XP network Acces Slow.

I have gone insane trying to figure this out. Open to any and all suggestions for possible solutions.

I have 4 pcs at my house. All 4 are linked with a Linksys 4 Port Router/Switch (BEFSR41) Which in turn is linked to my ADSL modem.

PC 1 is a K62-500, 192 MB Ram, 60GB HD with Win XP Pro and Norton Inernet Security 2002. This pc serves a common storage point for the other 3 PCs. This computer is booted to the logon screen. This is where it sits 99% of the time. No other programs are installed.

PC 2 is my Athlon 1GHz machine, 40 GB HD with WinXP Pro and NIS 2002

PC 3 Celeron 500 20 GB HD, 128 MB Ram with 98SE and NAV 2001

PC 4 Duron 900 with 128 MB Ram and 98 First Edition and NIS 2002.

All computers can see each other on the Workgroup. Internet Access, FileSharing and Printing work flawlessly on all machines.

Here's the dilema: PC 1 has a folder with approx 18GB of shared music, video pictures etc. In each of the 3 other PCs this is a mapped drive. In PC 2 it's mapped as X: In PC 3 it's mapped as T: In PC 4 it's mapped as S:

When I open up the mapped drive on either PC 3 or PC 4 (the 98 machines) The folder contents displays immediately with no hesitation whatsoever.

If I perform this same task on PC 2 (my XP Pro machine) I get the searching flashlight for about 10 or 15 seconds before the folder contents is listed.

File indexing is enabled on the folder on PC 1. If I turn file indexing off the folder displays approx 2 secs faster on PC 2 (XP PRO). and the other computers (98 systems) remain unaffected.

I get the same slow retrival of information if I browse to PC 1 on the workgroup and open the folder that way instead of using the mapped drive.

Since this happens only on My XP Machine (PC 2) when I'm accessing the other XP Machine (PC 1) I'm guessing there's something within XP that's delaying the info.

Anyone have any suggestions?

TIA,

Gary

 

Try this which should speed you up quite a bit. On both XP systems

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace

Now, simply delete the key(s) (a bunch of long numbers and letters) under this. Possible are the "Printers" and "Scheduled Tasks" keys. You may have one or both (or possibly none).

This will cut out a bit of overhead from XP looking for information on the remote computer you don't care about in your case.

 

Thanks for your suggestions Newt.

The registry entries were present on PC 1 in the basement but not present on PC 2, my XP machine.

I deleted them from the registry on PC1 and restarted both systems - still no change in access speed

May just have to live with this. It's not really a problem just one of those things that annoys the living **** out of you...


Thnx,

Gary

 

Dang iceolated - I was hoping that would do it for you.

Try putting a hosts file on the XP PCs with appropriate info re: the other PCs. In fact, you can build a single hosts file and put it on all 4 PCs - just in a different location on the 9X systems than on the XP ones.

In case you aren't familiar with hosts files, they are simple text files that give connection information. All Microsoft and Nix systems will look for the file first before using anything fancier like WINS, DNS, whatever, to resolve name<>address. Yours should look something like the one below and on XP, it will go in your OS drive as follows (if your OS were on C C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and on 9X in c:\windows on 9X

192.168.0.1 pc1 Pc1 PC1 #this is a comment and optional
192.168.0.2 pc2 Pc2 PC2 #I put in all three name variations because
192.168.0.3 pc3 Pc3 PC3 #you might use any of them for a lookup.
192.168.0.4 pc4 Pc4 PC4

Just put in the actual IP and name of your PCs, name the file hosts (no extension) and copy it to all 4 PCs. Use notepad or any other text editor. No word processor please.

This combined with mapped drives (and I think that is an excellent idea) should hopefully speed you up quite a bit.

If not, post back because there are other possibilities.