Question : Opening files from Windows Explorer is slow

Several Windows XP laptops are experiencing slowness when opening files from Windows Explorer.  Here is the scenario:
The laptops belong to a domain and, when connected to the domain, everything works perfectly.  These laptops go offsite and connect to outside networks.  When they connect to another network is when the problem occurs.  When opening files (any file type) from Windows Explorer, the file takes up to 30 seconds to open.  However, if the computer is disconnected from any network, the files open quickly.  Also, if the user opens the file from the program they are using, the file opens quickly.  It is only when users double-click the file from Windows Explorer and they are connected to a different network that the files open slowly.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer : Opening files from Windows Explorer is slow

Depending upon how many machines you have, you can see the MAC address of the duplicate name it tells you in  event viewer, I had this on my network to find that two colleagues were running the same virtual server with the same name and I tracked it by MAC address, I only have 11 PCs so it was not a big task.

One way would be to switch everything off and start one by one until you get the error. It is possible to have a DNS entry for one machine and another with the local name. I did this to get round mapped drive issues etc, called the new server a new name and gave it a DNS alias of the old server once swithced off, if I had put the old server back on again I would have had duplicate names. CHeck DNS also