More than one 1G nic, more than one unmanaged switch?

I'm not familiar with using more than one NIC. I have two netgear
unmanaged gigabit switches that connect via a single crossover cable. Would
I be better off putting all of my heaviest users (transferring the largest
files all with gigabit nics on their systems) on one switch and putting both
of the server nic connections (where all the traffic is coming and going to)
on a single switch or should I put half on one switch and half on another
switch (heavy users) and put one nic connection from the server on each
swtich? (we don't have funds to replace the switches so that will not be
part of the equation)

Also since I am a newbie can you give me details on anything I would need to
do on the server once I implement whatever solution is better. The only
server connection plugged in right now is one nic at 10.10.10.10. I'm not
sure what I'll need to do with the second nic or any loadbalancing things I
will or won't need to do.

Thanks!

 

Yes, the clients are frequently transferring files of 500MB or larger
simultaneously.

 

I thought YES answered the question. What was the question I didn't
answer?

 

The question has changed. I found out that at least half of the clients who
have large file transfers are on a switch that is not in the server room.
Now what is the best way to optimize performance as the Nic on the server is
maxing out - checked using task manager - network monitoring.

 

A single G5 Macintosh client exceeds 50% with large file transfers. We have
over 30 developers using them on our network.

 

Do you need to see my taxes? Clearly you have no interest in answering this
question. If your questions actually were leading to a solution I would
continue with this but clearly you are the helpful sort.

 

I have stated by watching task manager I can see it max out. In the event
it assists someone who wants to HELP me, I am running Windows 2003 with all
the latest patches on a Dell 2800 server using the native nics on the system
with the latest drivers.

 

My personal opinion is that putting multiple NICs in a machine causes
more problems than it solves, unless you use NIC teaming.

 

Thank you for your honest opinion.

 

I agree with CJT that you really need to establish what is actually
happening on the network. If you do establish that the server NIC is the
bottleneck you could look at using two teamed NICs. It won't double the
throughput but should give you quite a boost. Have you talked to Dell about
this?

 

I'm trying to identify what the issue is. We are using EztremeZ-IP for our
macs because native SMB or AFP was unbearable. We get the fast throughput
most of the time (rarely when we didn't use it) but we do max out the NIC on
the server occassionally and for some reason it takes a while to recover.
The disk drives are fine - not too much activity but it takes about 15
minutes before performance goes back to normal.

 

No I haven't. I've never asked Dell Windows questions before.

 

There is very little I can give but if someone asks a question I can answer
I'll be happy to do so.
There are NO events in the event viewer at the times of the slow downs.
The disk array activity does not spike.
The only thing I do see is that the network card (using latest driver -
update monthly - no improvement) does max out.
CPU never exceeds 25%
Memory - 2 GIG - never exceeds 1 GIG

 

There is very little I can give but if someone asks a question I can

What Bor & CJT are trying to tell you is that, at the begining, you must
find the "botleneck" in your LAN. So try to use the Perfomance Monitor winth
Output Queue Length counter to be sure, that your server's NIC indeed is the
"troble maker".