From: mike-newsgroup@-DELETETHISPART-.upcraft.com   
      
   rpaz61@gmail.com wrote:   
   > Here's the setup:   
   SNIP   
   > Network:   
   > SBC 768K SDSL   
   SNIP   
   > All users use a Windows-based application that connects to a database   
   > on the Windows Server 2003 domain controller.  There are not any   
   > performance issues in the Main Office.  There are performance issues   
   > with clients accessing the database and copying/opening files from the   
   > server to the client PC over the VPN from the Remote Office.   
   >   
   > We ran a packet trace (netcap.exe on a Windows XP SP2 PC at the Remote   
   > Office and netmon.exe on the Windows Server 2003 domain controller)   
   > while copying a 12.7MB file from the server to the client PC.  What we   
   > found is that the client PC at the Remote Office is repeatedly sending   
   > ACKs across the VPN tunnel to the domain controller and the domain   
   > controller is yet the domain controller is repeatedly sending ACKs   
   > across the VPN tunnel to the client PC.   
   >   
   > We do not know what's causing this issue.  Sonicwall states that   
   > there's nothing wrong with their hardware or the VPN tunnel itself.   
   >   
   > Does anyone have any ideas?   
   >   
   > Thanks in advance!!   
   >   
   > Rob   
   >   
   > PS - I can send the packet trace capture files if needed.  Just let me   
   > know.   
      
   So you have a 0.7 Mbit connection that you are comparing to your   
   internal 100Mbit connection and you notice that it's slower.  Wow,   
   that's shocking.   
      
    > What we   
    > found is that the client PC at the Remote Office is repeatedly sending   
    > ACKs across the VPN tunnel to the domain controller and the domain   
    > controller is yet the domain controller is repeatedly sending ACKs   
    > across the VPN tunnel to the client PC.   
      
   You also notice that the client and server send TCP acknowledge   
   messages.  So what?  That's not an issue, that's how the TCP protocol   
   works.  You mangled the sentence though so you might have intended to   
   say something else.   
      
      
   How long does it actually take to transfer that 12.7MB file? If it's   
   less than 5 minutes then you have nothing to complain about.  A   
   768Kbit/s connection would take a minimum of about 3 minutes but doing a   
   direct copy over Microsoft SMB protocol file sharing often adds a bit of   
   overhead plus whatever anyone else is doing on the connection at the   
   time.  The routers you are using should handle an encrypted tunnel at   
   the wire speed without any artificially induced slowdown.  There is some   
   overhead when encrypting but it's not big and has a larger effect on   
   latency.  How much bandwidth does your database application use for a   
   typical session?  If this is a custom database application has your   
   programmer optimized the queries to use as little bandwidth as possible?   
     Is the database maybe doing too many small queries so the response   
   time becomes an issue?  Can the client application cache some of the   
   database responses to cut down on the delay and traffic?   
      
   Maybe I'm missing something but what you describe is exactly what you   
   should expect.  If you need to do things that require database access   
   then you might be better off with a Terminal server setup at your main   
   office for the remote users to use.  If you combine Microsoft Terminal   
   services with Citrix presentation server you can make it very similar to   
   running the application on the local machine.   
      
      
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   Mike Drechsler (mike-newsgroup@-deletethispart-.upcraft.com)   
      
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