[Judas]

Here's the deal... i'm running 4 computers... 1 being a server... (files...dedicated across the net for games... whathave you)

I just did a fresh install with 2 hardrives (40gb each)..

All computers run windows XP PRo SP1....

through a D-Link 704P

The server also is a printer server (USB)

anyways.. here's my main problem..... i'm getting some seriously long long long pauses when first accessing some of the drives.... These pauses complete freeze the windows.... And sometimes "end process" doesn't work.. i usually just leave them be till they unfreeze.. resulting in my getting to the drive..... Some of the shared stuff doesn't show up right at all though..... They don't excist.... i'm also wondering what that is all about...

What'cha think? BTW all TCP receive windows are set to 128Mb

[PangingJr]

like you Judas, i'm struggling with XP networks and barely scraping by,
when it works it works great but when it doesn't i have to fight the lack of docs and online to find out a good solution, i've abit bigger networked than yours i think i must do something right becoz it been good for a long time now, but i seem to forgot what's all the things that i've done.

anyway, try running the network diagnostics tools of XP and see if any info/help from it, by entering this command... netsh diag gui ...in the Run box and hit enter.

here's a hardcopy that i've found on my local HDD atm, it might give you something.
and if i find more info that i think it'll help i'll post..

This is a somewhat common question and there are a number of things you can check for. The first thing you should do is verify that all of your PCs are members of the same workgroup. Different workgroup names are a common problem in peer-to-peer networks and would make it difficult to access other PCs.

Another common mistake is when your PCs have accidentally been configured with different subnet addresses, preventing them from seeing each other. For example, let's say that 192.168.22.x represented your network, but when you configured your PC you accidentally entered your workstation address as 192.168.2.x. This simple mistake would make this machine a member of an entirely different network. Without the help of a router, members in the 192.168.22.x network would be unable to reach your PC. However, because each of these PCs has Internet access and since the router is using DHCP to assign IP addresses, I doubt this is your problem.

To me, this sounds like it might have more to do with NetBIOS not being enabled. In order to share information between computer systems, the computers need to be able to communicate with each other. To do this they need a common language, which in this case are called Protocols. TCP/IP, NETBEUI, IPX, SNA and AppleTalk are examples of protocols.

Server Message Block or SMB, is the primary protocol used with PCs to share files, disks, directories, printers, and (in some cases) even COM ports across a network. Any system that makes use of the SMB standard should be able to communicate with any other system that also adheres to this standard. SMB-based networks use a variety of underlying protocols, but the most popular are "NetBIOS over NetBEUI" and "NetBIOS over TCP/IP."

An SMB client or server expects to find a NetBIOS interface, regardless of which protocol is actually being used. It might be helpful to think of NetBIOS as a passenger in a vehicle. TCP/IP, NETBEUI and IPX are the vehicles. Each is a different type of vehicle (car, boat, plane), but they all carry passengers to their destinations. In this case the destination would be the system you're trying to share information with.

So without NetBIOS enabled, these PCs would be unable to communicate with each other. What you need to do is first verify that NetBIOS is enabled to run over TCP/IP.

The last recommendation I would suggest is to verify that the computer browser service is running. The Computer Browser service maintains an updated list of computers on the network, and it supplies this list to computers that are designated as browsers. If this service is stopped, the list is neither updated nor maintained. If this service is turned off, any services that explicitly depend on it do not start.

where's the network guy, come and help my good friend here. anyone pls!

[PangingJr]

open up the Event Viewer and check the logs on the Server, see if you have any error in there?

[Zardon]

i had terrible problems making my home network (4 pcs) if I didnt have a windows 2000/3 server machine in the link. once I added a windows server (control) machine in the network, the whole thing just fell together like magic.

[Dyre Straits]

I have NO idea what I'm doing right then. We have a minimum of 4 computers at any given time on our home network.

My main machine is running XP Home. The others are using 98SE with my son only now upgrading to XP Home also.

I often bring another computer here to work on OR I have an old computer that I tinker with and plug it in.

We have a D-Link Router 704-P that's been rock solid.

Occasionally, I may need to reset the router if we get any communications problems between computers.

Sometimes I find that the Windows Logon works better for the Primary Network Logon instead of Client for Microsoft Networks. I just have to test each machine to see which works better.

Also, some machines may be setup to not communicate unless they are accessed. Maybe they need to be setup to automatically connect after startup. ??

[Sourcer_2002]

Hmm well i run a pretty large network at home, and i also set up a lol of local lans networks. I have never seen a problem like this before. But as suggested i would check each workgroup for the machines, uninstall and reinstall the nic drivers, try giving static ip's, possibly reset the router, who know could be a bad a cable too. Just try some of those and try to elimnate the problem.

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

Try this


tweak1
---------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\lanmanserver\parameters]
"SizReqBuf"=dword:0000ffff
---------


tweak2
---------
When you connect to another computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that computer - a fairly useless task, but one that can add up to 30 seconds of waiting on the other end - not good! Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to disable this process.

navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace
in the Registry. Below that, there should be a key called {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}.

Just delete this Windows will no longer check for scheduled tasks - major performance improvement!
----------


tweak 3 increase your icon cache
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs.../iconcache.vbs

[PangingJr]

just about to tell him to do the tweaking and see, it's all in registry..
i remember he didn't like registry tweaks,
you may want to try it this time Judas.

and about this... "i'm getting some seriously long long long pauses when first accessing some of the drives...."

what type of files you have within the drives (in majority)? .AVI files??

info from event logs will help also.

