ISA2k, Pop connection timing out. Help

Inherited a small 10pc network. SBS2K. 2NIC setup. Fully patched. Pop3 mail
is very
slow, times-out to the
ISP's server. Internet/WEB speed is fine. The ISP assures me that I am the
only
one having this issue. To look at the network. Something to note, the
profile has two things going on. Using ISA2000.

I've inherited a Dell Powerconnect switch, one of the managed ones. I did
some digging around. I noticed that:

1) 10 pcs (xp pro sp2) have their NICS at 100 Full Duplex
2) The Dell's powerconnecct switch's port settings were at AUTO.

Thinking this was inconsistent, I set the Dell ports speed to 100 FULL and
all the
PCS connections to the server slowed down and files could not be saved to
the server. Hmmmm....

I set the Dell's ports back to AUTO and the speed was back to the way it
was.

I tested the PC's NICS and also changed them to AUTO but this changed
nothing.

The speed tests: Copying 1 gig of data (2000 files) from the workstation to
the
server and vice versa. Opening Outlook. Opening up a SQL sever database.
Saving a large photoshop file to a network drive.

Some questions:

1. Is there a setting in ISA2K that be changed to improve bandwidth for
pop3? Way to play around with bandwidth tuning?
2. Looking at the Dell switch, noticed a setting "spanning tree" is
disabled. (only one switch)
3. Also, at the Dell switch, there is a "multimedia support" and the "high
priority optimization" is disabled. IGMP is disabled. Should this be on?

Thanks

Smith

Dave
Sat Jul 09 14:38:24 CDT 2005

Are you using the POP3 connector in SBS, or are the workstations doing their
own POP connections? Some comments:

I would assume that the Dell switch should work fine in its out-of-the-box
configuration. If you're not unhappy with network performance in general,
I'd leave that alone. With each workstation connected at 100 MBPS full
duplex, it sounds like the physical LAN is fine.

SMTP is the best way to get incoming mail. If you can't do that for some
reason and need POP, I'd recommend using the SBS POP3 Connector. In
addition to the benefits of using your Exchange AV scanner to scan incoming
messages before they hit the user mailboxes (in itself a major benefit), you
have one point of configuration and troubleshooting instead of 10. It
should be a simple matter to switch to the POP connector while no one is at
work (and therefore trying to pick up the mail themselves as well). Then
just disable the POP connection settings in Outlook on each workstation.
Exchange will POP the external accounts and put the messages in the
appropriate mailboxes, using a single connection rather than one each per
user or POP account.

If ISA is ever allowing the POP connections, it sounds like ISA is not the
issue. I think that timeouts with POP servers are frequent, and the ISP
does not get more reports of timeouts because in general their customers are
not aware of it. I often start Outlook on my home PC and have it not pick
up messages in my POP account that I know are there. After a while I hit
send/receive and get the messages, but Outlook should have been able to pick
them up long before. More to the point, I have the POP connector configured
in SBS 2003 and get timeout errors logged in my App log several times per
day. BTW, I have POP accounts at two completely unrelated ISPs, and I get
this with both of them.

Since it appears that you are getting normal responses some of the time, my
guess is that the problem is on the ISP side, whether they acknowledge it or
not, and that you can safely ignore them unless you're seeing a serious
impact. I'd switch to the POP connector in SBS if you're not already using
it, and try to fit a switch to SMTP mail into your plans when you can.




"Smith" <smith@notarealaddress.org> wrote in message
news:VWDze.29250$ro.9993@fed1read02...
> Inherited a small 10pc network. SBS2K. 2NIC setup. Fully patched. Pop3
> mail is very
> slow, times-out to the
> ISP's server. Internet/WEB speed is fine. The ISP assures me that I am the
> only
> one having this issue. To look at the network. Something to note, the
> profile has two things going on. Using ISA2000.
>
> I've inherited a Dell Powerconnect switch, one of the managed ones. I did
> some digging around. I noticed that:
>
> 1) 10 pcs (xp pro sp2) have their NICS at 100 Full Duplex
> 2) The Dell's powerconnecct switch's port settings were at AUTO.
>
> Thinking this was inconsistent, I set the Dell ports speed to 100 FULL and
> all the
> PCS connections to the server slowed down and files could not be saved to
> the server. Hmmmm....
>
> I set the Dell's ports back to AUTO and the speed was back to the way it
> was.
>
> I tested the PC's NICS and also changed them to AUTO but this changed
> nothing.
>
> The speed tests: Copying 1 gig of data (2000 files) from the workstation
> to the
> server and vice versa. Opening Outlook. Opening up a SQL sever database.
> Saving a large photoshop file to a network drive.
>
> Some questions:
>
> 1. Is there a setting in ISA2K that be changed to improve bandwidth for
> pop3? Way to play around with bandwidth tuning?
> 2. Looking at the Dell switch, noticed a setting "spanning tree" is
> disabled. (only one switch)
> 3. Also, at the Dell switch, there is a "multimedia support" and the "high
> priority optimization" is disabled. IGMP is disabled. Should this be on?
>
> Thanks
>
> Smith
>
>
>
>
>

