Network browsing slow

[ROBERTO TACCON]

Situation:

2 catalyst 6506 with supervisor 720;

the L2 is root on switch A but L3 is active on switch B;

the client and the server are in the same VLAN;

the client have 2 network drive mapped vs the server (drive x and y \\server\share);

when a client (a pc with window xp professional SP2) try to use the my computer (double click on it) the system became slow.

Any idea about the problem ?

Roberto Taccon.

[konigl]

If client and server are on the same VLAN then where L3 is active shouldn't be an issue. Unless you have a primary IP subnet and secondary IP subnet(s) assigned to the same VLAN interface, and the client and server are on different subnets, in which case location of active L3 interface could be important since you have to route between the two.

I am guessing the server and client are on different Catalyst 6506 switches, and the link between the two switches is congested. How are the two switches connected (Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet)? How is the connection configured (single VLAN access, or multi-VLAN trunk)? Are you running Ethernet interfaces configured for Layer 2 VLANs, and VLAN interfaces for Layer 3? Or Layer 3 directly assigned to the Ethernet interfaces?

Are any other clients on the same VLAN working fast with that same server? Are they plugged into the same switch, or different switches?

There could also be a lot of broadcast traffic on that VLAN. How many clients and servers on that VLAN? What protocols are in use (IP, IPX, any others)?

Generally speaking, it is best to have L2 STP root and L3 HSRP active on same switch.

[ROBERTO TACCON]

The client and the server are connected on 3COM switches (all on the same VLAN) and the Catalyst 6506 are the core of the new network.

On the Catalyst 6506 the link vs. the server is a GE port (100 Mbps) without errors :

#

interface GigabitEthernet2/41

description Link vs 3COM SW4400

no ip address

load-interval 30

switchport

switchport access vlan 316

switchport mode access

!

#

#sh int gigabitEthernet 2/41

GigabitEthernet2/41 is up, line protocol is up (connected)

Hardware is C6k 1000Mb 802.3, address is 0015.6301.9270 (bia 0015.6301.9270)

Description: Link verso 3COM SW4400

MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,

reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 5/255

Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set

Full-duplex, 100Mb/s

input flow-control is off, output flow-control is desired

Clock mode is auto

ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00

Last input never, output never, output hang never

Last clearing of "show interface" counters never

Input queue: 0/2000/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 1

Queueing strategy: fifo

Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)

30 second input rate 1976000 bits/sec, 229 packets/sec

30 second output rate 169000 bits/sec, 167 packets/sec

153798756 packets input, 154284802775 bytes, 0 no buffer

Received 110920 broadcasts (36802 multicast)

0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles

0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 31 overrun, 0 ignored

0 watchdog, 0 multicast, 0 pause input

0 input packets with dribble condition detected

127199296 packets output, 63915514855 bytes, 0 underruns

1 output errors, 0 collisions, 2 interface resets

0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred

0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output

0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

#

#show interface GigabitEthernet2/41 counters error

Port Align-Err FCS-Err Xmit-Err Rcv-Err UnderSize OutDiscards

Gi2/41 0 0 1 0 0 1

Port Single-Col Multi-Col Late-Col Excess-Col Carri-Sen Runts Giants

Gi2/41 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Port SQETest-Err Deferred-Tx IntMacTx-Err IntMacRx-Err Symbol-Err

Gi2/41 0 0 0 0 0

#

Now i'm checking the client side link.

Best regards.

Roberto Taccon

[bhedlund]

In addition to all the points of the previous poster, have you checked that the port the server is connecting to is error free?

'show interface gig counters error'

Please rate all helpful posts.

Brad

[arvindchari]

Further to the posts mentioned above,

I have experienced such delays before and most of them were down to the way microsoft operating systems were designed / used. What you can do is restart the computer browser service on both ends and see if it sorts out the problem.

The purpose of computer browser is to display a directory of all known computers or domains that the computer can reach.amd to collect and report the existence of other computers on the network that are sharing file, print, and other resources from the active browser or master servers on each of its active endpoints such as each network protocol that is running on each network card. For example, a computer with TCP/IP and NetBEUI installed on the network interface cards A and B would have four endpoints for the computer browser client.

If the browser client is trying to locate a browser server on each endpoint. It waits until it either one receives valid information or times out on each endpoint before returning. This process can be slow if there is an endpoint that does not contain browser servers or the active network card is not connected to the network. Also Multihomed servers can create unexpected and undesirable effects with the browser service and a master browser cannot be multihomed because the PDC will contact only the master browser on one of its network adapters.

In general, computer browser performance improves with fewer protocols or network cards on a computer. All domain controllers must be singlehomed computers for browsing to operate correctly. Also the computer browser is dependent on NetBIOS. Therefore, in a mixed OS network environment (win9x, NT, ME, W2K and XP), you should have a WINS server in a domain network and enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP (instead of loading NetBEUI) on w2k/xp in the home or small network.

HTH

Please rate posts that help

Regards

Arvind

[nethelper]

Hello,

in addition to the other posts, you might want to try and stop the Server service on your XP workstation, which can slow down network browsing as well.

Also, there used to be an issue with XP, not sure if this is still applicable, but have a look at this tip:

If the 'My Network Places' folder contains a shortcut to a network share, then each refresh of the explorer window will attempt to read icon information from every file in the remote location, causing the system to slow to a crawl.

Removing all shortcuts from 'My Network Places' will return the system response to normal.

Every time you open a file via a UNC name, Windows XP will automatically add another shortcut to the 'My Network Places' folder - so the issue tends to get worse over time.

You can prevent the automatic addition of shortcuts by setting HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoRecentDocsNetHood to 1.

HTH,

Nethelper