Performance Problem but only with mapped DFS Drives

[heiko.maier]

Hello,

Since we activated DFS in our Organisation we have a lot of troubles
with the response time of the local PC's.

Here is a short description regarding our environment:

We have 12 mapped drives pointing to DFS targets on 5 DFS Servers in 4
different Locations Worldwide (China, USA and Europe)
Serverside is Windows 2003 SP1
Clientside is Windows XP SP2

Example:
I: --> \\<domainname>\i_company$
T: --> \\<domainname>\t_interchange$
Etc.

Here are examples how we get into the "error / slow" condition:
1. browsing some mapped drives like I: with the Windows Explorer
2. Going back to the My Computer hierarchy
3. Opening a command line window over Start --> Run --> typing CMD
4. Then you get after every second a letter C frozen for a second then
M appears frozen for a second and finally D appears. Then it takes
another second until the Command Window is open. In there you can work
without "timeouts"...
5. Going back for File browsing same slow behaviour.
6. Checking the active DFS link with the dfsutil /pktinfo command no
problem.


Thank you in advance for any help

BR
Heiko

 

[cuba]

As far as I can tell, testing various cases similar to yours, is that
it is "by design," or, "that's how it works."

However, some testing has led me to believe that error conditions cause
the "hanging", i.e. a network error occurs, and Windows' error handling
mode kicks in can stalls the network file access.

Have you looked at the network hardware? Switches instead of routers,
all new, similar brand NICs, etc.

 

[heiko.maier]

Hi cuba,

Thank you for the quick reply.
Since we have over 80 Pc's it will be a little bit hard to have the
same NIC's all over and why should I change router into switches?!?!?!

BR
Heiko

 

[cuba]

No, it would not be prudent to change all your NICs (I was just
guessing anyways). Perhaps, upgrade and 10MB cards to 100MB, though.

And I misspoke, not router but hub. Switches offer better performance
than Hubs.

But I think Windows is just inefficient with browsing the network, ie.
resovling names and paths. Like when in Explorer viewing a network UNC
path and you click on the "Up" button -- Explorer stalls for upwards to
60 seconds.