It is so so so slow.

The internet connection often dies. It was down for an hour earlier.

It often can't even send and receive 4 pings.

Without asking our IT guy, because he's a bit of a tosser and either doesn't know what he's doing or has just patched up a previously even worse system, how can I find out what our actual internet connection is?

I know we're with Demon, but that's as far as I've got.

I'd say there's about 30 people at this office and it really can't cope. I think the company servers are here too which 3 other depots across the country need to access. God knows how shit it is for them.

We are using mounted shares for shared files. Some people apparently don't have access to certain shares, but that's just because they haven't been mounted (fail) I had to mount all my own because the IT guy didn't setup my computer properly from day one.

Surely we should be using some sort of Active Directory system? Proper logons? Domains?

I've also seen about 5 NAS drives in the IT rooms too. I really hope they're just extra backup.

If you can get some sort of reference number you might be able to social engineer the guys at Demon into letting you in on some info about the connection. To be honest, everytime I've got to ring Virgin when there's a fault at our place they can get all the info from me giving them our postcode. So, just make the phone call - that's if you want to be underhanded. :/

Also, Demon are bastards. They keeping sending me invoices for accounts that were closed down years ago.

If you've not got a proper domain how are you authorised to the network? Are all the machines essentially unlocked so you've got free reign over what you can do with them?

I wonder if there's any sort of leased line/private circuit going on for the remote offices? Shirley they can't be sharing your bandwidth out to the net, or do they come back in via a VPN?

Is your ping dying before it leaves your office?  Ping the router or something to see if the issue is in the building first.  Could be wire, or a switch or something.  Sounds like you should be the IT guy.

If you're not the IT guy, what difference is it going to make to you what your internet connection is? Or are you after his job?

Curiosity and that it being shit stops me from working sometimes. If I know it's a shit connection I can possibly suggest alternatives. I hear many people moaning about this that and the other being slow....yet nothing gets done to improve things.

Not particularly after his job.

I had to replace a gige switch recently after the speed fell through the floor. Turns out the particular model (netgear gs605) is prone to having its cheap caps fried by power surges.

I had a netgear do that too, but the one I had was under a lifetime warranty so they sent me a nice new one!

Someone put together a guide on how to replace the caps. Time + materials: $100. Buy a replacement switch (this time I bought a dlink): $29.95.

Yeah, I used to like to tackle crap like that, but after repairing the last 3 iphone 4's the like has turned to loathe.  I need to get a few small managed switches for home.