[Samba] Vista Read/Write performance

[Matt Harris]

Hello.

I am setting up a smb server running debian etch for a small office.  
Due to circumstances outside my control, most of the client machines are 
running Windows Vista Ultimate.  The shares are all set up properly, 
security is set, and we're good to go.

Except that the throughput from any of the Vista machines to the server 
is at best slow and at worst abysmal.  After tweaking the socket 
options, turning off various services in windows (Remote Differential 
Compression), and even installing the freshly-released SP1, the best 
I've been able to get is 12.5 MB/s reading from the samba server.  SCP 
gets 35-40 MB/s, and Vista to Vista transfers using SMB get 35-40 MB/s.

I'm in the unfortunate position of having to recommend to my boss that 
we put the data on another Vista machine and use that as a makeshift 
file server until this problem can be ironed out.  I very much do not 
want to tell him that.  Any help anyone can offer would be greatly 
appreciated.

Thank you,

Matt Harris

smb.conf excerpt below.

[global]
        workgroup = UTOPIA
        server string = %h (file server)
        obey pam restrictions = Yes
        passdb backend = tdbsam
        passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
        passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n 
*Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
        client NTLMv2 auth = Yes
        log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
        max log size = 1000
        smb ports = 445
        socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
        load printers = No
        os level = 250
        lm announce = Yes
        preferred master = Yes
        domain master = No
        dns proxy = No
        ldap ssl = no
        panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
        invalid users = root
        write cache size = 65536
        include = /etc/samba/dhcp.conf

[shares here]