Help on Nework Speed

[JetLi]

I have followed the Network Tips and Optimization, but I still get slow response from the POS app that I made. I only have 1 workstation accessing the server, every time I made a sale it is accessing the server slowly when I select Items and so much more if I am going to print the receipt for the sale that was made.Please recommend more tips on how to make an apha five version 11 run more faster on a 2 computer network setup.I am just wondering how experts here said they have an app that have a hundred or more users accessing the app in a Local area network. I think there is an issue wen the server goes to sleep or standby mode so I turned of the sleep to Never in the control panel of windows.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

Here are some tips from one of the experts in Alpha land.

Your description is incomplete. But, it suggests that you have realtime (live) antivirus / malware processes running in the background. These should be disabled for the database folder on the server and for the shadow folder on the workstation.

[JetLi]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

Here are some tips from one of the experts in Alpha land.

Your description is incomplete. But, it suggests that you have realtime (live) antivirus / malware processes running in the background. These should be disabled for the database folder on the server and for the shadow folder on the workstation.

Thanks Tom, Prior to my posting of the thread, I have carefully read the link that you provided.I even reformatted the 2 computers, installed fresh operating systems both windows 7 professional and havent installed any other programs except the alpha five runtime. No anti-virus etc.I have checked the cables and other networking peripherals and even added an extra new lancard because I think the built in lancards are no good.Anymore suggestions please? BTW, is the performance of shadowed database the same when we are on the server executing the application?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

Fast network adapter cards, and high speed cabling are important.

Good design is also key. Data entry forms based on complex sets tend to run more slowly.

Large tables load more slowly than small tables.

Queries that are not using permanent indexes are slower.

Ira's entire tips list should be studied. He has lots of good ideas for speeding up performance.

I find shadow copy performance to be slightly slower than running the database locally. But my tables are pretty small, and my data entry forms are simple.

You might try putting AlphaSports on the "server" machine, and then network optimizing it to the local workstation. Compare performance running the shadow against running AlphaSports directly on the server. If there's a huge difference I'd be worried about my cabling and cards.

[JetLi]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

Thanks again Tom, bottom line is that alpha five applications should run fast or very fast on a workstation if all the good design tips are followed and network peripherals are in good working condition? If we are going to follow the tips and hardware is good then having 50 users or more is not an issue? Please confirm this.Once it is confirmed then we will buy 2 brand new computers to change our CoreI5 existing ones that are 6 months old based on purchase date. We are going to buy Corei7 with good network cards and cables to make sure that there are no hardware problems.Maybe the problem is hardware because we have followed all the tips necessary to come up with a good alpha five app.If we are using the app on a single pc, it is fast enough.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

50 POS workstations entering sales simultaneously? I am skeptical that you can do that satisfactorily with Alpha Five, using native tables. Have never attempted such a thing myself. Maybe others can chime in with their own experiences.

[doorscomputers]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

I guess, I am a bit frustrated because I could not get it to be faster on 2 computers with only 1 accessing the server. Hope I can at least make it fast with 1 user or 2.I'll wait for the purchase of 2 Computers with Corei7 Processor and 32 GB memory with 2 TB hard disk.I'll see if I can make it a bit faster. Thanks for the help Tom.

[Ray in Capetown]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

Best practise for POS is
1. that each terminal WRITES sales info only, to their own, READ ONLY table/s. This is useful for cashing up, changing shift etc as well but mostly the speed. With 50 (i haven't done) but I would have them write these files "dropped" (ie not added) and even on the local drive
2. item list tables formally indexed and READ ONLY
3. With your 2 PC slow as you say, interrogate your code and explore with different methods (share that portion here). I dont think that sounds right as described. There need be no delay on lookup, print and append only sales detail lines.

[mronck]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

To begin with, "slow response" is a very subjective description. What exactly is "slow" or "fast" in they eyes of the OP?
Secondly, I remember OP posting a thread in exactly the same subject not too long ago, where several tips were given.

As more often the question is only a few lines of text, but one could write books on the answer.

Jetli, did you hard test the speed of the network without even a database being in the equation? With other words: is/was the network OK before you even started with A5?

The best way to solve any problems with networking is to start at the very beginning and go from there step-by-step eliminating the most obvious possible culprit first and then go to the second and so forth.

[JetLi]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

To begin with, "slow response" is a very subjective description. What exactly is "slow" or "fast" in they eyes of the OP?
Secondly, I remember OP posting a thread in exactly the same subject not too long ago, where several tips were given.

As more often the question is only a few lines of text, but one could write books on the answer.

Jetli, did you hard test the speed of the network without even a database being in the equation? With other words: is/was the network OK before you even started with A5?

The best way to solve any problems with networking is to start at the very beginning and go from there step-by-step eliminating the most obvious possible culprit first and then go to the second and so forth.

Yes, I did test it and it is fast when I was beginning to add records, it is getting slower when more records are added.If this is the case, then I will delete sales data everyday so that it will be fast everyday.

[Ray in Capetown]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

What I would be looking into Jet, is why more sales records are slowing it down significantly.
Sales records in POS would traditionally simply append. Speed would not be affected noticeably.

Generally an "end of day/shift" procedure SHOULD do some updates and purge to history anyway.
No performance hit should affect invoicing. I often run pos offline from the server when remote, and connect to update both ways.

[mronck]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

1- How did you test the network, with what type of equipment and what were the measurements on speed you concluded on? How "slow" exactly does it become when records are added?
2- Assuming the network hardware is correct and your observation about speed dropping when records get added is correct as well: check the design of your indexes. What indexes do you have, how many on which tables. Check if they are really necessary and if they are well chosen design-wise. This looks like an index related matter. But:
3- Before you do so exclude corruption due to all kinds of development activities: run a compact database from the CP.

[JetLi]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

What I would be looking into Jet, is why more sales records are slowing it down significantly.
Sales records in POS would traditionally simply append. Speed would not be affected noticeably.

Generally an "end of day/shift" procedure SHOULD do some updates and purge to history anyway.
No performance hit should affect invoicing. I often run pos offline from the server when remote, and connect to update both ways.

Ray, How do I purge to history? What do you mean by "run pos offline from the server when remote, and connect to update both ways"?

Hope you can share a sample app on how you implement it.

Found a solution for my problem, I deleted all the 1,500 sales details and 700 sales header and the app was fast again. I will try to talk to the user if they are going to allow me to put a button to delete their sales everyday so that their sales transactions will be faster.

[Ray in Capetown]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

Jet
you are skirting the issue. WHY are sales slowing down with only 1500 transaction records?
They need not be parsed during invoicing, just appended to - read this sentence again.

Can you explain what else you do with these transactions during invoicing.

[JetLi]

Re: Help on Nework Speed

Jet
you are skirting the issue. WHY are sales slowing down with only 1500 transaction records?
They need not be parsed during invoicing, just appended to - read this sentence again.

Can you explain what else you do with these transactions during invoicing.

I just do a lookup to the products table, and post the qty sold to the qty on hand. nothing more and nothing less.if there are no records yet on the sales header and sales details, it takes about a sec to scan the barcode and display the item, price and the total. as sales are accumulated, I can notice the change starting from 200 records, if I scan a barcode with that number of sales details, it will now take 2 sec, and of course as sales are again accumulated, it will be noticeable, and by 1500 sales details and about 300 sales header entry, I can notice the change to be 4 sec. Doing sales using a barcode and waiting for 4 sec before scanning another item is too long.But if I am going to use the server as the stand alone POS, the 1500 records will take about 2 sec to display the Item, price and total.