Hi everyone,

I have my MP3 collection on a linux machine running Samba for easy access from my Windows XP machine. There are about 1100 folders in the root directory of the share (artists), then albums/songs under that.

When using Windows XP Explorer to browse the share, it is very slow to open folders. The root level opens in about 5-8 seconds, then an artist folder takes about the same amount of time, but the individual album may take up to 25 seconds to open. Double-clicking on an mp3 file causes at least a 6 second wait for the file to start playing.

The strange thing is that when I browse the shared filesystem using Internet Explorer, the performance is perfect. Every access is sub-second and I can navigate around as fast as I can click. Double clicking on an mp3 causes the file to play instantly.

Why is Explorer so sluggish and IE so fast? I have disabled the shared services checking by removing the registry key on the XP client.

One more reason to despise Windoze (as if I needed another).

There are no errors in my smbd logs, and the load on my server is very light, so I don't think the issue is on the server side. The great performance when browsing the share with IE tells me that the server is performing just fine.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jim

Perhaps explorer is attempting to look at the tags in the mp3 files to gather information on the music tracks. Might take a while over a network, esp if they're v2 (at the end).

-brendan

ID3v2 tags are (usually) at the beginning. Old v1 tags are at the end.

Oops, thanks for the correction.

-brendan

Regardless, surely Windows isn't so braindead that it has to scan through an entire file in order to read the last 128 bytes, is it?

Why is Explorer so sluggish and IE so fast?

How are you browsing in IE?

If you're just typing in the drive letter or the UNC, then it is Windows Explorer doing the browsing -- the listview region of the window is swapped out. There's something else wrong here.

I put \\machinename\share in the Address field of IE. It is amazingly fast in comparison to going to My Network Places and double-clicking to open a window with the share. Really wierd. I hope you guys have some suggestions.

Jim

Do you have any mapped drives that are to shares that are currently unavailable (like those over a currently inactive VPN tunnel)? I've had some horrendous explorer reaction times with 'dead' mapped drive attached. It seems to wait for the drive to answer (which of course times out - eventually) before performing the requested action (like browsing my 'C' drive).

-Zeke

Strangely enough, I was forwarded an XP Tip/Trick about this very subject from TechRepublic. It might not necessarily apply to your situation, but it sure sounds like it does! Here's the tip:

Speed up My Network Places

When using Windows XP's My Network Places to access shared resources on computers running older versions of the Windows operating system, you may have noticed that the process can be excruciatingly slow. What's the reason for this slowdown? By default, Windows XP scans all remote computers for scheduled tasks--a neat, but seldom used, feature.

However, you can override this configuration with a simple registry edit. Follow these steps:


- Open the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/ Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace.
- Under the NameSpace branch, locate the subkey named {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}.
- To make a backup copy of this key, right-click the key, and select Export.
- In the Export Registry File dialog box, select a folder, and give the file a descriptive name.
- Right-click the key, and select Delete.
- Close the Registry Editor, and restart Windows XP for the change to take effect.

I hope that helps!

- trs

I tried this. No difference. Thanks for the suggestion.

Jim

No, nothing seems weird in Network Neighborhood (or whatever its called in XP).

Jim

By default, Windows XP scans all remote computers for scheduled tasks--a neat, but seldom used, feature.

Well, I'll be a slobberknocker... That explains that behavior. Thanks!

Dose this also apply to w2kpro?

By default, Windows XP scans all remote computers for scheduled tasks--a neat, but seldom used, feature.

I tried this. No difference. Thanks for the suggestion.

Dang! I thought I had it solved for you. Ah, well.

- trs

Well, I'll be a slobberknocker... That explains that behavior. Thanks!

Sure! No prob. I tried this at work and it really made a difference.

- trs

Dose this also apply to w2kpro?

I'm not sure, but everything I've read says it applies when browsing on an XP machine to an older Windiws system.

- trs

It's strange that you mention this. I just upgraded my mp3 collection HDDs on my linux machine and ran in the exact same problem. I had a delay of over 30 secs between the click and the display of a folder content. During that time, explorer looked like it was hang.

I found that disabling Webclient service did the trick.

Here's a little explanation. Search for "web client"

Hope it helps

I think this solved it. Thanks for the tip!

Jim