Windows XP Pro boxes with a Win2000 server

[Jim T.]

We have recently upgraded from a Win NT 4.0 server to a
2000 server. Before the change-over our three XP boxes
were running fine. After the change, all three XP boxes
have unacceptable delays when accessing data residing on
the Win2000 server.

This only occurs when the directory is first access and
then subsequent accesses are immediate. However, after
an XP box has sat idle for a while, this problem repeats
itself when again trying to access the data. This even
occurs when just trying to browse the network directory
in Explorer.

I should note that all the Win98 PCs on the network work
fine. There is no delay in these at all.

Any ideas how to correct this problem. I tried setting
the DNS on the XP boxes to the IP address of the server.
That didn't help. I've also set all the directories for
indexing... didn't help either.

Please feel free to send a note directly to my Yahoo e-
mail address at (e-mail address removed)

Thanks,

Jim T.

 

[Leon Willard]

Jim,

We had this problem in two different locations. In addition to the slow
access, we also began to experience problems saving documents and drawings
to the server. We would get variations of 'file in use' error messages, and
lost a few documents and drawings because of that.

At the same time, the Win2000 workstations did not have that problem. Our
solution on the CADD machines was to convert them all to Win2000. At the
other location that wasn't an option, and I called Microsoft for a solution.
At that time (nearly a year ago), they had patches for specific error
messages, which helped some, but didn't totally solve the problem.

The funny thing is, the problem has slowly gone away. We think it's because
we are nearly 'religious' about downloading ALL the updates and patches
released by Microsoft for both the XP boxes and the W2K server. It seems
that each time we add a new XP box, the problem comes back for a while.

We were very surprised (and disappointed) at how little help we were able to
get, and I really wonder why this problem still persists. I searched the
newsgroups high and low, and never found much about it. In the beginning, we
thought it was our problem, and of course spent many hours evaluating and
tweaking our whole network from top to bottom. It does seem to be some
strange relationship between WinXP and Win2K Server. -- And I wonder if it's
been solved in Win2003 Server.

Good luck, and I'll be watching your post to see if there's a better
solution to this very annoying problem.

Leon