Is your home network slower with XP?

[Stoneface]

I just installed one XPpro machine on my home network and copying files and just trying to find files on the other non-xp machines is very slow. I have checked out the newsgroups and it seems alot of people are having the same problems with XP. I have DSL connection,shared through a Dlink router, Dlink switch Win98se machine and WinMe notebook. I also had a Win2K machine that I switched to XP. Simple home network using a workgroup. Everything worked great with Win2K, response time to look at files on the other machines was almost instantaneous, and now with XP to find a file on the 98 machine takes like 30 seconds. I get the darn flashlight looking for files. Bottom line the only thing that I changed was going to XP on one machine and that machine is now very slow. I am wondering if others are having similar problems?

Stoneface

 

[Doh!]

Hmm...I find that after going to XP on all of my 6 computers, I find the home network to be faster than when using win2k. I'm also on a DSL connection, using a Netgear router to share the internet connection.

 

[Slogun]

Yep, same slow networking issue that was not happening previously when using Win98SE. I disabled all the WinXP firewall stuff and am networked via a Netgear router. I am thinking about installing the NetBEUI patch to see if NetBEUI will make the difference.

 

[mattc]

uninstall the winxp network QoS manager.

Apparently by default xp reserves 30% of your bandwidth in order to prevent your machine from being able to slow down the whole network

 

[KentState]

This is common when using NT platform machines with non-NT machines. The main reason for this type of slowdown is the mismatch in security between say WinXP and Win98. I've seen this a lot when using an NT machine on a Novell network. Basically your WinXP machine has to go through a lot of security checks before I can access and display a folder. When going XP to XP, the security is inline with each system and doesn't require extra work.

Doh! stated it best that after going to all NT OS on 6 machines that the network went back to a good speed.

BTW, QoS will only take aprox 20% of your bandwidth if your network is 100% utilized and something else needs room for it's traffic. BTW a 20% reserve would not cause the delays that people are seeing.

 

[Slogun]

Well, my network consists of 4 WinXP Pro machines already configured so that 0% of bandwidth is reserved, so go figure.
I still haven't enabled NETbeui but will report back after doing so.

 

[Slogun]

I installed NETbeui on 2 of the 4 computers as a test. No noticeable diffrence in the speed of accessing files on the other computer, still sometimes get the flashlight searching.
Any other ideas?

 

[Emperor Jashugan]

I have this same problem.

However I have two machines running Win2k, and one running XP. It takes all computers 30 seconds to find the other computers. However I take my notebook (Win2k machine) into work and it finds the network very quickly. I have no idea what's wrong.

 

[kylef]

I'm not entirely sure, but it could be a result of the local browser election picking one of the Win98 machines to be the SMB local master browser on your network. The LMB is responsible for mapping Windows share names to machines and facilitates communication between machines. When a Windows machine starts up, for instance, it broadcasts to the network, "I am the local master browser!" Then the computer that THOUGHT it was the current local master browser will challenge the new announcement. They compare some strings set by Microsoft to determine who "wins" and the computer that wins the election will take over those responsibilities.

Generally, the progression of browsers goes like this:

Win95 -> Win98 -> WinME -> WinNT Workstation 3.5 -> WinNT Workstation 4.0 -> Win2k Pro -> WinXP -> WinNT Server -> Win2k Server

With the machines on the left always yielding to the machines on the right.

So, obviously WinNT Server and Win2k Server are designed to take over Master Browser responsibilities. If you don't happen to have a copy of those, however, you can also configure Samba (for Linux or *BSD) to take over as a Master Browser, and do it for free.

There's a free O'Reilly book on Samba that you can download. It sheds light on the dark, secret mysteries of the SMB networking protocols.

Andrew Tridgell, the author of Samba, has stated many times that every time Microsoft releases a new version of Windows, they have to be completely backwards compatible with old version of Windows SMB. Therefore, the SMB protocol is now one gigantic HACK. He has stated that there is TONS of overhead because of all of the bugs and problems with each Windows' implementation of SMB... The newer versions of Windows must maintain compability with all of the quirks of previous editions... And so SMB networking keeps getting slower and slower and more and more bloated with age.

