Networks

Ask something
Discussion Locked

slow opening and saving files

0 helpful
5 replies

by tink!

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

With this new network I've got SBS 2003 on the server, and XP Pro on the clients. I have one client computer that is slow when opening and closing files that are on the network drive. (Takes about 10-20 seconds). Other clients are fine.
Any ideas on what would cause the one client to be slow?
Have already tried a new net cable. The internet connection works great. Copying files to and from the network drive is not slow. It's just opening and closing files and folders on the network drive that delays.

5 replies

by jc2it

I had a similar problem where I would try to open a file in a MS Office product and it would time out before showing the OS listing. This would take 30-45 seconds and it is a bug in the way MS Office accesses the file system.

The fix was to remove any network drives that were no longer available. If you had three network shares on your system and one of them was removed at the host end, but not at the client end then the client will be slow in accessing the file system.

Job Cacka

by stress junkie

First, try what jc2it suggested. I always forget about that myself.

Second, are the files on the slow computer a lot larger than the ones on the other computers? It is possible that the person using the bad computer is just using large files.

If that's not the case then try network packet sniffing. Network packet sniffers are excellent diagnostic tools. Use Ethereal on the client and see what kind of network dialog is going on. You may find that you have a lot of duplicate packets, retransmitted packets, and out of order packets. This could mean that your NIC is broken.

Anyway whatever you see will give you some idea about the network side of the problem.

Ethereal works on Windows, Linux, and Unix. You can download it for free at

www.ethereal.com

You can restrict the display to traffic to/from the client by using the filter host where is the actual ip address of the client. Actually this would work on a computer on the same LAN as the problem computer.

You can see the packets in real time by using the Options menu windows and select "Update display in real time". The default is to save packets to a file and not display them until you "playback" the file.

by tink!

thanks. i' think i'll try the ethereal. i hope it's not the nic tho, this is a brand new computer!
I'll let u know what I find out
Tink

by tnovice

If you find a Packet sniffer shows there are network issues it's not necessarily the NIC. Try a different ethernet port first and a different cable. Try a different NIC (if you have more than one) or computer from that port. Check that your Network driver is up to date. Check that the ethernet port is patched properly (re-krone if necessary). If all this fails maybe then look at replacing hardware like the NIC.

This discussion is closed to new replies.