[Judas]

odd... i'm going to have to learn someday.... As it's all running fine and dandy..... Problem? Router.... for some reason... anywere from a month to 3 months.. the router will either slow to a crawl... my internet connection 12kb/s at most..... and other computers just take ages to find things.... lan gaming actually is impossible... but moving files.. mass amounts (15+gb) doesn't slow it down.. they move at impressive speeds (took just under 10 minutes to move the 15GB) ... i'll give those REG tweaks a try and see if i can get a boost out of them... also thanks for the run line.... and also... pings between all computer is 0ms

[Judas]

Just finished running :netsh diag gui

I went into the options right away and selected EVERYTHING....

Everything passed ... and the test completed in under 30 seconds...

Also.... without the tweaks... it takes all of 5 seconds to access a drive... within the drive it's instant... and accessing it again take 0 time.... (it's only 5 seconds on the initial entry)...

so that's all been sorted out with the router needing a hard restart... (unplug)...

Problem is... i forgot the bloody password or something... i had to reset the router as well... lost all my ports (i know i know.. i can do a backup of my config)...

a well... it's more organized now that i know what i'm doing...

I'll still give the reg tweaks a look...

Server is running well.... still disapointed that i could get RAID mode going for the 2 40gb drives which are currently setup like this:

40GB on IDE channel 0.... which has C: (main) Dgames) Eother)
40GB on IDE Channel 1 (master) with F: (MUSIC)
24x Liteon CD-RW drive (SLAVE) as G:

Both hardrives are reading at ATA 133 DMA 6 fully supported and running
Liteon however is Multiword DMA 2.... (isn't it the case that all driver located on the SAME ribbon preform at the SAME Mode even though they might support higher.. or is that old 9X stuff)

[Dyre Straits]

Judas, if your ISP is like mine, AND if you're using DHCP and cloning your MAC address, it's quite likely you need to reset the router from time to time in order to renew the lease. I run into that occasionally here. I even have to reset the cable modem itself once in a great while.

Then, also, it could just be your ISP doing maintenance or having problems with their servers.

[Judas]

Yes true.... i have to once in a blue moon have to rest both as sometimes.. renewing or something doesn't complete work (it does most of the time)..... it's been quite a long time since i had to do a hard reset though... but there has been something fishy happening lately... It appears my download speed and upload rate has been slowly crumpling down...... My upload rate has dropped astonashing from 5mb/s+ to 16kb/s at the best... and my download rate from 10mb/s+ to a meer 100kb/s at best.... and that's even coming STRAIGHT off the internet shaw server located in the city here.... something extremely strange as that's WAY WAY WAY slower then shaw's "litespeed" package that offers 256kb/s download and 64kb/s uploads for $20ish/month.... i'm on the hand paying 80+ which includes 4 TV's and capability for a second cable modem...(which i intend to figure out how to use both at once, one for upload and one for download).... My current connection is consider "uncapped" by SHAW.... basically simply put... as fast as there servers can provide... i get..... even durring the busy time... i get more priority due to how they set it up....

Thing is... it hasn't been happening over the last few days... it's been grinding down in the last 2 months..... and it's just finally got to the point were i must ask some questions....

[Dyre Straits]

Originally posted by Judas
Yes true.... i have to once in a blue moon have to rest both as sometimes.. renewing or something doesn't complete work (it does most of the time)..... it's been quite a long time since i had to do a hard reset though... but there has been something fishy happening lately... It appears my download speed and upload rate has been slowly crumpling down...... My upload rate has dropped astonashing from 5mb/s+ to 16kb/s at the best... and my download rate from 10mb/s+ to a meer 100kb/s at best.... and that's even coming STRAIGHT off the internet shaw server located in the city here.... something extremely strange as that's WAY WAY WAY slower then shaw's "litespeed" package that offers 256kb/s download and 64kb/s uploads for $20ish/month.... i'm on the hand paying 80+ which includes 4 TV's and capability for a second cable modem...(which i intend to figure out how to use both at once, one for upload and one for download)....

Have you been able to monitor your Internet activity? There is a hefty and mean worm/virus making it's way around right now.

[Judas]

yes.... checked the internet... we are worm free.... and the activity is zilch when noone is doing anything... bandwidth usage at the WAN connection on the router is 0%....

[Dyre Straits]

Well, whatever you got, I hope I don't get it.

I've been doing some heavy maintenance here the past few days because of hard drives biting the dust. One was my son's older HD and the other is my daughter-in-law's brand new 120 GB drive. However, she wasn't using it as her system/boot drive.

I've been able to back up a LOT of data from the drives over the network onto my DVD burner. There's not much difference doing it this way than there is right off my own HD.

[PangingJr]

'netsh diag gui' performs automated troubleshooting of the XP network connection, its a very good tools imo, you've passed all the testing, meaning your networks config is quite good in the 1st place.
i was concerning about the "long pauses when first accessing some of the drives',
you can getting at any drives now and also seem to you that can be done in short interval, you've it all sorted on your own and you wont need any tweaks just make a record of things you've done, an easy to forget ones.

[Judas]

well... changeing some internet network buffers seems to even made things better.... thanks again...