Networking XP and Vista

[Jonesee]

I have a small network consisting of five machines. Two of the
computers have Vista Home Premium installed and the others have
various flavors of Windows XP installed. Copying and transferring
files works flawlessly between the machines except for one of the
Xp laptops which has very poor performance when communicating
with either of the Vista machines. I can access this computer
from either of the Vista machines and transfer files with no
problem. However, if I use this laptop to access the Public
folder on either of the Vista machines, the throughput is so slow
to the point that Windows Explorer will "hang". In an effort to
solve this problem I have: Installed and run Network Magic on
both computers...no problems found. I have installed the Link
Layer Topology service on the laptop and I have tried disabling
the "Autotuning level" on one of the Vista machines all to no
avail. The laptop in question has XP Media Center on it with no
antivirus or firewall software installed. All ping times are
good. All of the computers on the network are connected
wirelessly except for one of the Vista machines. I've tried
connecting the laptop directly to the router with a cable but
still no joy. At this point I am stumped.

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Wired connection, Wireless?
Does the Laptop works transfer is faster when interacting with a Win XP
computer?
Try to optimize the Laptops TCP/IP Stack,
http://www.ezlan.net/Internet_Speed.html
Patch this patch too. Windows XP patch for Sharing with Vista -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[Jonesee]

Hi Jack,

Thanks very much for the response. As I mentioned in my (too long?) post,
the laptop is on a wireless connection. I did try connecting to the Linksys
WRT-150N router with a cable, but experienced the same results. I have
already installed the Link Layer Topology service on the laptop, but it did
not help. The affected laptop can communicate with the XP machines without
any problem at all. I will try to rebuild the TCP/IP stack tonight. Thanks
for your thoughts.

-Wes

 

[Jonesee]

If anyone reads this message I would like to let them know that after trying
may different settings and changes as recommended by others on this board,
the final solution was installation of Service Pack 1 on both of the Vista
machines. I don't know why but it solved the problem!!!

 

[Bob F.]

Well, that doesn't say a lot about the collective group's ability to solve
problems. On the other hand it may have been a hidden bug that SP1 fixed
that just couldn't be discovered easily. In any event, we are glad your
problem is solved, which is our prime goal, and thank you for taking the
time to supply the feedback.

 

[Diamontina Cocktail]

All I did to get it working properly - as I had checked all settings were
OK, which they were, was to attempt to map a network drive from an XP
machine to the pre SP1 Vista machine and it worked. It made the entire
network talk to the Vista machine and back the other way. All XP able to
access etc.