diff --git a/source/smbd/mangle.c b/source/smbd/mangle.c
index 8f1490c528d..a43e7f62451 100644
--- a/source/smbd/mangle.c
+++ b/source/smbd/mangle.c
@@ -90,8 +90,6 @@ BOOL is_8_3(char *fname)
   if (slash_pos) fname = slash_pos+1;
   len = strlen(fname);
 
-  dot_pos = strchr(fname,'.');
-
   DEBUG(5,("checking %s for 8.3\n",fname));
 
   if (case_mangle)
@@ -122,6 +120,8 @@ BOOL is_8_3(char *fname)
   /* %%% A nice improvment to name mangling would be to translate
      filename to ANSI charset on the smb server host */
 
+  dot_pos = strchr(fname,'.');
+
   {
     char *p = fname;
 #ifdef KANJI