[Samba] Slow listing of mapped drives in Explorer

[tim at ccmp.ox.ac.uk]

We recently moved our Linux file servers from Debian Woody to Debian Etch
(v4.0r3). We use the current stable Debian Samba package which is version
3.0.24.

Since moving to this Samba version from 2.2.8a-0.1 we see that Windows
clients are very slow to list the 5 network drives mapped by our domain
login script in Explorer or "My Computer". It can take 10 seconds or so
before the drives appear and Explorer starts responding again.

Interestingly, if the clients already have a file or directory open on
these mapped drives then the problem goes away and drive listing is
instantaneous.

There appears to be a change in default Samba behaviour which results in
client connections being dropped after a few seconds by version 3.0.24
servers. The older Samba 2 servers maintained client connections
indefinitley and this gave much better explorer response times.

Can I get Samba 3.0.24 to maintain client connections ?

I've tried setting:
     deadtime = 0
in smb.conf but this makes no difference.

Our smb.conf file is very simple and is included below for reference. I'd
be VERY grateful for any suggestions as this explorer lag is frustrating
to our users and spoils an otherwise flawless Samba migration.

Thanks guys,

Tim

[global]
        workgroup = OURDOMAIN
        netbios name = FS1
        security = SERVER
        encrypt passwords = true
        password server = 129.67.44.5 129.67.44.6
        hosts allow = localhost, 129.67.44.0/255.255.252.0
        wins server = 129.67.44.5 129.67.44.6

[homes]
        comment = Home Directories
        browseable = no
        writable = yes
        valid users = %S

[groups]
        comment = Group Files
        path = /groups
        writable = yes
        public = no
        force create mode = 0660
        force directory mode = 0770

[Distrib]
        comment = Distributed Software and Files
        path = /distrib
        writable = yes
        public = no

[Temp]
        comment = Temporary Data Files
        path = /temp
        writable = yes
        public = no
        force create mode = 0666
        force directory mode = 0777