Must Use IPX TO Connect

[Don]

My network issues are on a mixed network at a small
school district. The network is split with half the
schools using Novell and half on three Win2000 servers.
There are roughly 700 users total. Both halves are are
on the same WAN. There is also DNS and internet services
provided using a UNIX box for all machines. All are on
the same subnet.

Since I employed the Win2000 servers a year ago and have
began adding XP Pro workstations, I have 150+ now, the
IPX traffic increased considerably. I've begun to have a
lot of complaints from XP users regarding slow operation
of certain network application. In particular our
electronic gradebook that uses an XP Pro workstation as
an application server (long story here) which is it's
normally installation method.

The Win98 machines on the same system have no issues.
They fly with the same program. I tried an experiment
today and found if I turn off IPX and NETBios on the
Win2000 server, the XP workstations no longer see the
server, thus the high IPX traffic. All machines are set
up with static IP addresses utilizing DNS from the UNIX
box I mentioned earlier. All machines use a common router.
All machines are on the internet and run quite well.
Obviously TCPIP is configured and running.

To me it appears that MAYBE the XP machines are
attempting to locate the Win2000 server via the UNIX box
running DNS and failing, then falling back on IPX and
NETBios that's turned on by default.

I enter the translation for the Win2000 servers in
question in the HOSTS file in each XP workstation when I
set them up. Until I did this I could map a server to a
drive letter by manually typing in the server/share
information, I could not see the server by browsing.
After the HOSTS entry I could browse for them too.

Any thoughts or hints to this problem would be greatly
appreciated. Nothings worse than a mad teacher!!

 

[Roy Milano]

-----Original Message-----
My network issues are on a mixed network at a small
school district. The network is split with half the
schools using Novell and half on three Win2000 servers.
There are roughly 700 users total. Both halves are are
on the same WAN. There is also DNS and internet services
provided using a UNIX box for all machines. All are on
the same subnet.

Since I employed the Win2000 servers a year ago and have
began adding XP Pro workstations, I have 150+ now, the
IPX traffic increased considerably. I've begun to have a
lot of complaints from XP users regarding slow operation
of certain network application. In particular our
electronic gradebook that uses an XP Pro workstation as
an application server (long story here) which is it's
normally installation method.

The Win98 machines on the same system have no issues.
They fly with the same program. I tried an experiment
today and found if I turn off IPX and NETBios on the
Win2000 server, the XP workstations no longer see the
server, thus the high IPX traffic. All machines are set
up with static IP addresses utilizing DNS from the UNIX
box I mentioned earlier. All machines use a common router.
All machines are on the internet and run quite well.
Obviously TCPIP is configured and running.

To me it appears that MAYBE the XP machines are
attempting to locate the Win2000 server via the UNIX box
running DNS and failing, then falling back on IPX and
NETBios that's turned on by default.

I enter the translation for the Win2000 servers in
question in the HOSTS file in each XP workstation when I
set them up. Until I did this I could map a server to a
drive letter by manually typing in the server/share
information, I could not see the server by browsing.
After the HOSTS entry I could browse for them too.

Any thoughts or hints to this problem would be greatly
appreciated. Nothings worse than a mad teacher!!


.
Hi Don,

I had a similar issue and what solved it was setting the
proper binding order for the clients.
right click on network neighborhood, click on properties,
the under advanced and advanced settings make sure that the
microsoft client has only ip checked and that it is the
1st protocol. For the netware client make sure it's
primary protocol is ipx and this that is the 1st protocol
as well.

This will make a big difference in response times.

Roy...