We recently installed 10 new XP Pro client machines on our network - we already had 2 XP Pro and 1 XP home client and hadn't had any problems.

Following this new installation though total chaos broke out - most severe problem was worksheets being randomly wiped out from Excel 2000 workbooks!!!

We phoned Microsoft Helpdesk who advised us to try a few things like saving on a different server or locally and doing this seemed to fix it (though we have had one reoccurence on a file transferred over to a LinuxSamba server - but just the one and the file had been transferred over from Novell). But this doesn't help us with the Novell problem.

We were also having problems with our Print Servers so we phoned DLink who said basically Urghhh XP - first thing to do is disable QoS on EVERY XP machine. We did this and it has helped a lot but we still are getting some problems.

On a couple of the worksheets we just retyped the whole workbook and then deleted the old one and the problem hasn't reoccurred so I think somehow the workbooks have been corrupted.

Anybody else had any problems or got any ideas.

Totally separate problem/annoyance - every time we login to our Netware server it takes up two connections - not a real problem but can't work out why and it is a bit annoying - I inherited this system and it was in a real mess at the start but this seems to be the only thing remaining.

When I inherited the system it was just IPX/SPX - since then I have installed IP - but we have always had this problem.

Joy Morris
T & D Packaging Ltd

As far as your data problems, I'm not sure what you mean by all of it. XP is a great OS, but it does have it's quirks. But for the 2 connections, it's more than likely logging a connection to both the Server the client is connecting to and the Tree. My Novell System does the same thing, it doesn't affect the overall performance at all.

Hi thanks for the comment

Reassuring to know that others get the double connections item - thought it was probably something like that, but got to admit would love to be able to stop it.

As for the other problem - it is quite simple - I had a network that was running very smoothly, no problems, then installed 10 new XP pro machines and started getting LOTS and LOTS of network problems - slow performance, lots of GPFs both on XP machines and on Wndows 98 machines, network connections being lost - distorted displays and most seriously worksheets simply being wiped clean - data totally disappearing on some Excel workbooks. Since disabling QoS on all XP machines my problems have decreased greatly but I still have the odd problem (possibly because the workbooks were corrupted whilst we had QoS still enabled as if we recreate the workbook from scratch the problems disappear). I KNOW I am not the only person who has had network problems caused by QoS in a mixed environment (i.e. not all Windows XP/Windows 2000 server), I have heard hundreds of reports of lost connections, slow network performance etc but so far nobody else has mentioned data corruption, although I THINK this was all caused by QoS I am not sure and was wondering a) if anybody else has had similar problems, b) if anybody can confirm there is a problem c)if anybody has any more helpful advice on running XP in a mixed environment or d) any other advice/suggestions.

This has caused myself and my company lots of grief but believe me I am not "slagging off" XP as such, just saying that I have had huge problems running it in a mixed environment and I think it is QoS but if there could be another cause really want to know.

The gist of what I have been told is that was added to XP for IP telephony and it adds an extra bit to every packet - this does not cause problems if the whole network is up to date and Microsoft but if running legacy microsoft or none microsoft networking products can cause wierd problems.

All comments welcome

Thanks

Joy

For Office problem, try to install last client32 ( 4.83Sp2) and also disable cache write on client32 settings.
For dual connection, if you see 1 connection with '*' behind username in Netware monitor screen and 1 connection without '*' with same username, it is normal.
1 authenticate connection on first server or preferred ) : no license used
1 physical connection ( whithout * ) : 1 license.

I definately agree that you need to get the latest clients on your workstations, and disable cache writes on all of them. Upgrading your server to NW5.1 SP6 is also a good idea. You may also want to check your utilization, collision and CRC error levels on your network infrastructure as that could be a source of problems as well. Another thought is to decrease the maximum packet size on your servers AND your workstations.

Hi,

CAn you tell me where too disable it, i have been looking at my setting but i can not find the description,

Thnx in adv.

Rudolf
The Netherlands