 

[dcdomain]

Something out of Lockergnome:
Are you "at home" with your broadband connection? No pun intended. Windows XP may be cutting 20% off the top. Unless your computer is a server of sorts, it has been recommended that you turn off QoS (Quality of Service). As Lockergnomie Leslie Smith relays: "The QoS 20% reservation in XP is mostly for its services - like Automatic Updates and various server functions. This sort of thing is done by Windows XP through the Network component known as the QoS Packet Scheduler. Look in the Properties page of your connection under My Network Places. XP still reserves this bandwidth for itself even if you don't have QoS running. To get that reserved bandwidth back, enter "GPEDIT.MSC" from the Start Menu's Run command to bring up the Group Policy Editor. Then, look under Administrative Templates \ Network \ QOS Packet Scheduler. Right-click on the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth" option and select Properties. Enable it. NOTE: enabling this won't limit your bandwidth, it just turns on the component that allows you to change the amount reserved. Now, change the amount reserved to 0% and click OK. Some systems may need to reboot to see the effect. This won't increase the speed from your ISP, but will speed up overall throughput on your PC.

 

[pkypkypky]

so the 20% reserved is for windows update and server-roles?

what is the actual effect performance & disadvantages when u set it to zero? and no conspiracy theorists plz

thx for the tweak dcdomain, i used it

 

[Slogun]

I can attest to discerning no noticeable difference after changing the bandwidth reserve to 0%.
And this is with one of the machines being used as a game server on the internet.

 

[elkinm]

I believe Win XP has another problem were it serches the network for computer which sugnificanlty slows down your connection tipe and may also effect the connection speed.

I know there is a fix by deleting some entry in the register which make XP networks nice and quick, but I don't remember what ently exactly. Can anybody tell me were it is please?

Thanks

 

[easternerd]

HI there ,
Actually i guess it reseves just 20 % of you bandwidth so disable it already ...
It will definitely give a boost in your networking needs ..
Was originally pioneered by microsft for all the background needs like automatic updates and etc...

 

[mwalters]

I also have this problem. In My Network Places, it takes about 5 seconds before I can open the root of my shared folder on my Win98 machine, but subsequent sub-folders open up quickly. What is REALLY slow for me is trying to open a network folder from within any Office XP application. It takes 75-90 seconds PER FOLDER! I've had several "chats" with MS support and have tried everything. I think they have basically just given up. I tried unistalling all protocols except TCP/IP, install NetBEUI on the XP machine, unistall QoS, etc. I think that the Browse Master issue may have something to do with it, but I'm not sure how to change it. How can you make sure that the Win98 machine is not forcing itself as the Browse Master? Any ideas???

 

[pkypkypky]

sounds like a separate problem dealing with your NIC. Possibily update your drivers and see if that helps? Uninstall & install with new drivers. Or maybe your NIC does not work well with XP...i remember I had some of that lag in win2k, but thankfully winXP worked out perfect with sharing.

 

[Madcowz]

Where do I find the QoS manager and how do I uninstall it? All I see is a QoS packet scheduler in my LAN & connection properties in the Network Connections folder.

 

[Magnum58]

Madcowz, just follow the directions below:



Increase bandwidth by tweaking QOS in Windows XP Pro


The following tweak applies only to Windows XP Professional edition. Seems MS reserves 20% of your bandwidth for use by the QOS Scheduler, which is intended to reserve bandwidth for important applications, a rather wasteful choice.

To increase your bandwidth, do the following:

1. Make sure you're logged in as "Administrator" (not just any account with admin privileges).
2. Navigate to START>Run and type: gpedit.msc
3. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > Network > QOS Packet Scheduler
4. In the right window, double-click the limit reservable bandwidth setting
5. On the setting tab, check the enabled setting.
6. Where it says "Bandwidth limit %", change it to read 0
7. Click OK, close gpedit.msc

Under START > My Computer > My Network Connections > View Network Connections, right-click on your connection and under Properties (where it lists your protocols), make sure QOS Packet Scheduler is enabled.

You need to reboot for changes to take effect.

Note: All this is to counter Windows XP's behavior, by default 20% of your bandwidth is reserved even with the QOS Packet Scheduler disabled. This tweak applies only to The Professional version of Windows XP.