[Samba] very low speed local network browsing from win xp clients

[James Courtier-Dutton]

Buda Gábor wrote:
> Hi Everyone there!
> 
> 
> We have a very annoying problem since several months when browsing the local
> network (workgroup) from win xp clients (from win98 clients it's almost OK).
> The machines in the workgroup appearing very slooow (about 15-20 sec), and
> this value doesn't change even in the 2nd or 3rd browse. We have 1 linux
> (debian 2.4.21 pre 3) pc, running the samba (2.2312) server, about 15 win98
> clients, 60 win xp clients, 1 win nt server. When I shutdown our win nt
> server, the problem doesn't change. When I shutdown our samba server, the
> browsing of our workgroup become very fast.
> 
> Here is my smb.conf file, perhaps You can help me to solve this problem.
> Thank You.
> 
I don't know if it will help, but try changing the settings on the 
Network card of the Windows XP clients.
Go into advanced settings and change "Duplex" from "Auto" to "Half Duplex".

I have found that samba functions quite badly with Windows clients when 
network packets start getting lost.

You would only need to try the change to "half duplex" on one Windows XP 
client to see if it helps for that one client.

I am still investigating ways to improve samba under these packet loss 
conditions, but it would be nice to see if changing to "half duplex" 
helps others like it helped me.

Cheers
James