Windows Networking: Why does it suck so?

[womzilla]

Yesterday I finally set up my new computer. It's fast, it's got a good network connection, it's running Windows XP (a fairly recent release, with all fresh security patches).

After many hours of tinkering with XP network settings, Norton Internet Security, goat entrails, and cetera, I managed to get it to connect to the file shares on my old Win98 machine. Well, sorta. I can see my older machine (Y) from my new machine (A), get directory listings, and so forth, but when I actually try to do file copies, they crap out--very little or nothing gets transferred before the connection gives up (which often takes five minutes or so, with nothing transferred in the interval).

It's actually probably unfair to solely blame Windows Networking, though. Direct TCP/IP connections--say, an FTP connection--over the household network *also* suck, with transfer rates as low as 1K per second. (I can get 300K/second or more on connections to servers outside the household network, from either machine.) And TCP/IP connections are still unreliable, crapping out at unpredicable points.

Here are some of the details. The machines are both connected to an 802.11a wireless network, routed through a D-Link DL-704 connected to a D-Link wireless access point. As noted above, both connections are pretty strong and reliable. I enabled IPX/SPX networking on A to allow it access to the shares on Y.

Can anyone make suggests for improvement which don't involve abandoning Windows? (I need Windows XP for some work-related projects, which is why I bought the new machine in the first place.) I'm suspecting that the network router or the access point is doing a crappy job of routing packets within my household network; is there any way to test this hypothesis, or improve it?

Comments

[spacecrab.livejournal.com]

Your setup sounds strange from your description. A 10BaseT TCP/IP connection with two Windows machines plugged into a hub should average between 500KB to 1MB/sec theoretical speed with 250KB/sec to 350KB/sec real transfers over sustained periods of time. 100Base-T is faster.

I don't know about 802.11a; but I use 802.11b between my W2K, W98 and XP boxes, and average approximately the same speeds as through 10BaseT Ethernet. (The wireless clients need to be configured so that they allow access through shared passwords or no encryption -- I don't know how 802.11a works). You don't need FTP to do Windows-Windows or Windows-Linux transfers. You can do direct fileshares. Are you using FTP to connect to a Mac?

Does the 802.11a software allow you to set up a peer connection between the two Windows boxes? Try it and see if the transfer speeds are better than when you go through the WAP.

Why can't you use TCP/IP as the only protocol with the router and the wireless cards? Is it not supported under 802.11a?

You might also try temporarily disconnecting from the Internet and disabling Norton Internet Security to see if transfer speeds get better, locally.

If you can get better direct speeds, don't put Norton Internet Security back (you can use the AV without the firewall). Download and use ZoneAlarm if you need a software firewall for Internet browsing on WIndows machines. Or let the router do it, if you can.

Some clarifications

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I misspoke--of course it's an 802.11b network, not .11a. At its best, I think I've occasionally managed to get a 500K/s connection to something outside my external network, but not often, and I've never gotten anywhere near that speed within my home network.

My router, access point, and network cards are happy to speak TCP/IP to each other. I have IPX/SPX turned on because it was the only way that I could get my XP machine to recognize my Win98 machine at all. (This approach was recommended on a network troubleshooting page that I came across via Google, and it was the first thing that worked after several hours of experimentation.) Now that I've got my internal firewalls properly configured, I may try turning IPX bck off to see if TCP/IP will suffice.

I'm trying to FTP between my machines precisely because I can't get a reliable Windows Networking connection. If I try to copy files from a share on one machine onto the other, I usually get about 400K before the connection freezes up and, after a tedious wait, times out. With an FTP connection, I've been able to get several MB at a pop before the connection freezes up and times out.

I had thought about disconnecting the entire network from the broader internet. I don't want to do that while other members of the household might be using the outside connection, of course.

And I'm using NIS as my firewall because it came as a free upgrade to Norton Anti-Virus. The router does have a built-in firewall, but it's not very well documented.

So, based on your comments, I'm going to try three things, in this order:

1. Turn off IPX.
2. Turn off NIS.
3. Disconnect the cable modem and see what happens.

I'll report back when I've had a chance to do those things.