xp office slow networking

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Guest

We have computers running windows 98 and they open and save office files
(excel, word) fast. We just replaced some computers with windows xp pro.
They take up to a minute to open or save a file on the network. I really
need to speed this up. I don't know much about this stuff, so if you can
help, make it easy! Thanks!
 
A lot would depend on what kind of setup you're using. Are the computers able
to "see" the other machines or server, or is that problematic too?

I think it's also important to determine if this is an issue with a slow
data transfer-rate, or of the transfer taking a long time to commence, but
being fast enough wheh it eventualy starts. Also, does the problem affect
other kinds of data, or only files being saved from within Office?
 
Hi Ian,

The computers can all see each other. Plus we run an accounting system that
all computers use called FACTS; this runs just fine on all machines. Plus
all computers are hooked up to the internet the same way and it runs fine.
It is only Office related programs: Ecel and Word documents that are stored
on the server that when opened from a computer over the network are very
slow. If an Office doc. is opened that is saved on the individual computer,
it does fine. Does this help?
 
David said:
We have computers running windows 98 and they open and save office
files (excel, word) fast. We just replaced some computers with
windows xp pro. They take up to a minute to open or save a file on
the network. I really need to speed this up. I don't know much
about this stuff, so if you can help, make it easy! Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have seen this problem with folders that have many thousands of files in
them. XP checks all files in the current folder and all files one level down
in the directory structure. This only seemd to affect some computers.
Upgrading from an earlier version of Windows seemed to cause this. Doing a
clean install of Windows fixed the problem. It's a drastic action so you may
want to wait and see if you get any other answers first. If the folders do
have a very large number of files I used a temporary workaround of changing
the directory structure so that the users were only accessing one folder
with a smaller number of files. To get to older files they had to move up
the directory tree rather than down.

Kerry
 
Hi Kerry,

The XP is on a new computer, not upgraded from 98. But the files they are
accessing are saved under 98 and office 97. Now they are opening them under
XP and Office 2003. But the files they are creating with the new software is
slow also. I can open the new files quickly on a 98 system.
 
How many files are in the folder you are accessing. Are there any other
folders in this folder. If there are, how many files are in those folders?

It sounds like you may have a different issue. Is the share on a domain
controller? It may be this issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q321098&SD=MSKB

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=321169

Another issue with XP is mapped drives that are offline. Every time you try
to access a mapped drive with XP it checks all the mapped drives. If one is
offline this can cause delays. Delete any mapped drives that are not needed.
If possible don't use mapped drives but use UNC path names instead. i.e.
\\server_name\share_name Look in My Network Places and delete any unused
places that show up there. XP sometimes auto populates this.

If you have Server 2003 consider using Sharepoint Services. It works great
with Office 2003.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/sharepoint/default.mspx

Kerry
 
Kerry Brown said:
I have seen this problem with folders that have many thousands of files in
them. XP checks all files in the current folder and all files one level down
in the directory structure.
Click to expand...

Yes, we had to upgrade the document-server on one site for this reason, it
only stores about 4GB, but that comprises around 20,000 text files, and
locating a file became painfully slow. A faster server was the simple
answer, a better answer might've been a database-driven system.

The thing that's coming to mind (and recalling a previous similar experience
with Win2000) is that there might be a problematic antivirus 'Office Plugin'
involved here. Which antivirus is being used?
 
Okay, I have some more info that might help. First off, the files are being
saved to a unix (spell?) server which has a 20GB hard drive. There are
several thousand files, with most being Cad files. Total disk space used so
far is 17GB. There is no anti-virus on the server itself, but we run AVG on
the PC's.

Thanks!
David
 
David said:
Okay, I have some more info that might help. First off, the files are
being
saved to a unix (spell?) server which has a 20GB hard drive. There
are
several thousand files, with most being Cad files. Total disk space
used so
far is 17GB. There is no anti-virus on the server itself, but we run
AVG on the PC's.
Click to expand...

Upgrade the Unix server to something with at least one fast processor
(two are better), 2GB or more of RAM, and a really big fast hard drive.
You just need better equipment for what you are trying to do.

Malke
 
This is a known problem with large numbers of AutoCAD files and XP. I can't
remember the exact fix but it has something to do with turning off Verify
Digital Signature for dwg file types. Check with AutoCAD tech support or
their online forums.

Kerry
 
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