Slow Outlook performance on network

[Stewart]

I have a 5 clients on a network running Outlook2000 & XP on Windows 2000 &
XP Pro. The Outlook .pst files are stored on a central Windows SBS2000
server. The network is 100mbps and is fast, however when in Outlook the
performance is slow when scrolling through e-mails and other items. It takes
ages for a simple plain text preview to come up. There are about 500-1000
messages in a clients .pst file at any one time. The spec's of the server
are: AMD XP 1.7ghz, 1gb ram, 2x 40gb 7,200rpm IDE hdds (software raid).

What could the performance problem be? Maybe I need SCSI hdd's, but were
only talking 5 clients here.

 

[John Moschell]

I would start by checking a couple of simple things.

Disable virus scanning on your server and workstations and determine
if this returns you back to normal

If it speeds up with the above, then you might have a heavily
fragmented hard drive on your server and the virus scanner is
struggling to scan the entire fragmented .pst each time you open it.

Beyond that, another quick troubleshooting idea would be to move one
of the .pst's to a local machine and see if it speeds up. That would
give you a hint of whether its a network issue or not.

 

[Stewart]

Thanks John,

The performance is far better if the .pst is local. So it must be
server/network. I have never defraged the server drives since I installed
the OS I must admit, and we never used to have the problem. All clients run
their own version of Norton AV 2002. One thing also I cannot do is Compact
the folders in either Outlook or Outlook Express if the data is stored on
the server.

 

[Stewart]

I do not get the performance problem over the network with Outlook Express,
by the way!

 

[John Moschell]

If you recently installed MSN v6 or MSN Instant Messenger, you might
have to disable the instant messenger integration in Outlook.

Also try renaming the file "outcmd.dat". Sometimes this file gets
corrupted. It can also be affected by spamware and browser hijackers.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Additionally, you might want to read this article:

OL2000: Why .pst Files Are Unsupported Over a LAN or WAN Link
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;297019&Product=out2K


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to the
Swen virus, all e-mails sent to my actual account will be deleted w/out
reading.

After searching google.groups.com and finding no answer
Stewart <[email protected]> asked:

| I have a 5 clients on a network running Outlook2000 & XP on Windows
| 2000 & XP Pro. The Outlook .pst files are stored on a central Windows
| SBS2000 server. The network is 100mbps and is fast, however when in
| Outlook the performance is slow when scrolling through e-mails and
| other items. It takes ages for a simple plain text preview to come
| up. There are about 500-1000 messages in a clients .pst file at any
| one time. The spec's of the server are: AMD XP 1.7ghz, 1gb ram, 2x
| 40gb 7,200rpm IDE hdds (software raid).
|
| What could the performance problem be? Maybe I need SCSI hdd's, but
| were only talking 5 clients here.