Hi,

I have a client who is sharing Excel 2003 files on a peer-to-peer network,
on a Windows Vista Home machine. They had a problem with opening files in
general, which I traced to some issue with Norton Internet Security 2007 on
the "server"; I excluded Auto-Protect from those directories, and that seemed
to resolve it. Now, I understand they are having a problem when an Excel
file is already open by one user, it takes a really long time (not sure how
long yet) for someone else who tries to open it before they get prompted that
it's already open (and gives them the choice to open it read-only, etc.).
Any suggestions as to why?

I have come across other posts in here how to share workbooks (and
advice not to do that)... but that's not what they intend to do. They just
want to have that prompt that the file is in use appear much quicker.

Best Wishes,
Kurosh