Open Dental Forum

Hi all,
I've just started using Open Dental for 2 months and I really like the clinical and management side of the software. However, the only issue that is bugging me is the slow initial connection from the workstation to the server.
For your information, below is my practice's setup:-
3X PC (1 server, 2 workstation)
All running Windows 8. Connected by CAT6 cables. Router has DHCP enabled. Hard drive sleep disabled.

Problem: Slow initial response when loading of database of workstation when starting the program (10 seconds). Also slow response if the computer has been left idle (about 15 min) and then I try to use the software. Server has no lag loading database.

I believe it is not a software issue, rather it is a networking problem. Can anyone kindly give some advise on this problem?
Thanks!

It's probably timing out when trying to access your Images Share on your server. This is most commonly caused by DNS conflicts. If you are using a UNC path for your images folder (e.g. \\server\OpenDentImages\) You might try using something like (\\192.168.1.1\OpenDentImages\) obviously replacing the IP with the actual IP of your server computer. If you are NOT using a UNC path for your images share... why aren't you?!?

I've seen this happen quite a bit when a laptop comes into the office and has 2 NICs (network cards): one for wireless, one for hard-line. They are both valid NICs with valid IP addresses but Open Dental doesn't know which one to use so it leaves it up to Windows. Windows will use one (not sure how it picks which to use first) which may time out after a while (probably the slowness you are experiencing) and then will move onto the next NIC in the list and try that one (voila, you are connected).

It works!!! Yes, my PCs have 2 NIC; 1 ethernet & 1 wireless(built in). I have tested the workstations today and everything is as fast as lightning (like server). Thanks a bunch jsalmon, you're a STAR! i didnt know why i didnt use ip address instead of servername, but this helped solved the only annoyance I have. I will report again in a couple of days to see if everything runs smoothly. Thanks again jsalmon

It has been 1+ week, and I would like to say that everything is working smoothly now. Thanks again jsalmon, your suggestion fixed the problem.

You are very welcome. I'm just glad it was my first suggestion that did the trick (brushes shoulder off).

So modest. Brings a tear to my eye.

Can I revive this thread? My whole OD network is slow and we've got a brand new Server. There is a new laptop on the network (mine) and that has an initial delay of 9 seconds on startup whenever it's been idle for awhile. My IT guys are stumped. What do I need to do to correct it?

hjoesaar wrote:Can I revive this thread? My whole OD network is slow and we've got a brand new Server. There is a new laptop on the network (mine) and that has an initial delay of 9 seconds on startup whenever it's been idle for awhile. My IT guys are stumped. What do I need to do to correct it?

What version of Open Dental are you on? Did the slowness start once you introduced the new Server? Does this new Server have new anti-virus software on it and if it does do you have exceptions for Open Dental in place so that it is a trusted application?

This is a great page to start with the basics of Open Dental slowness troubleshooting:
http://www.opendental.com/manual/troubl ... wness.html

Try opening up the OpenDentImages before launching Open Dental. Does that make it any faster?

I bought the practice 6 months ago and they were using Softdent. We upgraded the Server immediately and converted to OD at about the same time. In addition, I bought a laptop for my use in the office. Yeah, so lots of changes! I had OD in my last practice and the response times was instantaneous - in the new office there is a generalized lag time of ~1 second when manipulating the chart and it's annoying. And there is the 10 second lag on my laptop when starting after idle. We have a great IT company that has tried to investigate this issue but it's stumped them.

We are using 15.2.22.0

How do I open Opendentalimages before starting OD?

There are a couple of things to look at. First is network card sleep. On the properties for the network card, there is an option to allow the computer to put the network card to sleep.



You want to have that disabled like I do.

Next thing I would look at is your router, you could have a router that is giving you these problems. If you can borrow a known working router from your home and test or just buy a new one.

Next thing to look at is the windows logs, look to see if there are any network conflicts. You may want to set static IPs for your network.

Next I would look at the Windows Domain Master Browser configuration. In an environment where you don't have a domain and are just running a workgroup, the computers in that workgroup will "elect" a domain master browser. This computer will tell all the computers on the network who everyone is. Sometimes it just doesn't work well so you can edit the registry to tell a specific computer that it is not and can not be the domain master browser. In another office where I've had this problem, we used a domain and manually told all the other computers on the network that they could not be the master browser. Google will give you more information on how to configure this setting.

Good luck!

I checked the network sleep card. It is correct.
We just got a new router 2 months ago. Nothing changed
As far as the Master Domain stuff goes.. That's beyond my level of competency. Not sure.

Thanks for trying to help. Not sure where to go from here. - H

Is it only the new laptop giving you the slowness problems? If so does it change if you are connected wired vs wireless?

Good ideas!

I kept a log of the delays while plugged in to the network: on tuesday; 9:14am, 9:29am, 9:43am, 11:15am, 2:30pm, 3:15pm.
On Wednesday I connect via Wifi - I may have had a delay at 11:22am but if was for less than 5 seconds so I don't know if it was real.

So Why is my Ethernet connection Slower than my Wifi connection when using Open Dental?

Again the power setting may be set for the wireless but not the wired connection. Might be an IP conflict. Might be a bad cable. Might be a bad wired connection on the laptop. So then you set up experiments to isolate the problem.

On the software side, try changing the IP that your laptop uses manually and see if the problem goes away. Check the system logs on your computer for those times and see if there are any corollary errors indicating some sort of conflict or some software on your computer because I notice a trend of the slowdowns falling on 15 min increments. (Anitvirus??)

On the hardware side, try changing the network cable. If that doesn't work try getting another laptop to try in the same spot or buy a USB network card and use it on the same laptop and see if it still has problems. If the problem goes away with the new cable, problem solved. If not then try the USB based network card, if that fixes it, I assume that your wired network port on the laptop is developing a problem. You can try updating drivers/firmware, use the USB network card or just use wifi.