[Samba] Odd, slow Windows XP client download behavior

[Andreas Baitis]

When you browse the Samba shares, is this fast, or does it take some 
time for the shares to open in explorer?


If yes? then:
I had a problem the other day on Etch/Samba, I had an old DNS server 
that was no longer running listed in my DHCP3 set-up, having the dud DNS 
server listed was causing access to Samba shares to be very sluggish. So 
try some pings from the Samba box, and double check that it is resolving 
DNS queries properly and without any delay.


Regards Andreas





Chris wrote:
> I recently set up a Samba server (3.0.24-6etch9) on my debian etch system.
> While accessing its shares through 1GBit Ethernet with a Windows XP SP2
> client there's some real odd behavior:
>
> In one direction (uploading files from WinXP -> debian) the speed is just
> great, no matter what, around 35MiB/s.
> In the other direction (downloading a file WinXP <- debian) it idles at
> around 120KiB/s which is, of course, unbearable.
> Now, interestingly, when I have an upload running the former slow download
> speed just explodes and is right up there at 20MiB/s (with the upload
> dropping to 20MiB/s). If I stop the upload, the download retreats back to
> 120KiB/s instantly.
>
> Btw, the FTP speed is fine in both directions, 30 - 50 MiB/s.
>
> Playing around with the global settings in smb.conf brought no relief
> whatsoever (TCP_NODELAY, SO_SNDBUF etc) and a different samba version
> (3.0.26a-18) didn't help either.
>
> Then, I had a friend bring over his Windows Vista machine, which accessed my
> Samba share without any of the above described problems at > 30 MiB/s in
> both directions.
> So I decided my WinXP machine must be the main problem.
>
> Today I thought I found the solution but it was merely a step in the right
> direction (if even that):
> When I disable OpLocks in the Windows Registry according to Windows KB
> article 296264 (disabling them in the shares part of smb.conf has the same
> effect), the download speed turns out to be 35MiB/s. But the performance is
> still not satisfiable: The download speed reaches the 35MiB/s only after
> some sort of delay which proved to be quite annoying because it slows down
> executing files, playing movies, skipping through movies, etc. considerably.
> Now again, the interesting part: This delay doesn't occur at all, when I
> have an upload running at the same time. Files open instantly, I can skip
> through a movie like it was on my local hard drive, etc.
>
> Now I don't know what else to try to get my WinXP to communicate correctly
> with the samba server, do you have any suggestions?
>
> Kind regards,
> Chris
>
>