Using Project files over a WAN

[dalbee]

Anyone ever use project files over a WAN. We are using Project 2000. Pulling up files is no problem but when we go to make changes to the file (ie. CTL+X and CTL+C) project appears to hang. Everything works okay with Word, Excel and Access. It's just with Microsoft Project. Any thoughts?

 

[Rob Schneider]

Frankly, as far as I know, when you File/Open a file in Project, it
brings the entire file from where it is (local disk, local file server
via LAN, or remote file server via WAN) to your PC. It possibly could be
caching on the file service from where it originated (I'm not sure) or
something. Then when you are working on it it just works on it. Using
the clipboard Ctrl-x and Ctrl-v should be in no way related to where the
file is stored, I am guessing. I don't currently have access to a WAN
environment to test this hypothesis.

Access files across the WAN will be slow, and my judgment is not to be
relied upon. Remove file access for many PC apps with big files often
is unreliable. In general PC apps in general expect snappy/fast access
to the file system. I would copy file from the WAN to the local hard
disk, then open the file from there. When done, return the file to the
file server on the WAN.

Try that and see if the clipboard problem remains when doing it that way
helps you isolate the problem. If it works ok ... then I guess the WAN
has an effect. I doubt it the WAN ... I would attribute it more to
having a low-bandwidth access to the file source and Project expects
more. (IMHO hardly any file-based PC applications work well across a
WAN ... that's one reason why terminal servers are used).

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[dalbee]

Rob, thank you for the response. When we have the project file on the local lan or local pc things are instantaneous. The slow response is only when it is accessed over the wan. I tried a couple of things today and nothing seems to be consistant (could be the way the user has the project setup...ie. links, etc). Whenever I open the file for the first time and try to do a ctl+x and then a ctl+v it hangs for about 20 minutes. After that things are not as quick as a local copy of the file, but they are not too bad either. The file resides on a share because the file is used by multiple people so copying it to the local lan or pc I don't think is an option. If I close the file and then reopen it then the same task (ctl+x, etc.) takes between 1 to 2 minutes. I don't understand why it's not consistent.

 

[Rob Schneider]

If there are links from the file to files that reside elsewhere and
accessible via WAN, I can see how there may be an issue. Project needs
to "communicate" with those files to display them in the links. Another
thing to look at ... does the user have access permissions to those
linked files? Look also at the full path of the linked file to see if
they are specified as a drive letter, e.g. K:\project\abc\def.mpp vs.
\\fileserver\share\abc\def.mpp where there is inconsistent mapping of
drive letters between the users.

Still best to use a terminal server rather than WAN for remote access to
Project files... Possible you can migrate this direction?

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms