[Samba] samba, wireless, winamp or windows media libraries - slow, hangs

[Kelly]

I'm getting really poor performance when using samba with specific
applications - winamp and windows media player, when building the
media library.

I keep my mp3 files on a debian server (2.4.23-1-k7). It is running
samba 3.0.7-Debian.

Most operations seem to work OK. I can copy a 10 MB file to or from
the server in about 30 seconds.

My client is windows XP. It connects to the server via wireless (dlink
dwl-250, 802.11b), to a speedstream 2511 powerline wap, to a some
other powerline thing, to a netgear fvs318 firewall/router/hub, to the
linux server. I'm shocked that this works at all, but it works fine
for the most part.

When I ask winamp to scan the media library, it appears to quickly
build a list of the files, and then drops into a very slow mode where
it is, I think, reading the ID3 tags. I believe there is a network
handshake issue here. I'm watching the lights on the various network
devices and little is going on.  I believe something is dropped and
something has to wait for a timeout before it can continue.

I tried the same thing with windows media player. It too made the list
of files quickly, then dropped into this very slow mode.

I've run some file copy tests, and I they are acceptable. I'm getting
roughly 300KB/sec, which is similar to scp performance. The file
copies do not appear to suffer from this handshake/timeout issue --
the network device lights flicker rapidly.

I've monitored the link with ethereal but I don't know what I'm
looking for. The samba logging is at 3, but again I don't know what
I'm looking for.

I've tried various things with the smb.conf. My latest is below.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

-Kelly


[global]
	server string = %h server (Samba %v)
	obey pam restrictions = Yes
	passdb backend = tdbsam, guest
	passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
	passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n 
*Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:*
%n\n .
	log level = 3
	syslog = 0
	log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
	max log size = 1000
	socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_KEEPALIVE SO_RCVBUF=8192
SO_SNDBUF=8192
	dns proxy = No
	wins support = Yes
	ldap ssl = no
	panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
	invalid users = root

[homes]
	comment = Home Directories
	read only = No
	create mask = 0700
	directory mask = 0700
	browseable = No

[print$]
	comment = Printer Drivers
	path = /var/lib/samba/printers

[mp3s]
	path = /wd/nobackup/home/mp3s/music/audio/
	write list = kellyf
	force group = +mp3users