Windows Server 2003 Slow Network Connect

[kzrssk]

Hey all,

I'm running a Windows Server 2003 SP2 server at home, and have the firewall enabled. File Sharing exception is enabled (opening ports 137-139 and 445). Here's the thing... Logging on over the network via UNC (hostname or IP address) takes forever. I'm talking 2 minutes before the login window appears. I turn off the firewall and it's fine; shows up within seconds. Also, once I'm logged in and try to access the share again, it's instant. It's only the logon portion that takes forever. Why?

Thanks in advance.

 

[travisray2004]

The problem exists with the local pc and not the server. Create a network map, and assign the share with a drive letter, this will speed up network connection issues, as it is giving a default login id and password instead of using the current logged in user to pass though to the fileshare server.

 

[RebateMonger]

Well, even without mapping the shares as drives, access to UNC shares should be "instant". Like almost everything, it's likely a DNS problem. Where is your DNS coming from and is your firewall allowing DNS traffic to pass?

 

[kzrssk]

Originally posted by: travisray2004
The problem exists with the local pc and not the server. Create a network map, and assign the share with a drive letter, this will speed up network connection issues, as it is giving a default login id and password instead of using the current logged in user to pass though to the fileshare server.

Then why does turning off the firewall on the server fix it?

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Well, even without mapping the shares as drives, access to UNC shares should be "instant". Like almost everything, it's likely a DNS problem. Where is your DNS coming from and is your firewall allowing DNS traffic to pass?

DNS isn't really being handled by anything. There's no connection-specific suffix being assigned as far as I can tell from ipconfig (frankly, I don't even know what Windows does with the connection-specific suffix). As far as lookups, the router is the proxy and caching the requests within itself.

Also, I'm still pretty inclined to believe it's related to the firewall on the server, since, if I turn it off, everything works at "normal," expected speeds.