FlashFXP Brings Down Win Server 2008 Domain with Roaming Profiles

[robinwilson16]

Hello

I have been using FlashFXP for years at home and at work but after upgrading the domain to a Windows Server 2008 domain and using Vista with roaming profiles enabled FlashFXP causes major problems which results in having to hard-reset the domain.

Whenever I open FlashFXP and start working on it on a roaming profile the network starts to slow down and after about 30 minutes everything becomes totally unresponsive and any network activity such as saving a small web page to the network takes ages and everything keeps stopping to respond. In the end the only solution is to hard-reset the domain controllers and then the workstations. As soon as I open FlashFXP and transfer files to the local computer and then click on them within FlashFXP both FlashFXP and Dreamweaver freeze for around 30 seconds before the file actually opens. Browsing to the same file in Windows Explorer and opening it opens the file stranight away.

This problem also occured with Beta versions of Windows Server 2008 and roaming profiles when I was testing but I reported it to Microsoft at that time using the Beta Client. The issue remains unresolved.

The domain can run well for weeks but as soon as I start working in FlashFXP the whole network is brought to a total halt and everyone has troble accessing network shares.

This problem did not occur on Windows Server 2003. It also does not occur when I use other FTP clients which I have been forced to do. FlashFXP is now banned on the domain due to its disruptive effect on the network.

Has this not been reported yet by anyone else?
I even set up a test domain and the same thing started happening straight away.

Thanks for any information which may stop this issue from occuring.
Robin

[robinwilson16]

Sorry just read I should have included this:
* FlashFXP v[ 3].[ 6], build [ 1240], [X]registered, [ ]unregistered, [ ]pirated
* OS [X] Vista, [ ] WinXP, [ ] Win2K, [ ] Win98, [ ] WinME, [ ] Other (explain)
* Running behind hardware router/firewall [X] Yes & Model [Netgear Prosafe VPN Firewall FVS338], [ ] No, [ ] Not sure
* Running software firewall [X] Yes, Name [Windows Built-in], Ver. [ ], or [ ] No
* Running Antivirus [X] Yes, Name [Symantec Corporate 10] or [ ] No
* Network [X] DSL, [ ] CABLE, [ ] Dail-Up, [ ] Other

[Seome]

Did this problem first start appearing after updating to version 3.6 of FlashFXP or only after updating the domain controller?

Also, do you have offline files enabled on your roaming shares?

-Chris
iniCom Networks Support

[robinwilson16]

Networks are not my speciality and it took me weeks of troubleshooting to tie the problem down to FlashFXP.
I do not have Offline files enabled.
The problem occured with beta versions of 3.6 too.
I am not sure if the problem lies with Microsoft or FlashFXP but if I log on with a domain account without roaming profiles turned on it seems to work ok.

It seems that even leaving FlashFXP open and idle is enough to bring down the network as well.
The network progressively slows down after opening FlashFXP until shares are eventually unreachable and even the taskbar and explorer become unresponsive on the workstations and domain controller.
I can work for around half an hour until I have to force a reboot of domain controllers and then workstations. I do not get this problem when using other FTP programs such as FileZilla. If I do not force a reboot and try to do it normally it can take hours to shut down!

The problem does not seem to occur when using an XP machine on the Win Server 2008 domain either.
The problem seems worse when hosting profiles on DFS.

Thanks
Robin

[Seome]

Is the share that you have FlashFXP open to locally being used by other users while you have it open? In other words, is this a private users folder share or is it a share to an entire companies data folder with many other users accessing and changing files?

[robinwilson16]

The user profiles share itself is company-wide i.e. \\SERVER\users\profilename
I know Vista profiles store a lot more stuff remotely compared with XP machines
The FlashFXP folder is at \\SERVER\users\USERNAME\Application Data\FlashFXP\3

It makes no difference if I am uploading/downloading files from a local directory or my documents although the problem may be worse when working from a network share also.

Another problem is that clicking on a file within FlashFXP to open it can take around a minute to open the file and the program it opens with as well as FlashFXP will be unusable until the file finaly opens. If I open the same file in Explorer, it opens straight away.

The same problems happened on a test domain where I was the only user as well.

[Seome]

When you had this problem, does the Vista machine you were using have Service Pack 1 installed? We are trying to duplicate your issue still.

[robinwilson16]

It happens both with and without service pack 1. I have service pack 1 installed at the moment.
At the moment the users share is on the Distributed File System and is accessed via \\domain\users.

It should be reproducable by having a single 2008 domain controller and a vista machine as a client. Then configure roaming profiles so that the users' home drives exist on the network. I set my documents to be on the network and set the other folders to "follow the my documents folder" (such as application data). I also run DNS and DHCP on the domain controller.

Then open up FlashFXP and start trying to work in it and the network will slow down until it is eventually unusable and shares become unavailable. Also clicking on files to try to open them from the file browser will take a very long time (i.e. opening .php files which are associated with DreamWeaver).

Thanks for looking into this.
Robin

[robinwilson16]

Any update on this?
Thanks
Robin

[robinwilson16]

Another problem which may be related is that it takes over a minute to open files from the local browser in FlashFXP 3.6. I have to keep Windows Explorer open just for clicking on the files to open them otherwise my development time is severely affected by constantly having to wait ages after clicking on a file. If I double click a file by mistake I have time to make a coffee and go for a walk before it actually opens the file!
This only seems to happen with roaming profiles.
The only workaround seems to be to log on with a local profile and it all works quickly.

Thanks
Robin

[bigstar]

This issue is still under investigation.

When you start FlashFXP as it populates the local browser it needs to enumerate the files/folders to generate the listing, depending on the anti-virus software it may want to scan each and every file. Not only does FlashFXP duplicate the file listing but it also loads and uses 3rd party shell extensions that you would normally find in windows explorer.

Typically anti-virus software can cause long delays when clicking on a local file.

There are a couple applications you could try to use to better understand whats going on, if we could reproduce the issue we'd be using similar applications to diagnose the problem.

Process Explorer: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
Process Monitor: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx