Being the most qualified (read: still not qualified) to solve our persistant network issues, I've turned to serverfault for guidance. I've done some searching, reading related documentation on cisco.com and tried a bit of troubleshooting.

Here is the config:

• 100mb synchronous connection from a business internet provider (tested multiple times at 100meg at the source)
• Cisco 871W wireless point & router is where the WAN connection starts (this serves all our wireless). The only wired connection in the 871W is the Catalyst switch listed below.
• Cisco Catalyst Express 500 (24TT) is where all the wired connections terminate.
• About 20 Windows workstations and servers (AD/Webservers only).
• Some services in EC2 including mail and other web servers/apps.
• I've been TOLD cabling internally should be gigabit-ready.

Here are the problems:

• generally slow download rates from the internet to the desktop/laptop
• frequent "page cannot be displayed" errors in browsers-sometimes 3 or 4 reloads are necessary... often times CSS wont load or other content requiring the browser to connect to a different server.
• slow speed within the LAN from workstation to workstation copying files. I would expect extremely fast data transfer workstation to workstation / server to workstation in this simple network.

Several things I need to admit:

1. I'm not primarily a network guy.
2. Funding is relatively low, I need to be the guy that finds the solution.
3. I understand most of the terminology and most of the technology.
4. Implementation is where I fail due to lack of experience.

Getting to the point:

I'm wondering whether experienced network admins think that our small network should be sufficiently served with our current hardware if configured properly... or if we should purchase new equipment and start fresh? If starting fresh is the plan, whatever that new equipment may be is a likely different question entirely.

If I haven't provided enough information, I will happily do some troubleshooting and update with the results. I have experience using wireshark and some other tools. Please let me know what you think would be most helpful and thanks in advance.

EDIT:

I forgot to add that the Cisco applicance will not finish loading the SDM Express console. It hangs every time at the "populating modules... DHCP". It eventually crashes and closes. I've rebooted the hardware and this still happens.