[Samba] Inefficient Winbind behavior?

[SRuth at LANDAM.com]

Hello all,
 
I'm having an issue with Winbind and I'm not sure if it's occurring by
design or not.
 
My Samba server resides in a Windows NT domain and uses winbindd to
authenticate to a mixed-mode 2003 domain over a trust relationship.
Everything works the way it ought to.  However, every so often my users
experience delays of anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds when connecting to a
share, instead of the share being instantaneously available, as is normally
the case.  
 
I've done some investigating and have found that winbindd queries WINS for a
domain controller for the 2003 domain, which it finds just fine and is able
to authenticate users against.  However, the problem is that the server it's
finding is on a different subnet, connected via a T1 WAN link.  So it uses
the remote server instead of a local 2003 DC, which is acting as a BDC, that
resides on the same LAN as the Samba server.  
 
Shouldn't winbindd use the local DC?  Can I configure it to do so?  I'm
fairly convinced that authenticating over the WAN link is causing the delays
I'm experiencing.  Any ideas are welcome.
 
Thank you.
 
 
Sven Ruth