My network shares are stalling.

[Noozer]

My PC is running Windows XP Pro with all the latest Microsoft updates and
has an onboard nVidia gigabit NIC. My second PC is running Windows XP
MediaCenter 2005, with an Intel onboard gigabit NIC. Between these two NICs
is a five port gigabit switch. Networking is over TCP/IP.

A few times a day my LAN connection (network share) will just stall. I can
still surf on the internet fine. Pings from one machine to the other go
through <1ms. Still, any LAN connections stay dead for a minute or two and
the operations fail.

For example, I was browsing a folder on my MCE machine from my XP Pro
machine. Right clicked a zip file and said Extract Here. It started and got
halfway through, then just stopped. It finally failed, reporting that the
zip file was corrupt. While the connection was "dead" I was still able to
surf webpages fine. I had enough time to drop to a command line and ping the
MCE machine with <1ms replies. I tried to change to drive L: and the command
prompt stalled, waiting for a response from the MCE machine. I was able to
unzip the file on a second attempt.

The event viewer shows the following entry on my XP Pro machine (there are
no corresponding errors on the MCE machine):

Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7023
The Computer Browser service terminated with the following error:

This operation returned because the timeout period expired.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.



Any ideas where I should start looking?

 

[John Wunderlich]

My PC is running Windows XP Pro with all the latest Microsoft
updates and has an onboard nVidia gigabit NIC. My second PC is
running Windows XP MediaCenter 2005, with an Intel onboard gigabit
NIC. Between these two NICs is a five port gigabit switch.
Networking is over TCP/IP.

A few times a day my LAN connection (network share) will just
stall. I can still surf on the internet fine. Pings from one
machine to the other go through <1ms. Still, any LAN connections
stay dead for a minute or two and the operations fail.

For example, I was browsing a folder on my MCE machine from my XP
Pro machine. Right clicked a zip file and said Extract Here. It
started and got halfway through, then just stopped. It finally
failed, reporting that the zip file was corrupt. While the
connection was "dead" I was still able to surf webpages fine. I
had enough time to drop to a command line and ping the MCE machine
with <1ms replies. I tried to change to drive L: and the command
prompt stalled, waiting for a response from the MCE machine. I was
able to unzip the file on a second attempt.

The event viewer shows the following entry on my XP Pro machine
(there are no corresponding errors on the MCE machine):

Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7023
The Computer Browser service terminated with the following error:

This operation returned because the timeout period expired.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.



Any ideas where I should start looking?

I'd start looking for firewalls.

One incorrectly configured firewall on a subnet can kill all
Microsoft networking on that subnet (and/or lead to Master Browser
Wars). A firewall that blocks Microsoft networking can cause that
machine thinks that it is the only device on the subnet and it forces
itself to be Browse Master. Once that happens, it blocks/ignores all
broadcasts from other devices on the subnet and Microsoft networking
breaks down due to lack of a functioning master browser.

One place to look is here:

"Internet firewalls can prevent browsing and file sharing"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298804/en-us>
According to Microsoft: "This behavior is by design"

HTH,
John

 

[Guest]

Most likely cuplrit is LAN card powersave:

http://mylogon.net/support/psave/

 

[Noozer]

My PC is running Windows XP Pro with all the latest Microsoft

I'd start looking for firewalls.

One incorrectly configured firewall on a subnet can kill all
Microsoft networking on that subnet (and/or lead to Master Browser
Wars). A firewall that blocks Microsoft networking can cause that
machine thinks that it is the only device on the subnet and it forces
itself to be Browse Master. Once that happens, it blocks/ignores all
broadcasts from other devices on the subnet and Microsoft networking
breaks down due to lack of a functioning master browser.

The only firewall on these PC's is the Windows firewall on the MCE PC. It's
also not enabled for the gigabit connection. (There is also a 100mbit card
in here, connected directly to a cable modem. This internet connection is
NOT shared to other PC's as they have their own cable modem connected to a
NAT router).

One place to look is here:

"Internet firewalls can prevent browsing and file sharing"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298804/en-us>
According to Microsoft: "This behavior is by design"

I'll definately give that a browse. Wish me luck!