If you want a challenging problem to solve I've got one for you.....

I'm running Mandrake Community 10.1 as a Samba server. I've got a couple Samba shares setup on the server. I used Webmin to set it up. Shorewall firewall is running on the server. I have two client workstations running WinXP Pro and another running Win2K Pro. My computers are connected on a home network using a Linksys Cable Router.

I can view the Samba shares in the network neighborhood on all machines. I can create folders/files on each of the shares. So what's the problem bub? After anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds of navigating around the folders in Windows Explorer the Windows Explorer hangs for a minute or two or three. Sometimes it reconnects to the folder where it left off and sometimes it reports that the share is not available. If I hit refresh sometimes it reconnects and sometimes it just hangs some more.

I checked the logs and I receive the following messages......
smbd[9928]: [2005/04/19 22:28:10, 0] lib/util_sock.c:get_peer_addr(1000)
smbd[9928]: getpeername failed. Error was Transport endpoint is not connected
smbd[9928]: [2005/04/19 22:28:10, 0] lib/util_sock.c:write_socket_data(430)
smbd[9928]: write_socket_data: write failure. Error = Connection reset by peer
smbd[9928]: [2005/04/19 22:28:10, 0] lib/util_sock.c:write_socket(455)
smbd[9928]: write_socket: Error writing 4 bytes to socket 22: ERRNO = Connection reset by peer
smbd[9928]: [2005/04/19 22:28:10, 0] lib/util_sock.c:send_smb(647)
smbd[9928]: Error writing 4 bytes to client. -1. (Connection reset by peer)

So I decided to run Ethereal on the WinXP workstation. I filtered out everything except the SMB protocol. At the point in time where Windows Explorer hangs there is.....
"Logoff AndX Request"
"Tree Disconnect Request"
"Close Request, FID: 0x17bd"
"Tree Disconnect Request"
"Tree Disconnect Response"

20 seconds go by at this point.....
"Echo Request"

30 seconds go by at this point.....
"Negotiate Protocol Request"
"Negotiate Protocol Response"
"Session Setup AndX Request"
"Session Setup AndX Response"
"Tree Connect AndX Request"
"Tree Connect AndX Response"

And where it appears to reestablish connectivity.....
"Trans2 Request, QUERY_PATH_INFO......."
"Trans2 Response, QUERY_PATH_INFO......."

I've even tried swapping network adapters on the Linux server. Nothing seems to fix the problem. I have a couple more things I can try (e.g. different flavor of Linux) but I am almost ready to give up. So any help would be greatly appreciated!