VPN equals slow network folder access

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I have a work laptop running XP Pro. When I'm at work access to our internal
network is fine- no more than several seconds to open any folder on our
network.

At home I connect the laptop to my 1.5M DSL connection via ethernet cable.
Once booted I use VPN to connect to the work network. Local work on my PC
operates as normal, no slow down. Outlook is a bit slower, but acceptable,
when retrieving and opening mail which i attribute to the connection being
slower than the internal work network. But opening any internal network
folder literally takes minutes instead of seconds. During that time all
Explorer windows are essentially locked up.

What's causing the delay? My IT department just blames it on "the Internet".
 
I have a work laptop running XP Pro. When I'm at work access to our internal
network is fine- no more than several seconds to open any folder on our
network.

At home I connect the laptop to my 1.5M DSL connection via ethernet cable.
Once booted I use VPN to connect to the work network. Local work on my PC
operates as normal, no slow down. Outlook is a bit slower, but acceptable,
when retrieving and opening mail which i attribute to the connection being
slower than the internal work network. Likewise Internet Explorer is a bit
slower on intranet sights. But opening any internal network folder literally
takes minutes instead of seconds. During that time all Explorer windows are
essentially locked up.

What's causing the delay? My IT department just blames it on "the Internet"
out I don't understand how. I've watched the network connection with perfmon
and don't see any noticeable increase in traffic except for a very small
spike when I first double click the folder. Is there really that much traffic
when opening a folder that the combination of the slower internect connection
and internet vagueries can affect times on the order of 50-100 times or more?
 
It could be the computer browser and name resolution issue too. You may try to browse it using the IP instead of the name. Also even the DSL line can be 1.5 MB, the upload may be less than 1MB. This search result may help too.

VPN slow issuesVPN slow issues Client can log on but can't browse the LAN or browse the ... Symptom 5: The download is very slow on VPN client after establishing the VPN. ...
http://www.chicagotech.net/vpnslow.htm


Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
I have a work laptop running XP Pro. When I'm at work access to our internal
network is fine- no more than several seconds to open any folder on our
network.

At home I connect the laptop to my 1.5M DSL connection via ethernet cable.
Once booted I use VPN to connect to the work network. Local work on my PC
operates as normal, no slow down. Outlook is a bit slower, but acceptable,
when retrieving and opening mail which i attribute to the connection being
slower than the internal work network. Likewise Internet Explorer is a bit
slower on intranet sights. But opening any internal network folder literally
takes minutes instead of seconds. During that time all Explorer windows are
essentially locked up.

What's causing the delay? My IT department just blames it on "the Internet"
out I don't understand how. I've watched the network connection with perfmon
and don't see any noticeable increase in traffic except for a very small
spike when I first double click the folder. Is there really that much traffic
when opening a folder that the combination of the slower internect connection
and internet vagueries can affect times on the order of 50-100 times or more?
 
I did have to reduce the MTU from 1472 to 1272. Neither that nor any of the
other suggestions on that site seem to have made a difference. Any other
suggestionss?
 
Hi Jerry,

If name resolution works, have a look at this KB "You experience
significant delays when you use network shortcuts on a computer that is
running Windows XP SP2"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918204

Significant impact on slow links, fast links with network "latency" and
obvious VPN through broadband connections. Measurement (here) by "Netmon"
shows an improvement as high as 18:1.

Regards,
Rune.
P.S. Mapped network drives do not experience this delay.
 
Hmmm,
My first suspicion here was name resolution, at home - have you checked that
name servers for DNS and WINS are set correctly (compare with office
settings. Use ipconfig/all). Make sure Netbios is enabled for your VPN
connection (WINS tab in TCP/IP Advanced properties).

Then, try deleting all shortcuts in "%userprofile%\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent" folder, this will impact Open/SaveAs dialogue
boxes when shortcut reference unavailable targets. At last try refresh (F5)
in "My Network Places" and look for "hang" on any shortcut's here, delete
"hanging" shortcut (right click/delete; may take loooong time before pop-up
appear)

Regards,
Rune.
 
The settings are different between direct connection at work and VPN
connection from home.

At work I have a 10.25.xx.xx DHCP address. The default gateway is also a
10.25.xx.xx. There are two DNS servers: 10.20.xx.xx and 10.30.xx.xx. The
primary and secondary WINS servers are the same as the DNS servers.

At home the VPN has a fixed 10.0.xx.xx address. The default gateway is the
same address. There are two DNS servers, both 192.168.0.xx. These are also
the WINS servers. I did change the Netbios option from the automatic option.

I deleted the shortcuts you suggested. Pressing F5 in My Network Places
finished immediately- no hangs. None of these improved the situation.

I then added in the default gateway and DNS/WINS servers that are used at
work and made sure they were first in the appropriate list. This has improved
the situation. Opening the mapped folder I normally access now takes 20-30
seconds vs. the 1-2 minutes it was previously taking. Another, larger mapped
folder takes about a minute vs. the up to 5 minutes it was taking previously.
 
Do not change the [VPN]default gateway, but try eliminate the name
resolution issue by using the IP address of your [work]file server when
mapping the file share. ex. \\10.25.xx.xx\share
Can you successfully ping your [work] file server? 1. by name 2. by ip
address. What are the average RTT times?
 
Well, the next time I VPN'ed from home my gateway, WINS and DNS server
changes were gone. I changed the mappings to use the corresponding IP
address instead. No change in timing.

I can ping the works servers by name and IP address. RTT is 50ms either way.

A little more background. There are a total of 5 mapped drives: 1 drive
from 1 server and the other 4 mapped to different folders on a second
server.

If I start with no mapped drives, My Computer opens in < 1 second. As I
add the mapped drives one by one, the time to open My Computer gradually
lengthens until it's about 4-6 seconds with all 5 drives mapped. Even
switching to another window and then back to an open My Computer window
take 3-4 seconds for the window to refresh.

The time to open any mapped drive varies from 20 or 30 seconds to
several minutes. I suspect that the time may be related to the size (#
files and/or total size) of what's in the mapped drive. I'll try to
gather some data on that.

Rune said:
Do not change the [VPN]default gateway, but try eliminate the name
resolution issue by using the IP address of your [work]file server when
mapping the file share. ex. \\10.25.xx.xx\share
Can you successfully ping your [work] file server? 1. by name 2. by ip
address. What are the average RTT times?

Jerry said:
The settings are different between direct connection at work and VPN
connection from home.

At work I have a 10.25.xx.xx DHCP address. The default gateway is also a
10.25.xx.xx. There are two DNS servers: 10.20.xx.xx and 10.30.xx.xx. The
primary and secondary WINS servers are the same as the DNS servers.

At home the VPN has a fixed 10.0.xx.xx address. The default gateway is the
same address. There are two DNS servers, both 192.168.0.xx. These are also
the WINS servers. I did change the Netbios option from the automatic
option.

I deleted the shortcuts you suggested. Pressing F5 in My Network Places
finished immediately- no hangs. None of these improved the situation.

I then added in the default gateway and DNS/WINS servers that are used at
work and made sure they were first in the appropriate list. This has
improved
the situation. Opening the mapped folder I normally access now takes 20-30
seconds vs. the 1-2 minutes it was previously taking. Another, larger
mapped
folder takes about a minute vs. the up to 5 minutes it was taking
previously.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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