Windows 7 Prof as photo server

Hi,

I am a photographer and sell photos onsite at sporting events. I've always used a Windows XP Dell laptop as my photo server computer. I've never had any problems with Windows XP Professional. I use 6 laptops running windows vista home as viewing stations. they can all access with WinXP machine just fine.I'm using a 16 port network switch. With a total of 7 laptops including the server hooked up to it. Sometimes we run more laptops if the event is bigger.

I recently upgraded to Windows 7 Pro. Randomly throughout the day as the computers are used to view photos, the viewing stations lose connection to the windows 7 server. The viewing stations are using a modified version of firefox to view the photos. If I close the browser and reopen it, they connect just fine to the photos. Is there something different in windows 7? Windows xp worked just fine. I even used my old windows xp laptop last week and it worked fine. I just wish dell still sold xp.

Thank you
Robert

I've always felt that you use the proper tool for the job. If you need a server, I have two suggestions. If you know you always have internet access, then use an online service such as Zenfolio. If you won't have access at these events, set up a little system running Home Server 2011. It's cheaper than WIndows 7, and design to be a server streaming digital media....such as photos.