Delays Browsing local and network folders



Hi all..

There is a problem I have been having on my 5 PC 100MBPS LAN for some
months, where users of Excel and Word experience long (0.5-1 minute)
delays when doing a "file>open" and browsing the drives structure on a
home Windows 2000 machines network.

All machines have Win2k SP4 FAT32, IE6 SP1 with all updates.

I have mapped drives on all of the machines pointing to one machine
which is a 'server' (it is connected to the printer).

Anyway I have noticed that the delays occur when a machine is turned
off and consequently some of the central machine's mapped drives don't
work. The machines all have a script at boot which creates the
mapped drives with a Net use T: \\Machine2\C /user:User1 /
persistent:no
etc.

I have looked around the web and saw that this problem is common
however I don't have many of the causes usually described except the
possible issue of disconnected network drives.

Saw this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138365/EN-US/
on setting up auto disconnect delays in Windows, but I'm not sure
thats a solution to my problem.

Currently the only idea I have is setting up a script at shutdown on
all the machines that will remove any foreign mapped drives to them on
the other machines.

The delay could be caused by something else, but I have tried
everything:
put HOSTS and LMHOSTS files on all machines with all of the IP's
set all of them to use only TCP/IP protocol with auto-DHCP
configuration.
(I have a 3COM router which also gets internet from a cable modem via
L2TP VPN connection).

I also tried static IP/DNS configuration.

The rest of the network configuration is :
Client for MS Networks
File and provider sharing
Enable LMHOSTS Lookup
Enable Netbios over TCPIP

I have set security accounts on all machines (no drive is set for
'everyone' access).

By the way another problem I have which could be related is that
sometimes my internet connection drops the surfing ability (with IE)
and one can only do email, skype and FTP.
That occurs several times a day and then it rights itself after a few
minutes. (As mentioned, I have tried static DNS/DHCP and dynamic
settings).

If there are better ideas, I'll be greatful.

Thanks

.

Relevant Pages

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