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Daniel A. White
Asked: 2009-06-26 09:26:50 +0800 CST

Suddenly slow Windows File Sharing on Closed Network

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I'm here just to get ideas. We have two PC's running XP SP2 sharing their C drives (I know this is a security risk, but its a closed network with proprietary software). They are on a closed network with static IPs. From "My Network Places" I see "C on ComputerA" on ComputerB and vice versa. When I double click them, it locks up explorer - both machines are having this issue -- which causes the proprietary software to have issues. Ping times are relatively quick, chkdsk returned no errors. Any answers appreciated!

windows file-sharing

5 Answers

  1. Verify:

    • DNS Resolution if connecting via hostname rather than IP
    • Firewalls are disabled on both machines, or allow File Sharing ports (UDP and TCP 135-139, 445)
    • Results from command line: net view \\PCNAME
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  2. How about trying to connect through the administrative share at (from windows>run): 

    \\serverip\C$\

    Does this also crash explorer?

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  3. Couple of ideas:

    1. Add an lmhosts or hosts entry (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc) to expedite name resolution
    2. Authentication might be slowing down the responsiveness. Make sure you dupe the usernames and passwords on both systems. Or make sure you save credentials
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  4. Along the lines of Dave Drager, another issue could be the network cards themselves. Just had an issue with a Broadcom NIC causing connection drops when trying to RDP. I had to disable the 'IPv4 Large Send Offload' property of the NIC.

    After that, all the problems with communication between that computer and any others went away...

    -JFV

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  5. Best Answer

    Based on Evan's comment, it was the network switch.

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