One computer has very slow network access

Question

In my office, we have countless Windows workstations communicating with a server. We don't have a domain. All worstations and the server are in the same workgroup. All network connections are wired. We log into the server with a username and password different to that of the workstation.

One Windows XP workstation, just one in the office, takes up to 60 seconds to open a document on the server. If I save the document to the desktop and open it from there, it comes up instantly. If I use a similar workstation in the same room, the document opens from the server instantly.

Using Net Use \\Server\Share makes no difference. IP addresses and DNS are DHCP assigned and no conflicts are detected.

I am at a complete loss as to what the issue could be. It just occured to me that AVG is running and I'll investigate that. Do you have any other ideas?

Answer 1

A couple things you can look for:

• Make sure you're connecting at full speed — either 100FD or 1000FD, not 10HD, 10FD, or 100HD^*
• If you have a managed switch, log in and look at the port this computer is using and look for it to report packet errors.

^{* The HD vs FD is half-duplex vs full-duplex}