Very slow home network access, explorer freezes

I've got the following system setup:

Dell Studio Laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium.
Home wired & wireless network with Wireless N D-Link router, Netgear
ReadyNAS duo wired to router, PS3 game console connected to router. I
only use wireless from my laptop.

When I try to move files around on the NAS using windows explorer, I
can't seem to browse the NAS' content for more than a few minutes, then
explorer locks up or enters a mode where it keeps refreshing the view of
the network directory and doesn't allow basic file operations like
right-clicking on a file to get its properties.

I can't get more than 1 Mbps of transfer speed with Robocopy out of the
NAS. I have some video files on the NAS unit. Double clicking on any
video to play it in Media Player is the worst thing to do - WMP doesn't
manage to download enough data to buffer it and never allows to be shut
down. I prevents Windows from shutting down cleanly.

I made sure I had the latest drivers for the wireless adapter.

Any help on how to troubleshoot this issue is appreciated.


--
ernhamDjinn
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

It is a fact of Vista life that wireless connections to a router are
inherently unstable depending on the combination of hardware involved.
I have one Vista 64 laptop wirelessly connected to the router that
periodically behaves as you describe. The only fix I have found is to reset
the router by unplugging/replugging. However other Vista and XP laptops are
working fine with their wireless connections even though the one Vista
laptop cannot stably connect.
While NAS is a great concept the reality is often what you describe and
worse with Vista than XP. Unless you have to use NAS a USB/ESATA drive
connected directly to your laptop will actually work like it is supposed to.
Regardless of OS streaming high bandwidth video over wireless network
connections is usually inadequate. There are several proprietary solutions
for getting high bandwidth video from computer to HD monitor but you would
have to look up reviews to see if any actually work as advertised.
Finally: what is the strength of your wireless connection?

ernhamDjinn wrote:
> Thanks a lot for your reply. I have found that my situation is quite
> common among vista users. Other NAS devices seem to work a little better
> - I never had that many problems with a Buffalo NAS, but the unit didn't
> any help to die, so I bought ReadyNAS since coworkers recommended that.
> None of them run Vista so obviously they don't have that problem.
>
> I am not that disappointed in the setup because once the files are
> correctly arranged on the NAS, it streams really fast to the PS3
> connected on the same network and I can view my videos (not DVD quality,
> though) without dropping a frame. I'm not really looking for a system
> that streams HD video to my TV, these systems usually cost a lot (I've
> done research on that topic) but simple video/music/photo streaming is
> good enough. Not needing my laptop to be on is definitely a bonus, not
> to mention my media files are safe on a unit that has a replication
> factor of 2 and don't clutter my hard drive. The only weak link is
> Vista, and maybe I'd benefit from a 64-bit build.
>
> To answer your question about the wireless link, the signal is as
> strong as it can be - the router I'm connected to is a D-Link Wireless
> N. The router the NAS is connected to is a LinkSys WRT54G, both routers
> are connected to the main router which acts as my DHCP server (DHCP
> disabled on both other routers, for obvious reasons). Maybe I'd benefit
> from a higher quality router than the WRT54G, but I wouldn't expect
> wonders. At some point I thought I would upgrade all routers to Gigabit
> ethernet, but I'm far from saturating the 100Mbps link (only maybe 8Mbps
> in the best case from the NAS to my Vista machine, far from the
> theoretical limit of Wireless N).
>
> Any scoop on the next version of Windows (Windows 7) and how it
> compares to Vista on networking ?
>
>

I have a WRT5G that occasionally gives a real slow connection to a wired
machine yet at the same time works perfectly on wireless, so the simple
answer is to reset the WRT...

I have no idea why this happens, only that it has done so a couple of
times, apparently at random.

Nothing had changed in the network, the one wired machine simply got
really slow. Hasn't happened again for months.

I admit I did not follow the comments closely, but I wanted to let you
know that I ran into the ReadyNAS - Vista slowness issue where a copy
that would take seconds in XP would take hours on Vista. The issue is
that Vista has a DNS bug that occassionally comes up with primarily
Samba. The fix is to map to the IP Address instead of the DNS name of
your ReadyNAS. When I did that, a file copy that took all night would
be done in 5 minutes - so dramatic, to put it mildly.

Best of luck.

--Monty

Charlie Tame;1256607 Wrote:
> ernhamDjinn wrote:
> > Thanks a lot for your reply. I have found that my situation is quite
> > common among vista users. Other NAS devices seem to work a little
> better
> > - I never had that many problems with a Buffalo NAS, but the unit
> didn't
> > any help to die, so I bought ReadyNAS since coworkers recommended
> that.
> > None of them run Vista so obviously they don't have that problem.
> >
> > I am not that disappointed in the setup because once the files are
> > correctly arranged on the NAS, it streams really fast to the PS3
> > connected on the same network and I can view my videos (not DVD
> quality,
> > though) without dropping a frame. I'm not really looking for a system
> > that streams HD video to my TV, these systems usually cost a lot
> (I've
> > done research on that topic) but simple video/music/photo streaming
> is
> > good enough. Not needing my laptop to be on is definitely a bonus,
> not
> > to mention my media files are safe on a unit that has a replication
> > factor of 2 and don't clutter my hard drive. The only weak link is
> > Vista, and maybe I'd benefit from a 64-bit build.
> >
> > To answer your question about the wireless link, the signal is as
> > strong as it can be - the router I'm connected to is a D-Link
> Wireless
> > N. The router the NAS is connected to is a LinkSys WRT54G, both
> routers
> > are connected to the main router which acts as my DHCP server (DHCP
> > disabled on both other routers, for obvious reasons). Maybe I'd
> benefit
> > from a higher quality router than the WRT54G, but I wouldn't expect
> > wonders. At some point I thought I would upgrade all routers to
> Gigabit
> > ethernet, but I'm far from saturating the 100Mbps link (only maybe
> 8Mbps
> > in the best case from the NAS to my Vista machine, far from the
> > theoretical limit of Wireless N).
> >
> > Any scoop on the next version of Windows (Windows 7) and how it
> > compares to Vista on networking ?
> >
> >
>
> I have a WRT5G that occasionally gives a real slow connection to a
> wired
> machine yet at the same time works perfectly on wireless, so the simple
> answer is to reset the WRT...
>
> I have no idea why this happens, only that it has done so a couple of
> times, apparently at random.
>
> Nothing had changed in the network, the one wired machine simply got
> really slow. Hasn't happened again for months.


--
Monty0000
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com