Slow Share connection

[Guest]

Small business network all setup in a workgroup LAN. 2 Win 2003 servers. No,
DNS or DHCP server. Recently upgraded 35 PC to WinXP from 2000 and we are
now experencing slow connections to our network shares. We didn't have this
problem with 2000 pro workstations. It takes roughly about 20 seconds to make
the intial connection. After intial connection all is fine, until connection
times out. From what I can figure is that it can't find name so it is
broadcasting. I've tried Hosts file addition on the client PC, clearing My
Network Places of all shares. And I get the same results. I'm at a stand
still. Any suggestion would be appericated.

 

[Chuck]

Small business network all setup in a workgroup LAN. 2 Win 2003 servers. No,
DNS or DHCP server. Recently upgraded 35 PC to WinXP from 2000 and we are
now experencing slow connections to our network shares. We didn't have this
problem with 2000 pro workstations. It takes roughly about 20 seconds to make
the intial connection. After intial connection all is fine, until connection
times out. From what I can figure is that it can't find name so it is
broadcasting. I've tried Hosts file addition on the client PC, clearing My
Network Places of all shares. And I get the same results. I'm at a stand
still. Any suggestion would be appericated.

What's the Node Type on the Windows XP computers? The Windows 2000 computers?
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/address-resolution-on-lan.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/address-resolution-on-lan.html

 

[Guest]

Not sure. Were can I find that, in the reg?

What's the Node Type on the Windows XP computers? The Windows 2000 computers?
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/address-resolution-on-lan.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/address-resolution-on-lan.html

 

[Guest]

Node type is unknown. Can I assume this is the problem?

 

[Chuck]

Node type is unknown. Can I assume this is the problem?

Unknown MAY be a problem, but let's make sure. Provide "browstat status" and
"ipconfig /all" from 1 problem computer, and from 2 properly working computers,
so we can diagnose the problem. Read this article, and linked articles, and
follow instructions precisely:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp

 

[Ron Lowe]

Small business network all setup in a workgroup LAN. 2 Win 2003 servers.
No,
DNS or DHCP server. Recently upgraded 35 PC to WinXP from 2000 and we are
now experencing slow connections to our network shares. We didn't have
this
problem with 2000 pro workstations. It takes roughly about 20 seconds to
make
the intial connection. After intial connection all is fine, until
connection
times out. From what I can figure is that it can't find name so it is
broadcasting. I've tried Hosts file addition on the client PC, clearing
My
Network Places of all shares. And I get the same results. I'm at a stand
still. Any suggestion would be appericated.

It quite likely is a name resolution issue.
Is the LAN connected to the Internet by a router?

It's likely that the XP boxes are querying an external ISP's DNS server in
the first instance, then timing out before falling back on NetBIOS
broadcasts. You *should* be able to use the Hosts file to fix this, but I
have a better suggestion.

On a LAN with 2 servers and at least 35 client PCs, I'd strongly recommend
you configure name resolution properly. Apart from the problems you are
seeing, broadcast name resolution is not good with this many machines.

Here's what I'd do..

=>Set up DNS on one of the servers.
Create a Forward Lookup zone for whatever you want to call the network (
mine here at home is 'homenet.local' ). Ensure the zone is set to allow
dynamic updates. Optionally, create a reverse lookup zone for your IP
address range. In the server's IP configuration, point the server to
itself for DNS.

=>Set up WINS on one of the servers.
There's nothing to configure. Just start it up.
In the server's IP configuration, point the server to itself for WINS.

=>Set up DHCP on one of the servers.
It needs to push out to the clients:
IP address; Subnet Mask; Default GW ( point to the router );
WINS server ( point to the newly set up WINS server ) ;
Node Type = 0x8; DNS server ( point to the newly set up DNS server );
DNS suffix = name of your lookup zone.
(Shut down DHCP on the router, if it's running.)

These are rather terse instructions.
We can give more detailled instructions if you need.
Once you have a solid infrastucture like this, everything else just works
more smoothly.

Incidentally, if you are feeling nervous about making such big changes to a
production network ( you should! ) then you should set up a small test lab
first, to do a dry run.

 

[Guest]

What i've found was that node types on the win2000 PC one is set to "hybrid'
one is set to "broadcast". All Windows XP machines node types are "unknown"
except one, which comes up "Hybrid". I'll post the browstat shortly. Thanks
again.

 

[Ron Lowe]

That's not unexpected, and looks normal.
If you configure name resolution as I indicated, they will all become
Hybrid.

I don't think it's a browstat problem, rather a DNS timing out issue.

 

[Guest]

I agree with you on that. I changed drive mapping from unc convention to
straight IP and the connection time/speed was cut by 3/4. Not sure were to
go with DNS.