Freezing when accessing network

[admin]

Gosh, now I know what you mean by slooooowwwww...

[JLoftus]

Found the answer, at least in my case, to why NET VIEW returns 6118. SMB v1 is disabled by default, due to security vulnerabilities. In testing this problem, I enabled SMB v1 and rebooted, NET VIEW now returns instantly. Let me say right off, this is not a good solution for most people. In my case, I have a very small and very tightly closed network, with multiple layers of perimeter defense and physical isolation of my IoT stuff by way of separate POE switches, in separate VLANs on my hardware firewall appliance. So, I have a somewhat reasonable comfort level that the vulnerabilities in SMB v1 are relatively low risk for me, I would not recommend this as a "fix" for the average user.

I would love to find a proper solution to this. Any input greatly appreciated.

EDIT: I was now also able to turn back on "pre-check availability of servers" and turn back off "no network browsing on startup" and my XY instance is as fast as its ever been.

[admin]

The task is to find a quick way to determine whether a location is available. Quick especially in the case when it is NOT available. Windows does not provide anything useful here AFAIK. Directly approaching the location in whatever way is usually (at least the first time, then it is cached for a while) a bad idea since it takes 15-20 seconds to return if it is not available. So my strategy is to list what is available and check if the location in question is in that list or not. But again there is no clear way since the speed of the various methods to enumerate the network varies with each Windows version and any number of other unknown factors. Hence the growing number of checkboxes in XY's network settings: it seems every user has to find the golden combination for her system...

Here are two other ways (one-line scripts) to enumerate the network. Is any of them fast for you, with or without SMB v1?

Code: Select all

text get("network", 0); //use shell

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text get("network", 1); //use NetServerEnum

[CactusPie]

I had SMBv1 enabled all along. Disabling it didn't change anything. When I re-enabled it I also enabled "SMB Direct". I don't know if it affects it in any way but it seems to work okay - at least for now. There was a case where mapped network drives started working quickly, but then suddenly slowed down again. It's overall a very weird problem.

Net view was also returning an error for me and was working slowly, now it's ok. Both commands that you posted here (text get("network", 0); and text get("network", 1);) worked slowly too, now they're instantaneous. I will post here if the problem returns, but right now I'm happy that it's working properly.

PS. I'm using Win10 x64 1703, Xyplorer 20.50.0113 Beta

[admin]

text get("network", 0);
text get("network", 1);
text runret("net view");

So either all three are slow or all three are fast, right? So, seems like
a) they are all doing more or less same behind the scenes (though only "net view" has the SMB-related error, right?)
b) and there is some caching going on

[CactusPie]

First time I checked, before disabling/enabling SMB, regardless of VPN connection:
text get("network", 0) - slow, returned an empty text box
text get("network", 1) - same as above
text runret("net view") - slow, returned error 6118
Network "folder" access via XYplorer was very slow

After disabling/enabling SMBv1 and enabling SMB direct, with VPN on:
First try:
text get("network", 0) - slow, but returns only my own host name as //my_hostname
text get("network", 1) - same as above
text runret("net view") - slow, returned error 6118
Network "folder" access via XYplorer is fast

Second and all following tries, with VPN on:
text get("network", 0) - fast, returns only my own host name as //my_hostname
text get("network", 1) - slow, but returns only my own host name as //my_hostname
text runret("net view") - slow, returned error 6118
Network "folder" access via XYplorer is fast

Right now when I disable VPN:
text get("network", 0) - fast, returns a list of different host names from my network
text get("network", 1) - fast, returns an empty text box
text runret("net view") - fast, returns "There are no entries in the list."
Network "folder" access via XYplorer is fast

I haven't checked at home yet, but I will later. Net view, whether executed via XYplorer or via command line doesn't seem to work when I'm connected to the VPN, but now network "folder" view is fast regardless of that.

[admin]

Thanks for all the testing!

Now my brain sits in front of this and does not get any smarter. It might be that overall text get("network", 0); is a narrow winner (on your system, it all can look very different on another system). BTW, that "0" corresponds to unticked Configuration | General | Safety Belts, Network | Network | Fast network enumeration... (which controls how the network node is enumerated in tree and list when servers are not cached (Configuration | General | Safety Belts, Network | Network | Cache network servers)).

At least it works for you in the current state.

[JLoftus]

The part that I'm struggling with, is that XY had been working with my network just fine (I hadn't made any configuration changes lately) and now only after enabling SMB v1 do I get fast browsing. This machine is my main workstation, with VMs running (thus I have multiple NICs), and so making tweaks that require reboot (such as enabling/disabling SMB) is a little disruptive, so testing is a little difficult.

[admin]

The part that I'm struggling with, is that XY had been working with my network just fine (I hadn't made any configuration changes lately) and now only after enabling SMB v1 do I get fast browsing. This machine is my main workstation, with VMs running (thus I have multiple NICs), and so making tweaks that require reboot (such as enabling/disabling SMB) is a little disruptive, so testing is a little difficult.

Hm, when you untick "Pre-check availability of servers" it should run just as before. All the recent enhancements are bound to that setting.

[JLoftus]

Indeed, that is the case. Not sure what I missed last night, probably just old eyes. I just removed SMB v1, rebooted, and verified pre-check availability of servers is cleared, and XY starts right up. If I tick that option, I see the startup delay. NET VIEW once again fails with 6118 (Mumblesoft).

[highend]

Not making a new thread for this...

If I turn this on:
Configuration | General | Safety Belts, Network | Network | Pre-check availability of servers

Startup time goes up from half a second 8,5 seconds.

Latest beta, I have 4 network locations in the catalog, one of them is offline.
Windows Server 2019, SMBv1 is enabled

So it's still the best option to disable this setting, even when on latest beta and on Win 10?

[admin]

Damn, it's totally fast here (Win8.1 AND Win10).

If you turn all 4 network options off, is it also slow?

[highend]

If you turn all 4 network options off, is it also slow?

Startup time? No, it's fast when I do this.
Accessing an UNC path (which is available): slow

[admin]

1) Is there a combination where startup and access is fast?
2) Was this better in an earlier version?

[highend]

Be aware, this is for my configured XY!

1. No. As long as "Pre-check availability of servers" is off, at least the startup time
is fine. Accessing an UNC path for the first time takes time. Sometimes even when
I switch between that path, a tab with a local path and then back to the tab with
the network path

2. Yeah, but that was before you made the recent changes to network detection
Maybe 4-6 weeks ago. I was always using these settings before:

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[x] Fast network enumeration
[x] Assume that servers are available
[ ] Pre-check availability of servers
[x] Cache network servers

[x] No network browsing on startup