File access XP to 7 keeps "stalling"

I have a Win7 (64-bit) desktop machine on which I keep most of my data. I access files and folders from my XP(32) laptop. This has been working quite well for a year or more. A couple of days ago I re-ran setup on the Win7 machine. All seems to be back up and running again except for file access from the XP machine. I can see the shares and open the files but the applications accessing them (Windows Explorer, text editors etc.) will periodically seem to freeze for tens of seconds at a time.

Despite file access being "stalled" in this way there appears to be no interruption to other kinds of access between the two machines: http access to a web server on the Win7 machine seems unaffected, as does a Remote Desktop connection. If I try to execute ipconfig on the XP machine while this is happening, that "hangs" as well, producing results at the same time as other applications start responding again.

I'm assuming I have failed to set something up properly on the Win7 machine but I haven't ruled out the possibility of a problem with the XP machine. My wife's laptop (Vista) doesn't seem to be having any problems at all. I have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to network protocols etc. so I may be missing something glaringly obvious.

Any suggestions?

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Output from ipconfig on both computers:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : XPmachine
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : Belkin

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82566MM Gigabit Network Con
nection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-D1-A2-2D-61
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.26
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday 21 January 2013 15:43:00
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday 19 January 2038 03:14:07

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Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Win7machine
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : BC-AE-C5-AB-33-5E
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.10(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{66CD51DA-C435-4F46-820B-338B527EF255}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:9d38:953c:2883:3291:3f57:fff5(Pref
erred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::2883:3291:3f57:fff5%12(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Thanks for the suggestion, but the network cards (wired and wifi) on the XP machine don't have an Advanced tab so I can't see a way to check or change the speed/duplex settings. They are Intel-based cards and I read somewhere that Intel don't expose those settings. Both suffer from the problem.

The Win7 machine has a Realtek-based NIC and does expose speed/duplex settings. It's on Negotiate.

Having done a bit more testing it would appear that all three machines can happily access shares on the others (and a NAS device) with the sole exception of XP accessing shares on the Win7 machine. The reverse (Win7 accessing shares on the XP machine) works fine. The problem seems to be triggered when the XP machine makes a file-based access attempt on a Win7 share, e.g. when Windows Explorer opens a folder and attempts to show its contents. Explorer seems to freeze for a minute or so, then displays the contents and carries on. During the "freeze" the XP machine can contnue accessing the Win7 machine for anything that's not a file share operation (don't know the correct terminology, sorry), so the network connection itself isn't lost.

My comment about ipconfig also freezing seems to be a red herring though: the working directory in the command console was a share on the Win7 machine (stupid mistake). When changed to a local drive, ipconfig /all works fine on the XP machine even during the file access "freeze".

Hmmm... In desperation I tried disabling IPv6 on the Win7 box then rebooting both it and the XP machine. All now seems to be working.

Can anyone shed any light on whether IPv6 could be expected to cause such problems for an XP box (which is presumably IPv4 only)? The connection is via a Belkin ADSL/ethernet/WiFi router that I imagine is IPv4 only, in case that's relevant.

If you needed to disable IPv6 then you have other problems which you may not be aware of.

You should never need to disable IPv6.

I don't know what is causing this stall problem.

It's best to use the Public folders for sharing with older Op systems rather than bringing down the NTFS security permissions.

The Argument against Disabling IPv6
It is unfortunate that some organizations disable IPv6 on their computers running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, where it is installed and enabled by default. Many disable IPv6-based on the assumption that they are not running any applications or services that use it. Others might disable it because of a misperception that having both IPv4 and IPv6 enabled effectively doubles their DNS and Web traffic. This is not true.
From Microsoft's perspective, IPv6 is a mandatory part of the Windows operating system and it is enabled and included in standard Windows service and application testing during the operating system development process. Because Windows was designed specifically with IPv6 present, Microsoft does not perform any testing to determine the effects of disabling IPv6. If IPv6 is disabled on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or later versions, some components will not function. Moreover, applications that you might not think are using IPv6—such as Remote Assistance, HomeGroup, DirectAccess, and Windows Mail—could be.
Therefore, Microsoft recommends that you leave IPv6 enabled, even if you do not have an IPv6-enabled network, either native or tunneled. By leaving IPv6 enabled, you do not disable IPv6-only applications and services (for example, HomeGroup in Windows 7 and DirectAccess in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are IPv6-only) and your hosts can take advantage of IPv6-enhanced connectivity.

Read more. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m....cableguy.aspx

Understood. I couldn't think of any rational reason why IPv6 would cause the problems either (although as I said, I'm not very knowledgable about networks). Frankly though I was getting desperate - by that point I might have cast sacrificial entrails on glowing coals if it occurred to me that I hadn't yet tried it!

I'll read up on Public folders, but I'm not sure what you mean about "bringing down NTFS security permissions". I have set NTFS permissions to restrict access to my data files and folders as required.

If you can think of anything that would allow me to monitor network file access (would that be NetBIOS?) that seemed to be having trouuble on the XP machine I'll gladly re-enable IPv6 and see if I can pin it down.