Windows 7 Network Faster

Anyone has any suggestions on how to make a small, 5 computer, network faster? (other than “Google it”). All cables and devices in the networkare “gigabit.” Network is comprised of Windows 7 (x86), with MS office 2010, HD speed 7200rpm, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, AMD Athlon X2 (3.0 GHz) processor, and settings optimized for performance.
Everything runs great, however, there’s a vertical market application written in MS Access that runs slow. The application can be open and runs slow but the rest of the PC apps/internet still runs good. Also, the bandwidth: download: 20Mbps, Upload: 5Mbps.
Answer #1
You can’t make your local network faster,It’s already at it’s peak (Provided you use CAT5E or CAT6 Ethernet cables at least),And clearly if you want your internet to be faster,It’d cost ya. Set that aside,I don’t know what your talking about,What exactly is a “vertical market application”? Never heard of this term before,What does it do and how does it work? Have you checked the CPU/RAM usage while it’s running? (From task manager),Also,Office 2010 has a service pack out (SP1),Is it installed?
Answer #2
Veritcal Market Apps are specific to an industry like applications for doctors or a hotel, etc.; as opposed to application that is considered general-purpose, like MS Office or Quickbooks. This app is written in MS Access and it is the only one app that runs slow. I know that database apps always run slower than the rest, but, this one drags like shxxt. The internet and other shares are just fine. Yes, I have checked the processor/network/page file usages and they only go up drastically for a short period of time when this mother runs.
Answer #3
Use better performance hard drives, SSD’s, or hybrid hard drives, you could also use a RAID 0 configuration.
Answer #4
Be more specific about the RAM usage,You said the PC has 4 gigs,When you run the app in question,Does the usage
go above it? When the physical memory is maxed out,The virtual one (pagefile) is used in addition (and HDDs are far
slower),Also,You didn’t answer my question,Did you install SP1 for office 2010 or not?
It might also be related to your antivirus,Try disabling it’s protection,Or adding the file/folder to the exclusion list.
Answer #5
Roberto, yes, i have SP1 installed. It is the database application because the rest of the computer (apps, internet, filesharing) runs fine. The RAM usage does not go above the 4gig ceiling; when opening the DB app, it shoots up to 3Gb for about 8 secs and goes back down to normal after that. May be I need to find utilities that optimize MS Access.
Answer #6
Microsoft Access is a horrible database engine for multiuser/multi-connection applications. The performance is absolutely abysmal. Use something like MSSQL or MySQL or many of the other viable alternatives. It wont be that hard porting it over.
Answer #7
also consider using a server. access works differently than most other apps because the files are saved almost instantly. what most likely is happening is the files are getting saved way too many times on multiple computers and thats why it slow as hell.