Windows 2000 Server Network Problem

Can anyone give us a lead for a possible fix or share their similar experience with the following: Server - dual hard drive, running windows 2000 server, msSQL workstations - 10 total, all windows xp professional Every day, without fail, between 4:00pm and 5:00pm our network slows to a crawl. Shared folders on the server are slow to access from a workstation. rebooting the workstations helps. This time frame happens to be about 10 hours after the start of our day when all workstations, as a matter of habit, are re-booted for good measure. Could this have something to do with some power settings? We tryed turning off the option on the network cards that powers down the card after so many hours of inactivity, but no luck. There are no external process running, in other words an off site back up, or anything like that to our knowledge. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks Paul

Is the server running maintenance at that time maybe?

No, not to my knowledge. Is there any way I can check if there are any services running? I'm pretty sure we scheduled the backup to SQL overnight and our off-site backups run throughout the day without any slowdown.

Crow: A little more investigating has turned up a possibility. Do you have any experience, or anyone out there, with a network getting "slammed by packets" It's been recommended that we run a Network Monitor to track our traffic and the packets at that time of day. It seems like there are many free downloads of Network Monitors…any recommendations? Thanks, Paul

hmm.. thats a little out of my reach. If MitchShrader is watching … he might be able to give a little more advice on that one for you. Can u disconnect from the net all together and see if this still happens?