Accessing files via network share / streamed?

[Andreas Schmid]

Hi,

What happens when you share a folder in XP and someone else opens a file
(e.g. an MP3) from that folder on another computer on the network?

Is the whole MP3 transfered to the other computer first before it is played,
or "streamed" and continuously transfered while being played on the other
computer?

Thanks,

-Andreas

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Andreas,

I belive this is software dependant. WMP usually streams the content, and
you can alter the Buffering options in the WMP Options, Performance tab.

 

[Andreas Schmid]

Ramesh, thanks for your answer. So from the software's perspective,
accessing a file in a shared network folder is not different than accessing
a local file.

But does XP do any buffering when files are accessed that reside in a shared
network folder?

-Andreas

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Andreas,

I played a file from network share (and set the Buffering to 30 seconds).
Then, from the system that stores the MP3 files, I closed the open share
(currently playing MP3) using FSMGMT.MSC. The song did not stop immediately,
but stopped after the ~30 seconds and WMP gave this error: 0xC00D11CD.
FileMon revealed that no Write operations carried at that time. This tells
me that the song from a network share is being streamed, and not downloaded.