[Samba] Slow network to samba machine

[Danny Regan]

Sirs,

Thank you for any time that you take to read about my problem.

I have a Linux (redhat) 8.0 mail server set up with;
    qmail
    dhcp / dns
    transparent proxy to internet - adsl
    HTML & our web pages (nothing special)
    SAMBA
This problem has been with me since RedHat 7.3 and thir packaged samba.

If I transfer a file from the mail (linux box) box to a win98se box it takes
a minimum amount of time.
If I transfer a file to the mail box from a win98se box it takes enormous
amounts of time
for example a file of 100k from mail to win98 - 10 secs
                   a file 0f 100k from win98 to mail - 10 mins
                    (if it makes it and the process doesn't fail.)
error messages usually like : "The device does not exist on the network...."
Smaller files of say 1-3k transfer without problems in reasonable amounts of
time.

The same problems occur when I map a drive from win98 to mail - except that
I can transfer slightly larger files (up to 75k) without the error/failure
messages.  It still takes about 5mins to transfer the file.

Same goes when I use /usr/bin/smbclient \\\\win98name\c password - although
I can 'get' a file up to about 140k without any error messages.

I have tried the smb.conf with SO_RCVBUF to 32768, security user and share -
There have been no problems establishing network connections.  Everything
appears to work just fine.

When I perform a /etc/rd.c/init.d/smb restart I do get a message for NBM
that is a little disturbing;
Shutting down SMB services [ OK ]
Shutting down NMB services /etc/rd.c/init.d/smb line 201:kill: (11313) - no
such process
Starting is all OK & OK

/etc/services (as advised in the Unofficial Samba HOTTO) has
netbios-ns        137/tcp
netbios-ns        137/udp
netbios-dgm     137/tcp
netbios-dgm     137/udp
netbios-ssn       137/tcp
netbios-ssn       137/udp
microsoft-ds      445/tcp
microsoft-ds      445/udp

As a matter of interest - qmail has the same problem.

This may not be a samba problem - but any suggestions that you may be able
to offer will be very well received (even rude ones)

Thank you again for reading through my dilemma

Danny Regan