[Samba] Slow connection

[Koenraad Lelong]

Here we go again. Please don't feel attacked, but this seems the only
answer I find about this. On the mailing list of SuSE I asked the same
question (about the slow connection) and this was the same reply. After
this I did more testing (see about the transferring of the file from the
server-side). Do you have an explanation for that if the network link
was misconfigured ?
But I'll upgrade my Samba, and do some more testing.

I did 'mii-tool -v', result :

eth0: negotiated 100baseT4 flow-control, link ok
   product info: vendor 1f:ff:df, model 63 rev 15
   basic mode:   loopback, isolate, collision test, autonegotiation enabled
   basic status: autonegotiation complete, remote fault, link ok
   capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
   advertising:  100baseT4 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD
10baseT-HD flow-control
   link partner: 100baseT4 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD
10baseT-HD flow-control

'cat /proc/net/dev' gave no errors, no collisions, just like 'ifconfig' did.

>>Last week I discovered that my samba-server seems rather slow. When I
>>searched around I discovered that I wasn't the only one experiencing
>>this, but I didn't find a solution. I experimented a little, and I hope
>>someone can suggest a solution.
>>First my server : SuSE 8.1, with Samba 2.2.5 (comes with the
>>distribution).
>
>
> Samba 2.2.5 had a couple of interesting issues, particularly with Win2k
> clients, try upgrading to the latest (2.2.8a) before doing attributing
> any blame to Samba.
>
>
>
>>From a WinME-client I uploaded a 160Mb file to the samba-server. This
>>took about 45 minutes. Downloading the file took about 1 minute. Some
>>would say, look at the configuration of your NIC/hub/switch,
>>but after I did some more trials I think that is not the source :
>>From my samba-server, I downloaded that 160MB file from the
>>WinME-machine, with smbclient, in about 1 minute. Uploading the file to
>>the WinME-machine also took about 1 minute. I think this
>>proofs that the setup of the network has nothing to do with the slow
>
> performance of my
>
>>samba-server.
>
>
> Not necessarily, although the problem may be with Samba (see above).
>
> I have had identical problems to this where autosensing had been playing
> games on the switch.  I'm unsure if Suse has "mii-tool" installed, but
> you could try running that to check if you have 100TX full duplex at the
> Samba end of the link.  If not, try forcing 100TX-FD "man mii-tool".
>
> Autosense doesn't necessarily mean it will choose the fastest speed at
> either end, it just means that it will choose the most compatible speed,
> for instance the Cisco 19xx series of switches had some well documented
> issues with autosensing.
>
> HTH
>
>
> .
>


--
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Koenraad Lelong
R&D Manager
ACE electronics n.v.