One of our customers was having problems reported by their terminal server users last week where their remote core systems were being very slow and having disconnects. In the past, they have rebooted routers, terminal server, and their domain controler to get it to working much better but eventually it would slow way down again. After doing a reboot of the equipment last week, the users again reported that it was very, very, very slow a few days later. There was a Symantec Premium Anti-spam process running last week that I thought to be the culprit, but it looked to be running okay on the DC this time. [more]
I decided that I had better check the Internet connection speed using a speed test from cnet.com. Their results were an abysmal 53 kbps (this is in the dialup range folks). I asked them to call their ISP and get them to check the line. They found problems with the cable modem (one, that it was very ancient) and replaced it. After the hardware replacement, things are running much smoother.
In summary: It never hurts to perform an Internet speed test when things are running slowly.