I´ve got a problem loading large datasets via WFS. The connection with ArcCatalog works fine, but when I want to open the dataset in ArcMap it starts indexing and brakes down after a while giving me the error message: "This dataset appears to be invalid. Please verify that your settings or file contents are correct and try again"
When I use a "Search Envelope", which means I only take a small part of the WFS it works.
The provider of the WFS has limited the ammount of features that can be transferred. When not using a "Search Envelope" ArcGIS tries to load the whole WFS (the whole country in my case). After some time (when the maximum of features had been reached) the WFS server just refused to transfer anymore and stopped. Result on my side was then the error message.