smbmount read/write block size stuck at 4k

[Dan Singletary]

When using smbmount to mount a share from WinXP, I observed
less-than-optimal throughput when copying a file from the remote share
to a local disk.  Observation of the protocol dialog with Ethereal
revealed that smbmount was making read requests for 4k bytes at a time.
  Similar observation of protocol dialog between two WinXP boxes showed
that the typical read request was for 64k.

I then tried to use smbclient to 'get' the file, and again observed 4k
SMB read requests.  I found that using the '-b <buffersize>' option with
smbclient is effective in REDUCING the buffer size as small as 1 byte
(reflected in Ethereal showing 1 byte SMB read requests), however I am
unable to use '-b' to increase the read requests beyond 4k.

Why does smbmount/smbclient only read  data at 4k per block?  This
results in horribly poor performance (~4 MBytes/sec) on a gigabit
network that should permit transfer rates that challenge the speed of
the disk drives involved...

-Dan