Smith
Tue Jul 12 16:42:59 CDT 2005

Thank you! Very helpful info, and I see what you mean. Not sure on the
implementation, but I have a great place to start.
Smith.
"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <gwdibble@NOSPAM.frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:upqpM3LhFHA.3656@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Are you using the POP3 connector in SBS, or are the workstations doing
> their own POP connections? Some comments:
>
> I would assume that the Dell switch should work fine in its out-of-the-box
> configuration. If you're not unhappy with network performance in general,
> I'd leave that alone. With each workstation connected at 100 MBPS full
> duplex, it sounds like the physical LAN is fine.
>
> SMTP is the best way to get incoming mail. If you can't do that for some
> reason and need POP, I'd recommend using the SBS POP3 Connector. In
> addition to the benefits of using your Exchange AV scanner to scan
> incoming messages before they hit the user mailboxes (in itself a major
> benefit), you have one point of configuration and troubleshooting instead
> of 10. It should be a simple matter to switch to the POP connector while
> no one is at work (and therefore trying to pick up the mail themselves as
> well). Then just disable the POP connection settings in Outlook on each
> workstation. Exchange will POP the external accounts and put the messages
> in the appropriate mailboxes, using a single connection rather than one
> each per user or POP account.
>
> If ISA is ever allowing the POP connections, it sounds like ISA is not the
> issue. I think that timeouts with POP servers are frequent, and the ISP
> does not get more reports of timeouts because in general their customers
> are not aware of it. I often start Outlook on my home PC and have it not
> pick up messages in my POP account that I know are there. After a while I
> hit send/receive and get the messages, but Outlook should have been able
> to pick them up long before. More to the point, I have the POP connector
> configured in SBS 2003 and get timeout errors logged in my App log several
> times per day. BTW, I have POP accounts at two completely unrelated ISPs,
> and I get this with both of them.
>
> Since it appears that you are getting normal responses some of the time,
> my guess is that the problem is on the ISP side, whether they acknowledge
> it or not, and that you can safely ignore them unless you're seeing a
> serious impact. I'd switch to the POP connector in SBS if you're not
> already using it, and try to fit a switch to SMTP mail into your plans
> when you can.
>
>
>
>
> "Smith" <smith@notarealaddress.org> wrote in message
> news:VWDze.29250$ro.9993@fed1read02...
>> Inherited a small 10pc network. SBS2K. 2NIC setup. Fully patched. Pop3
>> mail is very
>> slow, times-out to the
>> ISP's server. Internet/WEB speed is fine. The ISP assures me that I am
>> the
>> only
>> one having this issue. To look at the network. Something to note, the
>> profile has two things going on. Using ISA2000.
>>
>> I've inherited a Dell Powerconnect switch, one of the managed ones. I did
>> some digging around. I noticed that:
>>
>> 1) 10 pcs (xp pro sp2) have their NICS at 100 Full Duplex
>> 2) The Dell's powerconnecct switch's port settings were at AUTO.
>>
>> Thinking this was inconsistent, I set the Dell ports speed to 100 FULL
>> and all the
>> PCS connections to the server slowed down and files could not be saved to
>> the server. Hmmmm....
>>
>> I set the Dell's ports back to AUTO and the speed was back to the way it
>> was.
>>
>> I tested the PC's NICS and also changed them to AUTO but this changed
>> nothing.
>>
>> The speed tests: Copying 1 gig of data (2000 files) from the workstation
>> to the
>> server and vice versa. Opening Outlook. Opening up a SQL sever database.
>> Saving a large photoshop file to a network drive.
>>
>> Some questions:
>>
>> 1. Is there a setting in ISA2K that be changed to improve bandwidth for
>> pop3? Way to play around with bandwidth tuning?
>> 2. Looking at the Dell switch, noticed a setting "spanning tree" is
>> disabled. (only one switch)
>> 3. Also, at the Dell switch, there is a "multimedia support" and the
>> "high
>> priority optimization" is disabled. IGMP is disabled. Should this be on?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Smith
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>