Deployment Solution

Since installing the Altiris agent and the aclient on workstations that connect over an 11mb wireless connection (and from that point, over a T1 to the server), all of the pc's are running very slow with high cpu utilization. Is this a result of the LAN connection that they are using....wirless point to wireless point and from there a T1 to the server ?

I've never heard of a slow connection causing high CPU utilization. In Task Manager what is using up the CPU?

I am not currently in front of the pc.....but, the office that is being affected has approximately 20 pc's. As my post said, they have all been running extremely slow only since the install of agents and aclient. The only reason I think it may be the connection is the way they connect and the applications that they use over the wireless (then t1)

Without knowing what service or application is causing the high CPU utilization it will be all guessing as to what is actually going on. Its possible the Altiris Agent or AClient is causing the problem but without knowing for sure its hard to troubleshoot the problem.

Well I know that the altiris agents and clients will work over a wireless connection, but do you think the combination of an 11mb wireless connection (5 each way) to a wireless access point and then from there over a T1 to the building that houses the server would degregate the signal and cause a significant slow down?

Not usually. I would have one of your users look at the task manager to see what process is eating up the CPU. Chances are you might find that if it is Altiris related, it has to do with something that is scheduled to run (i.e. inventory, or some other task). Anthony is right though, a slow connection should not translate to high cpu utilization. My gut feeling would be something else is causing this and the end users are blaming the last thing I.T. did to their computers (which is typical in most companies).

Pushing software or pulling an inventory could take longer and possibly slow down the computer if the connection is slow but if Altiris isn't doing anything like that it wouldn't cause the computer to be slow.

Do you have Patch Management installed? The default settings for the Software Update agent (Patch) are pretty aggressive in reporting data, and should be modified. One, in particular is set to 'always' report, when it should (like the others) be set to 'report only if changed'. View -> Solutions -> Patch Management -> Configuration -> Windows -> Software Inventory