HELIOS Tech Info #126

Opening/Saving files with Windows 7 can take very long

Opening or saving files using an application on a Windows 7 client connected to a PCShare server may be slow.

From network traces we found out that Windows 7 may attempt to access the SMB/CIFS PCShare volume also via WebDAV.

If there is no server process listening on the port 80 of the PCShare host, the Windows 7 client will receive a TCP Reset but will still retry a couple of times with 0.5 second delays in between.

This can occur several times and the delays may sum up to dozens of seconds, which will make the user believe that the opening or saving in their application is slow.

Preventing WebDAV access will remove the delays, and opening or saving will be fast again.

For doing so, you can disable the "WebClient" in the Windows "Services".

Alternatively, use an outbound firewall rule that blocks connections of all programs to the TCP port 80 of the PCShare host's IP address.
To do so, add a custom rule to the Windows Firewall "Advanced Settings", "Outbound Rules" section.