Very long connect times when using XP w/an NT domain controller/server

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LowlyEngineer

We have a network at work that consists of an NT4 sever/domain
controller and about 40 XP pro clients.
When all the clients were running 98 or ME, bringing up a file on the
server was almost instantaneous.
The network is 100Mbit and **WAS** very fast.

Since we have upgraded to XP, it now takes 20-30 seconds to view the
contents of a networked drive. The drive shows up immediately, as
does all the folders, but when you click on the folder to open it, you
get the familiar "swinging flashlight" for a long time. The directory
listing eventually appears.

The same thing happens when we try to connect to networked printers.
It takes a LONG time for the printer to even show up in the menu of
the word processor.

We are using static IP's. We have also loaded NETBUI. That didn't
help.

We connected a 98 machine to the network, and it was just as fast as
before, so the problem isn't the network, it is the interaction
between our network setup and XP.

There seems to be a connection between the number of files in the
directory. If a directory only has a few files, it comes up quickly.
If the directory has thousands of files, it can take up to 50 seconds
to appear.


Can anyone tell me what might be the problem?


I have an ETHEREAL capture of the traffic, if anyone would like to
view that. There are an awful lot of messages such as:

1308> netbios-ssn [ACK] seq=39931 ACK=786967 Win 32140 [CHECKSUM
INCORRECT] Len=0


Charles Linquist
 
The reason for the delay between the 2 OS's is how they resolve
computer names to IP addresses by default. Window XP is geared to look
to DNS first by default. Are you running WINS or DNS on the network.
If not load I would suggest loading both on your internal network. You
could also switch to DHCP and modify the Node Type (name resolution
order) for the clients or do it manually. See
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/120642/EN-US/ for details on modifing
the IP stack via the registry. The best solution would be to add DNS
and make sure the servers are registered.
 
The reason for the delay between the 2 OS's is how they resolve
computer names to IP addresses by default. Window XP is geared to look
to DNS first by default. Are you running WINS or DNS on the network.
If not load I would suggest loading both on your internal network. You
could also switch to DHCP and modify the Node Type (name resolution
order) for the clients or do it manually. See
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/120642/EN-US/ for details on modifing
the IP stack via the registry. The best solution would be to add DNS
and make sure the servers are registered.
 
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