title: VBA, File System Object, speed/advantages/disadvantages
body: <p>This turned into a rather long post, and there's not really an "answer" per say. I'm more looking for an explanation as opposed to some silver bullet to fix the problem. As such, any aspect you'd like to answer would be quite appreciated. Thanks in advance! </p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>I'm running into what may be a "problem" with the file system object, and that's lead to a question about the functionality etc. of how the File System Object in VBA works vs. "something else" (I don't know if there's an alternative to use in Excel for what I'm doing) in .net etc. I don't know of a better place to ask, and I'm not sure what to look into to research it for myself. So here I am! </p>
  
  <p>So! To the problem. The short explanation is that I iterate through folders, gathering file information (name, extension, full path, etc.) and place it into a spreadsheet. I eventually use this information to copy the files to a new location. However, on a large scale (1,000+ files) this seems to work just fine locally, but it is considerably slower on a network location (at work). It will chew through like 1,500 files, wait a while, do 1,500 more etc. Either while listing or copying the files. Again, this is not the case when done locally, it will just run through without issue, so I can probably assume it's probably nothing to do with my code. It's almost as if the network is opening and closing a gate intermittently. </p>
  
  <p>Alternatively, using other programs from an end user perspective (I tried it against the same files I was using with my program, on our work network) it is MUCH faster without any of the aforementioned delays. I'm assuming the alternative program is using some version of .net, if it matters. Long story short, I don't think I can inherently blame our network for the speed issues I'm running into. </p>
  
  <p>So my question/curiosity/issue comes down to a few key points: </p>
  
  <p>-What's the difference between the FSO in VBA and the default libraries in .Net, and could the difference between the cause of the issue I'm running into? Clearly it's possible to read this sort of data much more quickly than it is being done. </p>
  
  <p>-Is the FSO not intended to be used this way (over a network, with large amounts of remote data, or... ?)? Is it just dated/outmoded? And is there an alternative that can be used through VBA? </p>
  
  <p>-I only nebulously understand that our network functions in a different way than a local drive. It stores many terabytes of data, etc. and I'm not sure what the difference is at a very deep level between accessing a local drive and a network location. I know I'm not giving details on the network that would probably be very beneficial in diagnosis, I just don't the information unfortunately. I guess I'd just ask if it "potentially" an explanation that using the FSO in such a way with some/all sorts of networks is just not the way it's meant to be used. Is it possible that the network is set up in such a way to limit the sort of way I'm trying to interact with it? </p>
  
  <p>-Even though I haven't run into any issues doing this locally, is it possible that something in my code is much more taxing to a network location vs. a local drive? </p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any insight you can provide. </p>