Question : Application hang on Windows network

In November 2008 we went live with a new application on our local area network. The application is called Bond Adapt version 9.2.6 (www.bondadapt.com)

This application is a CRM product. It is a traditional 32 bit client / server application and we have about 30 users on our local area network.

We have a dedicated server running this application. The application on the server uses its own version of SQL. The server is a high specification HP Proliant DL580 with four CPUs (Dual-Core Intel Xeon) and 4GB of RAM.

Our LAN consists of 30 Windows XP PCs most of which are running Service Pack 3. They have Office 2003 installed on them and this Adapt application. 26 PCs are connected to the nework at 100MB. 4 PCs are connected at 1000MB.

Intermittantly (there is no pattern and hence this question) the Adapt application completely hangs (freezes, locks up) on individual PCs. The user does nothing specific on the application to cause the hang. To recover from this we need to open Windows XP task manager, find the adapt.exe process and end it. We then login to Adapt and continue as normal.

We are seeing these Adapt hangs intermittantly about twice per day (10 per week) across 30 PCs. Its not a problem that is causing us major disruption, its more of a nuisance.

The software companies helpdesk for the application have not (and will not) take any responsibility for this hang. They say that this does not occur across their customer base and that it must be a problem on our local area network.

I am at the end of my wits and would really appreciate some advice on how best to troubleshoot this issue. We have taken detailed logs of when the hangs occur and can see absolutely no frequency on which to create an anchor point to begin troubleshooting.

I have 11 years experience of IT support and am (nearly) CCNA qualified (exam in May) so I understand, from the ground up how this application communicates on our network. But I have no idea of how resolve this issue and feel completely isolated in trying to find a solution as the software company have backed off. I am considering logging a support call with Microsoft to put responsibility toward the operating system being at fault - but realistically there are too many things to consider / blame.

Just to finish - before we went live with this application in November 2008, we saw absolutely no issues on our local area network. We were using an old CRM application that worked fine. We upgraded and migrated to this new app and although we are reaping the benefits of how the new app functions - the freezing of the app is obviously detremental.

Many many thanks and look forward to some help.

Neil Robb
IT Manager

Answer : Application hang on Windows network

The application broadcasting packets through UDP on the network every second or so. This thing is very dependant on network conditions.

I have still not found a fix to the hangs, so I am going to close this question but the supplier (Bond International Software) has released a newer version so we are going to upgrade to that to see if it makes a difference.

If anyone has any problems in the future with Bond or Adapt then please get in touch with me through this website or email me - neilmrobb -@- gmail.com