Disabled "Server" (Lanman) Service

Inspiron 1521, AMD Turion 64x2 - 1.80 MHz
1918 mb ram
Vista, Home Premium
Zyxel 333W router
(network w printer/Dimension 2400 w XP)

I'm going to spare you'all a lot of ugly detail (unless someone absolutely wants it), and cut to the chase here - I have spent a LOT of time on the Vista forum on CNet.com trying to solve the problem of Vista taking 15+ minutes to fully start. Seems this is a common Vista problem, and likely there are many causes. Well, one of the potential remedies was to disable the "Server" (Lanman) service (under System Configuration/Services), and surprisingly, when I disabled it, my boot time went from 16 minutes (with a huge # of errors in the System Event Log) to 2 minutes, and only 8 errors/notices in the Event Log.

However, even though my problem is supposedly solved, no one on the Cnet forums could answer the question, "what is the downside of disabling the "Server" service?" But I'll bet someone here knows the answer!

I should also tell you that I fully expected the disabling of the Server (Lanman) service to affect my ability to share files/folders and printer, as well as affecting my browser ability, but strangely, no such problems are occuring. In fact, my network is functioning better now than it ever has. But all this has me worried, because I don't know why I'm not having new problems, and I don't understand why disabling the Server service speeded up the computer's starts. So, I sure would appreciate it if anyone could answer one or more of these questions. And I thank you up front for assisting.
john

 

oooawh, I can't believe that amIong all you genius types, someone here doesn't know the answer to at least one of these questions! For gosh sakes, it's Christmas - (oh yeah, Merry Christmas to all) - how about a little gift for the good doctor? OK, so I'm not a real doctor, but I used to play one on T.V.

Thanks guys,
j

 

Halo,
Thank you my good man. Well, I think I can feel a little bit better, although I fully expect to wake up one morning and find I can no longer find any of my network on my laptop.

Is the Vista SP1 ready for the innocent victim to DL now? Or should we dummies wait until it's out of Beta?

Thanks again, Halo,
john

 

Within the past week I also am experiencing a 15 minute delay in start up with Vista and the same hardware and software configuration as yours. My system is an HP dv6449 With Vista Home Premium. The 15 minute more or less delay shows LanManServer Starting hang in the Task window. Also in the task bar the network icon has a red x until LanManServer starts. I can get on to the Internet with IE and some other applications but not with Windows Mail even while the red x shows. As soon as the red x clears and LanManServer starts every thing functions normally. I am suspicious that this change in performance is associated with a change in hardware. I have Vonage VoIP service and my Linksys RT31P2 router VoIP adapter (Vonage) failed a little over a week ago and was replaced with a D-Link VoIP adapter. I have read some where that LanManServer can be involved in providing VoIP networking and other voice services. By the way Skype services function before the red x disappears and LanManServer starts. My dv6449 is about 10 weeks old and this start up problem is a few days old. The only changes in the system during the last few days is the VoIP adapter and a Vista update. I need to find out how the LanManServer got into the system and its complete function. Any one have any clues?