Slow file transfers using Samba

[fguy64]

Greetings, I am running Samba on a debian Lenny box on a wireless home network. I find that file transfers to the samba share are very slow. It takes over a minute to copy a 40MB file to the linux box, but only 20 seconds to copy the same file to a windows XP box on the same network.

Anyways, I could use a little direction on how to proceed with this, I'm really not sure where to start,

[Rubberman]

What version of samba (smbd) are you running, and what kernel is Lenny running right now? I know that on my CentOS system, copies over my gigabit ethernet from a windows box to CentOS goes at up to 1/2 wire speed - or about 200-500mbps. A 1.1GB video file takes less than 30 seconds.

[Rubberman]

Also, what is the source system?

[fguy64]

Thanks, Gumby. Since my first post, I've found quite a bit of stuff on the net about this specific issue. I haven't had a chance to go through it all yet, but either way I'll let you know how it goes, and we can take it from there if necessary.

[Rubberman]

Ok Captain. Have fun and let us know what you find out.

[fguy64]

OK, no luck with this. I tried transferring the same file using psftp and it was just as slow, so I suppose it is not samba related.

I am copying the file from Windows XP professional to Debian Lenny. I am not sure of the versions, but it must be fairly new, I downloaded a new net install image about a month ago, and built up the system since then.

Anyways, I figured that rather than post a lot of configuration info that I am not sure about anyway, I'll let people ask for what they want to see.

Thanks in advance.

[Rubberman]

Look at the rest of the current activities on your server as well as memory utilization, iostat, virus scanning, etc. You might find that there is a "hot spot" somewhere that is the root cause of your problem.

[fguy64]

ok will do, it'll be a good learning experience for performance testing. All I can say at this point is that I have disabled all new services I installed after the base install, with the exception of ssh and samba.

My roommate will have to wait for that additional storage space for her ever growing collection of mp3s/videos/photographs.

[Rubberman]

My roommate will have to wait for that additional storage space for her ever growing collection of mp3s/videos/photographs.

I know how that goes! Kind of like that old addage, "Disc space, the final frontier"!

[fguy64]

I know how that goes! Kind of like that old addage, "Disc space, the final frontier"!

Haha, I look for real life reasons to expand my home network. But I can't take too long, if she gets tired of waiting for tech support, she'll just go buy an 1TB external HD for $150, and that will be a blow to my pride.