Samba and OpenVPN: where are file access delays coming from?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> > You'l need to do a wireshark trace either on the client or the server and
> > wee what the client is actually doing that takes so long.
> I took your advice and with result! Client is apparently downloading the
> entire file just to see the properties (in general this is being triggered
> with every right click action). Client software is Windows explorer. I tried
> 4 different file explorer software packages, but with the same result (not
> surprisinly as the are based on Windows explorer and probably use the same
> API).
> Outcome is one of 3 things:
> -This is normal Samba behavior (can test this when performing the same
> action in the local lan instead of through VPN)

This is normal Windows behavior.  CIFS over a high-latency connection is
pretty horrible.

> - my config is faulty
> - Most explorer software just sucks:-)

Yes.

My suggestion, if you need to manage files over a WAN connection is to
use WebDAV;  either via a WebDAV:CIFS proxy like WebDisk
<http://www.simple-groupware.de/cms/WebDisk/IntegraTUMWebDisk> or [my
real recommendation] ditch the concept of the file server entirely and
move to a groupware or CMS solution like OpenGroupware or Alfresco.
These work much better over slow or high-latency VPN links than CIFS
does.  WebDAV between clients and servers that support compression is a
win.