Slow Network Performance with Windows 7 When Connecting to Server 2003 Shares
I ran into an interesting issue with a computer that just started one day out of the blue. The network overview looks like this: 10 workstations, 1 Microsoft Server 2008 R2 64 bit, 1 Microsoft Windows Server 2003, both on matching Dell hardware. All workstations are Windows Vista except the one machine with troubles which is Windows 7 Professional.
The computer lost its ability to run an application on a share on the 2003 server. It also when connected to an RDP session on this server would have about a 5 second delay in any click on activities. The database applications on the 2008 server were unaffected. After thinking about it and wasting a couple of hours cleaning it, I decided to reload Windows. With a clean install, a new computer account in Active Directory and a new user, I attempted to access the 2003 share–same behavior.
At this point I was completely baffled, so I began doing some research. In the past I had some issues with IPV4 Checksum Offloading and Giant Packet Offloading, so I disabled these items on the Network Card (an Intel Gigabit onboard on the Dell Optiplex). The problem cleared up and I was able to quickly access the share and things seemed better, until I rebooted. With a clean reboot, the network slow down was back. I now found that the problem could be suppressed by disable/enable the network adapter. This is a work around, but not a solution I would leave a client with.
I found many other users affected by this issue on forums, and no good solution (par for the course when browsing the internet). I finally came across some documentation that fit this problem exactly. It has to do with some TCP network adapter settings that can only be adjusted using netsh (probably in the registry, but netsh at the command prompt is much easier).
The solution:
Open a command prompt->enter “netsh int tcp set heuristics disabled” and press enter you will see the response “OK” then enter “netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled” and press enter, you again will see the response “OK”->restart the machine, voila!! Problem solved for good. The techincal reasons why??? It is probably way more in depth to explain than I have time to research and explain in this blog, but if you are having this issue, this does fix it.
RansomWare-This type of virus is one that is typically distributed through a fake email claiming to have a greeting, card, invoice, check, PO, or something of the sort attached. It can also be published as a fake adobe or java update. In case you aren’t familiar with the utter destruction, you should read here http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-locky-ransomware-encrypts-local-files-and-unmapped-network-shares/
Basically if you don’t have backup, you have likely lost all of your files. In some iterations it is even smart enough to remove previous versions saved by Windows using VSS so that you can’t simply restore them to yesterday. In 95% of cases, you better have a good backup, I prefer Crashplan, I feel like it is the best backup solution on the market and is very very inexpensive. I have it on every device I own.