maximum peer to peer network connections

[barnegattech]

have a network with peer to peer with 9 connections into a hub. I have one or two workstations that sometimes connect and sometimes does not. When it does connect it can be slow. All workstations on network are running XP home except for one 98.
Is there a maximum number of pc's that can be on a peer to peer network before it is required to go to a file server on the network?

 

[surgeVel]

As far as I have ever known, Peer-to-peer is only limited by the power of the hosting computer. There should not be a user limit, atleast nothing as low as 9 users. You can try this article for an overview of P2P with Windows:

"Introduction to Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking"

Other than this, I am not sure what the problem may be, perhaps an IP Address or other conflict between the two computers? Maybe identical usernames?

Hope this helps. Let me know what you find.
-surgeVel

 

[surgeVel]

Ok, I just found this post which seems to say that Windows XP does impose some limits to peer-to-peer networks. Check it out.

[link]http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=67237[/url]

It appears that there may be a limit of 10 for XP Pro and 5 for XP Home.

 

[smah]

That's simultaneous connections to any particular machine. It is not a limit of peer to peer in general.

The thing that tends to drag down a p2p network is network browsing and the master browser election behavior and name resolution. In a peer to peer network, no particular computer is specifically assigned the master browser responsibility. All the systems go through an election process to decide which should be responsible for maintaining the browse list - the list of computers connected to the network that you see in 'network neighborhood. In general, the highest level operating system tries to be the master browser, but when they are all the same OS, there's no preference given. It usually ends up being controlled by whichever system has been connected to the network (or actually on) the longest. If that one gets disconnected from the network (or turned off), the election process starts again with all the remaining systems.

Adding a samba server (or a Windows Server) to large peer to peer network makes huge improvements because it can manually be set to take on the master browser responsibilities, even if it serves no other role.

 

[barnegattech]

thank you very much

 

[Sympology]

Another thing, is it a hub or switch?

Hubs can slow down systems if many people are accessing at the same time. Switches are far more efficient (and cost little more)

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[gbaughma]

He said a hub. A switch would be the first step, IMHO.



Just my 2¢
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--Greg

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