Problems with Self extracting zip files

[Roeland M.J. Meyer]

At 20:55 15-12-97 +1100, Bond, Jeffery wrote:
>Hi folks,
>
>I have a curious problem when executing self extracting zip files from a
>samba share. Everything does work, but it is very very slow. Copying the
>exe onto local disk (from the samba share) takes no time at all
>(500kb/sec). I would say it takes about 10 times as long to unzip when run
>directly from the samba share. This happens will all self-extracting exe
>files, and also from any share that I create. Any clues?

The first clue is that, in a copy, you are only reading the file, across
the network layer, once. When a file is being processed, as in ZIP, parts
are read many times. Also many smaller block are being read, as opposed to
a few large blocks. From a LAN view, this is grossly inefficient, as you
will get many unused spaces within network packets. Also, these access are
time asynchronus, rather than a packet stream, therefore the virtual
circuit may not be a continuous connection. All of the above inefficiencies
may lead to a significant reduction in performance, when processing a file
over a network, as opposed to copying it.

>The samba server is running 1.9.17p4 on FreeBSD (486dx4), the client is
>Win95b on a P133, and I have a very standard and basic smb.conf (sorry, I
>couldn't send it right now). I'll send more details if anyone has any ideas.

I'm in the process of upgrading my entire domain at the moment. I will soon
have Win95, AWA, WinNT.
___________________________________________________
Roeland M.J. Meyer, ISOC (InterNIC RM993)
e-mail:		mailto:rmeyer at mhsc.com
Personalweb pages:	http://www.mhsc.com/~rmeyer
Company web-site:	http://www.mhsc.com/
___________________________________________
"The FBI doesn't want to read encrypted documents,
   they want to read YOUR encrypted documents."