[Samba] Re: Marginal write performance & pauses in outgoingtransfers

[Nicolas Gieczewski]

> >I'll try that when I get some more time and post the 
> >results here, but I doubt we'll find anything fixable 
> >(yep, I'm the pessimistic kind).
> 
> That's the wrong attitude. It's just a couple of boxes
> radioing each other over wires. It must be amenable to 
> common sense reasoning with a pinch of know-how.

I wouldn't have said that if this was UNIX-to-UNIX networking (where
one has control over the smallest details, access to the source code
and can fix even the strangest problems), but with Windows in the
middle...

> Do me a favour. Buy a 30-buck 4-port 100 Mbps switch
> and test it out. If it doesn't solve your problem send 
> me the switch for refund.

Nah... *pets his hub* I might doubt my hub or networking hardware if I
had the same problem no matter what protocol or OS I used. But, given
that it happens in only one direction, only with SMB traffic and only when
this particular Win2k installation is involved (not even the computer,
because running another OS in a virtual machine on the same box didn't
exhibit the problem), I'm positive there's nothing wrong with anything
outside of my Win2k. Actually, now that I know whatever's wrong is in
my Win2k installation, this has kind of become off-topic for this list ;)

> And by the way, if you have 2 NICs on your samba server
> you HAVE a router there. If you haven't configured it properly
> (has nothing to do with samba) then chances are that that is
> your problem.

If that was the case, I think my problem would be massive and
protocol/OS-independent. I wish it was, that'd be easier to figure
out :/

> Therefore one line of action is to completely, also
> physically, deinstall the other card. When you're 
> confident that samba works OK, then you may plan 
> reinstalling the other card.

Again, if it was hardware-related, I'm positive I would have the
same problem no matter what protocol I used to transfer or what
OS I put on this box.

There's something wrong with my Win2k installation, and I just need
to figure out what it is (if possible). This is not the only odd problem
my Win2k has. Recently, monitor power management stopped working
when the computer is locked, meaning if it's unlocked it will turn off
after the interval I set, and if it's locked it'll _never_ turn off. That's
dumb, because if the box is locked it's because I'm not at it and I need
the monitor to go off. Nifty. Unlike most people running some flavor
of Windows I know, who "format" at least once per year, I've been
running this very same installation for over 3 years. It's gone through
an accidental partition table wiping that I rebuilt by hand, an inability
to boot because I once removed the driver for the HDC and power
went out before I got a chance to add the updated one (I spent a
whole day entering the appropriate registry entries for the driver from
a console registry editor), and a lot more. I've saved it many times,
but now it's carrying over several little sticky problems. My slogan is
"I only format a hard disk when partitioning it after buying it, or when
repartitioning it after changing its role, and I only reinstall an OS under
catastrophical, unrecoverable conditions" :)

Cheers,

Nicolas Gieczewski
Nix Software Solutions
http://www.nixsoftware.com/