Tweaking WinXP and Win98 on same Workgroup...
From: Eras (none_at_nospam.none.not)
Date: 02/03/05
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Date: Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:22:00 GMT
Hi,
For the last two years, I have endured the following behavior with a WinXP
laptop and a Win98 desktop in the same workgroup:
On the desktop (Win98), immiedietly after booting up you can go into
"Network Neighborhood" and the (WinXP) laptop is visable and ready for it's
shared resources to be accessed. On another desktop (also Win98) it is also
practically instantaneous as well. However, on the laptop (WinXP), it takes
a good five or so minutes for the desktop (Win98) to be visable. Once
visable, the throughput is excellent though. Its practically seamless and I
have no problems even with streaming video. I'm not having problems, but
the "five minute wait" after a first boot can sometimes be a little
annoying. The "wait time" is only after a first boot, not when logging out
and logging back into WinXP. However, with a laptop you are more inclined
to do "bootups" than logging out and logging in. Every few months or so,
I've done google and deja searches to see if someone has found a "tweak" to
speed up this "finding network computers" up under WinXP, but always just
come across that it is normal with WinXP recognizing a Win98 machine across
a workgroup. Surely, I would imagine, someone with more knowledge on the
inner workings of Microsoft networking than I had to of been equally annoyed
and found a tweak? :^)
The following apply to this Win98 desktop and WinXP laptop:
+ Desktop and laptop network interfaces are 802.11a/b cards.
+ Using "Super/Turbo" 802.11a. Connection stated as 108 Mbs, but of course
thats just marketing. True throughput is probably around ~30 to ~40 Mbs.
Maybe more. I never really benchmarked, but the throughput has exceeded my
expectations though. It feels "seamless" and even allows streaming video
with no hiccups. Thats good enough for me.
+ Both are going through a wireless router over the air. Both are receiving
all IP's from router's embedded DHCP server. IP's for both computers remain
constant as they are coming from router's "Static DHCP" table. No problems
with IP assignment. Both are getting their local, subnet masks, gateway,
and DNS IP's immiedietly after establishing connection with router SSID.
+ TCP/IP is the only protocol binded to the cards. NetBIOS over TCP/IP is
enabled.
+ "Client for Microsoft Windows" binded to both cards. RPC Service's "Name
Service Provider" = "Windows Locater"
+ "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" binded to both cards.
"File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks over TCP/IP" also enabled
for both. If my understanding is correct, file sharing is both more
efficient and secure using NetBEUI versus TCP/IP, however NetBEUI would be
terminated at the router -- unless bridging is configured with the router.
I don't want to change the configuration of my router for bridging as I'd
lose other capability. I want, and need, both 802.11a and 802.11b SSIDs.
I've also read that NetBEUI can be encapsulated inside IPX and therefore
would become routable, however I question the idea of using TCP/IP + IPX +
NetBEUI all together as it seems it would create quite a lot of overhead.
Hence, the only protocol I'm using is TCP/IP.
+ Both the desktop (Win98) and laptop (WinXP) are on the same exact
workgroup name -- to include all UPPERCASE. I remember going through that
ordeal when I first tried to get the two to see each other. After hours of
trying to the WinXP laptop to see the desktop, it turned out to be that the
workgroup name in Win98 was lowercase and the workgroup name in WinXP was
uppercase. Changing the Win98's workgroup name to all uppercase was a "last
ditch effort" and it immiedietly worked. LOL. Lesson learned there. :^)
+ "QoS Packet Scheduler" is enabled on the WinXP laptop. Seems to be a lot
of confusion on what this actually does. Many seem to think that it
automatically reserves (and therefore reduces) bandwidth by 20 percent for
applications that might request it, but after doing research on it, I found
that while it can reserve up to 20 percent of bandwidth -- it will only do
so when/if certain applications request it. From my understanding, it has
no impact for internet traffic and is only used for (W)LAN traffic when/if
an application requested it. I'm under the assumption that it is "safe"
(that is, doesn't reduce throughput) just to keep it enabled.
+ On the WinXP laptop, after booting up and the 802.11a connection is
established to the router, I can immiedietly ping the desktop's IP address.
Within about a minute or so, I can ping the desktop by it's computer name --
but its still not yet visable by doing a "search for a computer". A couple
minutes later, it can be found by a computer search (and even accessed fully
at this point), but still has of yet to appear in "Network Neighborhood".
Finally a few minutes later, it pops up in "Network Neighborhood".
Anyway, this is not a major issue and I'm not wanting to do any major
re-configurations. Its just a minor annoyance that I thought perhaps
someone knew a "tweak" for. I'm thinking that perhaps WinXP does a scan for
computers across a workgroup at certain intervals and maybe the "time
between intervals" is something that can be set (?).
Thanks!
-ES
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