Can't open network files

[corneliusw]

Multiple clients (but not all) can't open files (xls, and doc) on a share located on a Windows 2003 server. Files open on the server locally without issue. Files as small as 16kb will launch the program they should open in, let's use an excel file as an example, so excel (2007)launches, and you see connecting to blahblahshare/blahblahfile.xls and a progress bar at the bottom, and it just goes nowhere.

I can go to the server, copy the file, and browse to the clients c$ share and drop it on their desktop without a speed issue. Clients are running Win 7.

To add complexity, for some, but not all users who were experiencing the issue, disconnecting and remapping the network drive to another drive letter resolved the issue.

Any clues?

Thanks for your time.

 

[goombawaho]

See this:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...g/thread/33595a32-a492-434e-8943-0e7f1e154c37

My thought (regardless of the above) would be to make sure that the DNS server listed on the clients is the server 2003 IP address and nothing else.

 

[Freestone]

We had a similar issue awhile back that was caused by Microsoft's Office Validation tool, which has subsequently been fixed by a newer release of the tool. Your symptoms sound similar to ours, though I believe our problem was isolated to Excel files.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623

 

[corneliusw]

Thanks for the responses.

It doesn't seem to be a DNS issue. Mapping right to the IP of the server results in the same issue.

The office validation tool fix didn't apply to this either.

Another symptom is that sometimes explorer will crash entirely while trying to open a network file.

 

[corneliusw]

Here's another issue...some files will eventually open if you wait long enough...they almost always pop up with a message that says the file is locked for editing by whatever user. That user does NOT have the file open and file sessions on the server does NOT list the file under open files...

 

[corneliusw]

pdfs open without issue

 

[corneliusw]

On a linux client, files open without issue, using Libre Office 3

 

[corneliusw]

OK, while I'm still getting pretty bad read speeds on the network as a whole, it looks like the main issue here was on clients that were running Avast Anti-Virus. Several of the real-time scans needed to be tweaked to prevent office files from slowing to a crawl on opening. Thanks for the input everyone.