Sorry, it's yet another "Matt's stumped by networking" question.

I'm doing work for my church, and they have a pretty make-shift network of switches supplying the network to their offices. Here's the general layout:

Server closet switch [#1] <-200ft-> switch #2 in maintenance closet <-60ft-> switch #3 in main office <-> office computers

Last Friday they started complaining about slow internet speeds, and they're right. It's ridiculously slow. At times it just seems like it's frozen, and then sometimes it'll finish loading but others it'll just stop.

So, I started eliminating possibilities (based on ease of testing ). First I tried a computer connected to switch #1. No problems at all, full 30Mbps connection from our provider.

I then tried plugging into switch #3. Slowness.

I then plugged into switch #2. Slowness.

I then tried using the line feeding switch #2 (the 200ft line). No problems.

I plugged the switch back in with only the 200ft line and my laptop connected. Slowness. I then tried a new switch with the same setup. Still slowness.

I'm going to try a brand new switch tomorrow, just in case, but I wanted to see if you good people might have some ideas as to what's wrong here. I'd really appreciate it. I really want to get these folks up and running again, as they were broken into and robbed last week and it isn't helping moral to have no internet access. Thanks for any help you can offer.