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Contango
Asked: 2011-03-31 06:38:11 +0800 CST

Best way to handle UNC network share time out under Windows 7?

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Currently, there is a 40 second delay when accessing an unavailable UNC network share on Windows 7.

Is there a method to reduce this delay to something less painful, like 20 seconds?

Or, is there some method to eliminate this delay altogether?

windows-7

4 Answers

  1. I believe the underlying protocol for UNC shares is Server Message Block (SMB) (SMB2 in Win Vista and later). Take a look at the SESSTIMEOUT registry setting. It sounds related and defaults to 45 seconds,

    Microsoft Support - SESSTIMEOUT Information

    I'm having trouble reproducing this issue to test modifying this value. Can you add additional information about how to reproduce this problem? How do you make a UNC share unavailable? Remove the system from the network? I've tried an unknown host and an unknown share name, but both requests fail fairly quickly in Windows Explorer.

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  2. The timeout is different depending on what version of Windows you are running.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/openspecification/archive/2013/03/27/smb-2-x-and-smb-3-0-timeouts-in-windows.aspx

    Many of the timeouts can be over-ridden via the registry.

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  3. Is this any good ? A shot in the dark but nonetheless: MS Support

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  4. Best Answer

    There are two ways to fix the problem with an unavailable UNC network share:

    • Eliminate the source of the unavailable UNC network share.
    • Improve the timeout on Windows so that the missing network share does not negatively effect performance.

    The first method (eliminate the source of the unavailable UNC network share) is always going to be the most efficient, as it guarantees an extremely quick response time.

    Thus, to fix this problem, I identified the source of the 30-second timeouts that were freezing my system: my NAS (Network Attached Storage) device.

    Never buy a cheap Netgear Stora NAS. For about two months, your computer will freeze randomly for 30 seconds. This will inevitably result in you telling the problem to your mates, followed by uncontrollable sobbing into your beer with frustration.

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