up the mapped drives to the server when they are initially turned on.  I also noticed that the workstations were slightly quicker on the server the first time they accessed it (e.g., changing server directories).

Thanks very much for any assistance anyone can

August 26th, 2015 2:56pm

Hi John:

This does sound like hardware or RF interference.  However there are some settings on the network that might cause it.  For example, if the Server had been the DHCP and DNS server and it was enabled on the router or some other device was brought in that had a DHCP server that might.  If there are two nics on the server and the second was enabled that might.  There are a number of others, some to obscure to remember.

Try this:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15556

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 27th, 2015 3:27pm

Thanks for your comments and suggestions, Larry. We are still working on this problem in terms of pinpointing the cause. As of now, it looks like either SMB signatures or the Symantec firewall on the server. Oddly, neither of those have been changed since the server was installed thirty days ago, yet the network ran quickly until noon on Monday when it abruptly became very sluggish (between server and workstations - everything else is fine). Very frustrating.
August 28th, 2015 10:32pm

Hi,

According to your description, my understanding is that communication speed between the workstations and Essentials server suddenly slows down, and all functions are working.

As you mentioned, stale DNS records may cause similar problem. In general, you may enable DNS aging and scavenging, this configuration will automatically clean stale record, but this may need a period of time(several days, depends on your configuration) to take effect. Reference link below for detailed steps about how to enable and configure Aging and Scavenging:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2008/03/19/don-t-be-afraid-of-dns-scavenging-just-be-patient.aspx

Since this problem happened recently, restore the server from a previous backup is also a viable method. But before this, I would recommend you to restart the Essentials Server(release used resources) and confirm the result. 

also, check the resource usage via task manager, and confirm that if any event has been logged in event viewer when problem happened. 

Best Regards,
Eve Wang
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 31st, 2015 2:47am

Thanks Eve.  To answer some of your questions, I have checked (several times) the resource usage in Task Manager.  All values there are as expected (plenty of room left).  Also, we did reboot the Essentials server, but that did not alleviate the speed problem.  I have reviewed the Event Viewer logs on the server but will do so again.
August 31st, 2015 6:27pm

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