XP pro to XP pro real slow

I am new to this board, hope this hasn't been covered already.

running xp pro on both a desktop and a laptop.

using My network places

from the destop to the laptop every thing opens fine

but from the laptop to the desktop it takes forever. if I leave it alone it can take any where from 10 minutes to 20 minutes before it finds the folder and opens it. if I try task manager to shut it down, it locks up my whole system and I have to reboot.

both computer access the internet just fine.

running a D-link DSS 8 8 port switch

any help would be appreciated.

 

Not familiar with that particular switch but if you can set port properties, hard set both NICs and the ports they connect to for a specific speed/duplexing option.

100mbs/full duplex if all the pieces will deal with it will be the goal but start with 10mb/half duplex on everything to see if your problem goes away or at least gets better.

If you are using UTP cables, are they home done or factory done (the ends mostly)?

 

Thanks for the reply

I can't set the nics and the cables are factory.

I would guess it has more to do with the laptop, a setting is wrong or something, I just can't think of what it could be.

seeing that every thing opens from the desktop to the laptop just fine, and gets real slow from the laptop to the destop.

once it is open it works just fine. just real slow finding the folder.

Thanks again

 

I take it back. I found out where the settings are changed. I changed the setting with no results.

It didn't make any differance.

It is still slow from the laptop to the desktop but fine from the desktop to the laptop

Thanks for your help

 

Ain't helped yet but will be willing to try some more if you want.

Suggestions that don't pan out are interesting but only helpful to rule out things.

And you said you found the settings for the NIC. How about for the switch? I've seen these fool things "auto negotiate" to the point that all network traffic seemed to nearly stop until they reached an agreement. So I no longer let em try. I just mandate the settings.

Try mapping persistant drive connections and see if that speeds you up.

Easiest to use are probably the built-in administrative shares so if your desktop logon has admin rights on the laptop, just map to \\laptop\c$ (assuming you have the desired data on the C: drive of the laptop).

Network Neighborhood/my network places/or whatever they are calling it these days is known to be somewhat slower than a mapped drive.

 

I would like any help I can get with this. I am about at the end of my rope.

checked on the switch, and there is no way to just set it. auto is the only way it will work. unless there is a way that they don't describe in the manual.


tried mapping persistant drive connections like you suggested. I still get the same thing. connection works great. close the window and try to reopen it and it takes like 20 minutes for it to make the connection. once it has the connection made, it works great. you can transfer files back and forth just fine. it is just in the initial connection that it has the problems.

thanks again

 

Slow browsing of My Network Neighbourhood Places thingy etc is usually caused by name resolution not working and therefore broadcasts happen

Try defining the desktop's IP address in a HOSTS file and an LMHOSTS file on the laptop

Good chance this will sort it

 

Noticed something strange, not only is it slow from the laptop to the desktop. But it can be **** slow even going to itself through my computer.

never noticed this before.

I have some setting real wrong I would guess. I just can't think of what setting it could be.

 

In that case it may not be a networking issue at all - but the suggestion to populate hosts and LMHosts that Andy0 made is excellent (and one I should have made myself after checking if you are using static addresses on both PCs).

If you do have mapped drives, then the speed issue with My Computer could well be from a lag in looking for the mapped shares. If you don't, then there is something else going on and it may take some time but you can figure out exactly what.

Either way, first thing I'd try is to have Task Manager open on the desktop while you try some things. Look at the memory tab while you try to connect and see if anything on there goes way high while you are struggling. Then do the same with the Processes tab and last with the networking tab (which is for sure present with XP-Pro and I'm hoping is also there with XP-Home).

If anything looks out of line, post back what it is and what it did. You can do more in-depth monitoring using Performance Monitor and watching specific threads that might be related to the problem.

 

Thanks allot Newt. appreciate it.

I will check it out tommarow at work and let you know what happens.

Would be allot faster to sort out if it was my own machine that was doing it.

thanks again

 

Just a quick suggestion, it may improve your access speeds as it did to mine. Goto Start menu-RUN, and type regedit (The registry editor) and remove the following registry key

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

I can't quite remeber the exact key, but there should be only 2 of them there, one of them starts with a 2, so leave that one alone but delete the other one. This will stop the XP machines for looking for sheduled tasks on each other.

It made my network speeds increase from 10 seconds to find a folder to about 1 second.

Hope it helps.

 

Interesting. Can you point to an article that gives details?

 

Also, a good idea would be to uninstall the NIC and reinstall TCP/IP.
Do you use static IP Address ???
Have you tried with a crossed link cable ?

PS: By the way, is your laptop a Sony ?

Good luck,
Eric

 

Already tried uninstalling and reinstalling. No luck.

both computer are on static ip's
both access the internet and a network printer just fine.

trouble starts when trying to go from one computer to another.

Thanks for all the replys

 

update

I now have a win2k pro machine on the network. It can talk just fine to both xp machines. I can move files back and forth between the 2k and the xp machines, and I can access the 2k machine just fine from both xp machines. just can't get the xp machines to talk to each other.

Thanks

LordDragon