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Win 2K/XP Pro slow network browsing

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by dta5811

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Windows 2000 & XP Pro browse the network dramatically slower than our older win98 machines. I have XP machines with P4's and 256MB of RAM that browse network mapped drives slower than P2's with 128MB of RAM but have Win98. Could this be something to do with WINS or DNS?

We are running Small Business Server 4.5 (Which is basically NT 4.0 with a BackOffice license to run SQL and Exchange). We are not running DNS locally and the DHCP scope is not providing any DNS settings to the clients (only WINS). Our server points to our ISP's DNS server for resolution. I just wonder if it is Win2K/XP's preference for DNS over WINS that is causing the slow down. Thanks.

7 replies

by joseph moore

>if it is Win2K/XP's preference for DNS over WINS

Yup, that is the problem. Win2K/XP both want to use DNS first for all name resolution issues. Since you aren't running any DNS inhouse, then 2K/XP have to fall down the ladder to use WINS and/or broadcast.

One thing I can think of to speed things up is to use the LMHOSTS file. You can put entries into your LMHOSTS file on all Win2K/XP systems that point to your SBS server. You would put in 2 records into the LMHOSTS file, one that associates the IP address to the machine name of the SBS box; the other record resolves the Windows domain name to the IP address of the SBS server.
After you do that, I bet your Win2K/XP clients will resolve faster.

Here is a Technet article that liststhe records for LMHOSTS, their format, etc:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q180094
(please remove any spaces)

hope this helps

by joej

Before going crazy try placing the WINS server IP in a couple of XP boxes, then try and browse the network.

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