Slow Performance Accessing Local Drives with Share Name

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This article was previously published under Q278678

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SYMPTOMS

If you share folders on a local computer and then access these local file systems by using their share names, transferring files may be much slower than when you use local drive and path names.

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This behavior can occur if TCP/IP is installed as one of the network protocols. When you use share names to access local file systems, the data passes through server, redirector, and network protocol code. The TCP/IP loopback code handles the data inefficiently and causes a bottleneck.

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RESOLUTION

If you use NetBEUI as the only protocol, this problem does not occur. Or, if you use \\ipaddr\sharename instead of \\server\sharename, where ipaddr is the local IP address of your network adapter, the loopback code is not used, avoiding the bottleneck.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

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MORE INFORMATION

Using server, redirector, and networking code adds additional overhead. Microsoft does not recommend accessing local file systems by using share names.

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