[Samba] Users losing connection at random

[JSmith at arnoldlogistics.com]

First let me start off by thanking you for your time.

I have what I think is a unique problem.  Daily on average there are about 
67 users that connect to my server.  Usually I will get a call from 1 or 2 
of them in the morning saying that they cannot log onto the server.  The 
message they keep receiving is that their domain password is incorrect.  I 
have exhausted myself with research and cannot find a fix for this.  So 
far my only resolution has been to restart the smb service.  Once I do 
that, my two users can immediately log in.  This as you can guess creates 
issues for those who were logged in.  Also, at some point during the day I 
will get a series of calls from a different set of users stating that they 
cannot access they're share anymore.  But, if we wait five minutes or so 
it comes right back.  There is no need to log off and back on again. Print 
ques also seem to be affected.

I've tried to look for something that is consistent about this problem and 
so far it is only the times of day that it happens.  Usually around 9am or 
1pm.  Nothing else clicks.  I'm using '98, 2k and XP clients throughout my 
building.  It originally started out that it was only the '98 systems who 
were effected but lately it has spread to some 2k machines.  XP does not 
have the password problem but we do lose access to shares.  It just seems 
to randomly pick users at will.  It does not keep happening to the same 
individual or machine.

On top of all of that my putty (ssh) sessions now blow up once in a while. 
 I was using webmin as a guide but it kept going wild on my smbpasswd file 
so I removed it.  Since it's removal my files have not been "mysteriously" 
altered.

Has anyone else experienced the same problem and can help guide me in the 
right direction?