strange network problem...

[primo]

I have a novell network that I control. I have 5 client computers in one particular area that run fine all day and are shut down at 5PM. At 11PM the nite man comes in and soon after he logs onto his computer, it slows down until it locks up totally. He can reboot and log back into the network but the same thing happens again. He can try any of the other computers in that area and get the same results. I have tried most everything I can think of to remedy this. There are no restrictions on his user account and there are no backups running at that time either.
The server is Novell5 and the clients are win95 with client vs. 3.20. Any ideas from anyone on this very unusual problem...?

[primo]

Some additional info. The nite man is only running some accounting software and he is
the only one on the network overnite. So there is not any network usage to speak of.
I really could use some ideas on things to
troubleshoot since I have tried everything
I can think of. So if anyone can just throw some thoughts out here it would really help.

[Gearhead]

Is your network coax or 10BaseT? If 10baseT where is the hub/switch located?

[LordLocksley]

Is it possible to test his account during the day, or some other account at night? Does the server run any self maint. during the night?

[primo]

thanks for your replies...
there is a hub in that area being fed from
a switch in the server room. All cables are
Cat5e and all runs are under 100M.

The computers and the night man's logon all work fine during the day. Only at 11PMish
does this problem occur..

Maintenance.....? well, there are no backups running. No virus scans running. And nothing on the server scheduled... What kind of maintenance are you thinking it might be...?

[DVNT1]

I belive that using the default Netware install file compression starts at midnight each day. It might relate but I wouldn't initially think so. You can easily change that start timing if you want to test for it being the problem (or basically disable it).

Perhaps the Accounting software has some automated maintenance program that runs at night.

It might be best to monitor the server utilization when he has troubles. This could help detemine what (if anything) is raising up the CPU utilization and slowing down the client.

[primo]

Thanks for the replies. All very helpful.
I finally fixed the problem with an update to client 3.3 and sp3. So far it seems to be working.